I’ve said it enough for Mom. Maybe Caleb will believe it, too. Only, the way he’s talking tonight, I think I’m just digging my hole deeper.
“You sure don’t sound like a guy who’s happy to be here.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“I want you to man up and tell me the truth.”
I blow out a breath. “Fine. I’m not happy here. This isn’t what I ever saw myself doing. I wanted to step in and help out, but I’m practically useless, and I hate it.”
He leans against the chair back, his smile softer. “Finally.”
He looks…weirdly happy about me admitting that I hate working for him. Not how most employers take that kind of declaration.
“It doesn’t matter, though,” I say before he can get comfortable with it. “I want to be here for you and Mom.”
“Griffin.” His voice is too soft. His “I love you, but I’m breaking some bad news” voice. “After Dad died, we were all lost. Mom and I needed you here, because we needed all of us to pull together. And I will never stop thanking you for stepping up and being here when I could barely keep myself going.”
We’d had to remind each other to eat those first weeks, let alone figure out how to keep on top of our work responsibilities. Looking back on those days, I’m not sure how we didn’t all collapse, and the business right along with us.
“But this doesn’t have to be a permanent situation. Nobody wants you to hold onto a job that’s not making you happy.”
His words are so wrong, I want to crawl out of my skin. I hop out of my chair and go to the dark window, my hand in my hair again. “Dad wanted it. Before he…” I wave a hand.Do not say the words.“He asked me to come work with you guys permanently. But I turned him down.”
That admission should lift a weight somewhere, but instead, it drops on the floor between us like a piece of discarded lumber.
“And you were right to do it.”
I spin to face him.
“Of course Dad wanted you to work with us—this was his dream. But it washisdream. Griffin, if Dad hadn’t died and you’d come to work with all of us, things wouldn’t have been any different. You still would have wanted something else. And Dad would have encouraged you to go get it.”
“You can’t know that.”
He lifts an eyebrow. “You would have had even less responsibility if Dad were here. How would you have liked that?”
“I wouldn’t have.” My shoulders slump, and I sink back into my chair. “Why do you sound so unsurprised by all of this?”
“Let me do you one better—why do you think Mom volunteered you for Hope’s project?”
Because you guys don’t need me here.But I don’t say that.
“Because she wanted to give me a chance to do some carpentry again. She probably knew I missed it, and wanted me to enjoy myself…”
That eyebrow hitches higher, and he makes ago onmotion with one hand. Filling in the blanks, my heart hammers hard.
“She wanted me to see I’m not happy here?”
He grins again. “We have a winner.”
“She told you that?”
“Basically.”
I’m not sure how I feel about all of this going on behind my back. “So you two schemed to get rid of me?”
“Correction.Sheschemed to help you remember what you really want. And if it got you closer to Hope Parrish, so much the better.” He kicks a foot onto my desk. “Which reminds me, why aren’t you with her right now?”
“She’s…still figuring out how she feels, I guess.” Although, I’m going to have to circle back to this revelationMomwas trying to get me with Hope from the beginning. But I’m not sure how much it matters now. “I’m trying to make a future with her, and she’s trying to decide if holding hands in public is too much.”
