"Off you go," Jasper said.
I headed down the hall to my father's home office, Magnolia a few steps behind me. "We don't have to do this," she said, slightly breathless. "Not if you don't want to."
"Let's just get it over with," I replied. "I want to get back to Jasper."
"Zelda and Rob run a tight ship. They won't let things get out of hand," she said.
There was something deeply amusing about Jasper joining the ranks of Rob and Zelda. I couldn't explain it, I just knew I liked the sound of it. "I know that. I know she'll be fine."
We stepped into the office to find Ash standing beside Dad's desk, a file open in his hands. He glanced up, saying, "Are we ready?"
"Let's do this," Magnolia said.
I dropped into one of the armchairs in front of the desk. "Why does this feel like an ambush?"
"Because you and I didn't discuss this like we'd planned last month," Ash said. "Remember? Our meeting was interrupted by a series of unlikely events."
I nodded. "I do remember that."
Ash settled into the desk chair with an uneasy glance around the room. "It's strange being on this side," he murmured to himself. "Anyway. The purpose of this meeting is to discuss potential partnership terms as well as the implications of this on projected profit over the next five years. Any questions?"
I didn't have specific questions though I knew I was uncertain about teaming up with Magnolia. It had nothing to do with her but my general unwillingness to commit to a big new thing that had the potential to disrupt my way of life. What if this meant I had to sit through meetings about finances and human resources? I'd hate that. I'd hate everything about it. And I didn't care what kind of paper we used to mail invoices or the design of our logo. I just didn't care about any of it and I knew I'd be agitated if I had to park my ass in an office and hear about it all the time.
This was why I tuned out my sister's questions about cost centers and ownership shares. It wasn't my language and I didn't want it to become my language.
"What about you, Lin?" Ash asked. "Any concerns about this schedule of terms?"
I didn't even know which schedule we were talking about. "I don't think so."
"That's probably because you haven't been listening," Magnolia said, the humor heavy in her words. "I mean, I'm sorry, dude, but you don't hide it especially well."
Ash leaned back, propped an elbow on the armrest. "What's holding you back here, Lin?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. I'm just not sure. It's a big move, you know? Maggie, you've been working with a whole staff for years, but it's just me. I don't work with anyone."
"And that's exactly why you should work with me," she said. "You're assuming responsibility for equipment, insurance, everything—and if we teamed up, you'd wipe out nearly ninety percent of those costs. The economies of scale are too great to ignore."
"You sound like Ash," I muttered.
She laughed. "Between Ash and Rob, I have money men on either side of me. I can't help it."
"Here's what I see," Ash said, pointing his pen at me. "You are spread very thin right now. You are on the road every single day and you're going from the North Shore to the South Shore to the Cape. And then you manage all of your record-keeping and invoice reporting by hand. It's a lot of time not spent on your core competency of—"
"Oh my god." I shoved my fingers through my hair because what was this bullshit? "What are you trying to say? Can you tell me that?"
"I'm saying you're not able to use your time as effectively as you could," he said. "And we might have a solution for that."
"I'll go a step further," Magnolia said. "You're doing things you don't like just because it's worked well enough for the past few years. You're doing things you don't like just because you've been doing them a long time and change seems excessively complicated. Like, dude, I'm sure you're thinking of the dozens of things that could go wrong and all the ways it will be different from your current situation, which is not actually that bad."
"You're not wrong about that," I admitted.
"And you don't like working with the country clubs and golf courses because most of them only care about keeping their fairways pretty and they don't give a shit about much else," she continued. "How many times have you bitched up a blue streak to me about country clubs planting a dozen hosta or liriope around the base of oak trees? Or pruning the hell out of some dogwoods and wondering why they stopped flowering?"
I lifted my shoulders. I really hated when they choked the base of trees with plants because—apparently—trees weren't impressive enough on their own. I really hated it when they dug up perfectly good land and filled it with tightly packed flowers and bushes for the sake of creating interest only to turn it all over two months later. "Maybe a few times."
"But the retainer is nice, isn't it?" she continued. "That's nice, steady money."
Even if I did grumble about the country clubs, it wasn't that bad. I could handle it.
"I don't disagree with you," I said.
"The heart of this plan is giving you more time to do the things you're really, really good at and giving me access to your skills," she said. "That we get to reduce our costs and—most likely—increase our profits is a very nice added bonus." She reached over, squeezed my forearm. "I think it would be really cool to work with you. Even though I've had a staff, it's always felt like it's just me. It wouldn't feel like that with you."
"I'm not saying no," I said. "I just need time to think it over. That's all."
"Okay," Magnolia said, her hands on either side of her belly. "I need to stand up because I can't take a deep breath in this position and I'm also ready for food. Why don't we give Linden some time with the documents. It's not like I'm in any rush with this."
I helped her to her feet while Ash shuffled the papers back in the file. "It would be nice to get this resolved before year-end," he said.
"That doesn't mean it's going to happen," Magnolia said. "Come on. We need to get back out there before Mom plans anything else."
16
Jasper
I didn't know if I was allowed to, but I loved Diana.
She was hysterical. Really, truly hysterical. She was all out of fucks but also a fireball, and I liked that combination. Hell, I wanted to be that combination.
"Hot plates, hot plates," she said as she carried two dishes to the dining room table.
I'd offered to help, obviously, but she banished me to the table with Zelda after we transferred some roasted vegetables to a serving plate and tucked the napkins through beaded rings. She'd made those herself, Diana informed us, offering a detailed origin story of the beads and how she crafted the rings. She could make us some, if we liked.
"We're not waiting on your father," Diana sang as she settled the dishes on trivets. "If he's late to supper, he'll eat leftovers."