A Fresh Start
Chapter Two Hundred Six
"Lewis Construction." Wanda says, picking up the phone after the second ring
"Yes, this is Harley Cooper. I need to speak to Josh."
"He's in a meet…." The door to Josh's office opens and he walks out with the client for the Lamar Street project. "He's finishing up with a meeting. Would you like to hold?"
"Yes, I'll hold."
The man Josh is meeting with turn to leave as Josh turns back to his office. "Mr. Lewis, Ms. Cooper is on line one for you?"
"Thank you Wanda. I'll take it in my office." Josh says, walking back into his office and closing the door behind him. Walking over to his desk, he sits down before he pushes the button for line one as he picks up the phone. "Harley." He says, sitting back in his chair.
"I wanted to call and give you an update."
"What have you found out?"
"Her name is Jasmine Michaels. She's from Miami Fl. She has a son named Dorian Michaels and her husband died of cancer about eighteen months ago."
"This is all information that I already knew."
"I'm still digging deeper, but it will take time for my contacts in Miami to find more info on her."
"I want to know everything, Harley, not just the general stuff. I thought I made that clear."
"So, you want me to go deep."
"Yes, and look into her son. I want to know about him too."
"Why is this woman so important?"
"You don't need to know why, just find out everything you can."
"If you're using this woman to hurt Reva, I won't be a party to it."
"This has nothing to do with Reva, just find out the info."
"Alright, I'll keep digging."
"I want know everything. And I want to know it as soon as you find out anything, am I making myself clear."
"Perfectly." Harley says, to a buzzing in her ear from Josh hanging up. She looks at the phone for a moment before she hangs it up.
Richard is at his desk when Amelia buzzes him. "Mr. Winslow, you have a call on line on."
"Who is it?" Richard asks, looking up from the work he was doing.
"She says her name is Maggie and you know her daughter Julie."
"I'll take the call." Richard says, picking up the phone. "Hello." He says, sitting back.
"Richard, this is Julie's mom."
"Yes, I know who you are? Is there a problem?"
"No, I wanted to make sure you received the boxes I left on your porch."
"Yes, I did. I'm very grateful for them. Maybe a little surprised that Julie allowed you to bring them to me."
"She felt that since none of the things in the boxes belonged to Matt that you deserved to have some of your mother's belongings."
"If you would tell her thank you and that I appreciate it very much, I would be very grateful."
"I'm calling because you mentioned that you have two boys, is that correct?"
"Yes, RJ and Will, why?"
"My grandsons play football for the Oakdale Chargers."
"My son RJ plays for the Springfield Tigers."
"So you know that the first game of the season between Oakdale and Springfield is this weekend."
"Yes, but I doubt that RJ will be playing this weekend. He woke up with a cold this morning."
"I'm sorry to hear that. I hope he feels better soon."
"Thank you."
"Maybe you could come watch the game anyway. I will have grandchildren while Julie is in the city taking care of some final business concerning her divorce."
"I appreciate the invitation but with RJ being sick, I doubt that we'll go to the game."
"I understand and as I said, I hope he feels better soon. Maybe we can catch another game."
"We will see and thank you again for the boxes."
"You're welcome and I hope we'll talk again soon."
"Good-bye." Richard says.
"Good-bye." She replies, hanging up the phone.
Jeffrey is walking back into his office from a meeting with one of the councilmen when his phone begins to ring. Hurrying into his office, he picks up the line before his voicemail picks up. "Jeffrey O'Neill." He says, sitting down behind his desk.
"Jeffrey, its Lizzie Spaulding."
"Hi."
"I wanted to talk to you about our conversation the other night."
"Okay, I'm free now."
"I'm at the bar. Do you mind coming over here. I'm waiting on a delivery and I can't leave."
"No, I'll be there in about ten minutes." He says, getting up. He hangs up and leaves his office as Stace comes in from lunch. "I'm going to lunch. I'll be back in about an hour."
"Yes sir." Stace replies, as he leaves.
