Kollette hadn’t been home in a while. But she had given Ethan the grand tour and the one thing she noticed was nothing had changed. Her father kept everything just as it was. She didn’t go into his bedroom, because that was his personal space, but her gut said that wouldn’t have changed either.
She told herself this really wasn’t anything to be concerned about, but it did trouble her. How was he going to be acceptable to change within the company? She knew he said it, and very likely wanted it, but that didn’t mean he was capable of it.
As they sat in the living room having an after dinner drink, she knew she needed to bring it up. Hopefully Ethan didn’t think she was speaking about him when she did.
“Dad, this place hasn’t changed one bit.”
He looked around and said, “I hadn’t noticed.”
That’s what she thought. “I mean nothing. I don’t even think a picture has changed.”
“I can have Mildred change them if you would like,” he said.
Delegating it to the maid wasn’t what she was hoping for. “It’s kind of like the hotels. Nothing much has changed there either.”
“If something is working why change it?” he asked.
Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Ethan raise a brow as though he was trying to follow along and couldn’t. Maybe she needed to be more direct. But she didn’t want her father to feel as though he was under attack because that wasn’t the case at all.
“I see your point, but you and I have such…different views Dad. You offered me the job, a direct report to you in order to learn everything to one day take over. But if you’re not…capable of change, or accepting it, then are we setting ourselves up for failure?”
Ralph stiffened. “I never lose,” he snapped.
“Dad, I’m not talking about the company. I’m talking about us. You and I. As a manager I did as I was told to. The rules were to be followed, the orders implemented. But if you want to mold me to take over one day, you have to understand something too. I’m not a carbon copy of you. I have my own ideas, some that you might not like, or be ready for. What I don’t want is for these differences to cause problems in our relationship. I can’t be a ‘yes sir’ person if we are to be…equals.”
He looked at her, then Ralph turned to Ethan. “Is this your doing? You fill her head with doubts so she doesn’t want to come back to Miami and you can keep her in New York with you?”
“Ralph I”
“Dad he”
Ralph got up and said, “I built this company from the ground up. Everything I have is because I have made it happen. The Lawsons might have more than two hundred years in the steel business, but I am just as much of a force to be reckoned with as you are.”
“Dad, you don’t”
“And if you think that you can come between me and my daughter, you’re wrong. I love her. Always have.”
“Sir I” Ethan tried again.
Kollette had stood up and was at her father’s side. “Dad, this has nothing to do with Ethan. If anything he is one-hundred percent supportive of this. He even offered to move here so we could still be together, knowing darn well how much time it was going to take for me to learn my new role.”
He turned back and looked at her and asked, “Then why all the questions? Why the doubt?”
“Come and sit so I can explain.” He did, but the tension in the room could be cut with a knife. She should’ve done this when they were alone. “Do you remember me coming to you about the Potters?”
“That again? I thought we had settled that,” he grumbled.
“Dad, this is what I’m talking about. You and I see things differently.”
“And I want to teach you to see the value in a place like that. The financial possibilities can be tremendous.”
“The value is what we view differently,” she said gently. “Dad, do you remember how happy you were being married?”
Ralph shot her a look. “Don’t bring that up,” he warned.
“Dad, I know you hate talking about it,” she said, reaching out and covering his hand. “She loved you very much.”
“Not half as much as I loved her,” he said.