“Moving fourteen hundred miles away the morning after your mother cuts you out of her will has a certain teenage quality to it.”
“I’m forty-eight.”
“Exactly. You’d look ridiculous climbing out your bedroom window.”
That got half a smile.
Then he turned the laptop toward me.
“Just look at the job.”
So I did.
The Denver position wasn’t a lateral move dressed up with mountain scenery.
The company had expanded it.
Regional director across five states, with a significant salary increase, a larger bonus structure, and responsibility for three operations teams.
“They still want you?”
“Tom asked me about it again last month.”
That surprised me.
“You never told me.”
“I wasn’t considering it.”
“Why not?”
He looked into his coffee.
That was when the conversation stopped being about Patricia’s will.
“The first time they offered it,” he said, “was right before Dad’s knee replacement.”
