“I’m not giving up,” he insisted, squaring his shoulders. “There’s no point in living in this house if you’re not in it. Wherever I look in that house, I see you. From the wicker love seat in the sunroom where you’d read a book while watching the sun go down on a winter night, to the front porch where you’d snap peas in the summer that you picked from the garden, to the—”
“You don’t play fair, Mr. Jørgensen,” I said to interrupt him.
“Maybe not when it comes to your dream house, but I will be fair when it comes to your wage. Until the businesses are up and running, and we have a handle on what they’re bringing in, I’ll pay you a salary. You’ll have full health benefits, which will be through Butterfly Junction. I talked to Gulliver, and rather than do it through the main business, I want you to have the coverage through them. It’s local and allows for local care, which makes it easier to get what you need when you need it, especially living in Plentiful. As for your salary, you’ll start at one hundred thousand for this year.”
I gasped in disbelief. “Mathias, no!” I exclaimed. “I’m not even making half that now.”
“Which is something else I regret,” he exclaimed, throwing his hands out in frustration. “I’m such an idiot,” he ground out. “I’m paying you forty grand a year for work worth five times that. I’ll be compensating you from here forward. You won’t even have a salary once the businesses are up and running. Then you’ll just be getting the profits on a monthly basis. For now, I’ll pay you as a business manager. The average salary for that is one hundred and twenty-five thousand a year. If you want that, it’s yours. I settled on one hundred because I knew I’d have a hard time convincing you to take that much.”
I nodded, my head on a string at the thought of that kind of money coming in every month. “You’re right. I’m not worth that much money, Mathias.”
He had pulled me to standing before I realized he’d moved. “Stop it, damn it! You’re worth every damn penny I have! The changes I’ve made in my life are about more than a business or a salary. They’re about me making things right, so stop fighting me on every single aspect of it!”
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He pulled me into a hug and let out a tired sigh. “No, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to get frustrated with you. I know I’m directly responsible for your lack of self-esteem, and it pisses me off to no end that I did that.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, snorting derisively. “There have been plenty of people in my life who have contributed to my poor self-esteem. If it makes you feel better, I’ll accept the one hundred thousand and the insurance.”
The breath he released went all the way to my soul. It was heavy and filled with that regret that he spoke of. I hoped by releasing it, he could let some of it go now. When he leaned back, he held up his finger. “Oh, and you have to let me pay off your student loans.”
I sighed and crossed my arms over my chest. “Now you’re just making stuff up on the fly, you bonehead.”
I pretended to punch him, and he ducked away in time, the way we used to when we were kids playing Rocky.
“Let me, please,” he whispered, taking my hands.
“I only have sixteen thousand in student loans, so no, I won’t let you. The fact that you’re doubling my salary tells me I’ll have them paid off before they even come due for payment in six months.”
“But Honey—”
“Would you be quiet and listen, just this once?” I demanded, putting my finger to his lips. When he held his breath, I went on. “I went to school on my own dime to prove to myself that I could do it. I wanted to prove to myself I had the brains to figure out a way to pay for it and to complete it. Please don’t belittle my accomplishment by insisting on paying the rest of the loans off. It might be a drop in the bucket to you, but to me, it’s independence I earned. It’s sweat equity. It’s something I did by standing on my own two feet and not depending on the Jørgensen family, or anyone else for that matter, to take care of for me. For the last two years, it was mine. Just let it be mine, please.”
His gaze bored into mine, but when he spoke, his body was relaxed, and he wore a gentle smile. “Okay, you’re right. I’m sorry for pushing. If I haven’t said it before, I’m proud of you, Honey. I know we always want to fix things for you, even when you can do it yourself. I guess it’s because we love you and want what’s best for you. Sometimes we forget that you’re not eight anymore.”
As he drew me into a hug, all I could think was that I wasn’t eight, but I still loved him like I was.
Damn.
My phone rang, and I grabbed it off the table when I recognized the ringtone. “Hey, Kevin,” I said, answering it while Mathias’s arm was still around my shoulder. “What’s up?” I listened for a moment as my heart started to pound. “I’ll be right there!”
I hung up the phone and grabbed Mathias’s hand.
“What’s the matter?” he asked, jogging after me as I dashed for the SUV.
“Havens Diner is on fire!”
CHAPTER 7
By the time we reached Havens Diner, the firemen were already wrapping up their hoses and the fire was out. The damage, however, was going to take a lot longer to repair by the looks of it.
“Kevin!” I exclaimed, jumping out of the SUV before Mathias had it all the way into park. “Lucy!” I threw myself into their arms, both of them shell-shocked as they stared at the mess of dripping wet, charred wood.
They hugged me, and both of them smelled like soot and ash.
“What happened?” I asked as Mathias put his arm around my waist to keep me from falling over. “Is everyone okay?”
“We’re fine,” Kevin said, but his hand shook as he pointed at his restaurant. “The fryer exploded, and flames shot up and caught the wall on fire before the fire containment system could put it out.”
