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"Too much to get into, but it doesn't look like I'll be able to base myself in Whisper Lake, not if I want to keep my position as head of the company. I've tried to make it work, but my father's influence is too strong. We're a New York-based company, and he wants me in Manhattan. I don't have a choice."
"You have a choice. You could leave the company and work for someone else or start your own business. You're smart, capable, and you have your own financial resources, don't you?"
"Not at a level where I could compete with the company I'm running now."
"That company may not be able to compete without you running it."
"That's true." Joel paused. "There's something else. I saw Sylvie again."
"And…"
"She'd like me to move back to the city. She thinks I'm trying to define myself outside the circle of my father's influence, but Whisper Lake is too remote, too far outside the circle."
He thought Sylvie might be right. "What about Chloe?" he asked. "What about your plans to live in a small town and balance life and work?"
"I care about Chloe. She's a great person. But my career is very important to me. I've been working to get this job for ten years. I know Chloe will never leave Whisper Lake, and I wouldn't ask her to. But how can I give up the business? This is my family legacy."
He leaned against his truck, unsure how to answer that question. He didn't think Joel could give up the business. He didn't believe Whisper Lake could work as a home base. But he also knew that any answer he gave Joel would be influenced by his feelings for Chloe. That wasn't right. Joel was his friend.
"Nothing to say?" Joel asked in surprise. "You usually have an opinion. I want to know what you think, Decker."
"There's a reason you wanted to leave New York City and start over here. If you go back to the city, won't you have the same desire again? What's changed?"
"My father claims I'll get more latitude as long as I'm working out of New York."
"What does that mean?"
"He'll stay out of the business if he feels more confident that I'm carrying on his legacy the way he envisioned."
"It's your life, Joel. Your father did exactly what he wanted to do. You should do the same."
"I want to do the same, but realistically, I need my father's support."
"Then you have to pay the cost for that support. But you should be honest with Chloe. You should tell her what you're thinking, how you're feeling."
"I don't want to talk to her until I know what I'm going to do."
"Why not include her in the conversation? If you want a future with her, then she should be part of this, don't you think?"
"This is a decision I have to make for myself. Don't say anything to her about the possibility that I won't be able to work there full time."
"I don't want to be in the middle."
"How are you in the middle?"
"I'm working for Chloe. I see her all the time."
"How's the house coming along?"
"Slowly. There's so much junk to clear out, I'm spending most of my time doing that. Chloe is helping, because she feels some moral obligation to her tenant to not just dump her stuff without looking through it."
"Chloe has a kind heart," Joel said. "She really is great, isn't she?"
"Yes, she is. You should get back here soon, talk things over with her."
"As soon as I can."
Decker regretted his promise to stay silent as soon as the call ended. Joel might say things weren't decided, but they were. Joel would choose to run his family business over anything and anyone else. He was an ambitious man, and Decker could never see Joel being satisfied in Whisper Lake, not for the long term. Short term, yes. He was defining himself outside of his father and his family's presence in New York. But that's where the business was, and ultimately that's where Joel would be.
