He stood and then took my hand. “This farm is the home base for it.”
He led me around the side of the house, and I tugged on his hand until he stopped and turned back toward me. “What did you mean when you said you bought the businesses for me to run?”
His gaze held mine when he answered. “Just what I said. These aren’t my businesses alone. They aren’t tied to my current portfolio. They’re yours. Your name will be on the legal paperwork as a full partner.”
I took a step back and stumbled, righting myself before I fell. “What?” I paused and waited while his words filtered through the fissures of my brain. “I can’t be a full partner. I haven’t put anything into them. I haven’t even put sweat equity into them.”
He started walking again, leisurely this time, but he held my hand and dragged me along. “Not true. You can be a full partner and never have anything to do with the business. The sweat equity you speak of will come to pass as you start working. That said, you will have the controlling rights to every decision. Sure, it will be under the umbrella of the parent company, which is the main business, but separate. Confused yet?” he asked jokingly, and I nodded.
“Extremely, but I have a feeling it won’t be for long.”
He paused at the giant rock chimney that ran up the length of the house. It stood tall and regal in the sky, and it must have been there for almost one hundred years. The rocks had caught my attention that day when I was picking blueberries. Was that really two years ago already? Two years ago I’d rarely managed to convince him to stay in Plentiful long enough to have dinner, but that Sunday had been different. He was different. He’d picked me up after spending the weekend with his parents and decided to drive to the lake. We noticed the fat, juicy berries, and we picked, talked, and laughed like we used to when we were kids.
Before he changed into a man I didn’t know.
That change happened before we moved to Plentiful almost five years ago now. It had been a long five years learning to be friends with the man he’d become. Since the success of the pesticide almost a year ago, I’d seen the boy I used to know, the boy I knew as Mattie, more. That was what gave me hope that someday he’d find that little boy inside him that used to laugh and love without question. That was the reason I went to work every day, even when it broke my heart to do it. I hung in there because I wanted to be the reason Mathias found his old hopes and dreams inside himself again. I had the notion that the letter I wrote him, the one he was never supposed to read, but did, might be the catalyst for us to find a new way forward. While Mathias had changed a lot over the last year, I didn’t see a change in the way he felt about me, which is why it broke my heart so much to walk away on Monday. I wasn’t just giving up on us, I was giving up on him. I was giving up on Mattie. I was giving up on the boy who promised to always be there for me.
Why he was doing this now, I couldn’t say for sure. He tells me it’s because he’s trying to simplify his portfolio, but I’ve been through enough with him to know that’s only part of the reason. I know enough about business to say with assuredness that he didn’t start this process after our blowup on Monday. He had to have started this months ago, or we wouldn’t be standing here today. You don’t just run out and snatch up businesses to give to your friend to convince them to keep working for you. Was it convenient for him that he could show me the businesses now? Yes, but that was all it was. He was going to show me what he had bought regardless of what had happened Monday.
“Tomorrow I’ll clear everything up for you. That is, if you decide you want to be part of it.”
His words pulled me from my thoughts, and I ran my hand over the rough rocks. “Imagine the work and the love that went into building this chimney,” I said on a sigh. “Each rock lovingly placed for strength and function. Whoever built this had to be ridiculously proud when it was finished.”
His hand joined mine, and he nodded, his left eyebrow lowered in a look of deep consideration. “That’s what I want, you know? To have accomplished something to be proud of when the day is done. I rarely get to experience that feeling. The high I was on when we finished the formula at Butterfly Junction was like none other. I guess, to answer your question from earlier, that’s what I’m searching for these days. A job well done. A job that makes me proud to be doing it every day.”
I fell back against the rocks on the fireplace and dropped my chin to my chest. “Thank you.”
His hand slowly closed over my shoulder. “Thank you for what?”
I lifted my head and met his gaze. “For finding your, well, moral compass, I guess. I have noticed the changes you’ve made in yourself over the last year. After the success of Butterfly Junction, it was like a switch was flipped. You no longer focused on the girls and the partying. Your life was still all about money, though, and I guess that’s why I finally snapped on Monday. I liked the changes you were making, but until you stopped chasing the next dollar and focused on what you already had, I was afraid you’d never find your way back to being that boy I used to know. I guess what I mean is, I wanted you to remember the dreams that little boy used to have. The Mattie I remember was playful, honest, kind, and filled with dreams of helping people. You’re no longer a boy, but that doesn’t mean you have to stop following some of those dreams.”
He nodded, catching his bottom lip between his teeth for a moment before he spoke. He didn’t hold my gaze either. He leaned against the rocks on the house and stared out over the lake. “When I went back to the office on Monday, I started going through the books without you. It was then that I noticed all the checks and balances you put in place to make sure my decisions didn’t cross any lines I couldn’t uncross. As I went month by month, a pattern developed. I could remember telling you to do one thing, and you would, but you didn’t do it the way I would have. You did it in a way that didn’t make me a bad guy. I remembered all those late-night meetings we had where I was willing to do anything to glean the last penny from a sale, but you convinced me doing it your way was smarter. Maybe I had to give up a few thousand dollars, but I gained more in other ways, you’d point out. Why was I such an ass? Why didn’t I listen closer to the things you weren’t saying?”
I held out both hands, palms up. “I don’t know. You’re the only one who can answer that.”
He took my hand and started walking again, our hands swinging between us. “I know, and that’s what I’m working on right now. This summer is going to be my journey back to the guy I wanted to be when I was a little kid. I’m going to start here.” He spread his arms out at the backyard, which was gigantic. On one side sat a separate two-car garage, but the rest of the space was wide open.
“You’re going to put up a jungle gym?” I asked, confused.
He laughed, and I noted it was real this time. It wasn’t forced the way it had been for far too long. “I thought you’d quit laughing because of me,” I whispered, lowering my butt to the grass.
“I laugh all the time, Honey.”
“Not like that. Your laughter over the last year has been sarcastic and angry. It’s nice to hear your real laugh again.”
He sat next to me and ran his hand through the soft green blades. “Why would I have stopped laughing because of you?”
“The letter.”
He shook his head as he stared out over the yard, his hands holding his knees. “No, well, yes,” he paused and I worked hard not to grimace. “But not because of the content of the letter but rather the content of my character. Reading that letter was like seeing myself through your eyes, only I knew the person you held in your heart was not the person I was anymore. That was why I stopped laughing. I knew I needed a change. Actually, I needed to change.”
I nodded my head and then shrugged one shoulder. “Honestly, that’s why I agreed to keep working for you. It was after your accident last June that I noticed you start to change. You were different. It was as though you had smoothed out some of the rough edges. Your words were softer and kinder. You didn’t spend every night partying.”
When his hand went through his hair, I noticed there was a tremor to it. I wondered what emotion he was holding in that he didn’t want me to see. “And this is the next step in my change.”
“An empty backyard.”
“Not empty.” He pointed to the garage. “We have a honey shack, and next week, when the sale of my condo is final, there’ll be a camping trailer.”
