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Graham wondered if he could make things easier for Frank. He couldn’t. Nothing would be easy for this man. He faced dying and a daughter who was angry enough to take her talents and knowledge to the competition. “It will be okay.”
Frank looked up. “No, it won’t.”
“So we will make it okay. You have a viable, reputable business that has always put forth outstanding product, and now you have me. Fate led us to one another. You can trust me. I, too, have contacts. And experience. We needed Tess, but we won’t let that stand in our way.”
Frank looked down at his hands, looking older than he had when Graham had first met him. For a few moments the man didn’t speak. “My whole life I’ve always known what to do. Always. But I’ve lost a grip on this.”
“The truth usually works, Frank. I’m assuming neither Tess nor your sons know about your illness?”
“Joe knows. He’s the one who set me up with an oncologist, but he can’t tell anyone on account of a confidentiality clause. He’s upset I haven’t told everyone yet, but I wanted to do it—”
“On your terms,” Graham finished the statement for him.
“No, that’s not what I was going to say. I didn’t want to do it at Easter is all.”
“You’re facing a tough battle, Frank. Not here at Ullo—that’s why you hired me. I’m going to take care of things here.” Even as he spoke the words, he said a small prayer that it would be true. That he could rally the troops that had been lackluster at best, keep the accounts they had, and give Frank some peace of mind. “But you’ve got to help yourself as you prepare to fight cancer. You need your team, and Maggie needs support and help. Tell your family and allow them to do what they need to do for you.”
For a second Frank bristled and Graham prepared to argue, but then it was as if the air leaked out of him. “How do I tell them? How do I destroy all they’ve known about me?”
“I’ve only known you for a short time, Frank, but I sense your biggest flaw is your desire to handle every aspect of not only your life, but your kids.’ You don’t like to be weak, and I get that—it’s in our makeup as men. But fact is, you’re not merely a man but human. Which means you are vulnerable. Don’t allow pride to stand in your way of admitting you were wrong or of asking for help.”
Frank rolled Graham’s words around in his mind—Graham could see the battle within the man who stepped down yesterday at the CEO, officially handing the reins of the company to Graham with little fanfare. All the employees had seemed confused… unsettled at the news their leader stepped down so casually.
Finally, Frank nodded. “You’re a smart man.”
“Not always. It’s easier to see what someone else needs to do than to apply the same logic in one’s own life. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, and I’ll make a ton more. It’s the human condition. We can’t control the world around us, and at times, we can’t control our own responses. I do a lot of backpedaling. In fact, I need to do some with your daughter myself.”
Frank searched Graham’s face for an answer to his admission, but Graham would give the man nothing more than the suggestion he’d also wronged Tess. Frank had matters to settle with Tess, and Graham had ones of his own. Both men had handled Tess badly.
Rising, Frank set his hands on his hips and squared himself like a puffer fish ready to fight. “I’ll handle my life. You handle this company. I trust the man you are, Graham. Don’t make me regret it.”
Graham nodded, hoping like hell he could do all Frank needed him to do. It would start with procuring the contract with the Krewe of Pan. Time to schmooze and dazzle. Time to show the world he’d left behind he wasn’t a one-trick pony. Applying his vast knowledge of materials and construction, Graham knew he could revolutionize Frank Ullo Float Builders. Graham was back doing what he’d loved, doing what he’d started before the wheels had fallen off at Upstart, before he and Monique became more enemies than lovers. The task before him was large, but not impossible. He needed time to win over his new employees. He needed to make amends to Tess.
Problem was, time wasn’t exactly something he could control any more than Frank could.
ALMOSTTWOWEEKSafter signing a contract at Upstart, Tess had the first twinge of doubt. Oh, hell. Who was she kidding? She’d felt close to vomiting when she’d signed the Upstart contract and followed Monique to her new cubicle. Making the decision about joining arms with the competition hadn’t been easy, but the more Tess lay in bed, beneath the sheets she and Graham had tangled themselves in, thinking about her father and how he’d created a path for her that she’d followed like a stupid cow, never looking to the left or right, only ahead to what she thought her destiny, the more pissed she’d grown… at her father and herself. She’d never allowed herself to consider any other world but her father’s, and he’d never demanded much from her. To say Tess had been stretched and put through the paces was such an underwhelming statement it was almost a lie.
Going to work would piss off her father—and Graham—and that thought pleased Tess. Neither had valued her.
Of course, Gigi had been smart, insisting on a provisional three-month period to protect both Monique and Tess in case the job didn’t work out, but Tess was thrilled by the blank slate spread before her. Here was a chance to make her mark in a whole different way.
The first few weeks hadn’t been easy. Outside of avoiding her family like the plague, Tess had spent much of the time navigating the torrents of Monique’s complex ego. Monique demanded she have the final say in each design and had changed a few of Tess’s visions. Tess had bitten her tongue over a few, choosing to bend rather than break.
But the biggest challenge came when she faced Cecily Webb, the head of design for Upstart. The fifty-year-old artist, who’d been with Monique since Graham had left the business, resented Tess and obviously wasn’t going to play fair, if her cold treatment was any evidence. Not to mention, the woman seemed to have hoodwinked the staff by giving counter directives on several float designs, making Tess look wishy-washy. Monique seemed to look on with amused tolerance, as if she thought it best for Tess to handle Cecily herself.
At Ullo, Tess had had final say in design work… even when it came to her father. And she’d never had to deal with fellow employees who didn’t love her.
“Hey, new girl.” One of the papier-mâché guys who worked on a sculpture of a pig flying motioned her over.
“Yeah?” Tess asked, walking over to the man wearing overalls and a fedora—artists were wonderfully weird. “You told Halle to make this part larger, but I think it distorts the face.”
Tess studied the sculpture critically. “I think the larger body will have more punch. The face will be forward but this prop is on the back of the float, so the effect is in the wings and body. Let’s do it that way.”
The man frowned and studied the shape in front of him for a few seconds. “Cecily trusts my judgment.”
“I trust the design. Nothing to do with you, Ben.”
“Whatever you want.”