Ten minutes later, he pulls up to Jon's Bar. Parking at the door, he gets out and walks up to the door. Opening it, he goes inside. Lizzie is at the bar when he walks in. "Jeffrey." She says, as he sits down at the bar. She finishes putting up stock.
"You wanted to talk about our conversation from the other night."
"Yes, I took your advice and I spoke with my broker. I explained your offer and he agrees that it's very generous."
"So, you've decided to sell me you're stock in Lewis Oil?"
"I'm not sure."
"Why?"
"I'm curious as to why you're willing to pay top dollar for stock in a company that you really know nothing about. Why do you want Lewis Oil?"
"I have my reasons."
"Is this your way of getting Josh to accept you?"
"Josh has very little to do with this."
"Not from what Gus told me. You two went after it when you were here the other night. He had to split you up."
"As I said, it has no bearing on this."
"So you're not trying to get Lewis Oil back to earn Josh's respect."
"Have you ever known me to care whether I had anyone's respect or not. I feel that my father's company belongs back with his family that's the only reason I want to buy your shares."
"No, I can't say that I've ever known you to care one way or another about what other people think about you or what you do. So, I've instructed to contact you about the sale."
"Thank you." Jeffrey says, holding out his hand.
"You're welcome, but I hope you realize that if you are doing this to get Josh's respect, you will have a hard fight to fight."
"I'm not doing this for Josh. Reva and Billy have been very good to me and they've openly accepted me into the family, I'm doing this for them. They deserve to have HB's company."
"Reva and Billy are good people, certainly better than the Spaulding's." Lizzie says, as a man walks in.
"I've got a delivery." He says, looking at them.
"Yes." Lizzie says, walking over to him.
"I'll see you later and I'll be expecting that call."
"He should be in touch within a couple days." She says, as the man hands her a clipboard.
"Thanks." Jeffrey says, walking out as Lizzie nods and turns her attention to the delivery man.
When he gets to his car, he pulls his cell phone out from his pocket and dials Wes's number. After a couple rings, he gets his voicemail. "Wes, when you get this you have to call me. I've got news about Lewis Oil." Jeffrey says, before he starts the car and backs out.
"RJ, go upstairs and change into your jammy's and I'll be up to tuck you in." Cassie says, as they walk into the house.
"Yes ma'am." RJ says. The fact that he doesn't complain about being sent to bed at eleven am, is a testament to how bad he's feeling.
Cassie lays his prescriptions on the counter along with her purse before she closes the door. Getting a class of water, she takes the prescriptions upstairs. RJ's lying on his bed when she walks in. "Under the covers." She says, walking into the room.
He pulls the covers up as she sits the medicine on the table beside his bed. "I forgot you need to eat before you take this so I'm going to downstairs and fix you some soup and then you can take your medicine."
"Okay." He says, as she turns to leave.
About ten minutes later, she comes back upstairs with a tray. RJ's in his bed, playing a video game. "Here." She says, walking over to his bed. He puts the game on the bed as she puts the tray down. "Try to eat as much as you can and then we'll take your medicine."
"Okay."
"I'm going to call your daddy, Call me when you're finished?"
"Okay." He says, picking up the spoon.
Cassie leaves the room. Walking into their room, she picks up the phone. Dialing Richard's office number, she waits a couple rings before Amelia picks up. "Richard Winslow's office." She says.
"Amelia, this is Cassie."
"Oh hi, Mrs. Winslow. How are you?"
"I'm good. Is Richard busy?"
"He's in a meeting right now."
"Okay, could you tell him that I called?"
"Of course ma'am. Is there anything else I need to tell him?"
"No, just tell him that I called."
"I will tell him as soon as he gets out of his meeting."
"Thank you." Cassie hangs up, laying back against the headboard and closes her eyes. She just wanted to rest a moment before she went to give RJ his medicine.
"Momma." RJ says, shaking her. She wakes up to RJ standing over her.
"RJ, what are you doing out of bed?"
"I called but you didn't come so I came to get you. I'm through eating the soup." He says, wincing as he swallows.
"I'm sorry, I came in here to talk to your Daddy and I must have fallen asleep. Let's go take that medicine."
