Page 17 of Just Trouble

They laugh together and my dad hands the proposal back to me, as if the matter is closed.

I don’t take it.

“This is an offer to pay market price for five properties in your possession,” I say calmly. “The other members of the board have agreed to the sale.”

“Because they’re fools.”

“The opposite could be argued, if you insist upon holding onto properties for which you have no use, or no future plans.”

My father’s eyes narrow, but I ignore that, too.

Patrick is glaring at me. “How I choose to run my business, Miss Bradshaw, is my business alone.”

“But I’m curious. Why wouldn’t you take the chance to make a difference to the town where you live?”

“I don’t technically live in Empire. My house is in the township, not the town.”

“Yet you’ve reduced the town to a shell of its former self by leaving properties empty and untended. It could be said, Mr. Cavendish, that you’ve taken but you haven’t given back.”

His eyes flash and my dad starts to say something. Patrick gestures him to silence. “Who are you to know what I’ve taken and what I’ve given? This town survives because I’ve given people the support they need.” He gestures to the list. “Una Kincaid needed money and she knew where to come for it.”

“Maybe what Una needed was compassion,” I reply. “Maybe what Una needed was a break.”

“Oh, is that how we do business now?” he sneers. “We give everything away to those who ask for it, until there’s nothing left to give? That’s not how anyone succeeds, Miss Bradshaw. That’s not how legacies are built.”

“And what will your legacy be, Mr. Cavendish? A business that draws heavily on the infrastructure that people in Empire pay for and you utilize?”

“You have a nerve…”

“The very few residents of Empire would have no need to upgrade their water system or install windmills to generate power, not without the draw on both utilities by Cavendish Greenhouses.” His lips tighten but I’m not done. “It’s not unlike this golf course, built for rich people from somewhere else. Do people from Empire even get service jobs locally? We know they don’t get work in your greenhouses.”

His nostrils flare. “People in Empire get what they choose to for themselves. I don’t owe people jobs who don’t get an education. I don’t owe anything to anyone.”

“Yet we all owe whatever you want to you.”

My father inhales sharply but is ignored.

Patrick shakes his head. “Luke’s done it again, hasn’t he? Charmed some woman who could be useful to him. Don’t go thinking there’s any future for you with Luke Jones. He’s been trouble ever since he was born, making waves for their own sake, and if he’s back, that can’t be good news. You should be smart enough, Daphne Bradshaw, to recognize that there’s only one thing he ever wants from a woman, and you’re not going to be any different.”

I’m tempted to say that Luke came honestly by that inclination, but I remember his own claim that he’s been celibate. I bite my tongue hard.

Patrick laughs. “Not what you wanted to hear, is it? He’s got you stirred up and on his side, because he wants to play. Okay. Let’s play.” He grabs the document and turns to the list of properties. “It’s time Luke had a lesson in how the real world works. I’ll make you a bet, Richard, that I’ll have it all back in a year.” He puts out a hand and my dad gives him a pen. “But a couple of changes first.”

I watch, wondering what he’ll do.

“I don’t want to sell Albert Foreman’s building,” he says and puts a line through that item. Funny, that’s what Luke predicted he would do. “Why does he want my mother’s house?”

“He thinks Abbie should have it.”

“Women don’t need real estate,” Patrick says. “They need husbands. And Abbie doesn’t need a house in Empire since she’s chosen to live in Vancouver,” he says, breaking my heart with a stroke of a pen. He taps another item on the list. “AugustineRhodes will only have that parcel of land over my dead body,” he adds and draws another red line.

I’m tempted to suggest that it could be arranged.

He writes a number on the bottom of the document, where there’s a space for the price.

“That’s too much,” I say. I know the price of real estate in Empire. I just bought a house here.

“When you come with an offer like this, you can expect to pay a premium,” Patrick says. “Luke can afford it, unless he’s forgotten to look out for number one and has wasted all his money away like the loser he was born to be.”

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