Page 39 of Family Bonds: Alana & Brennan
“No. No one knows, but they saw the picture. Jonathan still riles Kirk up. He thinks I’m here hiding.”
“If we didn’t just have this conversation, I’d agree with your brother.”
She frowned. “Gee, thanks.”
Kelsey laughed. “What did you say when he brought it up? I know you won’t take that sitting down. You think everyone thinks you’re a pushover, but you’re not.”
“I’m so happy to hear you say that. I think everyone thinks that of me. I can stand up for myself when I need to.”
Kelsey squinted at her. “It takes a lot and when you do, it’s still not the same as I’d do, but we aren’t the same people.”
No one was quite like Kelsey Raymond, but she still had a heart of gold.
“We aren’t. I told them I was trying. I didn’t need to say anything else. I think they believed me.”
“I’m sure they did,” Kelsey said. “But they also most likely think you’re hiding something too.”
Her shoulders dropped. “I’m not. There isn’t anything to hide. I don’t know what is going on. That’s why I asked your opinion. What do you make of all of this?”
“I think you are both dancing and not quite on the same note yet.” Alana burst out laughing. “What’s so funny?”
“I can’t say,” she said, thinking about how Becca said the same thing. That Brennan and Alana weren’t matching exactly. Who would have thought a three-year-old could be such a perfectionist?
“I’ll let it go for now,” Kelsey said. “But I’ll be watching the two of you in the office now.”
That was exactly what she didn’t want to happen!
12
MUCH MESSIER
“If no one has anything else,” Kelsey said at the table in the conference room on Wednesday, “then I think we are done. Mom?”
“I’ve got nothing,” Karen said. “It’s a slow time of year, but it’s going to pick up toward the end of January, as we know.”
Tax season. Brennan always hated it, but understood it was part of the job.
As a partner, he oversaw some staff preparing taxes, checking their work, and focusing on corporate tax, rather than preparing taxes himself.
Although he still oversaw some Boston clients, requiring occasional travel, it hadn’t yet been necessary.
“Are we going to flex our time this summer again?” Courtney asked. She was on his team.
“Yes. Starting the end of May until the end of September, you only have to work a half a day on Friday as long as your work is done. If you have no scheduled appointments, you can take the whole Friday off some weeks. Kelsey and Brennan will work that out. Whoever you report to,” Karen said.
That day off a week in the nicer weather would be great on the island with Becca. Time he was looking forward to with his daughter.
Almost as much as he was looking forward to more time with Alana. If he could only figure out how to broach it.
Seemed to him, she was more interested in time with his daughter than him.
It’s not like she was talking to him about anything else other than Becca.
And if that was the case, the last thing he wanted to do was make things uncomfortable here. She reported to Kelsey, not him, but that didn’t mean he still wasn’t a superior to her position.
This was turning out to be much messier than he’d thought it’d be.
Between that and the text from Celia trying to set up the play date on Sunday. She clearly wasn’t getting the hint.
