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“I think you need to talk to Nik. I’m definitely not saying I think you would move to Toronto, but heisAva’s father. If you love him, if you want to have a relationship, you need to talk about what you want from the future. You do love him, don’t you.” It wasn’t a question.
Simone’s statement battered her defences, forcing Jules to admit how she really felt. Emotions she’d been afraid to experience bubbled to the surface. How did her mother always know what she was thinking before she did? Jules wondered if she would have the same sixth sense with Ava, but right now she wished Simone wasn’t quite so perceptive. “Yes, I love him. I haven’t been ready to admit that yet. It feels too soon, and between work and Ava, the time was never right to talk about it.”
“What do you want? Do you want to try to build a future with Nik?”
Fear had her stomach churning, and Jules swallowed hard. Admitting she wanted a life with Nik meant letting him in and surrendering some control. Was she ready to do that? “I think so. But I can’t see ever living in Toronto. And that’s his home. But I don’t want Ava to have to split her time between us either. And he travels so much for work. Would he ever be around? I just don’t know.”
“If you could have everything you wanted, what would that be?”
What did she really want? The job Nik had dangled in front of her had got her heart beating faster. Her head had been spinning with ideas even as she tried to read. It was so tempting, and it was incredibly flattering that Nik thought she was the right person for the job. But it would also be a lot more work, and a lot of travel between BC and Ontario. How could she move Ava to Toronto and then be gone all the time? Especially if Nik was gone too?
“In a perfect world? I could have it all. I could accept the promotion and not have to move to do it. Or if I did have to move, Nik would cut back on his travel so that he could be at home more with Ava.” That was an idea that had crossed her mind as she sat here. Nik’s devotion to Ava over the past weeks had convinced Jules that he wanted to be an active, involved parent. If she had to be gone, she would have no hesitation leaving Ava with Nik. But how would that work? Nik was a partner in WYCK, so it was his job to find companies and negotiate deals. Travelling was an integral part of that.
“Why don’t you tell him what you’re thinking? If you talk it through, maybe you can reach a compromise. You’re getting really good at advocating for yourself, my girl.”
Jules glowed under her mother’s praise. Her ability to stand up for herself had been hard won. Everything Simone said made sense, but what if Nik wouldn’t budge? If he wasn’t willing to compromise on this, did they even have a future? She couldn’t believe that. She loved him. They had to find a way to make this work. To be a family. “I’ll talk to Nik tomorrow.”
CHAPTER34
Nik drove back to the house, lost in thought. Simone’s gentle prodding had him questioning everything about his life. What did he want? He let himself in and was greeted by Penny. Simone had brought the dog home before heading to the hospital, and Penny met him at the door with more excitement than she normally had for him.
“Hungry, girl? Or stressed because everything is upside down and Ava isn’t here?” Penny had been visibly upset when Ava was injured, although she obeyed Simone’s commands and stayed clear of the EMTs.
Nik let her out into the backyard to do her business, then fed her before reaching into the fridge for a beer. Penny finished eating as he pulled a bag of chips out of the pantry, padding after him when he headed for the basement. After he pulled out his laptop and sat down on the couch, Penny jumped up and curled up beside him, her nose resting on one thigh.
“You miss her too, puppy? She’ll be home tomorrow.” It wasn’t soon enough for him. He wouldn’t rest easy until Ava was home, and he and Jules had resolved the issues between them. Nik rubbed Penny’s head absently as he began looking into his options.
An hour later, he’d come up with a plan, and he closed the lid to his computer with satisfaction. Once he told Charles what he wanted to do, then he could pitch his idea to Jules. He picked up his phone and fired off a text.
Need to talk to you. Call me when you get home.
When his phonerang within minutes, he checked his watch again. It was not even eleven o’clock Saturday night in New York, and knowing Charles, he would be out at some event with his wife. It was a lifestyle Nik didn’t miss, but it made Charles happy. So why was he calling back so fast?
“What’s up?” Charles asked as soon as Nik picked up the phone. Muffled music was barely audible in the background.
“I need to talk to you, but it can wait if you’re busy.”
Laughter boomed through the phone. “You’re saving me from a rather unpleasant opera tonight. Alicia was dying to see it, but it’s truly terrible. Keep talking, buddy.”
Nik smiled to himself. Charles adored his wife and would do anything for her. Sitting through a terrible opera was exactly the kind of thing he wanted to do for Jules, if it would make her happy.
“We have a problem, but I think I have a solution. I wanted to bring you up to speed.” Nik quickly outlined the chaos his father had created at the hospital that afternoon. “There are two issues we need to deal with. The first is the leak at the regulator. I’m going to reach out to the government ombudsman and file a complaint. There may be legal action we can take too. In this case, the harm was contained, but if my father had decided to take this news public?”
Nik heaved a frustrated sigh. WYCK might be private equity, not subject to the whims of the stock market, but they still had investors and creditors to keep happy, and leaks were an embarrassment to the firm. One of the things they prided themselves on was carefully controlling the flow of information when it came to new acquisitions, mergers, and management changes. And the Ontario merger would be major news. Especially when they also planned to remove the current CEO. That would send ripples through the gaming industry in Canada. They needed to package out the existing CEO before making the news public, or else he would be able to demand a better severance package. All the dominoes had to fall in the right order, and his father could have ruined all of it. As it was, if Nik couldn’t find a compromise Jules could live with, they would have to recruit a new person to lead the merged organization.
“You talk to your contacts, and I’ll get legal working on it Monday morning,” Charles replied. “You said there were two issues. What’s the other one?”
Silence stretched as Nik tried to find the words to tell Charles what he’d decided since his conversation with Simone. Charles had been his friend and had been more supportive and encouraging than his father could ever be. And now he was going to tell him ... “I want to retire,” Nik blurted out.
There was another long pause before Charles finally responded. “You’re a little young for that, don’t you think?” The question was wry, but he was clearly surprised at Nik’s statement.
Nik barked a laugh. “Maybe retirement isn’t the right word, but I need to make some major changes, including reducing my travelling by at least eighty percent. I want to watch my daughter grow up. I want to have dinner with her, read her bedtime stories, take her to swimming lessons, teach her to skate. And that means I can’t do my job effectively. It’s not like I need any more money.”
Charles snorted at that. “None of usneedany more money. Give more to charity, if making money is the problem. But you can’t be serious about wanting out. You love your job. And you’re one of the best I’ve ever worked with. What can I do to convince you to stay?”
Nik had anticipated this response from Charles, had counted on it. Now he was in a position to negotiate what he really wanted. “Let me train one of the analysts to take over for me. I’ll stay on as a manager, an adviser, do for the Canadian market what you do in New York and Yee does in Hong Kong. I can go in for a few days to close the deal, be the face of the company, but someone else can be the lead project manager for each deal. If that means you want me to sell part of my share of the company, I’ll do it.”
Nik had worked the numbers for the past hour, and there were several ways he and Charles could make this work. He didn’t want to sell. He was proud of what they had built WYCK into. But Jules and Ava were more important than any company. He hoped Charles agreed. Time stood still while he waited for Charles to respond.
