Читать книгу The Marriage Adventure - Hannah Bernard - Страница 9

OKAY.

Maria felt her face ignite. Then her lungs, as she’d forgotten to breathe. She wasn’t sure if it was with embarrassment or anger.

Of course her parents weren’t trying to sell her to Eddie, what a thought—but…

He was buying Intrepid Adventurers?

Her parents were selling Intrepid Adventurers?

She took a deep breath, not sure which issue to tackle first.

Eddie was buying Intrepid Adventurers.

Her parents were selling Intrepid Adventurers.

It shouldn’t have come as a shock. They’d talked about selling before—they’d talked about retirement. It had always seemed something in the far distant future—definitely not something to worry about. And after all, there weren’t many choices since they didn’t have a child interested in following in their footsteps. She certainly wasn’t the type to run an adventuring company. But…

This was the company her grandfather had founded and made work in a time when such things were almost unheard of. The company her parents had taken over and made flourish.

Her hackles rose. They were selling Intrepid Adventurers to Eddie. Passing it on to the man they’d always wanted as a son and heir.

As a child and teenager, he’d grabbed his share of her parents’ love and affection and the lion’s share of their time.

Now he was taking their company, too.

Her family company.

She turned to him and glared, but he was studying the ceiling carefully. She turned on her parents instead, fuming.

“What?” she bit out, as if getting them to repeat the information would somehow change the content. “Run this by me again. You’re selling Intrepid Adventurers—to Eddie?”

Her parents looked surprised at the vehemence in her voice. “You knew we would sell the company sooner or later,” her mother said. “It shouldn’t come as a shock to you.” She laughed, gesturing awkwardly. “It’s not like you’re interested in taking over.”

Of course not. She wasn’t Eddie. She wasn’t brave and strong, laughing in the face of danger, playing a combination of Indiana Jones and Spider-Man all over the world. She hadn’t been named after Sir Edmund Hillary, either.

But the company was her birthright. Not Eddie’s. It had never been Eddie’s.

“Why not?” she blurted out. “Yes! I should take over. I should keep up the family tradition. This is a family company. Grandpa founded it. It’s natural for me to take over. Eddie is not family.”

“Maria,” her mother said, reaching out and patting her arm. “Don’t worry. We’re not expecting you to step in. We know you’re not an adventurer, let alone an intrepid one. The company is better off with Eddie. You don’t want it. You’ve never wanted it.”

“What are you talking about? True—I don’t like adventuring. But it doesn’t take an adventurer to run a company! It’s mostly paperwork, and I’m good with paper. I’m great with paper!”

“Maria—your mother and I are adventurers,” her father said. “Or at least we were, until middle age started to threaten us with old age. Your grandfather was one, too. That’s what this business is all about. It’s not just a company. It’s a vision. A dream.”

“Exactly! That’s my point. It was my grandfather’s dream. Our family’s dream. If you want to retire, I can take over. Granted, I’ll need some help getting started, but I know I can do it.”

Her father was shaking his head. “No, Maria.”

“What do you mean, no?”

“This company has to be led by an adventurer.” He paused, looking at his wife for support. Maria saw her squeeze his hand. No help there. “Else it has no soul.”

“No soul? No soul?” Great. On top of everything else, now she had to deal with metaphysics. “And Eddie is going to give the company soul?”

“Yes—”

“What can Eddie possibly give Intrepid Adventurers that I can’t?” Her mother and father both opened their mouths, but she charged on before they could start listing Eddie’s attributes. “Sure, he may be a good guide and hopeless adrenaline junkie and a real adventurer, but that has nothing to do with running a business! You can’t just give him Grandpa’s company!”

“Maria—listen!”

Maria sat down on a kitchen chair and crossed her arms, fuming. Emotionally fulfilling as a tantrum might be, it probably wouldn’t help her case. Real adventurers didn’t throw tantrums. “Listening.”

