If this was not the life Aaron wanted, he only had one option.
He opened his laptop and hit Print on the letter of resignation he had already written up. As much as he loved his family, he was embarrassed to admit that sometimes they acted like nothing more than entitled bullies. His father thought he could tell Aaron what to do. He wouldn’t like that Aaron was leaving, but he would have to get over it.
Right now, given how horrible his family was being to the Windsors, Aaron was fine with taking somewhat of a stand against his father. He was going to do some honest work that would at least make him feel proud of who he was and what he was doing.
CHAPTER THREE
“WE COULD HIRE an attorney. We’ll have to find one who has no connections to the Coles. I’m sure they’ve told everyone they know to not do business with me. I can’t believe I managed to buy cookies. What if Sweet and Savory started refusing me service?” Bonnie rambled as she washed her father’s dishes. Soap suds flew around the kitchen as she waved her hands in the air.
“Bon Bon, you need to take a breath,” her father said, putting his hand on her arm to stop her from flailing. “We’re not going to hire an attorney. There’s no way we can fight the Coles. Their attorneys would keep us in court until I ran out of money. It wouldn’t be worth it. I can find work. I’ll just have to find it somewhere other than Blue Springs.”
“That’s not fair! Why should you have to?”
Her dad ran his hand over his balding head. “Life isn’t fair. We learned that when we lost your mom. You gotta roll with the punches sometimes.”
It felt like she’d been punched a hundred times today. She couldn’t roll with all of them. She was ready to fight back. “Sometimes we have to stand up for ourselves.”
“I’m not hiring an attorney, Bonnie,” he replied gruffly, walking out of the room. “Drop it.”
She pulled her hands out of the dishwater and gripped the edge of the sink. She loved her father, but he had this belief that life happened to him and he didn’t have much control. Bonnie was guilty of feeling that way as well. When she was in Lauren’s good graces, bad things didn’t often happen to her, making it easier to not worry about who was in control. Now, things had changed, and bad things were happening much too often. Bonnie didn’t want to roll with the punches. She wanted to believe she had some control over what happened to her.
Talking to Mr. Cole hadn’t done her any good, however. Maybe it was time to go to Lauren and confront the beast.
Bonnie finished her dad’s dishes and practiced in her head how she would tell Lauren to stop her madness. The doorbell rang, and her dad shouted that he would get it. Bonnie dried her hands off and went to see who it was. She couldn’t take any more disappointment today.
Aaron Cole stood in the foyer with her father. He shook her dad’s hand, and it made Bonnie’s blood boil.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, suspicious of his intentions.
“I wanted to apologize for what happened today. First, to you, Mr. Windsor. You have been a valuable part of Cole Construction for as long as I can remember. You were an incredible mentor to me when I worked under you all those summers in high school.”
“I appreciate that, Aaron. And call me David. We’re all adults here.”
“I’ll try to remember that,” he replied with a grin.
“Are you here to offer him his job back?” Bonnie asked. She stood next to her dad, arms folded across her chest. There was nothing to smile about today.
“Seeing that I no longer work for Cole Industries, I wouldn’t be the one to talk to about that.”
Bonnie felt her eyes go wide. “What do you mean, you don’t work there anymore? Did your father fire you for defending me?” How far would the man go to do Lauren’s bidding?
Aaron shook his head. “No, I resigned. I left the company on my own.”
Bonnie almost fell over. How many bombs were going to get dropped today? “You quit your job? What did your dad say? Can you even do that?”
Aaron shrugged his broad shoulders. “I did, so I guess I can. My dad can’t force me to work for him.”
Bonnie’s dad placed a hand on Aaron’s shoulder. “I hope you’ve thought this through, son. Your father has always wanted nothing but the best for you. He was thrilled when you came to work for him. I would hate to see this come between the two of you.”
Leave it to her dad to be worried about the father/son relationship of someone who’d just fired him for no good reason. The man didn’t have a mean bone in his body. She could understand why her dad sounded so surprised. For as long as Bonnie had known Aaron, it had been his destiny to take over Cole Industries. He had been groomed for it.
“I’ve done nothing but think about this for a long time. I’ve wanted to do my own thing for a while. I finally decided to take the plunge, but I’m not here to talk about me. I’m here to let you know that I don’t agree with what my sister is doing. I plan to talk to Lauren and convince her to back off.”
It was tempting to let someone else fight Bonnie’s battles for her, and for a minute, she considered letting him do it. She’d never been very good at getting Lauren to see different perspectives. She usually let her
