Father & Son: Book two of the Jensen Family Series

by Michelle Day

  “Oh Hi, I didn’t see you there.” Helen started at Carmen’s presence.

  “Sorry, I was daydreaming. Where are Paul and Gavin?”

  “Still in bed. Gavin was very restless last night; Paul was up with him for most of it.”

  “Any idea what was wrong?” Carmen asked as she made her way to the door.

  “I think he may have a new tooth coming, his left cheek was very red.”

  Carmen made her way upstairs and to the spare room, what she saw there warmed her heart. Paul had his back to her, his arms wrapped around their son. He had at some point, pushed the bed against the wall and as she leant over, she saw the pillows pushed into the gap between the mattress and the wall effectively cocooning Gavin between himself and the pillows ensuring that he couldn’t fall out of the bed.

  Leaving them to sleep, she ran herself a bath and relaxed back, washing away the classroom smell from the previous evening, sighing as the warm water enveloped her.

  Gavin was awake and Paul was beginning to stir by the time she had finished her bath and returned to the room. Gavin smiled and gurgled at her as he tugged at Paul’s hair. She was just about to lean over the sleeping teenager and pluck her son from the bed when Paul opened his eyes and looked at the smiling face of his son.

  “You’re happier this morning little man.” He murmured his voice husky from sleep.

  “Good morning.” Carmen stroked his hair from his face as she sat on the bed. “I hear he was not one for sleeping last night?”

  Turning part way onto his back, one arm still wrapped around the baby, he looked up at her, “That’s an understatement, he screamed most of the night and I had some very interesting nappies to deal with. Helen said she thought he might be teething and rubbed some stuff on his gums.”

  “I take it he wouldn’t settle in his cot?”

  “No, he screamed every time I put him down so I bought him in here. I shoved the bed against the wall because I didn’t want him falling out and then I realised that he could still slip down the side so I shoved the pillows down there. He dropped off to sleep after about half an hour of being in here.”

  “Did he have his head on your chest?”

  “Yeah, I guess the whole being able to hear your heartbeat thing isn’t a load of crap after all. He slept really well until just now and he seems fairly happy now.”

  “He certainly does, hand him over; I’ll get him some breakfast.”

  Paul sat up and passed Gavin to her, “If you want to get some sleep, I can get him fed and bathed before I go.”

  “You’re leaving this morning?” She asked.

  “Yeah, I have to get Mum’s car back to her and there’s a few things I need to get done for work too so I should make a move sooner rather than later.”

  “Ok, I’ll catch some sleep this afternoon when he goes down for a nap.” She stood, Gavin in her arms, looking down at him. “When will you be back?”

  Sitting up, Paul ran his fingers through his hair before scrubbing his hands over his face, “Not sure but it will be soon.”

  Chapter Ten

  Monica was pleasantly surprised when her youngest child returned home in daylight instead of his usual dead of night, she was even more pleased when he announced that he had filled the petrol tank of her car and had it valeted inside and out on his way home and the car was looking almost as good as new.

  “Thanks for letting me borrow it.” He smiled down at her.

  “As you looked after it so well, you can take it again.” She returned his smile.

  “Thanks Mum.” He said over his shoulder as he left the room, stopping in the doorway, “I won’t be in for dinner, I’m going to Jokers, the manager there wants to discuss something with me.”

  “Such as?” She asked.

  “Not sure, but he’s been wanting me to work there for years, I guess now that I’m eighteen, I will be legally allowed to so that’s my best guess.” It wasn’t completely a lie, he told himself as he mounted the stairs, he would be working there, although he would only be considered staff for the shortest time possible as he planned on taking over the management of the club within the next year.

  Within an hour of talking to Jez, it became apparent that his timescale was in need of serious revision. Due to his age, it would be quite some time before he would legally be eligible to hold the licence on the club. Laughing at his oversight, Jez slapped him on the back with one hand while handing him a club t-shirt with the other and told him to change and join him behind the bar.

  With his hand on his heart and desperately trying not to laugh at Paul’s weariness as he stepped behind the bar, Jez solemnly vowed to teach Paul all he knew about tending the bar, keeping the patrons happy and how to run a club so that when his time came and he could eventually, with the blessing of the licensing laws, officially run the club.

  Not amused in the least Paul took in the view from this side of the bar before turning to the current club manager, “I’m a gardener Jez and I play at being an insolvency clerk. I have never served anyone a drink. Ever. I hope you are a patient man because I have a feeling that it’s going to be tested to the max.”

  Still smiling, Jez put a glass and a cocktail shaker in front of him, “Sarcasm? Always a good place to start and trust me Paul, you are going to need that sense of humour. As long as you can do about ten things at once while being polite, smiling and keeping my valuable customers happy, you’ll be fine. Trust me. By the time I’m done with you, there won’t be a thing you don’t know about this place.

  Jez spent that first night working by Paul’s side, impressed by the way the young man interacted with the punters, smiling and charming the ladies while at the same time keeping their accompanying men supplied with drinks. He learned quickly and apart from his lack of knowledge where the cocktails were concerned, Jez knew by the end of the evening that he had made the right choice when he had earmarked Paul to be his successor.