“We’re planning our schedule for next summer,” Harlan said. “You know what we always do when we’re adding something new—we try it out ourselves.” He looked down, and his wife put her arm around him. “But the doc says no. No extreme sports.” He cursed. “He’s quite insistent. I can’t even do calm relaxing things like skydiving.”

Skydiving—calm, relaxing?

Had she really gotten her genes from these people?

Then reality kicked in. The doctor was pulling the brakes. The doctor.

The anger drained from her in an instant. Oh, God. “Dad…”

Her father waved a hand irritably. “Don’t worry, Maria—it’s nothing serious. It’s just my blood pressure. It’s high and the medication doesn’t agree with me, and…Well, he insists I need to start taking it easy.”

“And you can’t take it easy in this business,” Mom continued. “It would be a contradiction in terms, wouldn’t it? So we’ve decided to retire. Not an easy decision, but we’re going to make the best of it.” She looked at her husband with a smile. “We’ll still travel. We can go on cruises with other old fogies.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” She should have noticed something was wrong. “Dad…I didn’t know…”

“I’m not sick,” her father said, still sounding annoyed. He’d never liked being fussed over. “I’m fine. It’s just this pesky blood pressure. As the doctor put it: I need to start making allowances for my age. That’s all.”

That’s all?

Maria had a feeling it wouldn’t be quite that simple. What would her parents do now? For so long, they’d lived for the business. It was their entire life, their hobby as well as their job. And, thanks to her being their only child, they didn’t even have grandchildren to spend their newfound free time on, as several of their friends seemed to do.

Guilt, guilt, guilt and more guilt.

Great. Now she was feeling guilty about having failed to procreate.

“How long have you known this?” She gestured to Eddie, an almost childish petulance rising again, and she hated the whine she heard in her own voice. “I mean—if you’re selling to Eddie, obviously you told him all this before you told me. Why?”

“We didn’t want to cause worry or put pressure on you, Maria,” her mother said softly. “There was no reason to tell you anything until everything was settled. We were going to tell you tonight after dinner—but I guess we got carried away discussing the future with Eddie.”

“But…Damn it!” She shouldn’t stomp her foot. Not at her age.

But not only had they discussed the business with Eddie, not only were they selling the business to Eddie— they’d told Eddie about her father’s health problems.

Who was their flesh and blood here?

“What’s the problem, Maria?” her father asked. “You’ve never been interested in our business. You hate everything about it. You don’t want this company.”

“I do!”

“You don’t,” the three of them said in unison, and for lack of a better option Maria chose Eddie to glare at.

“I do! You don’t know anything about what I want!”

“This way is much better, Maria,” Kara said soothingly. “Eddie is willing to take over. It’s a relief not having to sell to a stranger.” She patted Maria’s shoulder. “The company is worth quite a bit, you know. We’ve decided to give you your share. You’ll have enough to support yourself while you work on your books.”

Was this supposed to be good news? Money? They were giving her part of the money Eddie would pay them for the company? That was supposed to help? “What?”

“Yes. Isn’t it wonderful? You can quit your library job and focus on your art without worrying about putting bread on the table.” Her mother was beaming now. “See? This is best for all of us.”

“I don’t need any charity,” Maria muttered. “My work supports itself.” It wasn’t accurate, of course. Her books weren’t even keeping her in paints and paper yet, but they would. Someday.

It wasn’t a hobby. It was a career. An embryonic one, but still a career.

“Grandpa built up Intrepid Adventurers. We can’t let it go to…” She waved a hand in Eddie’s direction. “To a total stranger!” What else would she lose? Would Eddie take her parents’ affections along with the company? Would she have nothing left? She bit her lip, realizing she was being overly melodramatic. But this was serious, damn it!

Her mother cast an apologetic look to Eddie and reached out to pat his arm. “You know she doesn’t mean that, Eddie. You’ve always been like a part of the family.” She looked at Maria, face stern now, and Maria felt her heart sink. They were serious about this. Very serious. “Maria—if we’re selling to anyone, we want it to be to Eddie.”

