Beyond Eighteen (9 page)

“Well, I certainly know what that’s like,” I
said.

He gave me a quick kiss and headed
downstairs. He stopped halfway down. “It’s kinda all I have right
now,” he continued. “God, I can’t wait to get back to you.”

“Me neither,” I answered quickly.

He continued down the stairs and I watched
him turn the corner and meet up with Dan. I was still vibrating
from his touch.

I shook off my disappointment, took a deep
breath, and found my phone. I dialed Joanie. I needed to tell her
about Nick and how he lied.

I hope she picks up. Come on…pick up
!
But it went straight to voicemail.

“Joanie, call me. I need to talk to you.
It’s about Nick.” I flipped my phone closed and slipped it into my
pocket.
I guess I’ll hear from her tomorrow.
It was probably
for the best that Max left me in a mushy steaming pile of arousal.
Damn, it’s hard to recover from him.

~ Max ~

I tried to adjust my
hard-on to be less obvious as I walked down the stairs. Wilson and
her “I need you” talk had me all worked up. I tried to think about
anything but touching her warm creamy skin and how her sweet aroma
filled me and drove me fucking insane. And man, once I felt how
excited she was to be with me…
Shit, stop
thinking about it. She’s upstairs waiting. What in the hell am I
doing? Dan can wait. He has to wait.

I was about to turn back and head upstairs
to Wilson when Dan saw me. “Hey Max, I got a message from Cal. He
sounded pretty serious. What’s up?”

I took a huge breath and hoped he didn’t
notice the fucking tent in my pants. I turned the corner into the
living room, leaving Wilson upstairs alone, waiting, and ready.

“
Hey, Dan. Yeah. He and I
wanted to know if you knew anything about our dad’s deal with
Buck.”

For the first time, when I looked at Dan
wearing a suit, I noticed how stiff and uncomfortable he looked.
He’d always shown up wearing suits before, simply because he’s
usually coming from work at GP, but tonight, it seemed like he was
a prisoner of those three midnight-black pieces. His two-tone gray
striped tie seemed to strangle him, forcing the little extra weight
he carried in his neck to bulge from his collar. He shifted his
black leather laptop bag from one hand to the other in a nervous
sway.

Dan grabbed the knot of his tie, tilting his
head back and forth as he loosened it away from his collar. His
fingers fumbled awkwardly to unfasten the top button on his shirt,
like he was working against the clock to relieve the pressure
building up in his neck. He took a sharp breath, ready to say
something, when Camille shot in from the dining room with her arms
thrust in the air. She was relieved to see Dan home from dropping
his parents off at their hotel.

“
Did your parents get all
settled?” Camille asked.

Man, I don’t have time for this. I want to
handle this business and then get back to my own. Upstairs.

Dan swooped in and gave her four rapid
kisses: one on her nose, one on either cheek, and one peck on the
lips. It was something they always did.

“
Hey, honey. How’s Mom
doing?” Dan asked.

“
She’s holding it together
the best she can, keeping herself busy in the kitchen making Dad’s
favorite—sea bass,” she answered as she helped him untangle his tie
from around his neck.

“
The whole thing hasn’t
really sunk in yet. I guess keeping busy helps,” he said, still
clinging to Camille.

I didn’t want to be impatient, or a dick,
but my girlfriend was upstairs waiting for me and I needed to see
if Dan knew anything about Buck and Dad’s contract. I wanted to get
back to Wilson.

“
So, Cam, do you think Mom
still needs your help in the kitchen?” I asked, trying to get her
to leave so Dan and I could talk.

Camille flashed me a
strained look. “I’m sure she can handle it,
Maximum
,” she snarled as her eyes
pierced mine. She hated it when I called her Cam.

“
There you are! Alright,
Dan, what in the hell do you know about Buck taking fifteen percent
of our father’s company?” Calvin roared as he busted into the
living room. His eyes met Camille’s and I could see he knew he’d
fucked up, yet again.

