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“Where’s Tess?” Maggie asked, staring at the empty seat.
“She bolted,” Michael said, rising from the table, craning his neck toward the living room. “I’ll go see about her.”
“No, give her a little time. Things have been hard on her lately.” Frank knew his daughter. She needed time to process. Time to figure out how to react. Tess was much more complex than most thought. On the surface she’d always been quick to smile and quick to action, but beneath her positive exterior beat a discerning woman… a woman who needed time.
Michael hesitated. “What about her, Dad? I sort of humored you in hiring that Graham guy. He seems okay. Capable. But now we’re talking about…”
His youngest left off, shifting his gaze to his brothers who occupied the right side of the table.
“We’re not sure what the results will be,” Joseph intoned.
“No, he’s right,” Frank said, waving a hand, fighting against the sheer exhaustion knocking at his door. He’d need to leave the table soon, but first he had to finish what he’d started. “Graham is part of this. I needed someone to run Ullo.”
Michael lifted his eyebrows. “But not Tess.”
“Not alone,” Frank said, shaking his head. “I never meant for her to see it the way she did. I merely looked for someone to come in and do what I do so she could keep doing what she did. I wanted to find her a partner. Didn’t want to stress her with the undue burden of running Ullo alone. Graham was to be the new me.”
“Why didn’t you tell her that from the beginning?” Frankie Jr. asked in a very lawyerly way.
“I don’t need to be cross-examined. I just puked my guts up,” Frank said, rising on shaking legs. “Tess needs to see things for herself. She’s young and thinks she can handle everything tossed her way. She’s arrogant and spoiled. I did her a disservice and I’m paying for it.”
“Tess isn’t wrong here, Dad,” Michael insisted.
Frank held up a finger. “But she’s not right, either. Leave her alone for a bit and let her find her way. She needs that right now. She needs to feel the bite life gives.”
After a moment, Michael nodded, his dark eyes meeting Frank’s. In that gaze, Frank saw his boy understood. Michael had a way of seeing into the future and getting the big picture.
“Okay, we’ll give Tess space. But you have to think about things with her,” Frankie Jr. said, rising to take Frank’s elbow and assist him from the room. “And you gotta fight, Dad. We’re all here with you through this.”
Frank patted his son’s hand and then reached out and clasped Joseph’s shoulder. “I got a son to pray for me, a son to heal me, and a son to get my affairs in order in case the first two don’t work. I’m set.”
Passing by Michael, Frank reached out and roped the boy into him, kissing him on the head.
“What’s Tess for?”
“Reminding me who I was and who I am.”
With that, he slowly crawled toward the open door, hooking toward the stairs.
THESOUNDOFHERSOLESslapping the pavement was little comfort, but the rhythm gave Tess something to cling to.
Her father was dying.
Slap, slap, slap.
He’d known this when he hired Graham.
Slap, slap, slap.
He’d refused to apologize to her, knowing he was sick.
Slap… slap… slap.
Tess stopped and bent over, her lungs burning, her eyes aching from unshed tears. Sucking in breaths, she held on to her knees and tried to pretend like everything that had happened in her life within the past few months was a nightmare.
That’s it.
Pinch yourself and wake up, princess. This isn’t real.