  Working at the club on Friday and Saturday nights, going in early and leaving long after closing as he tried to wrap his head around the cocktail menu, Paul quickly realised that he simply didn’t have enough hours in the week to devote to his various responsibilities.

  Beating his men to site for the first time in oh, ever, Paul made a point of looking at his watch as first one van then the other pulled up before him and his workforce climbed out, breakfast rolls in hand.

  “What time do you call this?” He asked of no-one in particular as they sauntered towards him.

  “We stopped to get you breakfast boss,” one of them answered, holding out the peace offering masquerading as a fully loaded breakfast roll. “Besides, we aren’t late, you’re early.”

  Reaching out and taking the proffered roll, Paul turned away as he unwrapped it, salivating at the sight of sausages, bacon and mushrooms nestling there, he took a healthy bite, chewed and swallowed before turning back to the waiting men, “What? No ketchup?” he asked, grinning as they began to laugh. “Come on guys, let’s get to work.”

  They worked without a break through the morning, kept going through what would normally be lunch and instead of a late tea break, Paul told them to pack up for the day and asked for their company later that evening in one of the local pubs.

  He intentionally arrived late, not wanting to be there before his work force. Buying a round of drinks, he sat in the chair they had kept for him and began to talk, telling them of his plans to take over the night club and therefore cut back on the hours he worked with them.

  “I think we need to expand a little and I’ve put in an order for two more vans so we’ll be able to cover more ground so to speak.” He said as he traced lines in the condensation on his glass. “I’d like to take on a couple of more guys and am open to suggestions on that as I’m sure you all know someone who either needs a job or would fit in well here.”

  “What do we do if there’s a problem?” Phil asked.

  “Well, I’ve given that some thought as well and I’d like you to take
on more responsibility, obviously you and I will have to iron out a few more details but I trust you Phil and I want to leave you in charge. I just wanted to be up front with you guys. I’m not closing the company down, with the money it makes I’d be mad to do that, I want to make it bigger, I want us to get to the point where the councils automatically come to us when they have a project. It may even pay us to branch out further into the painting and decorating trade and run that alongside this, I dunno, I’m still thinking about that but for now, all it boils down to is I won’t be on site as much as I am now and definitely not at weekends and I’d like to know what you think of that.”

  “Where would we get our time sheets and stuff like that?” Someone asked.

  “For the time being, any staff related paperwork will still be my responsibility, you’ll get them from me in the normal way, I’m just stepping back from the day to day running of the business.”

  “I may not want to take on a bigger role than I have now.” Phil commented.

  Paul looked the older man straight in the eye, summing him up. “That would cause me a few problems Phil, I’m not going to lie, obviously you and I need to talk further on this but I’d like a basic yes or no tonight as to whether you feel up to the challenge.”

  Phil’s eyes narrowed at Paul’s choice of words, “Up to the challenge eh? Cheeky bastard, I was practically running the company before you took it over.”

  “I know that.” Paul confirmed.

  “What’s in it for me?” Phil pressed.

  “More money for starters but you will all be getting pay rises anyway,” he added casting his gaze around the other men present. “I’m not discussing your role here Phil, you and I need to discuss this further. As for the rest of you, as I said, pay rises are imminent, there will be no more working through bank holiday’s either unless it’s specifically asked for and then it will be triple pay. I’d like to say you’ll have structured working hours but we all know that we work longer hours in the summer months.”

  “We’ll still be able to get in touch with you if we need to? I mean, technically, you’ll still be the boss?”

  “Yeah I’ll still be the boss. You’re all thinking that I’m going to disappear which is not the case. I’ll be on site a couple of days a week and right now that’s all I can commit to but I’ll be around if you need me and can’t go through Phil or whoever happens to take the supervising managers role.”

  “So, we get new vans, more money, more guys but basically the only thing we don’t have to do is look at your ugly mug all day?”

  “That’s pretty much the gist of it.” Paul nodded taking in the faces of his loyal work force. He stood, preparing to leave. “Phil, come and see me on Sunday?” He asked.

  “Ok.” The older man agreed and also got to his feet. “I’m sure we’ll work something out between us.”

  His week progressed as normal, working on site Tuesday, he took Wednesday off to catch up on paperwork then went into the office Thursday and Friday, studiously keeping his head down and avoiding his father, well aware that he still hadn’t faced the back lash from fronting up to him. Friday evening, he headed for the club, cocktails running through his head.

  This would be the first night behind the bar without Jez shadowing him, although the manager was never far away. As he was still new at this, he was allowed to have notes with him in case he forgot how to make a particular cocktail but as it turned out, he didn’t need them. Once he’d made a few, he realised that he’d cracked it and his confidence soared.

  Watching his newest member of staff, Jez was more than pleased. Paul was a natural and now that he had the cocktails down, his in built confidence began to show. Add to his confidence his natural rhythm, easy smile and good looks and he was an instant hit with the patrons and staff alike.

