looked and saw his dad’s number, he swiped and put it to his ear.
“Hello?”
“Preston. Do you have a few minutes?”
“I do. Not more than that, though.”
“This won’t take long. When I’d spoken to you, a little over a week ago, you’d said about wanting to get back into the business. We just had a little shake-up, with some of our top executives moving on to a new startup company, with my blessing, but that leaves a few openings, and while I know you haven’t been here for a while, there is nothing that those people have been doing that you can’t do. And you did put your time in years ago. I wanted to offer a position to you if you’re interested.”
Preston took a few minutes to stare into space.
He hadn’t been expecting this. He’d been thinking he’d work for his dad remotely, probably on the ground, installing systems and possibly giving estimates. He’d done office work before, and he figured he’d probably do some of that remotely, but this...
“This would be in the office building down in Houston?”
“Of course. I mean, we’ve talked about opening up branch offices in other places, but we haven’t yet.”
“I know.”
Yeah, his parents would expect him to move to Texas. Not what he wanted to do. And he couldn’t do it now, not if he wanted to court Athena. Maybe if they were a little further along in their relationship... He couldn’t say for sure. He just knew going to Texas was completely out of the question, not if he was going to develop something with Athena.
But he couldn’t tell his dad no right off. After the last decade and what he’d put his parents through, for him to be offered something this good—like he’d never left the company—was far better than he deserved to be treated.
“Can I have some time to think about it?”
His dad drew in a breath, like he wasn’t expecting that. Of course not. His dad had offered him a really fantastic opportunity, one that probably wouldn’t open up again anytime soon. He should be jumping all over this.
Especially if he was serious about what he had told his dad, that he wanted to get back into the family business in a big way.
His dad had just opened the door and made it possible. He hadn’t had the reaction his dad had been expecting.
“Of course. How long do you think you’re going to need? A week?”
“Yeah. I’ll definitely let you know within a week.”
“Okay, thanks. I’ll let you go. Call me if you have any questions.”
“I will.”
They hung up.
Man, he couldn’t even believe after all the years that he’d wasted, letting his parents down and screwing off, that they would even give him a chance like this again. And he would have jumped all over it if it weren’t for...
He looked over at Mrs. Hudson’s house. Sure, he’d basically grown up with Athena, but he really barely knew her.
Was she worth giving up this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity in his family business? If he said no, his parents, especially his mother, would be extremely upset with him.
Was the chance to have some kind of relationship with Athena worth all of that?
He thought about everything that Athena had given, not just to him but to Joyce, a woman she barely knew. How she’d gone above and beyond anything she needed to do for the Hudsons.
He remembered seeing her standing beside Mrs. Hudson at the funeral, a wall of strength for a woman who had just lost her husband.
She absolutely was the kind of woman that would be worth giving up whatever was necessary in order to have a chance at being with her, but was there a chance?
It’d taken her a long time to say yes to tonight.
Maybe he would throw this chance in the company away, everything away, and Athena would end up telling him no.
He didn’t want to ruin tonight by thinking about those things, so he tried to put that thought out of his head and focus on being the kind of date that Athena deserved and on enjoying himself as well.
He opened the back door of his truck and grabbed the pot he’d brought, careful of the plant that stuck out of it.
He’d gone out on a limb a little with this too, but Athena wasn’t a typical woman.
It’d be silly for him to treat her that way.
Hoping he’d made a good decision, he walked up the steps and knocked on the front door.
It opened right away.
He almost laughed,