"Yes ma'am." He says, turning to leave the room with Cassie following him.
When they reach his room, she sees the tray on the floor and she asks. "Did you move that?"
"Yes ma'am, I was really careful not to spill anything. I couldn't eat all the soup. It hurts to swallow."
"It's okay and you did good." Cassie says, as RJ crawls back into bed. She sits down beside him. Reaching for the medicine, she give it to him. When they're finished, she pulls the covers up. "I want you to lay here and rest."
"Are you going to rest for the baby?"
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me." Cassie says, leaning over to kiss his forehead. "Lay here and rest."
"Yes ma'am." He says, settling back into his bed.
"I'll be in the bedroom, if you need me."
"Yes ma'am." She leaves the room and goes back into their bedroom. Lying down on the bed again, she settles back, closing her eyes.
An hour later, the ringing of the phone beside her woke her up. Picking it up, she answers on the third ring. "Hello."
"Cassie, it's Richard, Amelia said you called?"
"Yes, I just got home with RJ?"
"What did Dr. Sedgwick say?"
"He's got tonsillitis. He'll be out of school for a week or so and then we'll have to decide whether we want to take his tonsils out. He's got a antibiotic and a prescription to ease the pain. We'll have to keep Will away?"
"Are you okay to take care of him?"
"I'm fine. I lost my tonsils when I was ten."
"Is it going to affect the baby?"
"No, Dr. Sedgwick didn't seem to be concerned."
"I've got one more short meeting and then I'll come home."
"You don't have to do that."
"It's going to tire you out taking care of him. After this meeting, I don't have anything that pressing here. I can come home and take care of both of you."
"He's going to be sleeping for the next day or so."
"I'm still coming home. And I'll work from home until he's better."
"Richard…."
"Don't argue Cassie, this is an argument you can't win. I'll be home in about an hour and hour and half at the most."
"Okay."
"And I'll pick up Will."
"That's fine. I'll see you when you get home."
"I'll be home soon. I love you, both of you."
"I love you too." She says, with a smile.
They hang up and Cassie gets up. Gathering up RJ's sheets from this morning, she carries them downstairs to the wash room.
Pulling out his cell phone, he dials his office. Stace picks up. "Stace, I'm expecting a call from Lizzie Spaulding's broker when it comes, give him Wes's number and ask him to call him."
"Yes sir."
"I'm not going to be back in the office this afternoon."
"Yes sir."
"Thank you Stace."
"You're welcome sir." Jeffrey hangs up as he pulls out of the parking lot.
Ten minutes later, he pulls up to their house and Sam's office. Getting out, he walks in through the back door, nodding to one of the workmen as he walks through to Sam's office. "Good afternoon, Mr. Mayor." Jasmine says when she sees him.
"Good afternoon. Is she busy?"
"I believe she's finishing up with a patient."
"Does she have anymore patients?"
"No, she was going to work in her office this afternoon."
"When she gets finished with this patient, can you tell her that I'm upstairs?"
"Yes sir." She says replies, as he turns around.
Ten minutes later, Jeffrey in the living room when Sam comes upstairs. "J." She says when she walks in. He reaches for her and pulls her into a long soft kiss. He finally releases her and she asks. "What was that for?"
"I just had a meeting with Lizzie Spaulding."
"You did."
"Yes and she is going to sell me her shares in Lewis Oil."
"So what does that mean?"
"That means, as soon as the deal goes through, I have controlling interest in Lewis Oil. I have my father's company back."
"J!" She says, hugging him. "What happens now?"
"Well, this isn't official. Not until Lizzie's broker speaks with Wes, but she agreed to sell her shares to me."
"When will you know?"
"I don't know. I just left Jon's Bar but I don't know when she spoke with her broker. I called Stace and told her to give Lizzie's broker Wes's number, so we should hear pretty soon."
"So, you feel good about this?"
"I feel great about this. In fact, I took the rest of the afternoon off and I thought maybe I could talk my wife into taking the afternoon off too."
"I have records I need to dictate."
