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“Someone raised him right,” his aunt chimed in.
He opened the box and placed it on the kitchen island. He wasn’t sure if his mother would serve the cookies in the box or want to put them on a tray. It was hard to tell with his mother. Sometimes she was informal, and other times she liked things to look proper.
“I’m not late, am I?” the familiar voice came from behind him.
Kent turned to find his father entering the kitchen. He had a white envelope in his hand. Must be some mail from the store. He’d normally ask if it was something he had to deal with but he stopped himself. He had to start disengaging from the family business. In two weeks, he’d be gone, and his parents would have to handle whatever came up. It was going to take some time for them to get used to this new arrangement.
“You’re right on time,” his mother said.
His father turned to him. “We have something to discuss.”
Kent shook his head. “Not tonight. This is supposed to be a celebration.”
“Yes, tonight,” his father said firmly. “This won’t wait.”
“I’m going to take these delicious cookies outside.” His aunt scooped up the bakery box and made her way to the backyard.
When they were alone, his mother turned to his father. “Did you get it?”
He nodded. “I have it right here.” He held up the envelope. “Do you want to tell him?”
His mother wiped her hands off on a towel and then stepped around the island. “Your father and I have been doing some serious talking.”
“Mom, you don’t have to do this.” He knew they were going to say anything to change his mind, and he knew once he agreed to stay on that things would go back to the way they had been.
“You hush now.” His mother frowned at him. “Your father and I have decided that we aren’t ready to retire. I just can’t imagine us sitting around the house all day. The store has been our life for so many years.”
“I understand. And that’s why I need to take this new job,” Kent said.
His father cleared his throat. “What you didn’t give your mother a chance to say is that even though we aren’t prepared to turn our backs on the business, we do want more flexibility in our schedules. We have a lot of traveling we want to do, and for one reason or another, we could never do it before. But now is our time to see the country and maybe more.”
His mother slipped her hand into his father’s. “We trust you. We think you’ll do an amazing job running the business.”
“Even if I make changes?”
His parents hesitated but then nodded their heads. His mother said, “We loved your refresh idea. We’d like to see you run with it.”
They were saying all of the right things, but this wasn’t the first time his parents said these sorts of things. It just wasn’t enough this time. He was getting too old now to keep wishing things would change.
As though his mother could read his mind, she said, “George, give him the envelope.”
His father held out the envelope to him. When Kent took it, he saw the name of a local attorney. “What’s this?”
“Open it,” his mother said.
What had they done? He ripped open the envelope. When he pulled out the papers, he unfolded them to find it was some sort of a contract between himself and his parents. His gaze lifted to them. “What is this?”
“It’s a formal agreement between the three of us,” his father said. “We want you to feel that you have an equal voice in the business, and this lays it all out.”
Wow!His parents had never gone to this extreme before. They must really be worried that he was leaving.
“So will you stay?” His mother’s eyes reflected her hope.
He glanced down over the agreement, giving him control over the day-to-day operation and expansion. It was everything he’d been asking for. Except if he was running the business, he wouldn’t have time to implement the refresh project.
“There is one thing,” Kent said.
“What’s that?” his mother asked. “I’m sure we can work it out.”
