“I look forward to it,” she said with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “The kids will be looking for you soon. I can drive them—”
“No. I’ll take them. You enjoy your day. I kissed her and then with profound regret, I left her to drive the kids to school.
On the way, I replayed the events of the last twenty-four hours, especially around Terra’s news about her cancer. On the one hand, it sounded like her doctor was optimistic about treatment, but she had a doomsday sense about her. Was it based on intuition? Fear? Her mother died of cancer, so maybe that was making her feel less positive. Whatever the reason, I needed to do what I could to make sure she got the best treatment possible.
Once at the office, instead of figuring out how to delegate my work, I researched cancer treatment options for stage three breast cancer. What she described as her doctor’s plan seemed to fit what I found online, including success rates.
“Hey Bray,” Kyle said poking his head into my office. He studied me like he was trying to figure out my mood. I supposed I acted strangely yesterday, giving him cause to wonder about me.
“Come in,” I said with a wave of my hand. “Close the door behind you.”
He stepped in and closed the door. He took a seat in one of the chairs in front of my desk. “Everything alright with you?”
“Yes and no.”
He cocked his head to the side. “Johanna suggested that you and the missus weren’t getting along.”
I couldn’t fault Johanna for hearing me and Terra fight, but I didn’t need her spreading the word around the office.
“I don’t pay her to gossip.”
Kyle held his hands up in surrender. “It wasn’t like that. I asked her what was going on after you ran off. That’s it.”
I pinched the bridge of my nose as the weight of what was happening to Terra bore down on me. “Terra has cancer. Stage three.”
“What? Jesus…is that bad? Well…yeah cancer is bad…but stage three is that—”
“I’m not sure. My research suggests its serious but treatable. Terra seems to feel less certain.”
“If I had cancer, I’d probably feel like that,” Kyle said.
“Maybe. I can’t lose her, Kyle.”
“No, of course not. What can I do?”
Kyle had started with the company shortly after Terra and I founded it. He’d been an intern in his senior year of college, and worked for us part-time as he finished grad school. We hired him full time when Lanie was born and Terra decided she wanted to be an at-home mom.
For the most part, he’d been able to take over her duties. But being the control nut that I was, I’d taken over many areas that I hadn’t been able to hand over to Kyle. The idea of turning over more duties made me uncomfortable, but that had more to do with me than Kyle’s ability.
“I’m going to need you take over more responsibilities while she’s in treatment. I need to be there for her.”
He nodded. “Just tell me what.”
That was the hard part. As I went through all my duties, I found it hard to choose the ones I could turn over.
“I’m working on that now.”
“What about the cloud project. Word has gotten out and we have two offers.”
That concerned me. I didn’t need our competition knowing what we were doing. “How did word get out?”
Kyle shrugged. “I don’t know.”
“Are the offers for licenses?” Maybe it was just companies wanting to use our product.
Kyle shook his head. “For the company.”
My eyes narrowed. “The company? They want to buy the business?”
“Yep.” His face turned excited. “What we’ve got here is something everyone wants.”
“We’re not the first cloud security system.”
“No, but we’re the best and most innovative.” He gave me a look like I should know better. And he was right. What made this project exciting was how different it was from existing platforms.
“We’re not even in beta testing yet.” It was a good sign that there was an interest in the project even before it had been fully tested.
“Next week that will start. That bug I told you about yesterday was fixed.” He waggled his fingers. “Yours truly has magic fingers.”
One of the reasons I liked Kyle was that his background was like mine; degrees in computer science and business. He understood our products and services, as well as how to make money from them. So, I should have felt steadier about giving him more responsibility, but unease still gripped my gut.
“That’s good news. I’m not planning to sell. And I suspect anyone who was serious about buying would have come to me. My guess is that they’re just feeling out the progress of the program. Keep a tight handle on all that. We don’t want it getting out until we’re ready.”
“Okay.”
“I need to trust you on this, Kyle. Not that I don’t trust you, but I need to know you’re up to taking on more responsibility.”
“You don’t have to worry. If I get stuck, I’ll confer with you.”
I nodded. I didn’t have much choice. I had to hope that he could run the ship that Terra and I had built. If he faltered, though, a lot could be lost. I didn’t need a failed business while my wife was being treated for cancer.
16
Terra
I don’t know why I was feeling disappointed. Of course, Brayden needed to go to work. I couldn’t expect him to drop everything to be with me without proper preparation at the office. It was unfair of me to want that. It wasn’t like I could drop my work, raising the kids, to be with him. We each had responsibilities. The best we could do was make sure we didn’t forget us again.
He said he was going to work on making more time, which I knew would be hard. Brayden wasn’t a control freak, but he did
