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CHAPTER8
Annabella
After the call from Colton yesterday, I was thankful to have something to keep me busy today. It had been so hard not to call and ask how he was doing. It was a foolish question. Obviously, he couldn’t be doing well. That didn’t mean he wasn’t on my mind, both night and day.
“We have another cancellation for Saturday,” Dad said as we sat in his office reconciling the past week’s transactions.
I knew Colton would be canceling too, if he hadn’t already. I could ask, but didn’t want to bring his name up. Dad wasn’t very perceptive about my personal life, and I wanted to keep it that way.
“Are you worried about it?” I asked. From what I could tell, business was booming, but like everywhere else, overhead had increased.
“No. I haven’t worked this hard all these years to lose it all now,” he said. “That damn Henderson couldn’t stop me. A few customers canceling at the last minute isn’t going to either.”
I had no idea what had transpired between him and his former boss James Henderson, but he refused to have anything to do with the Henderson family. Even more than twenty years later, I could hear the disgust in his tone when he said that last name. I’d asked him many times what happened, but he said it was best I didn’t know. I’d never seen my dad drink himself into oblivion, but he did that night he’d come home from work, swearing his head off about James Henderson being the devil himself. As an adult I did some of my own research on James, but all I could find was he was one of the richest men in Boston, and tough as nails to do business with. Nothing that to me would cause my dad to hate the man like he does, but it didn’t change the fact, that’s exactly how my dad feels.
Not everything could be blamed on James Henderson. The man died years ago, so whatever has my dad this disturbed now couldn’t have anything to do with what occurred all those years ago. This had to be something else.Hopefully whatever it is, it does not involve something I did either.
There was only one way to find out, push the subject and see what path it takes. “Dad, you know you can talk to me about anything, right? I’m not a child any longer,” I reminded him. I think I was about ten years old when he quit working for James Henderson. It made sense that he’d try to protect me back then. I didn’t need protecting any more.
“I know you’re not, but I just…learned some disturbing news and I had to block a client from booking with us again,” he said.
“That’s fine. If you think they are the type of person we don’t want to associate with, then we don’t need their business,” I said.
“That’s my girl. Always got my back,” he said.
“Of course. We’re a team, aren’t we?” I asked.
“Sometimes I wonder if this is really what you want to do with your life. I mean, you know someday I’m going to retire, and this will all be yours,” he said.
“Dad, you’re in your fifties. Hate to break it to you, but you’re not even close to retirement.”
“Fifty-seven to be exact, and I was thinking of retiring early and maybe moving someplace that doesn’t have such cold winters,” he stated.
All these years I’d been telling him I’m not a fan of below-zero temperatures or shoveling snow seemed to finally have made an impact. Even my Mustang had to be put in the garage each winter because of the harsh weather.But if he thinks I’m staying here without him and Mom, he’s mistaken.
“Guess it depends on where you relocate to. If it’s Hawaii, I might have to follow you,” I teased.
“You’re thirty-four. Way too young to stop working now,” he said seriously.
“Dad, I said move, not retire. And for the record, I’m only thirty-three. I have a couple more weeks before I’m thirty-four.”
“Semantics’,” he chuckled.
Maybe to him, but for me, age wasn’t just a number, it was my biological clock ticking and if I wasn’t careful, I might not ever have a family of my own.Working every weekend doesn’t help my dating life either.I needed to make some changes, and I was thrilled to learn my parents were thinking the same for themselves.
I rolled my eyes and said, “Quit avoiding my question. Where do you see your golden years being spent?” I asked.
“I was thinking more like North Myrtle Beach,” he said.
That surprised me. “Why there?” I asked. Not that I had a problem with that. Ilovedthe ocean. I could never picture myself living in a place where I couldn’t at least drive to the beach a couple of times a year. There was just something about the feel of the salty mist that I couldn’t get enough of.
“It’s where your mother and I went for our honeymoon. I always promised her I’d take her back,” he said.
“I have a feeling it might have changed over the thirty-six years you’ve been married.” I knew for a fact it had. I went there a few years ago on vacation. It’s amazing, but totally rebuilt after the last few hurricanes that had hit that area.
“We would travel beforehand to find the exact spot. You should know better than to think I’d just pack up and leave without everything planned out in detail.”
Unlike me. I’d pack and travel cross-country if I could.