“
What are you talking
about, Cal?” Camille asked. The smile Dan planted on her face just
seconds before vanished. As she looked around at each of us,
daggers could have shot from her eyes and none of us were going to
flinch. We just stood silently gawking at one another.

“
Dan, what is Cal talking
about? Buck took fifteen percent of Daddy’s company?” Camille
asked.

“
Sweetheart, I need to
talk to Max and Cal. Can you—”

“
What’s going on?” she
demanded.

Dan clutched Camille by the biceps, making
her look him in the eyes. “Sweetheart, let me talk to your brothers
alone,” he whispered.

“
Anything you are going to
tell them—” she snapped.

“
Camille, right now is not
the time! Now please go into the kitchen, help Mom, and keep her
from coming in here,” I interrupted. Camille’s eyes filled with
tears and her porcelain cheeks burnt crispy red. I hated it when
she started crying.

“
He was my father too,
Max,” she yelped.

“
I know that. Don’t you
think I know that? And right now our mother, who just lost her
husband, is in the kitchen alone. I’m asking you to think about
her. Go in there, be with her, and let Cal and I talk to Dan,” I
steamed. I could feel my gut beginning to boil. I was reaching a
point of just needing this situation to be over.

“
Hey, hey, come on now you
two.” Calvin pushed between us before he slipped his arm around
Camille and convinced her to go to the kitchen.

“
Camille, we really need
your help. Be the distraction Mom needs right now. Can you do that
for me?” Cal asked.

Great, now Cal has swooped
in to be the hero. It was his fault Camille found out about Buck in
the first place.
I watched as Cal coddled
her and made her feel better about leaving us alone to talk. Dan
walked over, leaned into her, and kissed her.

“
I promise to fill you in
later,” he whispered.

The three of us watched as she walked
through the dining room and into the kitchen. It seemed like time
stood still before Calvin turned to Dan.

“
Alright, obviously you
know something about Buck swindling fifteen percent of the company
from our father. What can you tell us about it?” Calvin held out a
small stack of papers in front of him.

Dan looked back through
the dining room and into the kitchen before taking the papers from
Calvin and leading us back to the foyer. He propped his foot on the
small wooden bench by the front door and rested the stack of papers
on his knee as he glanced through them. I noticed he didn’t take
off his shoes. What the hell? I tried to remember if he’d
ever
taken off his shoes
before.

“
Okay, look, the thing is
I knew about this. Frank didn’t want me to say anything to anyone.
GP wasn’t quite as prepared as we thought, so when the new
environmental regulations were enforced, we got hit pretty hard.
Pile on bad investments and lower consumer consumption…your dad had
no choice.”

“
What do you mean? GP is a
multimillion dollar company with advisors and lawyers. How could
this happen?”

“
Your dad did everything
he could to avoid having to give any percent of the company to
anyone outside the family. He figured Tanner and Trait could float
the loan using fifteen percent of the company as collateral. Look,
Max, your dad wasn’t proud of this. He didn’t like mixing business
with personal favors, but Buck was able to help him.”

“
What’s going to happen
now that our dad is gone?” Calvin asked.

“
Well, according to the
agreement, Buckman Tanner has the contractual rights to absorb the
fifteen percent plus an additional one percent of the company upon
the death of your father. Buck has all legal right to pursue a
limited sixteen percent ownership of GP.”

I felt a radiant pressure
build across my chest and push up through my shoulders and neck. I
hated hearing the words pouring from Dan’s mouth.
How could he do this to us?

“
So Buck will own more of
our father’s company than any of us? How long have you known about
this?” I growled through an exhale.

“
About six months.
Technically, your mother will own the controlling thirty-nine
percent now that she absorbed the remaining fourteen percent left
of your father’s shares. But yes, Buck will own sixteen percent.
One percent more than any of us.”

“
You’ve known about this
and never said anything to us? What the fuck, Dan?” Calvin
exploded.

