The Business Plan

by Lorhainne Eckhart

  He could see Emily touch Brad and give him a look that said he shouldn’t have pushed, but no one was saying anything. It was now quiet, so quiet all he could hear was the tick of the clock. The tension escalated, as everyone seemed to be waiting for him to say something, anything to break this icy silence. The kids, thankfully, were playing in the other room, leaving the adults alone in the dining room to drink some wine and catch up. He wished for a moment that one of them would come in and break up this standoff.

  “Honestly, Brad, I don’t have a clue.” He glanced over to his big brother, who was watching him as if he felt his role was to take Neil by the collar and lead him. He didn’t like it, and he resented the way it was making him feel, but Brad, being Brad, wouldn’t let it go.

  He gestured at Neil. “Look at you. I’m seriously starting to get a little worried. First it’s the hair, then the beard, and now an earring. What’s going on with you, Neil?” Brad said, sounding a lot worried, talking to him as if he were sixteen years old. Even Emily was watching him as if someone needed to do something. He wasn’t sure whether he’d growled or if it was all in his head.

  “Look, would everyone please stop? We’re good, okay? I’m awesome. Just need to figure out what I can make work here, is all. I have some things in the works, just not willing to talk about them yet.” He had jack shit in the works, but his brother didn’t need to know that—or the fact that he didn’t have a dime left in his bank account. The electricity bill had just come, and he couldn’t for the life of him figure out where he was going to get the money from next. It was the first time he’d had to consider dialing it back on their spending, figuring out quick what he could sell, or restructuring to get some funds back in his name.

  “Well, why don’t we talk it out? I’m here. Let’s discuss some options, bounce them off me, because you’ve been back for a few months, and I don’t see much happening except stuff piling up for you to do, some new ideas, but you haven’t followed through with anything.”

  “Brad.” Emily rubbed his arm. Her voice was laced with warning, but Brad was now shaking his head with that stubbornness he got when he somehow figured out that he needed to fix things himself. Neil didn’t need fixing, though. He was just having trouble figuring out what he could do.

  He realized Candy was awfully quiet beside him, and he didn’t miss her shared glance with Brad, the way she worried her lower lip between her teeth. Something was going on there.

  “Neil, I asked Brad to talk to you,” she said in a low voice. For the second time today, he was feeling as if his wife was confiding elsewhere, with his brother, when she should have been with him. He turned and looked down at Candy and the guilty expression on her face. “I’m sorry, but I’ve been patient, watching and waiting and…” She stopped talking, and he had a bad feeling he wasn’t going to like what she was going to say next.

  “What, is this like an intervention?” He was about ready to toss his napkin on the table, push back his chair, and leave when Candy reached over and grabbed his wrist.

  “Neil, wait.” She paused and slid around, taking a breath as if considering what to say. To him, it seemed they were getting farther apart instead of closing the distance between them.

  “Tell him, Candy,” Brad said, and Neil realized his wife was looking to Brad for more and more. That was something he wasn’t about to stand for.

  She cleared her throat. “Neil, I was at the store yesterday and went to use your credit card to buy a new pair of boots for Cat. You know her old ones have holes, and water’s been leaking in…and your credit card was declined, both of them.” Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment.

  Shit, he was mortified. He hadn’t realized she was using them. He should have said something, made some excuse to take them back. No one said a word, and all Neil could do was lean back and run his hand over his beard as he tried to digest his humiliation and betrayal at the fact that his wife hadn’t told him. “You felt you needed to go and run to my brother and tell him, that you couldn’t tell me?” he said. “Now who’s keeping secrets, Candy?”

  Maybe it was the way he was staring at her, as if she’d just turned her back on him, that made her slip back her chair and excuse herself from the dining room. Neil took in his brother across the table, whose expression said he was fast losing his patience.

  “Neil, your wife wouldn’t have said a word to me, so stop being a prick. The fact was that I was there. I ran into her at the feed store where she was in line in front of me. She was humiliated when the clerk told her loud enough that everyone could hear. She pulled out a second card, and it was declined, too, so I paid for the boots. She didn’t have to say anything for me to know that you’ve gotten yourself into another financial jam and have been hiding it from her.”

  Now he felt like crap. He watched as Emily excused herself, her lips tight, her face flushed as she scooted back her chair and slipped out of the room, maybe to see where Candy had gone off to. Her face said it all: She was embarrassed for him, as well.

  Neil didn’t know what to say as he rested his elbows on the table. He couldn’t think of a time he’d ever been in this kind of hole, feeling as if everything was caving in around him. Brad wasn’t making it easy. He just sat there, watching and waiting him out. “I’m stuck, Brad. The resort hasn’t sold, and when we all chipped in for Andy, that took pretty much all I had left. There’s nothing coming in, and everything is going out.”

  This was a part of life he’d never experienced. He’d always had enough money before. He was the one who always offered, who helped out.

