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“I have over five thousand applicants now.I’ve already hired about two hundred to start the first day we can get into the building and start setting up the lines to the bay doors.Then, the shelving units.Did I tell you that more than half the building is refrigerated?That’s going to help us keep things fresher for a lot longer.Not to mention the amount of room we’re going to have.I’m excited about the drivers we have, too.The highway is only four miles away with exit and on ramps just down the road from here.”Dad asked her if she had someone to run it.“That’s going to be up to you and mom.It’s your decision whether or not one of us, myself and my brothers, run the place here, leaving you and Mom, and I was thinking one of us there to help you in Tennessee.”

“You want it here, don’t you?”She told him that she did.More than anything.“I thought as much.I know you’re here every day looking the plans over.Your mom said that you’ve been going over the blueprints daily to make sure that nothing is being left out.”

“I love it here.And so does Mandy.And housing isn’t all that expensive, not like it is at home.”She looked at the construction going on.“It’s something that I’ve been working on since the beginning.I’m the one that got the contracts and started this up.But I want you to know that there won’t be any trouble from me if you decide to go with Earl or Tommy.I know they’re older than me.”

“They might be older than you are, sweetheart, but they don’t have the heart you have when it comes to this company.I think that even they can see it.Earl has even told me that I’d be a fool if I didn’t have you running the plant here.”She asked what Tommy had to say about it.“He wants out.I knew he was headed in that direction for a few years now.I think that he messes up just so I’ll fire him.I can’t do that.”

“I could fire him.Easily.And because I know he wants out too, I’d be able to make it, so there’re no hard feelings.”Dad just nodded and continued to look over the construction site.“Dad, what is it?You’re not excited about this expansion?”

“I’m very excited for the expansion.It’s what I’ve dreamed of for a good long time.Not only that, but I’m excited to see how quickly we outgrow this building.I’m betting that in five years or less, you’ll be talking to someone about getting more space than you’ll have now.”

“You’re sounding like I’ve got this place.”He winked at her.“I don’t know what that means.You’re going to have to sound out your words for me, Dad.”

“You’ve had this place since before we came home from vacation.I think you’d be very hurt too if I didn’t make sure that you were here too, even though you said you’d not.”She hugged her dad and then hugged him a second time.“The people that you’re working with on this end of the deal seem to have it in their heads that it was a done deal even before the first shovel of dirt was dug up.That was kinda fun.Having the press there when we broke ground.”

“I’m glad they were willing to wait for you and Mom to come home before they did that.Earl would have done it, but he didn’t want to be in the limelight.He’s never enjoyed being the center of attention, has he?”Dad pointed out that she didn’t care for it either.“No, but I can do it if it comes to having a place where jobs are going to be happening, and we get to triple our business.”

“I love you, Tabby girl.You’ve done us up proud with this.I hope you know too how proud your mother and I are.”She said she got it.“Good.Why don’t you come home with me, Mandy girl, and we have some lunch, just the two of us.”

When Mandy agreed with her grandpa, she knew that his day had been made better.He dearly loved her daughter, and Mandy loved her grandpa.Their lives were going to be better from now on, too.

They watched the construction working for another half hour before they got in her car and made their way back to the hotel they’d been staying at.They talked about her getting a home large enough to accommodate them all when they came for a visit, too.She was just telling her dad about how it was only an eight-hour drive to the new plant from where she grew up when her cell phone rang.It was Amy, who she’d been working with all along.

“I heard your parents were in town.I was wondering if we could all meet for dinner tonight and have a celebration.According to the man in charge at the warehouse, they’ll have the building finished just as soon as the inspection goes through, all right?”She put the phone on speaker after asking if it was all right so that Amy could repeat what she’d said.“Dinner would be great since we’ve yet to talk to you in person, Mr.Reader.”

“Please call me Sheppard.Yes, it would be nice to be able to put a face to the voice I’ve been talking to for months now.I met your husband just a few days ago when we were talking about the employee breakrooms.Dinner sounds good, so long as you allow us to pay.You’ve put yourself out there enough already.”Amy said it would be their treat as she was the one who asked for it.“We’ll talk about that when we get together.My wife and two sons are in the area, too, to give you a heads up.”

“That’s fine.I have five brothers-in-law, with those that are married to their wives, too.We’re a big happy family.”Dad mouthed a question to her about how many were married.She told him three.Not that she’d met the single ones yet, but she knew about them.After giving them the address where the restaurant was, Amy said that she’d see them tonight and rang off.Dad looked at her.

