Chapter 3
As the sun was going down, over Gowen Petroleum, Lucas had his head in the books, trying his best to concentrate. It had been a very long and slow day, which had seemed to drag on for hours.
What might have started out as a good day, quickly became a very complicated one in a short period of time. It all started with Lucas waking up to a knock at his door.
"Who is it?" Lucas asked, his voice still groggy from just waking up.
"Gowen", came Henry's reply.
"What's he doing here?" Lucas asked himself, as he reluctantly opened the door.
The last time they had talked, Henry had rudely told him to leave his office, before later handing him complete control over his company. Lucas still couldn't believe that Henry Gowen would leave the entirety of Gowen Petroleum to him, especially since he had no experience whatsoever.
As Lucas opened the door, he saw Gowen standing there with a stack of books in his hands.
"What are you doing here? Do you know what time it is?"
"Yes, I'm aware, but I needed to give these to you before I leave this morning. I cleaned out the rest of my office last night. Here are the last of my books, which I didn't show you before. You should find all the information that you need inside."
As Gowen handed him the books, Lucas nodded and asked, "You're leaving so soon? I thought you'd at least stay in town for a little while."
Gowen shrugged, "I'll only be gone a few weeks. I have some business to attend to out of town. You may be running my company now, but rest assured that I'm not leaving Hope Valley anytime soon."
Taking a deep breathe Lucas replied, "Henry, I'm not the one who decided that. You are. I gave you a choice in the matter, but you wouldn't budge. So don't go placing it on me. This is on you".
"I don't want to fight with you anymore, Bouchard. I'm done talking about this. I need to be on my way. Here are the keys to my office. My company is all yours now."
Handing the keys over to Lucas, Gowen tipped his hat and walked away.
Lucas soon determined, however, that his encounter with Gowen that was nothing compared to the events that would transpire, in the street, later that morning.
As frustrating as Gowen's unexpected visit had been, that wasn't what was keeping Lucas's mind preoccupied all day. He just couldn't get the image of Elizabeth and Nathan's embrace, in the middle of the street, out of his mind.
He kept replaying the same scene over and over again of Elizabeth running into Nathan's arms. Just when had those two become so close? He had always known that Nathan had some sort of feelings for her, but he never actually believed that maybe, just maybe, she could feel something for Nathan, as well.
Lucas had always assumed, when it came down to it, that he would be the one to steal Elizabeth's heart. Sure Nathan and her where friends, but they had never spent any alone time together, at least not to his knowledge. That's when Lucas realized that he really didn't know anything about their relationship, outside of seeing them talk now and then. He had always just assumed that the interest was one sided, on Nathan's part.
In fact, Lucas never really thought of Nathan as his competition. He always just saw him as a small obstacle, that he could easily overtake. After all, for as long as he had known him, Nathan has always been a man of small words. What could Elizabeth possibly see in a man like that? Not much, Lucas had always determined, but now he wasn't so sure.
As Lucas continued to reason with himself, he concluded that it was very possible that Elizabeth could have developed a deeper friendship with Nathan, than what he had originally thought. Then when she found out that he might be dead, she could have been so relieved, to see him alive, that she ran to hug him, just as he assumed that she would have done with any of her friends, if they were in that situation. Even so, Lucas didn't like it. Not one bit.
After everything that he had done for her, his ego was certainly taken down a few pegs, with that embrace.