  Having viewed the antics of the staff from the other side of the bar and quite frankly, been horrified by it, Paul quickly began to realise the reason behind it from his new found perspective. The club wasn’t considered to be amongst the classiest establishments but with cheap drinks, banging up to the minute music and run by management that was prepared to turn a blind eye, the place was always packed to the rafters and that made tending the bar an extremely stressful pastime. Therefore, when one of the female bar staff grabbed him as he reached past her for one of the more exotic bottles of beer, shoved him against the counter and pushed her tongue into his mouth while her hands roamed just about everywhere they could reach, he wasn’t entirely surprised or offended and found that the brief interlude had indeed decreased his stress levels. She handed him the bottle he had been reaching for as she turned back to her own customer.

  Grinning like the proverbial Cheshire Cat, Paul returned to his customer and was rewarded with a drink for putting on the show with the bar maid. He managed to serve, dance and snog his way through the rest of the evening and was sweaty, tired but extremely happy by the time the club closed. On leaving the club that in the early hours and after getting assistance from the rest of the staff to push start his car, he headed for home, smiling all the way, the bar maid’s phone number safely stashed in his pocket.

  He slept through most of Saturday only waking to shower, eat and head back to the club. Being Saturday night, the club opened earlier and closed later and the staff were rotated out from behind the bar every few hours. He had an outrageous evening split between working behind the bar, flirting with the staff there and working the floor, his usual stomping ground where bumping and grinding with the customers’ was second nature in between retrieving glasses from the tables and booths scattered around the dance floor.

  The sun was coming up by the time he pulled his car into the driveway. He was home a little later than usual on a Sunday morning after having discovered that while possible, sex in the front seat of a Ford Escort Mexico was infinitely uncomfortable but it did mean that he hadn’t had to use the phone number the bar maid, Betsy, had given him as she had helped him discover just how uncomfortable his car was.

  Monica finally gave up trying to keep the noise of the house to a minimum so her youngest son could sleep when the doorbell rang half way through her dinner preparations. Ushering the man into the house, she left him at the kitchen table and went to wake her son.

  Phil grinned as Paul entered the kitchen, his boss was dishevelled and that was putting it kindly. Paul staggered towards the table, yawning and scrubbing his hands across his face. Having to come awake and get his brain functioning in a matter of moments wasn’t one of his strong points.

  He grabbed a large manila folder from the Welsh dresser before sitting opposite his foreman and opening the file. He took a large gulp of the tea Monica set in front of him before meeting Phil’s eyes.

  “Morning.” He rasped his throat still stiff from sleep.

  Still smiling, Phil accepted a second mug of tea from Mrs Jensen, “You look like crap.”

  “Heavy night.” Paul shrugged. “Down to business then.” He pushed some pamphlets across the table, “I think we need a yard perhaps a porta cabin and someone to do the paperwork, quotes etc.”

  Regarding the paperwork in his hand, Phil knew without a doubt that he was making the right decision and he thanked his lucky stars for the umpteenth time in his life that he had a calm, level headed wife who could make him see a good thing when he was onto it. “Before you get started,” he began as he reached into his pocket and pushed a small square of paper across the table. “Take a look at that and tell me what you think.”

  Unfolding the paper revealed a cheque for the sum of twenty thousand pounds, he frowned when he realised the cheque was made payable to him. “What’s this?” He asked.

  “Um, it’s a cheque. I talked to my wife about the changes you had in mind and you stepping back and so on and between us we agreed that we want in. That’s our life savings; we’d like a share in the company.”

  Paul sat back in his chair, put his hands on top of his head and drew in a deep breath, “Whoa.” He paused,
still regarding the cheque, he hadn’t looked past Phil being the manager, a big step up in itself from the foreman position he currently held but a partner could be useful. “Mum, can you take a look at this?” He looked for guidance from the one person he trusted completely.

  Leaning over her sons shoulder, Monica picked up the cheque, “That’s a lot of money.” She said, “are you sure you want to do this?” She asked Phil.

  “Yes, the wife and I are positive this is what we want to do.”

  “And what are your feelings on having a partner?” She addressed her son.

  “I don’t know, I hadn’t even considered it but, I think it might be the way to go. I’ve got big things planned for the future that are going to take me away from this business in the physical sense, I don’t ever want to let it go completely and having a partner I can trust to run things and make decisions when I’m not around would be a very good thing.”

  Monica nodded her approval and returned to her dinner preparations, keeping an eye on her son.

  “You’re up for this then?” Phil asked.

  “Yeah, I think so. Not sure I want to take your money though.”

  “How can I buy in if I don’t pay you? Think about it Paul, this makes sense. You want to concentrate on the club as much as you can and as time goes on, that’s going to consume a vast amount of your time. You will still have the controlling share of the company but I’ll be there to handle the day to day running and expenditure.”

  “It all sounds great, it really does and you’re right in everything you’ve said but when push comes to shove, even if you are my partner, I have the final say and I need to be made aware of any problems straight away.”

  “Agreed. Shall I get my solicitor to draw up papers or do you want to handle that?” Phil asked.

  “I’ll get the papers prepared with my solicitor but you may want yours to look at them before you sign anything.”