Chapter 1 – Scott
“Come on, Jesse. I’ll take care of this. You take care of Glenn and I’ll be back in a little bit. I don’t mind, really I don’t. I know that there’s something going on over at Tridad street, so it will be packed. You can’t work at both of them, so let me help you.”
“It’s just the first time it’s going to be open, and I wanted to make sure that everything is just right. I want the new location to be just like the old one, don’t you?”
I watched her feed our child a few bits of food that she’d whipped up a little while before, and I couldn’t help smiling at her. She had more patience than I could ever manage, and watching her with our son just made me love her that much more. I never thought that a year later we would be where we were, but I wouldn’t have changed it for the world. After quitting my job at my father’s company, I’d been helping Jesse with the bistro. Now that we were opening another one, I was finally starting to understand the restaurant business. It was ridiculously hard, but I’d fallen in love with the personal feeling that I got every day. I got to help people and see their happiness when they were there.
“I do want it to be the same, but you’ve already been over there twice in the last week. Everything is ready. You approved it all.”
“I know, but I just want to make sure that the new hires understand how to act and how to talk to the customers. The staff is almost as important as the food and drinks.”
She was worried, and I loved that about her. She always had her mind on the next task. Never slowing down was hard for me to get used to. I was learning, though. I’d been a powerful businessman for many years, but I was learning a lot about leadership from Jesse. She had a way of looking at things that I envied.
“I’ll take care of it, love. Just stay here for today. I promise you that everything will be as it’s supposed to be. I don’t want it to be any different. It’s going to be just like the one that you and your father built together. Every detail is the same, and Melissa is going to be watching over everything now that I gave her the keys.”
Jesse smiled at the thought of her friend finally taking over a little bit. She’d always refused the responsibility before, but everything had changed for her as well. Melissa was engaged, and we both hoped that she would be pregnant with her own child soon. It was what she’d always wanted, and now it was like everything was coming true. Jesse had her mom back, and I had Jesse and Glenn. My heart was so full some days that I thought it would explode at any minute. I was sure that no one was supposed to be this happy.
“Thank you, Scott. I don’t know what I would do without you.”
“You’ll never have to find out, Jesse, because I’m not going anywhere. I don’t even like leaving you and Glenn to go to the other location. I know that it’s good that we expanded, but I don’t want to get too big. Sometimes I wish we could just take a little time off and go away somewhere. Neither one of us has to work.”
“I know, but this will be his one day, Scott. I want to leave him something when we’re gone, like my father did for me.”
That made me think of my own father and what he’d tried to do. I don’t know why I thought that Glenn would one day feel the way that I had about my father’s business. I would make sure that I gave it to him and trusted him enough to make the best decisions that he could. I wasn’t going to hound him, though; if he didn’t want it, I would let him walk away.
“I do too, and we will. I just want more time with you and him. Sometimes I feel like all we do is work, and I would like to spend more time thinking about making our family bigger.” Her eyes darkened and she shook her head at me like I was being naughty. I was; if she would only let me, I would be as bad as she wanted. But that was something for later. I had to focus.
Moving to give her and my son a kiss, I made my way downstairs and out into the crisp fall morning. I’d come to like my brisk walks in the morning, but today I had to take my car. It was a far cry from what I used to drive, but now I had Glenn and Jesse to think of. Now I had a backseat and all of the safety features that could be packed into an SUV.
Getting in, I looked at the car seat in the back and chuckled to myself. For a long time I’d spent my days making million-dollar deals with some of the most powerful people in the country. And now I was a glorified coffee shop owner with a second location opening up today. Life had changed in so many ways – and I couldn’t see any of them in a bad light. It had all led me to this new life in which I was eager to wake up and start every day. I’d never been so at peace before, and I knew that it was because of Jesse more than anything else. What I did every day and who I was to the world didn’t matter anymore. Now it was all about how my wife and child saw me. That was all that mattered.
The thought brought a smile to my face. I was about to leave when I heard my phone buzzing in my pocket. It was Maria, and she sounded frantic. “I’m not supposed to tell you, Scott, but you have to know. Your father needs your help.”
“My help?”
I listened as she told me what was going on. I’d spoken to Jackson a couple of times in the last year, and even though he was acting different somehow, our talks had never really gotten past the first stages. I didn’t have the patience to hear some of the opinions that he had. He still wasn’t a fan of my wife, and I wasn’t a fan of hearing anyone say anything bad about her.
But now I could see why he’d seemed different. I hoped that Maria was wrong, but I knew that she wasn’t. For all of his bravado, my father did need someone.
If it would have been a year ago, I would have told her to hire someone to help him. I would have put it on someone else, because he hadn’t cared about me when I needed him. But I had Jesse now, and she’d showed me what forgiveness was all about.
“I’ll be there in a little while, Maria. Don’t worry. I’ll take care of this.”
“Thank you, Scott. You know that he doesn’t deserve you.”
I hung up and sighed to myself. I was going to have to open the new store first, before going over to Dad’s house to see what was going on over there that had the usually calm Maria so upset.