“Then don’t sell to anyone at all!”

Her parents stared at her. Finally she seemed to be getting through to them. “I can do it,” she said softly. “I can take over the company. I can make it work. I know I can. Will you let me try?”

“Look—maybe I should leave,” Eddie said, and about time, too, Maria thought grumpily. “This is a family discussion.”

“No!” her father said. He looked relieved at the interruption, glad to escape the question Maria had just asked. “As Kara says, you’re almost a part of the family anyway.” He looked at Maria and winked. “Even if our daughter refuses to make it official.” He snapped his fingers as if a brilliant thought had occurred to him and Maria groaned, knowing what was coming. “That would be the perfect solution of course. How about it, kids? Get married? It would solve all our problems in one strike, and might give us grandchildren, too.”

Great. Dad the jokester, with terrific timing as usual. Maria rolled her eyes, noticing that Eddie just smiled. Obviously he was over the acute embarrassment this joke had caused him at twelve. “Very funny, Dad. Hilarious. I can’t stop laughing.”

Dad chuckled. “Ah, well. Can’t blame a man for trying. But what’s done is done. Eddie’s taking over.”

Her mind was blazing with thought. There had to be a way to stop this from happening. Some way. “Done? Is the sale official yet?”

“Not yet. There’s no hurry. Eddie’s already working for us—we’ll get the details settled soon. There’s an avalanche of paperwork to go through first.”

“So the sale is not final yet?”

Dad glanced at Eddie. “Well, no, if you mean the legal aspects, nothing’s final yet…”

“Good.” She took a deep breath, as if preparing to dive into the deep end. Yes. It was the only way.

“Why is that good, Maria?”

Eddie had asked the question, sounding rather suspicious, but Maria stared at her parents as she answered. “Because I’m going to show you that there’s no need to sell to Eddie. I’m going to show you that I can give the company soul.”

Her father sighed. “Just how do you intend to do that?”

Maria got the notepad and pencil from beside the telephone and plopped back down into her seat. Her feet weren’t altogether certain they wanted to carry her through this. “Watch me. What’s the name of your top private instructor?”

“Maria?” Her mother was staring at her, looking almost frightened. “What are you thinking?”

“I’m going to do it,” Maria said through gritted teeth. “If that’s what it takes to prove to you I can give Intrepid Adventurers a soul, I’ll go through all the extreme sports. Skydiving, rafting, bungee-jumping, hang gliding—whatever. I’ll do it all.”

There was stunned silence in the room.

“Maria…?” The voice was Eddie’s. It came to her dimly, through a fog of panic.

Had she just announced she was going to jump out of an airplane and bounce down a river in a kayak?

She, who had the reputation as the family chicken?

The person who didn’t tolerate even the baby roller coasters?

What was worse: an inner feeling told her she’d meant it. She was really going to do this.

“Maria?” Eddie repeated. His voice held the horror she was feeling inside. “You, rafting? Skydiving?” He laughed. “You don’t really mean that, do you?”

No, that would throw a wrench in the works, wouldn’t it? Stop him from getting his hands on Intrepid Adventurers? From practically stealing her parents? She straightened from her slouch, even more determined now. A woman’s gotta do what a woman’s gotta do. “If that’s what it takes to keep my grandfather’s company, that’s what I’ll do,” she growled at all three of them. “Give me one month. One month, and I’ll show you.”

“Maria!”

She didn’t allow her mother to get a word in. It was time to change the subject. She stood. “Now, I assume there is a birthday cake somewhere in the caverns of that fridge? Let’s go get it.”

Eddie had intended to make his getaway as soon as he politely could, as there was a dire need to regroup and replan, but Maria beat him to it. She shoveled their birthday cake down, kissed her parents and waltzed out the door with nothing more than an arctic “Bye” tossed in his general direction.

