8. A Peace Offering

8

A PEACE OFFERING

“ T hanks for coming here,” Jamie said, opening his front door on Monday. “I know it’s out of your way.”

“It’s fine,” Laken said. “The plant isn’t that far from here and we can ride over together. But I was going to bring you the final designs for your daughter to pick out. I had marketing print them for you.”

“That was nice,” he said. “We can go into my office.”

“This is a big house,” she said. “I think it’s bigger than West’s weekend home in the Hamptons.”

“It’s more space than I need, but I wanted Penelope to have room to grow and move around.”

The house was six thousand square feet. Had a guest house that Janelle lived in, a pool, a tennis court, a basketball court, putting greens and a ton more grass for his daughter to run and play while he shot hoops or hit a golf ball and kept an eye on her.

“West had a nice big house built for our mother years ago. There were only a few of the kids left at that time, but he made sure they all had their own wings rather than just a room.”

“I’m sure they appreciated it,” he said.

“I like to think so, but Nelson and Talia—they are the youngest—never had the struggle. They’ve had everything handed to them. Nice house to live in, cars to drive, education paid for. But West made them work every summer once they got their license. He told them he didn’t care if they were flipping burgers, they were going to put gas in their own damn car.”

“Good for him,” he said. “We worked. I had no choice. I worked around the church growing up when I was younger and when I was older and could get a job that paid me, I did. But I still had to help out on the church grounds.”

She took a seat in his office. “Are we good now? I felt bad about what I said last week.”

He’d been pissed but realized she had no ill intentions with her question. If he was still carrying bad memories around from his past, that was his problem.

“No worries,” he said. “You touched a nerve, but you’re not the first person that has either.”

“I’ve been in Chicago for days freezing my butt off and thinking about a peace offering,” she said. “We have to work together.”

He hadn’t expected that and started to wonder if he’d judged her the same as she’d done him.

She opened her briefcase and pulled out a folder and put it on his desk.

He opened it and saw the printouts of the animals. Penelope was going to fall in love with these.

He was flipping through them all. There were fifteen of them.

“She’s going to want them all,” he said.

“I think it’s best to settle on no more than six to start. Adding some to the collection later on will help. Almost like limited editions. That is coming from marketing, not me.”

“I like it.” He was looking at other printouts. The bottles, sippy cups and cups with the straws.

“Once you decide on the final baby animals, they will work on bigger ones. To show them growing with their drink utensils.”

He laughed. “That sounds good,” he said. “I’ll have her look at them tonight.”

“She’s not here?” she asked.

“No,” he said. “She’s at a playdate with Janelle.”

He purposely didn’t want his daughter home when Laken came over. He wasn’t sure why but still wanted to keep them separate.

“Oh,” she said. “Well, if you want, we can leave now and go check out the plant. Nelson is going to meet us there in a bit. He was talking with West when I left.”

He hadn’t met Nelson yet but had resigned himself to the fact that he had to let West do what West did best.

“I can drive,” he said.

“I’d appreciate that,” she said. “I’ve got a car but don’t drive much. Normally I’m being driven around by West’s driver to and from the airport. I don’t like leaving my car there. Or I take a taxi.”

They got up and left. He noticed she had tan pants on with little tan sneakers. Not really jeans but not dress pants either. It was hard to tell what kind of top she had on with her jacket, but he was assuming she was more casual today based on where they were going.

He was in his normal jeans and sneakers. He wore his suits on Sunday and that was enough for him.

He was just glad they were in New York yesterday for the broadcast so no traveling in and out of airports.

When they got to the plant twenty minutes later, he saw it was an empty parking lot behind the warehouse building.

“I thought they were going to be doing construction by now,” he said.

“They are starting tomorrow. We thought you might want to walk around it without them knowing who you were,” she said.

“Thanks. I do appreciate that.”

“West is good at keeping things private too. Nelson will be dealing with the contractors while they get things set up in there and until the office is in good shape. Then we’ll start the hiring process for more.”

She handed him the key to unlock the door and they walked in and she flipped the lights.

“This is huge,” he said.

“It is. It won’t feel so big once the equipment is in place, but the floors have to be replaced. Some windows too. We’ve had one of our guys come through with an inspector and that person will be working with Nelson. Do you want his name and contact information?”

“I’d like that,” he said. “If it’s okay I’d like to stop in after hours to check on things.”

“Absolutely,” she said. “I’ll shoot you off that information when we are done.”

They moved around to the top level where the offices were going to be. The place needed a major overhaul for sure, but he could see the vision.

“Laken! Are you in here?”

“Nelson,” she said. “Being one of the youngest, he never outgrew yelling to get attention.”

“Upstairs,” she all but screamed back.

“Sounds like someone else held their own too,” he said, smirking.

She winked at him. “It’s hard being outnumbered.”

He liked that it seemed they were back on the same level they were before. Not really the flirting but no tension at least.

It was better than nothing, he supposed.

He heard the footsteps coming up the stairs and then saw a younger version of West round the corner.

Nelson was just as tall, but a bit more muscular than his older brother. He had an air about him that was like Jamie looking in a mirror.

Cocky and confident for sure.

But Nelson’s attitude didn’t appear to be for show, when Jamie felt as if his was for years.

“Hey, Jamie,” Nelson said. “So nice to meet you. I was a big fan. Am a big fan still.”

“Thanks,” he said, shaking the younger man’s hand. What had Laken said, that Nelson just turned twenty-five? Jesus, he couldn’t believe he was putting all his eggs in the hands of a guy in Generation Z.

Then he had to remember people thought that about millennials that he was part of.

“I’m looking forward to this,” Nelson said. “I know Laken and West filled you in. I’m not going to let anyone down. I’ve got this covered.”

“I hope you do,” he said. Jamie was firm but kept his smile in place.

“We were just walking around,” Laken said. “Let’s do it again now that you're here.”

Nelson pulled his phone out and started to take pictures and type. “I’m paying attention,” Nelson said. “Keep talking. I’m taking notes now. Then I want before and after shots. I’ll talk to everyone and make sure I run changes by you and West.”

“I don’t need to know all the changes,” he said.

“He meant me,” Laken said, nudging him with her arm.

“Oh,” he said. Jamie couldn’t find the words for anything else after she’d touched him and he wondered how the hell he could find himself feeling like he had his first crush after all those years of getting drunk and not even remembering sleeping with someone.