Page 86 of What I Like About You

Dalton continued to pace, trying to wrap his brain around all of it. He wasn’t hearing this properly. This had to be a misunderstanding. When he didn’t respond after a moment, his father took the opportunity to continue.

“You had to have known that this would happen at some point, son. Maybe not this soon—none of us saw that part coming—but just what did you expect after I passed? You are the heir.”

“I’m not your only child.” What would Felicity say to all of this? He had no idea what her actual role in the company was, but he knew she’d been working her ass off trying to impress Big D all these years.

“No, and that’s all laid out too. My personal assets are to be split among the three of you. There’s a provision in there so BobbiJo is taken care of, letting her and Lulu stay in the family house until Lulu graduates, but after that, that’s yours too. Another that sets aside money so Lulu can go to college. I do ask that there always be a job—a good job, not being the janitor—for your sisters as long as they want one here at Southland, but other than that, the company is yours.”

“And if I don’t want it?”

“Then sell it off. Find a CEO to run it in your stead as you waste away on the islands. That’s your prerogative. I would prefer you be at the helm, running this place like I know you can, but I won't be here to control that.”

Dalton was silent for a moment as he drank it all in. The Southland Holdings empire was about to be his. Well, fuck.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, old man, but that all seems like pretty standard stuff. What would there be for BJ to argue about?”

“Must you call her that?”

“Yes,” he answered, his childhood indignance shining through. He realized he should probably be a little more respectful of his father’s wife as the man sat here telling him about how he is dying, but he just couldn’t bring himself to not take the few little digs he could.

Big D sighed, shaking his head. “Fine, but it’s crass. And the provisions I’ve set are obvious to you because your mother raised you with the same respect of tradition. BobbiJo simply has a different view of things, that’s all. This is a family company, and I’m keeping it in the family.”

“So, this is my warning that I’m going to have to deal with a pissed off gold digger?”

“I can only hope that someday you will give her the chance to show you that is not what she is.”

“I highly doubt that,” Dalton quipped.

Shaking his head, Big D continued, “But yes, BobbiJo will have no claims to Southland Holdings. Everything left to her comes from my personal assets. There are only four people named in my will. You, Felicity, Lulu, and BobbiJo.”

“That’s it?” Dalton asked, confused. What about Jonah?

“Sorry, five.”

There it is. He did include Jonah.

“Stu Wellington gets my golf clubs and that painting hanging in my study that I outbid him on in an auction thirty years ago.”

That was it? His best friend got miscellaneous items that the two had long-running inside jokes about for years? That couldn’t be right. There had to be more to it.

“What about the Tybee house? The Archer’s Green membership? The boats? All the other stuff?”

“I think Lulu might want one of the boats. She’s really taken to sailing this last summer, so you might ask her,” Big D threw out there, almost as if it were an afterthought.

“Ask Lulu about a boat. That’s all you have to say?”

“I told you, it all goes to you. How you divvy it up, or what you do with it is at your discretion.”

Dalton couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This had not been what he was expecting. This conversation had turned on its head in a way that Dalton never would have foreseen. But at least they weren’t shouting at each other. As long as they were being civil, he figured he should bite the bullet and just ask the question running through his mind.

“What about Jonah?” he asked, pausing his pacing to lean against the chair he’d been sitting in.

“He’s a decent employee. I suggest keeping him,” Big D answered simply.

“He's a weasel,” Dalton muttered under his breath. “No provision for him?”

“He’s an employee. He’s not family.”

“He’s your brother-in-law.”