"You can do that anytime. Come out and celebrate with me."
"What did you have in mind?"
"I thought maybe we could go back to the loft…."
"The work crew is at the loft."
"What about upstairs?"
"There is a work crew upstairs too."
"Alright, then we'll get a room a Towers and we'll spend all afternoon in bed making love and we'll order room service."
"Why don't we do this?"
"We can go to Towers for dinner but until then, we'll go for a drive and then we'll go to a movie after we have dinner."
"Dinner and a movie, that's how you want to celebrate."
"We're going for a drive too." She leans up and whispers in his ear. "Remember the drive we took in DC after Prague. I think we did quite a bit of celebrating on that drive."
"Umm, yes, I seem to vaguely remember that drive."
"Vaguely remember, you vaguely remember begging me to…." He leans in to kiss her.
"I remember you were just as into that as I was. So we'll go for a drive and then we'll have dinner and a movie when we get back." Jeffrey says. Kissing her as Billy walks in.
"Hey you two." He says, as Jeffrey steps back and looks at Billy.
"You leave much to be desired in your timing, Billy."
"Sorry, your assistant told me you were back here, she didn't tell me you had company." Billy says, looking at Sam.
"It's okay. Is something wrong at the loft?"
"Umm no, everything is progressing well at the loft. I came by for another reason."
"What's that?" Jeffrey asks, as he releases Sam.
"Well, I wanted to give you the keys to upstairs. We still have a couple more days of work to finish, but you will be able to move in by this weekend."
"We can move in, your serious." Sam says, looking at him.
"Yes, the crews are finishing up on minor projects but you should be able to move in by this weekend."
"That's awesome, our first weekend in our new home." Sam says, looking at Jeffrey. He leans over and kisses her.
"Do you think we should have Thanksgiving here for the family?" Jeffrey asks."
"Thanksgiving, for the whole family, that might be a bit much for Sam this year." Billy says.
"No, I think it's a great idea, if it's not going to hurt anyone's feelings or anything. I know Reva had invited us to Cross Creek for the holidays."
"We can do Christmas at Cross Creek. A new tradition can be to have Thanksgiving at your house." Billy says, handing Jeffrey the keys to the house.
"What's Josh going to say about that?" Sam asks.
"At this point, I'm not concerned with what Josh will say about anything." Jeffrey says."
"Jeffrey, he'll come around, eventually. He did with me."
"Whatever you want to believe Billy, go ahead. But I doubt Josh will ever accept that I'm apart of this family."
"You guys looked like you were celebrating something when I came in."
"It was nothing. Thanks for bringing us the keys."
"Oh, you're welcome. I'm going over to the loft to check on the progress there so I'll see both of you later."
"Okay." Jeffrey says, as Billy turns to go.
"Thanks again Billy." Sam says, as he nods, closing the door behind him.
"So, are you ready to go?" Jeffrey asks.
"Let's stop for a moment. You're upset about Josh."
"Let's not discuss Josh. Discussing it changes nothing?"
"Maybe not, but it keeps the feeling from getting bottled up inside you." She says, as he looks away. She turns his face back to her.
"Okay, so it pisses me off. This irrational obsession he has to keep me out of the family. I'm not the greatest guy…."
"I happen to think you're the greatest guy God ever made."
"Thank you, but I've made my fair share of stupid choices, but he acts like I'm the devil incarnate or something. And I've never done anything to him personally."
"You think this is an excuse, being afraid of Reva coming to you and you both having an affair."
"I don't know. I think maybe at first he truly did fear that, but I've told him, you've told him, Cassie's told him, Billy, Reva and I'm sure Richard have all told him that it's not going to happen and yet he still insists that I can't be apart of his family."
"So, what do you think it is?"
"I don't know. I'm not inside his head. I just know that he's insisting that I be kept out of the family and that's all he'll say."
"You think he's a little bit like you. He can't admit when he's wrong."
"I can admit when I'm wrong."
"Only when you're forced too."
"What about Singapore?"
"What about the Bella Palazzo in Italy?"
