CHAPTER TWO
OKAY.
Maria felt her face ignite. Then her lungs, as she’d forgotten to breathe. She wasn’t sure if it was with embarrassment or anger.
Of course her parents weren’t trying to sell her to Eddie, what a thought—but…
He was buying Intrepid Adventurers?
Her parents were selling Intrepid Adventurers?
She took a deep breath, not sure which issue to tackle first.
Eddie was buying Intrepid Adventurers.
Her parents were selling Intrepid Adventurers.
It shouldn’t have come as a shock. They’d talked about selling before—they’d talked about retirement. It had always seemed something in the far distant future—definitely not something to worry about. And after all, there weren’t many choices since they didn’t have a child interested in following in their footsteps. She certainly wasn’t the type to run an adventuring company. But…
This was the company her grandfather had founded and made work in a time when such things were almost unheard of. The company her parents had taken over and made flourish.
Her hackles rose. They were selling Intrepid Adventurers to Eddie. Passing it on to the man they’d always wanted as a son and heir.
As a child and teenager, he’d grabbed his share of her parents’ love and affection and the lion’s share of their time.
Now he was taking their company, too.
Her family company.
She turned to him and glared, but he was studying the ceiling carefully. She turned on her parents instead, fuming.
“What?” she bit out, as if getting them to repeat the information would somehow change the content. “Run this by me again. You’re selling Intrepid Adventurers—to Eddie?”
Her parents looked surprised at the vehemence in her voice. “You knew we would sell the company sooner or later,” her mother said. “It shouldn’t come as a shock to you.” She laughed, gesturing awkwardly. “It’s not like you’re interested in taking over.”
Of course not. She wasn’t Eddie. She wasn’t brave and strong, laughing in the face of danger, playing a combination of Indiana Jones and Spider-Man all over the world. She hadn’t been named after Sir Edmund Hillary, either.
But the company was her birthright. Not Eddie’s. It had never been Eddie’s.
“Why not?” she blurted out. “Yes! I should take over. I should keep up the family tradition. This is a family company. Grandpa founded it. It’s natural for me to take over. Eddie is not family.”
“Maria,” her mother said, reaching out and patting her arm. “Don’t worry. We’re not expecting you to step in. We know you’re not an adventurer, let alone an intrepid one. The company is better off with Eddie. You don’t want it. You’ve never wanted it.”
“What are you talking about? True—I don’t like adventuring. But it doesn’t take an adventurer to run a company! It’s mostly paperwork, and I’m good with paper. I’m great with paper!”
“Maria—your mother and I are adventurers,” her father said. “Or at least we were, until middle age started to threaten us with old age. Your grandfather was one, too. That’s what this business is all about. It’s not just a company. It’s a vision. A dream.”
“Exactly! That’s my point. It was my grandfather’s dream. Our family’s dream. If you want to retire, I can take over. Granted, I’ll need some help getting started, but I know I can do it.”
Her father was shaking his head. “No, Maria.”
“What do you mean, no?”
“This company has to be led by an adventurer.” He paused, looking at his wife for support. Maria saw her squeeze his hand. No help there. “Else it has no soul.”
“No soul? No soul?” Great. On top of everything else, now she had to deal with metaphysics. “And Eddie is going to give the company soul?”
“Yes—”
“What can Eddie possibly give Intrepid Adventurers that I can’t?” Her mother and father both opened their mouths, but she charged on before they could start listing Eddie’s attributes. “Sure, he may be a good guide and hopeless adrenaline junkie and a real adventurer, but that has nothing to do with running a business! You can’t just give him Grandpa’s company!”
“Maria—listen!”
Maria sat down on a kitchen chair and crossed her arms, fuming. Emotionally fulfilling as a tantrum might be, it probably wouldn’t help her case. Real adventurers didn’t throw tantrums. “Listening.”
“We’re planning our schedule for next summer,” Harlan said. “You know what we always do when we’re adding something new—we try it out ourselves.” He looked down, and his wife put her arm around him. “But the doc says no. No extreme sports.” He cursed. “He’s quite insistent. I can’t even do calm relaxing things like skydiving.”
Skydiving—calm, relaxing?
Had she really gotten her genes from these people?
Then reality kicked in. The doctor was pulling the brakes. The doctor.
The anger drained from her in an instant. Oh, God. “Dad…”
Her father waved a hand irritably. “Don’t worry, Maria—it’s nothing serious. It’s just my blood pressure. It’s high and the medication doesn’t agree with me, and…Well, he insists I need to start taking it easy.”
“And you can’t take it easy in this business,” Mom continued. “It would be a contradiction in terms, wouldn’t it? So we’ve decided to retire. Not an easy decision, but we’re going to make the best of it.” She looked at her husband with a smile. “We’ll still travel. We can go on cruises with other old fogies.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” She should have noticed something was wrong. “Dad…I didn’t know…”
“I’m not sick,” her father said, still sounding annoyed. He’d never liked being fussed over. “I’m fine. It’s just this pesky blood pressure. As the doctor put it: I need to start making allowances for my age. That’s all.”
That’s all?
Maria had a feeling it wouldn’t be quite that simple. What would her parents do now? For so long, they’d lived for the business. It was their entire life, their hobby as well as their job. And, thanks to her being their only child, they didn’t even have grandchildren to spend their newfound free time on, as several of their friends seemed to do.
Guilt, guilt, guilt and more guilt.
Great. Now she was feeling guilty about having failed to procreate.
“How long have you known this?” She gestured to Eddie, an almost childish petulance rising again, and she hated the whine she heard in her own voice. “I mean—if you’re selling to Eddie, obviously you told him all this before you told me. Why?”
“We didn’t want to cause worry or put pressure on you, Maria,” her mother said softly. “There was no reason to tell you anything until everything was settled. We were going to tell you tonight after dinner—but I guess we got carried away discussing the future with Eddie.”
“But…Damn it!” She shouldn’t stomp her foot. Not at her age.
But not only had they discussed the business with