Hannah Bernard - The Marriage Adventure

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 Eddie, not only were they selling the business to Eddie— they’d told Eddie about her father’s health problems.

Who was their flesh and blood here?

“What’s the problem, Maria?” her father asked. “You’ve never been interested in our business. You hate everything about it. You don’t want this company.”

“I do!”

“You don’t,” the three of them said in unison, and for lack of a better option Maria chose Eddie to glare at.

“I do! You don’t know anything about what I want!”

“This way is much better, Maria,” Kara said soothingly. “Eddie is willing to take over. It’s a relief not having to sell to a stranger.” She patted Maria’s shoulder. “The company is worth quite a bit, you know. We’ve decided to give you your share. You’ll have enough to support yourself while you work on your books.”

Was this supposed to be good news? Money? They were giving her part of the money Eddie would pay them for the company? That was supposed to help? “What?”

“Yes. Isn’t it wonderful? You can quit your library job and focus on your art without worrying about putting bread on the table.” Her mother was beaming now. “See? This is best for all of us.”

“I don’t need any charity,” Maria muttered. “My work supports itself.” It wasn’t accurate, of course. Her books weren’t even keeping her in paints and paper yet, but they would. Someday.

It wasn’t a hobby. It was a career. An embryonic one, but still a career.

“Grandpa built up Intrepid Adventurers. We can’t let it go to…” She waved a hand in Eddie’s direction. “To a total stranger!” What else would she lose? Would Eddie take her parents’ affections along with the company? Would she have nothing left? She bit her lip, realizing she was being overly melodramatic. But this was serious, damn it!

Her mother cast an apologetic look to Eddie and reached out to pat his arm. “You know she doesn’t mean that, Eddie. You’ve always been like a part of the family.” She looked at Maria, face stern now, and Maria felt her heart sink. They were serious about this. Very serious. “Maria—if we’re selling to anyone, we want it to be to Eddie.”

“Then don’t sell to anyone at all!”

Her parents stared at her. Finally she seemed to be getting through to them. “I can do it,” she said softly. “I can take over the company. I can make it work. I know I can. Will you let me try?”

“Look—maybe I should leave,” Eddie said, and about time, too, Maria thought grumpily. “This is a family discussion.”

“No!” her father said. He looked relieved at the interruption, glad to escape the question Maria had just asked. “As Kara says, you’re almost a part of the family anyway.” He looked at Maria and winked. “Even if our daughter refuses to make it official.” He snapped his fingers as if a brilliant thought had occurred to him and Maria groaned, knowing what was coming. “That would be the perfect solution of course. How about it, kids? Get married? It would solve all our problems in one strike, and might give us grandchildren, too.”