Stay With Me by Sharla Lovelace Page A

asked.

    “Yes.”

    “Thank God.”

    I sighed and leveled a look at him. “Can we get back to this stupid idea of yours?” I said.

    “Not really,” he said, his knees popping as he rose to his feet.

    “Dad,” I said, making him stop and look at me. “No. We’re not doing this. We’re not giving up our family’s business. The business you started. And we aren’t chipping away at it, either. What on earth are you thinking?”

    “That maybe if we had a little help, you wouldn’t have to work so hard,” he said. “Maybe you could have a life. Get out of here more. Find some happiness.”

    Find a husband.

    “Do I look unhappy to you?” I asked, holding up my hands. “Dad, I have a life. I have a job I love. A family I tolerate.” I threw a paper clip at him. “Sometimes.”

    “And you’re alone,” he said.

    “I have a dog. And a date,” I said, after a pause.

    “Savi,” he said wearily, flipping a hand at me as he walked past.

    “Does anyone ever stop to think that maybe I like it that way?” I said. He stopped and gave me a skeptical eye, and Lily took her seat back. “Seriously,” I said. “You know, I like my private time. I like that I’m not accountable to anyone but myself and possibly Gracie, and by the way—I raised a pretty amazing human all by myself.”

    “Yes, you did,” he said. “You didn’t ask for help then, either.”

    I widened my eyes. “And the problem would be?”

    “You don’t know how to delegate.” He pointed at Lily, who suddenly perked up and looked wary. “Even your sister and Jim know when enough’s enough. They asked for help.”

    “Dad?” Lily said, eyes too wide and a grimace-like smile on her face. “Really?”

    “What?” I tried to catch her eye, but she wouldn’t look my direction. “What help? What’s going on?”

    “Dad’s selling me down the river, that’s what’s going on,” she said, getting up.

    “Honey, you know better,” Dad said, using his don’t worry voice from when we were kids. The one that was supposed to dissuade all our fears.

    “No, I know I asked you to keep it between us,” she said.

    “Uh, somebody dumb it down for me now?” I said.

    Lily held up a hand. “He’s in a sharing mood, I’m sure he’ll fill you in. I have to get back to work.” She patted his back as she moved around him, a stir of discord in the air.

    Dad sighed as she left. “Well, that’s got to be some kind of record. Pissing off both my kids in under five minutes.”

    “I’m not pissed,” I said, although it was a stretch. “I’m just saying we’re not doing it.”

    The real kicker though, the part that rankled under my skin, was that it was just lip service. I could talk all that bravado I wanted, but at the end of the day, it was his decision. His business.

    My life.

    “Now,” I said, blowing out a breath and changing the subject. “What’s Lily talking about?”

Chapter Six

     

     

    Getting ready for supper with Duncan had a bittersweet tinge to it. Besides Ian’s return, besides Dad’s latest urge to change everything we’d sweated for, Lily hadn’t trusted me. True, she could be motherly at times, but when it came down to the wire, we could always talk. I certainly shared my problems and failures with her. But she hadn’t.

    McMasters Meats was in the red. And therefore, by default, so were she and Jim. She’d been keeping everything afloat by juggling payments, but it was to the point of making decisions. The old equipment that had been there in the old man’s reign was breaking down and they didn’t have the funds to repair it. Dad had been slipping her money here and there where he could, but that was throwing pennies into a bottomless well.

    In other words, they weren’t helping out Ian. It was the other way around. Jim had probably had to grovel and ask the brother he’d always had to cover for and bail out of trouble to return the favor. And if I had to guess, Leonard didn’t