“You want me to tutor your kindergartner? You don’t think she gets enough learning at school all day? She’s a very bright little girl.”
“I’m really afraid that Gabriel is bipolar, and he passed it on to Isa. If she’s under too much stress, disrupting her schedule could cause some of those behavioral issues to present. I just can’t stand to think of her being alone or lonely because of me. Landen is welcome to come with you. We’d love to have a standing playdate for both of them.”
“That’s a very sneaky way of using the guilt trip method.” I arch one brow at her, and her lips curl upward into a full smile. “This isn’t a secret ploy to get me to spend time with Rod, is it?”
“No, I wouldn’t do that to you. If he’s being a jerk, he has to fix that on his own. My request might be as much for me as it is for Isa. I’ve enjoyed spending time with you tonight, and I think Isa will need more motherly love as my treatments progress.”
“All right, then. For you and Isa, I will do it. We should be finished before Rod gets home from work, anyway.”
“Thank you so much.” She throws her arms around my neck for a hug. “You don’t know how much I appreciate this.”
Despite her statements to the contrary, I suspect her request is a plot to force Rod and me together. But I’m not worried about that. Avoiding him won’t be a problem.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Rod
“Did you have a good Thanksgiving? Enjoy your week off?” I ask Kevin when he walks into my office first thing Monday morning.
“Yes, I had a great week. Daisy’s parents came up from Florida and her sister came in from Savannah, so Tracy and I ate with them. We were at her house for so long I thought we were spending the night there too. You would love the entire family, man. Her parents are the least pretentious people I’ve ever met, despite their success. Some of her aunts, uncles, and cousins showed up, too. She has an enormous family.” Kevin continues rambling about Daisy and her family, ignoring the dirty looks I’m shooting him.
“Great. So happy to hear you won the who was stuffed more contest against the turkey.”
“How was your week? How’s Juliana doing?” He ignores my obvious jab.
I turn away from the computer screen and scrape my hands down my face. “Not so good, for either. We had a rough week. Juliana took a sudden turn for the worse and went back in the hospital. Isabelle had a complete meltdown over her mother’s illness. She can’t sleep without having terrible nightmares and waking up screaming and crying. She’s convinced Juliana will die and leave her. And… I’ve had to face a hard truth about myself.”
“What’s that?” His tone is tentative, showing he’s unsure of how to react to me being on the verge of a breakdown myself.
“The truth is I can’t do it all by myself anymore. Take care of Juliana and be there when she needs me. Be a father to Isabelle, staying up all night to comfort her and convince her we’ll get through this together. Keep this company going, meet the customers’ expectations, gain more clients, and meet the constant demands. I’m tired—physically and mentally. I need a break.
“Over the past few days, I’ve rehearsed what I’d say to you when I saw you again. For the record, my speech contained nothing I’ve said so far. The bottom line is, I want to put a vote before the oversight board to make you interim CEO while I take some much-needed time off to take care of my family and myself. You know I don’t doubt your ability, but I wouldn’t put this responsibility on you without talking to you first. Technically, I don’t have to go this route since it’s a privately owned business, but their vote of confidence carries over to our clients.”
“I’m speechless, Rod. This wasn’t even on my radar as a possibility when I took off last week. I’m sorry. I should’ve called you to check in. How long are you planning to take off?”
“Three months, give or take a week, starting New Year’s Day. Juliana should finish this round of treatment around the end of March, and we’ll know what the next steps are by then. With Isabelle’s three-week Christmas break coming up soon, this is the perfect time to begin preparing our clients for my upcoming absence. I can call for an emergency board meeting, complete the vote, and spend the next two weeks catching you up on what I’ve been working on. What do you think?”
“I’ve never let you down before, Rod. I’m not about to start now. I’m willing to do whatever it takes to help you and those girls, regardless of how long it lasts. A week or a year makes no difference to me.”
“Thank you, Kevin. I never doubted you, but hearing you say the words makes me feel so much better. This company has been my entire life since I was a teenager, staying up late to learn programming language on my own. But I said I’d do whatever was best when it became a household name. There’s no one else in the world I’d trust more to take over my baby than you.”
I call for an early afternoon emergency meeting, even though every board member isn’t available on such short notice immediately after the holiday. We only need the majority vote, though, and there are enough around to cover that. After I explain the situation with my family and Kevin’s interim role, they unanimously vote him in as interim CEO with full confidence.
For the next solid week, Kevin and I spend as much of our days together as possible to ensure a smooth handoff of my open items. I’ve
