Jennie Sue swung the door open for her. “Elevator is straight ahead, and it opens right into the conference room. And between us sisters, I’m terrified, but I don’t intend to let anyone know it.”
“I’m not your sister,” Cricket protested.
“But I’m the one who took you to the hospital, remember?” Jennie Sue pushed the button for the elevator and tapped her fingers on the wall while they waited.
“You really are nervous, aren’t you?” Cricket asked as they waited for the elevator door to open.
“I vowed when Percy left that I’d never let anyone make me tense like that again. This isn’t the same, but . . .” She stepped into the elevator and pushed the second-floor button when Cricket was inside.
“He must’ve been a devil to live with,” Cricket said.
“He was fine when everything was perfect, but when it wasn’t, he was a basket case. His therapist said he had the worst case of control issues she’d ever seen. I don’t ever have to be perfect again.”
Cricket’s eyes started at her sandals and traveled up to her hair. “I can see that.”
“Disappointed in the way I’m dressed?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Nope. I’m glad you are being yourself,” Cricket answered.
The doors opened before Cricket could answer, and at least twenty sets of eyes tracked them. The room went so quiet and still that Jennie Sue wondered if they’d all been struck dead and simply hadn’t fallen down yet.
“Hello, everyone. This is my friend Cricket Lawson. I asked her to accompany me today,” Jennie Sue said.
“Honey, we don’t allow extra people in these meetings,” Lawrence O’Reilly, the vice president, said. “Your friend can wait in my office just down the hall.”
“Why?” Jennie Sue asked.
“Because we will be discussing things of a sensitive nature.” He looked over the top of his glasses at her as if she were a child.
“Then why are the caterers allowed to stay in here?” Jennie Sue asked. “I do believe this is my company now. Here, Cricket, you sit right here.” She pulled out the seat at the head of the table and motioned for Cricket to sit down. “Where is Justin?”
The lawyer came in from a side door. “I’m right here. Needed to print a new copy of one of the papers. Shall we all sit down and begin?”
“You are sitting in my chair.” Lawrence glared at Cricket.
“You won’t be stayin’, so it doesn’t matter,” Jennie Sue said and waited until Justin was seated just to Cricket’s left before she took a place across the table from him. He was the one she wanted to talk to, not the other people.
“Okay, Jennie Sue, you need to start signing papers at the orange tabs. These are simply saying that you are receiving the company, your parents’ checking account, the stock portfolio, and their savings. All in all, it’s merely transference of everything they owned into your name, as stated in the will.”
She spent the next fifteen minutes signing her name and then stood up. “I want to thank all of you for your loyal service to this company. Now you can all leave, because I’m calling an executive meeting with Justin. You can wait in your offices until he calls you to return. At that time he will tell you my decisions.”
“But—” Lawrence started.
“No buts,” Jennie Sue said before he could go on. “I’ve made up my mind, and I won’t be long. The caterers can stay in the office with you until I finish, and then they can come back and y’all can have finger foods while Justin explains my plan.”
Lawrence’s lips set in a tight line in his big, round face as he stormed out of the conference room. “I told all of you that she was crazy.”
“That might not have been a wise move,” Justin said. “He’s already putting out feelers for another position, because he says your lack of big business sense is going to be the downfall of this company.”
“I’m sure it would be. So get your notebook out and start writing. Number one. I expect that most of the business will be concluded in six weeks, tops, other than the sale of the company. There will be audits and all kinds of things I don’t even know about that will take a while.”
“Whoa!” He threw up both hands defensively. “Selling the company? This quick? That’s a really rash decision, Jennifer.”
“Didn’t I just sign papers saying all of this belongs to me?” she asked.
“Yes, but you need some time to grieve and to think about what you are about to do,” he answered.
She folded her arms over her chest. “I can always get another lawyer if you don’t want to take care of my business.”
He took out a yellow legal pad and poised a pen above it. “Go on.”
“My house is for sale. I’m asking Mabel and Frank to stay on for one month. That’s how long I’m giving myself to clear out what I want. Then your job is to hire an auction company to take out the rest of the stuff or to offer the property as is. I really don’t care how that part is taken care of.”
“I’ve heard that millennials are sizing down from what their parents and grandparents thought were heirlooms.” He talked as he wrote notes.
“I’m of the same opinion. It’s all just stuff. I will be living a simpler life. The next item is that I want to give Frank and Mabel a really good severance package that includes insurance and a paycheck to equal four times what they make in a month, plus Frank can have Daddy’s new truck,” she said. “Set up a fund for that, however you do it.”
Justin nodded. “Next?”
“Daddy told me two years ago that Texas Red had approached him more than once with an offer to buy the company. Mama wouldn’t have any part of it, and since she basically held the purse strings, he couldn’t do it. But he was ready to retire. So contact them and sell them the company at a fair price. If they make noises like they want it for a fraction of what it’s worth, then put it on the market.”
“Okay, but please, please, wait at least six months before you do this.” The color faded from Justin’s face, and he looked like he might faint right there in the conference room.
“I have thought about it, and this is what I want. You can advise me through the process, and when it’s done, I will want your input along with my CPA’s to help me decide where and how to invest the money. Next, I want whoever buys the company to either retain the employees that are here or else give them at least six months’ salary and benefits to last until they can find something else—that includes Lawrence, even though he’s a son of a bitch.”
Justin laughed loudly. “That he is, but he’s a smart businessman. What next?”
“Are the savings accounts and checking accounts available to me at this time?” she asked.
“Yes, they are,” Justin said.
“Okay, that’s enough for me to buy the bookstore.”
“Why would you do that?” he gasped.
“I like to work there,” she answered. “Oh, and I want you to hire a carpenter to go over to Lettie’s place and measure that little lending-library box beside her mailbox. Then I want an ad put in the Bloom Weekly News saying that all a person has to do to get one like that in the color of their choice is to come into my bookstore and fill out a form. As I get the completed papers, the carpenter can build and install them.”
“Again, why?”
“Because that’s a dream of Rick’s, and he is my friend,” Jennie Sue answered.
“What else?” Justin asked.
“That’s enough for today. If I think of anything else—I need your card. I don’t have you on speed dial like Daddy did. His office isn’t to be touched by anyone. I’ll be cleaning that out before I do anything else.” Her confidence was building with every single argument. “I don’t want anyone to go through his computer or his other things, understood?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Justin said. “Is that all?”
“For today. I’m sure I’ll think of smaller things along the way. When I do, I’ll call, or when you have news about the sales, then let me know. No doubt about it, we’ll be in close touch. You can call them in here and relay what I’m doing now. Cricket and I won’t be stayin’. We’re having milkshakes at the Main Street Café. You will let me know about Texas Red as soon as you get in touch with them, right?”