“You said they weren’t human.Do you know what they are?”She said that she didn’t, but did it really matter?“No, not at all.But whatever they are, they’re good people, and that’s all I care about.Tell me something, honey, have they approached you about being mates to any of them?”

“No.Goodness, Dad, are you trying to get me married off?No thanks.I have enough on my plate right now.”They both laughed.Dad had an unusual sense of humor, she thought.“Seriously, if one of them is my mate, I’m going to give up this place and move back home.I do not need to have some man telling me how to live my life.”

“And I think we had enough of that with that Levi person that locked us in the house and had us doing everything he wanted.”She looked at Mandy in the mirror.“No thanks, please.Once was quite enough for me.”

“All right, honey.I was only joking, anyway.But it would do me a world of good to have you settled like Earl is.You know that he’s just as much a homebody as I am.It’ll be nice to get him out more, don’t you think?”She asked him about Tommy.“Tommy will be lucky if a woman will date him twice for the way he treats women.I have no idea where he got his ideas about women from, but someone is going to hand him his ass soon if he doesn’t settle down and take care to keep his mouth shut.”

She’d noticed that about Tommy as well.He had this idea that women should be naked, barefooted, and in the kitchen.He didn’t want any kids, but he wanted a subservient woman to take care of him, and that just wasn’t going to happen.At least, she hoped not.Her brother was hard enough to live with as it was now.

Going back to the hotel, they made arrangements to have a limo come and pick them up before dinner.The woman at the desk said that she knew the restaurant they were going to and they had good food.She also told them that they were usually up for private rooms as well.Tabby didn’t know if they’d have something like that as Amy was taking care of the arrangements for the place, but it would be nice to have a room all to themselves while there.They needed to get together and meet, and that would make it perfect.

Going to her room, she decided that it was early enough that she could get a nice nap in.Mandy said she was going to take one as well and laid down on the other bed.Neither of them had been sleeping all that well, and it was starting to pull her down.After setting her phone alarm and having the hotel call her so she could get up in time, Tabby stripped down to her panties and bra and laid out on the bed.It was no time at all when she felt herself drifting off to sleep.

Waking up when the phone rang for the alarm, she was a little worried when she didn’t know where she was.Once she got it settled in her mind, she got up to take a nice shower.Mandy was already dressed and ready.While she didn’t know what her parents were going to be wearing, she decided to wear a nice warm skirt and sweater so she’d not be chilly.The temperature had been dropping once the sun went down, and she didn’t want to be too cold on the way home.The limo pulled up in front of the hotel just as she was getting off the elevator with her family.

“How much do you know about this family, Tab?”She told Earl that the only people she’d been talking to were Amy and her husband, Fowler.The others she didn’t know all that well at all.“I’ve been reading up on them.They’re supposed to be like the richest people in the world.Billionaires several times over, I read.”

“Amy told me once that they were doing all right financially.That’s why they were giving us such a good deal on the plant we’re building.”She told them all some of the other perks that, as a business, they’d be getting.Some that she’d not even told her dad about.“I never bothered with looking them up—I suppose that I should have before signing any of the contracts, but I have a gut feeling about them that makes me think they’re going to be the perfect partners to go into business with.I believe that our attorneys would have looked into their background before okaying the contracts.That’s what we pay them for, correct?”

They pulled up in front of the restaurant just as the others were going inside.Good, she thought, they didn’t have to wait around for them to be there.And they did have a private room, which from the looks of all the place settings on the table was going to be quite the crowd of them having dinner.”

~*~

Edgar was running behind.He hated to be late for things, and this dinner was important to the family.But there were things that just kept him from leaving work early enough to go home and change.He reached out to his brother to ask if he should come on in or just wait until the next time they were in town to have dinner.

“How far are you out?”He told Fowler that he was about twenty minutes from the place.And in that time, he’d have to run home and change out of his jeans and shirt.“Come like you are.If anyone gives you any shit, like Mom or Dad, I’ll take the heat for it.I explained how important this was for all of us, didn’t I?”

“You did, but I got hung up at the hospital on one of the things you had me checking out.I swear to you, Fowler, there is some hinky shit going on there that I can’t wait to talk to you about.”He told him that they’d talk later but to hurry.“I’m pulling into the lot right now, so I should only be about another three minutes tops.”