Nine Lives - Danielle Steel Page 0,16

minute, and the large teddy bear frame of Brad to walk through it. Phil had felt that way at first too. He was a slight, gray-haired man, who looked older than his years. When Brad died, he felt as though he had lost a brother. He was still reeling from the shock himself. But he also knew that they had decisions to make.

“Are you doing okay, Maggie?” he asked, concerned about her. He hadn’t seen her since the funeral, and she’d been through a lot herself, having been in the crash. She nodded. She didn’t want to tell him about the headaches, the nightmares, or the sleepless nights. Her doctor had given her sleeping pills, but they left her groggy and hungover and even more depressed the next day, so she didn’t want to take them.

“I’m okay,” she said softly.

“I’ve been doing a lot of thinking, and it may be too early for you to talk about this, but sooner or later we need to think about the business. It’s running smoothly now, and it could for a long time, but it’s going to be years before Aden is ready to step into it, and Brad wasn’t sure he’d ever want to. He’s young, and he doesn’t know what he wants to do yet. Brad wanted to be a professional baseball player as a boy, but he outgrew it,” and Maggie knew that a broken elbow in his pitching arm had changed that, and he had settled into his father’s business. “Whatever he decides, Aden won’t be ready to take over for at least ten or twelve years. That’s a long time, and Brad was part of the magic here. Clients need someone they can relate to, and I’ve always been more of a behind-the-scenes man.”

“What are you saying, Phil?” Maggie looked worried and was afraid he wanted to quit. She couldn’t run the business without him, and she knew she couldn’t do it herself. She wasn’t an accountant and didn’t have the skills. She was more of a girl Friday when she came in to help Brad out. She didn’t deal with clients.

“I thought about it a lot, and I don’t know how you’d feel about it, but I’d like to buy the business, or even enter into partnership with you. My son Bill is a CPA now, and he wants to come into the business with me. I’d already spoken to Brad about it, and he liked the idea. We need some young blood here, until Aden is ready. Clients like that too. But now we don’t have Brad to run it. I’d have to step up to the plate on that. I will anyway. But I want to build something for my own family, a legacy we can count on and that I could leave them one day. If you’re interested, I’d like to have the business appraised, figure out a fair price for it, and start paying you. I’d rather have full ownership, if I can afford it. I’d be willing to sell my house to do it, and put that money into what I could pay you. It would be worth it to me, Maggie. And, of course, I would preserve the name. Maybe we could call it Mackenzie, Abrams, and Sons. I think I might have just enough to pay you a decent price for it, if you could be patient, and let me pay you in regular installments over a year or two.” She looked stunned. She wasn’t sure how Brad would have felt about her selling the business, and Aden no longer having it as an option for a career later on. But she also wasn’t at all sure that Aden would ever want to work there, and Phil was right, Aden was a dozen years away from stepping into his father’s shoes, and maybe not even then. It was a long time to keep the business warm, and Phil would be retired by then, and couldn’t help him. Phil was an honest man, who had loved Brad and genuinely cared about the business.

“I don’t know,” she said, looking confused. “I’ve never thought of it. What did Brad say when you talked to him about it?” He had never mentioned it to her, and she wished she could have his input.

“I talked to him about becoming a partner, and he wasn’t opposed, as I mentioned. But things were working the way they were, so there was no rush. I