“
I couldn’t say anything,
not even to Camille. Do you know how fucking hard it was to be a
part of this family and hold in a secret like that? Not even able
to tell your sister what your dad had done? Do you know how many
times I wanted to tell you?” Dan held the papers out to Calvin. “I
could only be here for a couple of days with the family. It was
really hard for me. I hang out too long and I could feel myself
wanting to tell you.” Dan looked down at the hardwood floor. I
could tell he was ashamed, and yet it looked like a huge boulder
had been lifted from his shoulders.

“
I’m calling Gary. He has
to be able to fix this,” Calvin barked.

“
No. Hang on, Cal. Don’t
call Dad’s lawyer yet,” I demanded.

“
Come on, Max. I think we
should look at all our options,” Cal answered.

“
Well, considering Gary
will be going over your father’s will tomorrow, it might not be a
bad idea,” Dan said in a low grumble.

“
Wait, I didn’t know we
were going over the will tomorrow. Why hasn’t anyone told us?” Cal
spouted.

“
Gary pulled me aside at
the service today, said that everything is in order and that he
will be going over the will with us tomorrow morning.” Dan’s
response was matter of fact.

I could see Cal was getting bent out of
shape. Our father always kept him just close enough to help with
the business, but far enough away not to mess anything up. So when
Dan came into the picture and married Camille, he ended up being
our father’s prodigy boy; the one he groomed to take over Goldstein
Petroleum. No matter how much Cal tried to show our father he was
worthy, something would always come along and fuck it up, proving
Calvin’s inability to handle working with our father.

“
Great, then I’m calling
Gary,” Cal added before he left into the family room.

Dan looked over at me. I
could tell he had something else he needed to say.
I don’t know if I want to know what other shoe is
going to drop.
His eyes narrowed even
tighter and I watched his Adam’s apple bounce up and down his
throat as he swallowed. I think it was the beads of sweat that
formed across his upper lip that forewarned me he had more to
say.

“
There is something you
should know. I didn’t want to say anything in front of Cal. I know
how he feels about me and my position in GP.”

“
Yeah, well, Cal knows
you’re doing what’s right by our family,” I said as I mentally
braced myself for what he was about to tell me.
God, please don’t tell me the company is bankrupt.

“
About two weeks ago, your
father had me sit in on a meeting with his lawyer, Gary Browne,
about his future wishes for GP. I don’t know if he knew he was sick
or what, but he made sure that if something happened to him and he
couldn’t continue in the capacity of CEO, that I would become COO
of Goldstein Petroleum.”

“
Well congratulations,
Dan. Chief Officer of Operations. No need to be nervous about that.
You deserve it. You’ve worked your ass off for him.”

“
Thanks, Max, but that’s
not all. Your father named
you
as CEO.”

I felt my knees buckle and my ass slam down
on the wooden bench. “I don’t want it. Why would he do that? I’m
not the guy! Goddamn him! He couldn’t leave me alone, could he? I
won’t do it.”

“
Max, he stipulated that
if you don’t take the CEO position at Goldstein Petroleum it is to
be broken up and sold off piece by piece.” Dan’s voice went into a
low murmur of words that swirled around my head.

“
It’s obvious he never
really respected my choice of becoming a teacher. Now he’s going to
force me into the same life that killed him.”

I couldn’t focus on
anything and the deep yellow walls crawled in on me. My toes and
fingers became extremely cold while every other part of my body
began to sweat. My stomach lurched and my heart pounded so hard in
my chest I thought it was going to burst through my sternum.
Is the room really spinning? What the fuck? What
was Dad thinking? He fucking knew I couldn’t say no; I won’t hurt
my family. Son of a bitch…I can’t even argue with him. And Wilson?
What am I going to do?

“
Max, you okay?” Dan asked
as he reached out and held my shoulder. His fingers, hot and
stifling against my skin, pressed heavy into my
collarbone.