"I wasn't wrong in that case. He wanted you."
"And he readily knew that you would kill him if he touched me."
"Whether he knew it or not, didn't change the fact that he wanted you and considered having something done to get me out of the way."
"A plan that was never carried out."
"Are we going to argue about this again? We were going out to celebrate, not argue about whether the Don of one of the Italian families had plans to have me killed so that he could have you."
"You're right. It's water under the bridge. Can you give me two hours and then we'll go for a drive."
"I'll give you an hour."
"Fine, one hour." She says, leaning up to kiss him. "Where are you going to be?"
"I am going to be upstairs, checking out our new house."
"No, you can't go up there without me."
"Then come with me and then we'll go for the ride."
"I have reports to dictate."
"You can't have your assistant do that."
"No, they have to be dictated by the doctor. It's the patient records."
"Alright, I'll wait out in the waiting room for you, okay."
"Fine, don't peek."
"I'm not going to peek. I'll wait till your done." He says, leaning over to kiss her. When he steps back, he says. "One hour."
"I promise."
William walks into the front lobby of Billing Corporation. Looking around, he walks over to the receptionist's desk. She's on the phone, so he politely waits for her to get off the line. When she hangs up, she looks up and smiles, saying. "Welcome to Billings Corp, how may I help you?"
"Yes, I've an appointment with Mr. Preston Miles." William says, returning her smile.
"I'll let him know that you have arrived, if you will have a seat." She says, still smiling as William nods. He turns to find a seat as she picks up the phone. "He will be with you in a few moments." She says, hanging up the phone.
"Thank you." William replies, sitting back in the seat he had chosen.
Ten minutes later, a man about William's height walks out. He's dressed in a three piece suit with Armani shoes. "Mr. Winslow?" Preston says, walking as William stands up.
"Yes." William replies, holding out his hand.
"It's a pleasure to meet with you, your Highness."
"I'm not longer the prince, so please just call me William."
"Okay, William. If you will follow me, we'll go back to my office so that we can talk." He says, as William nods, following as Preston turns back to towards the receptionist's desk. "Margie, I'm in a meeting."
"Yes sir." She says, watching as William walks through the door behind Preston.
When they reach Preston's office, he holds the door for William and then closes it behind them as William sits down in the chair across from him. "So, William. You've applied to work in our manufacturing facility here in Springfield."
"Yes."
"Why do you think you're qualified for this position?"
"I have been involved with boats all of my life. I'm from a small fishing village on the western side of San Cristobel. My father was a fisher man and I helped him with his boat from the time I was eight. When I was twenty I joined the Merchant Marines for a year. I was set to continue in the Merchant Marines when I became Prince."
"While you were with the Marines, did you have any experience in repairing or building the ship you were assigned to?"
"I was set to begin at sea training for repair of the ship when I became Prince, so I never formally received any training, but as I said, I've been working on boats all of my life."
"The position you applied for is a supervisory one, if you're offered this position, how would you handle questions pertaining to your authority?"
"I have run a country so I know what needs to be done and I know how to get my staff to carry out my wishes. You have to be to articulate what you expect from your staff. You have to also be willing to do the work yourself."
"As you said, you have run a country. What would you say to an employee who questioned your qualifications as supervisor?"
"First I would listen to his concerns and then address each one to the best of my ability. However, I realize that there will be occasions where people question my ability to lead and for those individuals, I can only show by example."
"William, I think you know that we only have a limited number of positions available."
"Yes, I was aware of that fact."
"We've had several candidates apply, but I feel that with your previous experience in the Merchant Marines as well as you experiences being Prince of San Cristobel, qualifies you for this position, so I'm prepared to offer you the position if you're willing to accept it."
For a moment William looks at him and then he says. "I would definitely be willing to accept the offer."
"Good." Preston says, standing up. "If you'll follow me, I will show you to Human Resources and we will begin your paper work."
"Of course." William says, standing up.
They leave Preston's office. "Melissa, I will be in Human Resources if anyone calls for me."
"Yes Sir." His assistant replies, watching as he and William leave the office.