Page 100 of How to Love Your Neighbor
Noah’s fingers loosened, his chest puffing out. “It’s not what I thought it’d be.”
“Most things aren’t. You should have seen Dad’s face. If he’d tried any harder not to react, he would have exploded. His face was so still it was like he’d had Botox.”
“So much for making the old man proud, huh?”
“I don’t know, man. I think part of him has to be. You’re making your own rules and he’s realizing he shouldn’t have let you go.”
Did he? Or was he pissed at Noah and looking to get back at him? The thought hadn’t occurred to him before. “Do me a favor?”
“The very reason I phoned,” Wes said dryly.
“I know you’re short on time, what with all the gossiping you and Chris do about me,” Noah said.
Wes laughed. The sound reminded Noah how much he missed his brother. “There’s so much to dish about.”
It was Noah’s turn to laugh. Wes interrupted, saying, “What do you need?”
“Look into a couple companies for me. Do some digging. They said they were going in a different direction.”
“Ouch.”
Exactly. “I know. I want to see which direction.”
“Okay. But the real reason I called is the warehouses.”
Noah took the turnoff for Anaheim. “What about them?”
The final straw with his father had been when Noah fell in love with some old-school warehouses in the Bronx near the water. He’d had big plans for them that would have thrilled his grandfather. But not his father. Noah had invested his own money, thinking this would show his father how sure he was about the investment. It hadn’t.
“The sale has been stopped.”
“Why?” He felt bad leaving Wes with his mess to clean up, but his brother had offered to finish up the deals to sell that Noah had started before he left.
“You put Dad’s company on the papers.”
Noah pulled into the golf course parking lot and found a spot.
“Noah.”
“What?”
“You can’t guess where I’m going with this?”
He tried to reroute his thoughts, irritated with himself for thinking about all of the things he wanted to do with his girlfriend. Notjust in the house either. He wanted to go to Disneyland, take her to Napa, do some hiking.
“Just tell me.”
“Dad won’t authorize the sale.”
Noah’s foot flexed, anger coursing through his body. “Excuse me?”
“Says it’s his.”
“It was my money. He knows that.”
“I’m just trying to give you a heads-up. Don’t shoot the messenger. You might have to call him and talk.”
“That bastard.”