  “What can I do to help?” Brad leaned forward, his voice low so the women didn’t hear, looking at Neil so intently. It was that big-brotherly look he was taking on more and more with all of them. He had the broadest shoulders of them all, Neil could see it, and he wondered, when would it become too much? After all, everyone had a breaking point.

  “I don’t know, honestly. I’ve never been in a position like this before. I always knew my place in a more fast-moving world, where deals were made with wining and dining, travelling with high-class folks—a world that makes my wife uncomfortable.” He didn’t want to say any more, because he’d been telling himself over and over that it didn’t matter, that he just needed to shift his way of thinking to something smaller, more low key, something that would make Candy happy.

  “We were all worried about you, Neil, wondering how you were going to be happy here in this quiet small community when you had that world-class resort and the ranching business with Dad down in Cancun. You had your hand in how many other investments? It was always something, and to you it was just what you did before breakfast. Not my world, but we knew you were happy.” Brad just watched him, and Neil realized he couldn’t stay quiet anymore.

  “I don’t think I can do this here. I need something more that excites me. I just don’t know how to have the lifestyle, the business, and my family.” He sighed, leaning back as if he’d denied what he was feeling for too long. It felt good to say it out loud.

  He heard someone clear her throat, and he didn’t have to turn to know it was his wife standing there in the doorway, Emily with her, holding a tray of mugs while Candy carried a pot of coffee.

  “Then what is it you need, Neil?” she said. “Because right now it seems we don’t have a lot of choices anymore. You need to figure out what you’re going to do, what we’re going to do.” Candy set the pot on the table, but she didn’t sit down beside Neil. Instead, she looked over to Brad and then back to him. Before she could say a word, Neil lifted his hand as the idea hit him.

  “You’re right. What I need to do is come up with a business plan.”

  Chapter 7

  After saying goodnight to Brad, Emily, and the kids and tucking Cat and Michael into bed for the night, Candy strode into their bedroom, hearing the crackle of wood in the open fireplace. Neil had lit the fire, and she loved listening to the sounds and the peace it created in their bedroom as she sat there with him, in his
arms, mesmerized by the flames. It was the perfect romantic setting, and Neil was a master at creating romance of any kind. She wished sometimes she had his skills and confidence, but the man had seen and experienced many aspects of life Candy had never been comfortable with.

  She took in her husband, who was sitting in the light blue stuffed easy chair, his feet up on the ottoman. She half expected to see him with another glass of wine, as she also realized he’d been drinking more and more of late. It wasn’t uncommon for him to have two, three glasses of wine a night. She frowned at that thought, worrying for a minute, since her father had lived as a drunk and died drunk. It wasn’t that Neil was an alcoholic, just that he was turning to something that could be a problem. Maybe it was time to say something.

  He was running his hand over the short beard he’d started. It was dark and made his full lips seem a darker red than they were. She strode over to him slowly and stopped at the stool as he lifted his feet so she could sit on the ottoman. He rested his bare feet on her lap, and it was instinct to start rubbing and massaging. He shut his eyes as if her touch pleased him and leaned back, breathing deeply.

  “So what happened to the buyer who was considering the resort? Why is he still on the fence?” Maybe she should have asked more of the details before now.

  Neil, though, didn’t open his eyes as he said, “I’ve been starting to wonder the same thing. It’s been how many months of him going through the day-to-day operations to see whether everything fits with his chain? I’m beginning to think the man’s stringing me along.” Neil opened his eyes, and she could tell by how the light amber flickered a little darker that he was now having concerns she hadn’t seen before. “Just one more thing I’ve let slip,” he said. “I don’t honestly know, and if Andy and Brad knew, or even Jed, how lax I’ve been with my business, I think they’d serve my head up on a platter.”

  He sighed, but she understood what he was saying. Neil had once been shrewd, smart, sharp, not missing anything. Maybe some of this was her fault.

  “I haven’t pushed,” he said. “I should have, but…” He stopped and sighed and reached for her hand, pulling it closer. “I haven’t been keeping things from you, if that’s what you’re going to ask.” He squeezed her hand. “Except the money. Sorry, I should have said something. I can only imagine how embarrassed you were. It was on my mind to tell you not to use the credit cards.”

  “It’s not the money, Neil. You know how uneasy I am about all the money you had. I’ve always had a simple life. I know what it means to struggle to just get by. It’s just that you should have told me it was as bad as it is. Didn’t your dad buy you out, your share of the Cancun ranch, the estate? You were going to sell it all to him, I thought, or did you already, and that money is gone, too?” She pulled her hand away and rested them both on his feet. Of course, she was conflicted with these secrets, wondering what they’d both driven each other to.

  He was shaking his head. “I never finished anything. Started to, and then when we left Cancun and came back home, I just…” He was at a loss. She could tell by the way he patted the arm of the chair.

  She’d never seen Neil like this, as if he’d lost his footing, and she couldn’t help worrying that she was somehow responsible for part of it. After all, she was the one who’d wanted a simple life. He’d done all this for her.

