Pawnshops and Carousels

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: So here we go, another Sunday another chapter. This one is a little shorter than usual but it's cute too so that will make up for it. As always don't forget to review and I'll see you guys next week!

Chapter 21

I'm panicking about money.

I can't help it. It's not just that the Pontiac store is hemorrhaging cash, but I have a baby on the way. Babies cost money, a lot of money and it's not that I'm not making decent money, but that I want to be making more.

I want to give my future child, and Reenie and Escobar an amazing life. Full of big houses and nice cars and all the things they could want and ask for. I want my family to be pampered is that too much to ask?

My plan for the Pontiac store is to sell it. The problem is I know my dad wouldn't be on board. I figure if I line up a buyer, and show him how much we could save by selling it, he'll get on board. So, I've already made a few calls to see what we can get.

I've already got a few bites and man named Rob coming to the store for a meeting today. I've blown off one of Reenie's many OBYGN appointments for the pregnancy and I mean, I would have rather been there than here, but this is important.

So, I'm not happy when my dad says that he wants me to take the cash that Pontiac needs to keep running down to the store, something that my dad had said he was going to do. But there's no arguing with him, though I do try to pass it off to someone else, so I have no choice but to go. And that means I'm going to miss that meeting with Rob and I can't chance dad finding out about it.

Now, normally I wouldn't worry. I would just go to Reenie, tell her what was going on and she'd have my back no problem. Just like Ashley, she'd call me stupid and tell me that this was a bad idea, but she'd still cover for me. But Reenie, isn't here, so that means that I have only one person to trust… and that's Ashley. And she is both not on board with this idea, and never has my back as is.

I go out to the floor, and find her, ready to beg her if I have to, and that's saying a lot.

"What's up?" she says when she realizes that I'm looking for her.

"Hey Ash, I'm heading over to the Pontiac store, dad just told me that I gotta take the money, originally he was supposed to and he's sending me now," I try to explain but Ashley's already in a bad mood and she's interrupts me with a dry: "Okay?" and a glare that says that she doesn't know why I'm telling her all this.

"Uh, I'm supposed to meet with a potential buyer for the Pontiac store today… here," I tell her and her eyebrows shoot up her skull. Well I know how well she's going to take this request, and the answer is not well at all. "I'm not going to be here, so what I need you to do is… I need you to kind of intercept him when he comes in…"

"Me?" she interrupts again and I sigh. It's so hard to bite back the witty retort I want to throw at her, but I'm asking her a favour so I do.

"Yeah." "You need me to cover for you?"

I rub a hand through my hair because I don't know how plainer I can be with the appeal and it sort of feels like she's doing this on purpose.

"Look I don't have a choice," I repeat. "He's just sending me up there right now, and there's nothing I can do."

"Are you sure this isn't because Sabrina's at the doctor and you were supposed to go with her."

"The whole reason I'm missing that appointment is to meet this guy. So yeah, I'll probably stop off to pick up Reenie from the doctor, but that doesn't change the fact that this guy is coming here to see me and I won't be here, so I need you to help me out here Ashely."

"Me," she says again and I decide that I'm done with her craziness.

"Okay, so the guy's name is Rob, and I have no idea what he looks like."

Ashley's mouth drops open in utter shock. Both at the fact that I had the nerve to ask her, and the fact that I only know a name and not what the guy looks like. Even I know I'm asking too much but obviously I'm desperate.

"Seth, anybody could be this guy!"

"I understand that," I say talking over the last two words of her sentence. "But I don't have a choice."

"Okay… so like… what? You've already talked to this guy and he's coming in and you're not even going to be here? What do you want me to do?"

God why does she have to do this to me? I obviously know what's going on here and what I'm asking her to do, now she's just being stupid to piss me off.

"I told you, I just told you!" I cry and then force myself to calm down. "Ash, please, just help me out I'm in a bind."

"I don't want to be a part of this."

"That doesn't matter! This is what you have to do!"

And Ashley caves. She makes a big show out of agreeing, huffing and rolling her eyes and acting insulted but I trust her when she says that she'll stall the guy for me and keep him away from dad.

I shoot her a sarcastic: "Thank you, Ash," over my shoulder as I pull out my phone. The drive up to Pontiac takes me out of the way but it also means that I can pick up Reenie from the appointment and get a play-by play on what the doctor said about the health and growth of our baby.

I shoot her a text telling her to wait and I'll pick her up and I try not to smile to myself. I feel like everything is starting to look up.

Les: So, this guy walks up, says he's here to talk to Seth about buying the Pontiac store from us. And that is news to me, because I did not authorize that. I had no idea about that. I had just been blind sided by that. Was I rude to this guy, when I ripped up all his financial info, hell yeah! But I couldn't help it, I was livid. But I also had a plan. Time to put it in action and catch a traitorous rat in the act.

After picking up Sabrina the two of us went for lunch which was Sushi as she was craving the rice. She was not allowed to eat actual sushi as it isn't wasn't good for the baby in her belly, but luckily all she wanted was rice and vegetable tempura. After that I tried dropping her off at home to rest but she was adamant on coming to work.

When I got back, I asked Ash if she had seen Rob, and she hadn't. That was weird because he wasn't picking up his phone all of a sudden either. I would have been more worried but I had a second buyer email me while I was out. He wanted to meet me at the Pontiac store to discuss everything. Well, with Rob going radio silent, I figured, why not?