The house fell silent when the front door closed after her. Eddie stared at Harlan and Kara, not quite sure what was going on.

They had an agreement. He was already fully involved in the activities at Intrepid Adventurers—he’d started structuring his life around the future they’d been mapping out.

Now what?

Not that he couldn’t see Maria’s point. It had never occurred to him that she’d be remotely interested in running Intrepid Adventurers herself, but he hadn’t imagined her parents had failed to even mention the sale to her before, or her father’s health warnings.

But then he had the feeling Maria and her parents had been traveling separate paths for quite a while.

He cleared his throat. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but…”

Harlan waved a hand. “I know, I know. Don’t worry about it.”

“I know the lawyers aren’t done with everything, but—”

“I know, son. Don’t worry. Intrepid Adventurers is all yours. That won’t change.”

Yup. He’d definitely missed something. “Harlan, you just told Maria she could keep the company if she went through all the stunts we offer.”

Harlan grinned, the expression reminding him of Maria in her more mischievous moods. “Did I, now?”

Eddie shook his head. “What are you talking about? That’s what it sounded like to me.”

Harlan held up a finger, looking smug. “The fine print, Eddie, the fine print. That’s a very important business lesson: always read the fine print.”

“What fine print?”

“What I told her was that the company needed to be run by adventurers and she isn’t one. She said she was going to prove it to us.” He shrugged, expressing case closed. “I didn’t say she’d get the company.”

“You let her assume that!”

“Exactly. No harm in that. She’s not getting the company, though. That can’t happen. Can you imagine Intrepid Adventurers led by someone who hates everything we do?” Harlan shook his head. “She won’t go through with this. She isn’t an adventurer at heart, and it’s not something you can fake.”

Eddie groaned. “Harlan, by now you really should know how stubborn and determined your daughter is.”

Harlan snorted. “Well—can you seriously see Maria bungee-jumping?”

He thought for a moment, picturing Maria’s pale face that long-ago day she’d finally confessed that she hated adventures, and nodded. Maria had intended to kayak out there that day. She would have, if he hadn’t bailed her out. She’d gone through everything her parents threw at her for years and years and hadn’t complained, probably because she wanted to prove herself to them. “Yes. If it’s for a cause she believes in, she’ll do it.”

“Sure. Maybe one easy stunt or two. But she’ll never go through our entire repertoire. I mean—hang gliding? Skydiving? Maria? And all in one month?” Harlan shook his head. “No. She won’t do it.”

They had a point. He wasn’t sure he’d feel up to going through Intrepid Adventurers’ entire list of offerings all in one month.

“Don’t worry, Eddie.” Kara patted his arm. “Maria will come around. You’ll get the company—she’ll realize she doesn’t want it. It’s much better this way.”

Eddie stared at them both with exasperation. “Just how is deceiving your daughter into scaring herself half to death—for nothing—the better way?”

The couple looked at each other as if exchanging telepathic messages. “This is the least painful way,” Kara explained.

Eddie blinked at them in disbelief. “The least painful way? For whom?” It certainly wouldn’t be the easiest one for Maria.

“Maria is a wonderful girl,” Harlan said, his eyes now blazing as if Eddie had been the one to insult his daughter. “She’s lovely and smart and talented—we’re very proud of her.”

Eddie wondered if they’d ever actually told her that. He doubted it. Not that they were bad parents. It had probably just never occurred to them that Maria needed their reassurance.

“But she does not have the soul of an adventurer,” Harlan continued. “You do. And you’re almost a son to us. We want you to carry on the torch.” He sighed theatrically. “In Maria’s hand it would just flicker and die.”

Eddie wasn’t sure, but he thought Harlan might have just gone all poetic on him.

Just what he needed.

He fell into a chair and decided to stop talking for a while. It wasn’t getting him anywhere.

He needed to think. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. He rubbed his temples, wondering if it was too late to flee the state and start his adventuring business somewhere far away from here.

