In fact, Sedrick is surprised he’s still here. The heart attack did a lot of damage to his heart muscles.”
Although Caden had inwardly steeled himself as much as possible against what was about to come, Jace’s words were still a devastating punch in the gut. “We’ll get a second opinion,” Caden said after taking a sip of his coffee.
“We got one, Caden. Results are the same.”
Caden held his brother’s gaze. “So what are you saying?”
Jace rubbed his hand down his face before saying, “We’re losing him.”
Caden closed his eyes and switched his gaze off Jace to some abstract picture on the wall. The thought of losing the old man was hard on him, almost as hard as it had been to lose his dad. The only difference was that his father hadn’t died, and Caden could go see him whenever he wanted...in accordance with the penitentiary’s visiting hours, of course. And he made it a point to visit his dad as often as he could. It had been fifteen years. Fifteen hard and lonely years without his father being free.
He looked back at Jace. “Have you told Dad?”
Jace nodded his head. “Yes, I contacted him before flying out here and spoke to Warden Smallwood. He promised to get the message to Dad. But Dad has no idea of how bad things are.”
Caden didn’t want to be the one to tell him and knew Jace didn’t want to be the one, either. He took a sip of his coffee and studied his brother. This had to be hard on Jace, since he and their grandfather were extremely close. Caden had always chalked it up to Jace’s being the firstborn grandson and all that. But later, as they got older, Caden realized just how much like Richard Granger Jace truly was. He had the ability to put everything in the proper order. He could be tough when there was a need. Uncaring, firm, rigid, inflexible...and all those adjectives that meant the same thing. But then there was a side of him that demonstrated he had to be the most caring person in the world. You just had to know how to work it to get that side exposed.
“Jace, are you okay?” Caden asked softly.
Jace, who’d been staring down into his cup of coffee, lifted a tormented gaze to him. “Not really. Remember how after Dad’s trial we thought our world had ended? After losing Mom, we had to hear all that bullshit about Dad killing her, losing our friends and seeing what asses our neighbors were?”
Caden recalled those difficult days. “Yes.”
“It was hard for me, but the one bright spot was Granddad. He was there, and I’m sure it wasn’t easy for a sixty-year-old man to take on raising three teenage boys.”
Caden agreed. It probably wasn’t easy. “And he did so while keeping a firm managing hand on Granger Aeronautics. Who’ll be looking over things now?”
Jace shrugged. “Probably Freeman. He’s vice president.”
“Only because the old man couldn’t convince you to move from out West and into the spot. He always wanted you to take his place, Jace.”
Jace’s dark brown eyes narrowed at his brother. “It’s kind of late for that, isn’t it? Besides, if I remember correctly, he wanted all of us to take a part in the company, not just me.”
“Yes, but with you being the first Granger grandchild, it would have been your place more than mine or Dalton’s. It was expected.”
And it had been. Richard had made sure all three of his grandsons worked for the corporation during their summer months of high school and college, whether they had wanted to or not. He had been crushed when all three told him they had no desire to work in the company their great-grandfather had formed. But that decision from Jace had disappointed him the most. He still held hope that Jace would change his mind and take his father’s place once he completed law school. When he saw Jace wouldn’t change his mind, Richard had finally left the matter alone.
“And it wasn’t expected of you?” Jace asked with an edge to his voice.
Caden refused to back away from the truth. “Not as much. He knew I was too much into my music to think of ever fitting in with the business suit crowd. I wouldn’t last a year. I would have been fired for playing my sax during work hours.”
Jace nodded. “And Dalton?”
Caden grinned. “Our baby brother wouldn’t have been able to keep his hands to himself when it