I convince Ashley to come with me, Sabrina is coming regardless. On the way there, I'm forced to stop for In-and-Out burgers, fries and a shake, because Reenie is hungry again. My beautiful wife actually manages to devour the burger and fries and by the time we get to the store she's working on demolishing the shake. There I cross to Ashley who drove her own car here and together we all walk into the Pontiac store expecting to meet with whoever this second buyer is.

I don't expect to see my dad.

"Oh, Hey Les!" Sabrina cries rushing to hug him. "I didn't know you were gonna be here, I would have brought you a shake, want some of mine?"

She immediately offers him some of her milkshake, the suck up and my dad takes it. He smiles patiently at her before saying: "Thanks, Reenie, just so you know, I'm not mad at you, so all of this… doesn't include you, okay?"

Sabrina nods infinitely more interested in her milkshake now that he's offering it back to her and Les turns his eyes back onto to Ashley and Me.

"What the fuck were you thinking?!" he shouts at us. Well, at least Sabrina's milkshake distraction lasted like… sixty seconds. And it was great that he made sure both of us knew he wasn't yelling at her, cause my dad can yell at me, but he can't yell at Reenie.

Both Ashley and I don't say anything though which leaves room for my dad to keep talking.

"Did you not think that I know everything that's going on in my business?" he asked them, his tone much lower. "Calling someone to buy this out from under me…"

"I thought I was doing what was best for the business," I try to say with a level tone. I'm trying not to make things worse. I know my dad is mad but I was just trying to help, why can't he see that I have to go behind his back for a reason?

"Don't tell me what's best for the business!" he growls, his voice raising but he's not quite yelling yet. "I will tell you, both…"

"Don't yell at me, I told him not to do this!" Ashley interrupts and suddenly Sabrina is paying attention again.

"Mm, I can attest to that," Sabrina says. "Ashley wanted nothing to do with this, and I didn't know until we got in the car and to be honest, I was so distracted by In-and-Out that I wasn't really listening. These cravings are a bitch."

My dad pats her back sympathetically while I just glare at her. "Reenie, what the fuck?"

Immediately her eyes are on me and she's crying. It isn't just the craving that are a bitch the hormones aren't too fun to deal with either.

"I know for a fact that Ashley's going to argue with you about the blame so I'm coming ahead of that before it can get any worse," she snaps. "And it wouldn't be that hard to just speak to your father in a calm rational manner, just tell him your fears and your worries and I'm sure we can figure something out!"

But I don't want to do that and neither does Les. "How DARE you try to do this to your father!" he shouts. "I can't believe you did this to me!"

"What don't you understand? You're bleeding our brand. Isn't that what it's all about? American Jewelry. If you keep this place, we're gonna lose money. It doesn't take a genius to understand that. Your Empire that you built in Detroit is going shit over here. Cut your losses before it takes you down."

Beside my father Reenie sighs. "That is not what I meant at all."

"I can't even look at you," Les says and turns away from me. And that's fine cause I can't look at him either.

"Fine, I'm out of here," I cry going for the door. As I go to storm out and here a hesitant cry of: "Wait… are you leaving me here too?"

For fuck sake. I turn around and reach out for Sabrina. "Of course not, you're supposed to storm out with me," I say to her and she immediately perks up.

She crosses to me and takes my hand and already I feel a little better. She turns back to my father and Ashley with a playful glare on her face. "You haven't heard the last of us!" she cries.

She's obviously joking and despite the seriousness of the situation I find myself trying to hold back laughter, and as I leave my fuming family behind, I heard the start of their own amused snorts.

Okay… maybe this isn't so bad, I can come back from this. I haven't ruined things for the family, I've just made things a little awkward. But with Sabrina beside me, I figure it doesn't really quite matter.

Ashley: My dad ignores all our calls that night and the following morning. He's late to work, and when he does come in he won't talk to both me and my brother. He'll talk to Sabrina, but neither of us, which I think is completely unfair! I didn't want to be a part of this, Seth made me, but he won't let me explain. He won't let either of us talk to him, so… what are we supposed to do? Send messages through Sabrina? That wasn't practical. This was all Seth's fault and he better fucking fix it.

I keep knocking on my dad's door but he won't answer to me. When I do force the door open to try and talk to him, I find that he and Reenie are sitting together at his desk eating In-and-Out burgers. Does it sting that he's talking to my wife and not me? Of course it does. Am I gonna cry like a little bitch over it? Hell no. I might mist up, not gonna lie, but I'm super stressed right now and that's the only reason why.

I try to distract myself with the store, running it, negotiating prices and dealing with customers. Which is how I got into the middle of a giant fight between two women out on the floor. Joe and I managed to get the one causing the biggest stink out of the door, but when the second woman got outside the first was still waiting.

My security team struggled to get them apart but eventually that first woman, the one causing all the issues, got into her silver minivan to leave. But as she did, her passenger, this 5'6 massive woman that she was calling her daughter, ducked into her purse.

There were all these shouts of gun and other such things and I turn to duck, but there, right beside Sabrina who I thought I left inside, was my dad and neither of them were moving. I'm in motion immediately, I have one hand to my dad's arm and the other to Sabrina's and I'm pushing the both away, struggling to shield them both.

I was lucky that time, it was a false alarm, there were no shots fired, I'm not even sure if she actually had a gun. But even after that kind of scare I have to hold Sabrina to me for at least ten minutes before my heart beat calms down.

After that my dad wants to talk to me. It's a quick heart to heart about how family means everything to him and I proved that I held that value too. I was officially forgiven, but I knew he wouldn't trust me business wise for a while. It would take me a while to get out from under the Pontiac situation but at least he was talking to me again.