  “Don’t do that, Candy,” he said, watching her. “I can tell what you’re thinking. This isn’t all on you. This is me, what I’ve done. I messed up so many things because of my obsession that I’m still backpedaling through the cleanup. Let me be clear. I screwed up. I gave Maria five million to go away, and it left me with very little. Yes, if Dad buys my share out, we’ll be okay, but I haven’t pushed there. I mentioned it once, but Dad told me to think about it some more. Not sure why. Maybe he thinks I just need time to reconsider and figure everything out. The resort…selling that would set us up quite comfortably for life, and I’d have something to start something new, but for the life of me, I haven’t got a clue what that would be.”

  He ran his hand over his longish hair, the waves curling at the ends, hiding his ears. It was a look that was so different from the clean-cut Neil she’d fallen in love with. “Something happened, too, when we went to Jed and Diana’s. Seems Andy’s mother isn’t beyond reaching from the grave. She’d planned before she died to get rid of Laura and was hiring someone to plan an accident.” He sighed, and she felt her stomach bottom out. She wondered whether her alarm showed on her face.

  She’d never seen this expression in her husband’s eyes, and he reached for her, pulling her onto his lap and holding her close to him. She could feel how tense he was, and, as he was holding her now, she could also feel his need to keep her a little closer. At the same time, she was reeling from hearing something so awful. She didn’t know much about Andy’s parents, only that his mother was from a wealthy eastern blueblood family, and his father had stashed a herd of mistresses. Andy had once terrified her with his dark, brooding ways, but now she couldn’t help admiring the man because of all he’d walked away from to keep his family safe.

  “You said ‘planned,’ but is she going to be all right?” Her voice squeaked. “That’s horrible, Neil. What did you all do?” She sat up and looked down on him. His jaw was tight, and she could tell he was really bothered.

  “We met with the person, we found out…” He shut his eyes, shaking his head. “Let’s just say the person who was arranging it made sure it didn’t happen. Caroline’s gone now, and any threat to Laura’s gone, as well. We ended up paying this person her price for not doing the job. How sick is that? So between Jed, Brad, Andy, and me, we shared her asking price, and I had to pull the money from everywhere I could, and it left us with nothing. I’m sorry.”

  She didn’t know what to say. She wondered by the sheepish look he’d given her whether he thought she was angry with him for what he did, but she said, “I’m glad you did that.”

  Maybe it was surprise that flickered in his gaze. “Really, you’re not mad?”

  She shook her head. “Only that you didn’t say anything, but you are now. I’m just glad Laura will be safe. It’s not a question. Of course you should have paid. You have no idea how it makes me feel that you and your brothers, and Andy, too, would come together and help each other out.”

  “I would give it all for you. So would my brothers, and Andy. We’d never hesitate to give everything up for you, for our women.” He reached up and touched her face so gently. There was so much love there as she leaned in to his touch.

  “And that’s why I think you need to consider a new plan.” She touched his chest, smoothing her hand over the blue lettering of his shirt.

  “Oh, and what would this be?”

  “Your business plan. I think you need to start back at the beginning and take your resort back.”

  “Candy.” He was shaking his head. His expression said enough to her that she knew he was thinking of all the reasons why that wasn’t a good idea. “I promised you, and you’re more important than the resort, than all of it.”

  “Hey, I know that, which is why you need to take it back. It’s a part of who you are and what makes up Neil Friessen, my husband and the man I fell in love with. You need to go in and say to the buyers that they had their chance, but the deal’s off the table. It’s still in your name, right? So reclaim what’s yours, go and make it bigger, better, and be the king-of-the-world business owner I know you can be. It’s what you’re good at. It’s your world, and you shine in it. You, here…” She took in the bedroom she loved and this small corner of the Pacific Northwest where she loved living. It was peaceful, quiet, but her husband was slowly dying inside. “You’re trying to change who you are, to make a square peg fit into a round hole. It doesn’t work, Neil. It’s not working. You’re becoming miserable.”

  “Candy, I don’t want to do anything that’s going to make you uncomfortable. Fitting into that world is something you aren’t comfortable with, and I love
you and the kids more than having that, being all of that. As happy as I was, there was a huge part of me that was so lonely, and that’s the part only you can fill.”

  “Hey, who said anything about me not being there with you? We’ll make it work. You’ll make it work,” she said. At the same time, an unsettled feeling she hadn’t felt in a long time squeezed her chest, giving a little hiccup in her breath as she pulled another in, but she ignored it. Was she suggesting the one thing that could end up tearing them apart?

  Chapter 8

  Neil loved nothing more than making love with his wife, and he didn’t quite know what had come over him as he stirred from sleep with his wife under him, her legs around his waist. He pinned her hands above her head and drove himself deeper into her. He was moving fast and then slow, changing his rhythm to drive hard and deep as he held her where she was. She was making soft noises and whimpering, and he could tell how close she was to going over the edge, tossing her head side to side and then tightening around him, but he didn’t stop. He kept going, pushing her, moving inside her in a way that left her completely at his mercy until he felt himself coming apart and burying himself completely inside her. She cried out under him, and he allowed himself to let go.