No. He couldn’t do that. There were Jenny and Samuel to consider. He couldn’t leave. He was stuck.

He took a deep breath, firmly pushing back the sudden claustrophobia that thought brought on. It had been his choice to come back. His choice to be there for Jenny and Samuel.

But for the first time in his life, he wasn’t free to do whatever he wanted, go wherever he wanted. He needed to be right here, right now.

He needed Intrepid Adventurers. He needed the deal to stick.

He needed Maria to get out of his way.

“Don’t you see, Eddie?” Kara said. “This is the easiest way. She’ll realize what she’d be getting into.” She smiled. It seemed the pair of them were quite happy with their little scheme. “This way, she’ll be begging you to take over the company, instead of resenting all of us.”

They did have a point, convoluted though it was. Why would Maria want to run an adventuring business when she’d turned her back on all such activities a long time ago?

He had a feeling he knew why.

The sudden fury in her gaze as she’d realized he’d be taking over had been an ever so subtle clue.

She didn’t want him to take over.

Periodically he’d had the feeling she resented the attention her parents gave him—envied him—although in between she hadn’t seemed to mind, and even welcomed it as it took the pressure off her.

But this was her heritage—and they were selling it to him without even mentioning it to their daughter first.

He had a feeling Maria would not have objected so strongly if he’d been a stranger. In fact, she might not have objected at all.

Eddie crossed his arms on his chest and scowled at the pair of them. “There’s no guarantee she’ll back out. What if she doesn’t? What do we do then?”

Harlan shrugged. “I’m not going to waste my time worrying about that. It won’t happen.”

Eddie drove back to his makeshift office feeling disgruntled. His irritation had shifted from Harlan to Maria. What was she thinking, anyway? Quite apart from the inconvenience her little tantrum was causing him, she couldn’t possibly think she was cut out to run Intrepid Adventurers.

Nothing was ever easy.

He’d come home with clear intentions: to do the best he could for his sister and her son—the godson he’d seen far too little of. It hadn’t been an easy decision, but after Samuel’s diagnosis, and the untold stories he could hear in Jenny’s lost voice after her husband left them, he’d made up his mind. He’d go home. He’d be there for them while they needed him.

And as a compromise he’d start his own adventuring company at last. He’d keep his connections to the industry—he’d still be involved.

But preliminary market research had been depressing. Intrepid Adventurers was established, successful. There simply wasn’t room for another adventuring business in the area. Not unless he was willing to actually wage war on Intrepid Adventurers.

Although he thought he might have an edge with the newer technology and a younger generation, he did not want to directly compete with his old friends—if he was successful, he might drive them out of business.

It had been an agonizing dilemma. The offer to buy the company had been a godsend he’d been quick to accept. It would solve his problems—and theirs. They’d get the company taken off their hands by someone they knew and trusted—he’d be running his own company, and be in proximity to Jenny and Samuel.

He scowled and slapped the steering wheel with his palm as he twisted in his seat to back into his usual parking space. Now what? He’d never imagined Maria of all people would object to his takeover.

The tiny office he and his partner had rented temporarily while they prepared for business was cluttered as always. Adam was still there, at the computer—as usual—two screens, two keyboards, and a whole lot of hardware scattered haphazardly over all surfaces. They were working on creating an interactive interface for their future customers, enabling them to put together their dream excursions. The plan was to bring Intrepid Adventurers into the twenty-first century.

Adventure at the click of a mouse.

The torn old sofa the previous tenant had left behind had scattered computer parts all over it. Eddie had never understood why programming had to involve ripping out the computer’s innards—but apparently that was Adam’s way.

“Problem,” he announced, pushing the junk away and flinging himself onto the tiny sofa. He winced, and dragged something from under his thigh. He waved a motherboard at his partner. “Is it on purpose that all this junk has sharp edges?”

“Sorry,” Adam said absently, reaching for the part and examining it for damage. “What’s the problem?”