Page 47 of Backwater Justice

“I did. Both candidates are in the salon.” Milton cleared his throat. “Kathryn? Izzie? Come on over and meet my sons.”

The color drained from Oliver’s face. Things were moving much too quickly. Two new hires? Overnight? With everyone now in the room, Oliver could not protest or try to slow down his father’s new initiative. He snapped to it quickly. “You must be Kathryn.” Oliver was taking a small risk, but her strong handshake and towering height made it a good guess.

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Spangler.”

“That’s my father. You can call me Oliver.” A weak attempt at humor.

“Alright, Oliver.”

“Benjamin.” He introduced himself. “Nice to meet you, Kathryn.” He turned to Izzie. “And you must be Izzie.”

Izzie smiled. “Yes. Pleased to meet you both.” She shook their hands.

“Let’s go into the sitting area. It’ll be more comfortable.” Milton pushed the button on his recliner and stood. Benjamin jumped to his father’s side and took him by the arm. “Thanks, son. They’ve been making me walk several times a day, so I’m pretty steady on my feet now.”

“Let’s not take any chances.” Benjamin held his father’s elbow.

“If you insist.” Milton let his son walk him to the recliner, where Milton sat up straight. “I’m really quite a terrible patient,” he said to Izzie and Kathryn. “But I really do feel quite well now.” He was wearing a pair of blue silk dot pajamas with a silk navy-blue robe. He actually looked quite well, too. Once Milton was settled, everyone took a seat.

“As I explained to Benjamin and Oliver, while I am recuperating, I wanted to be sure my sons have adequate support. Kat, I believe you will be staying in the apartment at the main office.”

Oliver turned pale again. The place was rarely used, and he had commandeered it for his own enterprise headquarters. “Dad, I have a few things in there.”

“Will they be in Kathryn’s way?” Milton asked.

Kat interrupted. “I really don’t need a lot of room. I’m used to sleeping in my rig.”

“No. No. I’ll clear everything out. I don’t want to disturb you if I need to get to any of it,” Oliver was quick to respond. “I’ll ask Dickie to move everything into the storage space down the hall from my office.” He stood and walked into the other room and blasted off a text to Dickie:

Clear out upstairs apartment. Pronto.

Dickie quickly responded:Furniture too?

Oliver thought he was going to have a stroke.

No! Just our stuff. Put in hallway storage.

From Dickie:Boxes. Right?

Yes! Now!

Got it, boss. On it.

Oliver wiped the perspiration off the top of his lip, then returned to the others.

“Everything alright?” Benjamin asked. His brother had been acting rather oddly since their father’s health scare.

“Yeah. Fine.” Oliver placed his phone back into his jacket pocket. “Sorry. Where were we?”

“Kat will be staying in the apartment. Isabelle, do you have a place to stay, or would you prefer one of our rooms at an inn?”

“Since I’ll be traveling back and forth, having a room would be convenient. I packed enough for a week, and I assume I’ll be wearing a company uniform?”

“We don’t require management to wear uniforms, but we have company blazers we would like you to wear when you are at work. I suppose it’s a uniform of sorts,” Milton said.

“That’s perfect.”

Milton continued. “The facilities on the premises are at your disposal. Laundry, kitchen. Whatever you need.”