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“Dad, I failed.”
“Quit saying that. In building, you only fail if you quit. The motto? That’s what my brother and I got to after making a whole bunch of mistakes. But we were always honest and we didn’t quit until it was right. Did we hit that motto every build? Hell no, but it was the goal. Are you quitting on this job?”
“No.” Her voice wasn’t as strong as she would like.
“Then you haven’t failed. But I’m going to ask you again, now that you’ve gotten a taste of leading your own team, doing the projects your way, is this still what you want?”
“I don’t know."
There was that small voice in the back of her head pushing her ideas for a new show forward, but she hushed them right up. She could help people on a smaller scale. She could keep her dreams smaller and still do good. She was committed to this. If anything, this crazy experience had taught her she was better off tackling projects she knew she could handle and keep under control. Her life would be so much easier if she just kept it simple, stupid.
“My dream is still to run this company the way you and Zio Tony and Gabe would have done it. And I’m going to earn your trust.”
“You already have it, Frankie. I just don’t want you to chain yourself to a promise to your brother and miss out on a bigger dream. I’ve seen the videos. You’re really good at this show biz thing, says the guy who can barely string together two coherent sentences on camera.”
Her father's approval warmed her heart, but no, she couldn't set herself up like that again. Bending over backward for the network had nearly killed her and their company. She definitely didn't want to do that again.
* * *
That night,all was quiet in the Valenti Brothers’ construction office. Everyone else was busy with babies and revamping wedding plans, but someone had to keep the lights on. She strolled from mismatched room to room, admiring everything her father and uncle had built. Everything she had helped build. She'd been pitching in on jobsites since she'd been old enough to lift a hammer. The current success of the business was definitely part hers.
She imagined sitting in Dom’s office, running the various builds, paging through the stacks of job applications they had, leading the company forward.
Wandering into the kitchen, she poured herself a cup of coffee. She drank half the cup before she remembered she didn’t like coffee. She’d been craving the flavor of it recently.
Dumping the second half down the sink, she rinsed the mug and went back to her office.
She vaguely started organizing her desk into neater piles, but her heart wasn’t in it. This place that had been her second home for so many years felt different today. It seemed quiet, somehow small, and she didn’t feel the usual hustle rise inside her when she came in the door.
Damn him for making her think about more. This was all Jake’s fault. She picked up her phone to see if she had somehow missed a call or a text or even an emoji at this point. But no. He’d shown her a different life and then disappeared. True, she’d told him to go away, but now she didn’t know how to get him to come back. It had been nearly a week without contact. Was she too late?
The jingle bells tied to the handle jangled along with her nerves as someone came in the front door. Her heart fluttered into her throat. It wouldn't be the first time her thoughts had made him manifest.
Frankie walked out front with a grin on her face. But it wasn't him.
“Sylvia? Tyler?" Frankie reached out to shake her hand and found herself pulled into a hug. "What a nice surprise! How can I help you?"
"We just wanted to come and say thank you again for all of your help. I was able to get a few of our wedding pictures cleaned up, and these rings mean the world to me. You were so kind to us. We had to thank you one more time before we left."
"Wait. What? You're leaving?" Frankie pulled them farther into the office and sat them at the consultation table in the main room. "Tell me everything."
"Well, the county said it would be weeks before they will even have the trailer park cleared and okayed for rebuilding. The current owner of the land isn't even sure they can afford to reopen. The firefighters gave us a gift card to help with immediate needs, and we have the money from the insurance, but I can't spend that on rent. I need to buy a house, and you know what the property values out here are like…"
Sylvia raised her hands in a shrug, and Tyler wilted in his chair as if each reason for leaving was an added weight on his shoulders.
"Tyler, do you want to move?" Frankie asked.
The teen shook his head. "I've got friends and I like my school here. I don't want to start over."
Before Sylvia could redirect him, Frankie asked her the same question. "Would you stay if you could?"
"Of course. I have a solid job here and Tyler is settled. Plus this is where we have our last memories with Brandon. I just can't see a way to make it work." Sylvia was near tears now, but Frankie was energized. She loved a good challenge.
"Give me ten minutes, okay? Can I get you water? Coffee? Soda?"
She settled them in with their drinks and raced to her office. She reached into the middle of the stack on the edge of her desk and came up triumphant with an unlabeled manila folder. She snagged her yellow legal pad and a pencil and tucked all three into her arms.
Sitting back at the table, she laid out her goodies.
