Page 7 of A Winter Wish

“Of course there are.”

Lexie could feel Theo giving her another raised-eyebrow look, but she refused to look at him. She was perfectly capable of being all cool and aloof too, if that’s how he wanted to play it.

“If you want to sell the company and split the profits, you and Theo first have to commit to one year of running the company together.”

Lexie stared at him. “To running it?”

“That’s right. And if you make a profit at the end of the year, then you can choose to sell it if you both wish. But if you don’t turn a profit, you’ll be locked in for another five years—after which time the choice of what to do is up to you.”

It felt like the room was spinning around her. Honestly, could they not open one of those impressive windows, or were they just for show? This was starting to feel a lot more like a cage than a gift—she could end up stuck with a job she didn’t want for up to six years. She didn’t even like to stay in one place for six months. “And if I don’t want to do that? If I just want to sell my half?”

Howard glanced between Theo and Lexie, looking a little pained. “It’s important that you make a joint decision on this, but if you were to decide to sell now, you’d walk away with nothing—the profits would go back into the company, to whoever takes it over.”

“Un-fucking-believable,” Theo muttered.

“Theo,” Ange barked. He scowled at her, but she shook her head. “Don’t you go looking at me like that, you know better than to try me.”

He looked at her for a second, and Ange raised her eyebrows, almost a dare. His expression evened out as he leaned back against the sofa, folding his arms. Point to Ange, apparently.

“You have to admit this is totally ridiculous,” he continued, clearly trying to keep his voice even. Now that he’d managed to string more than two words together, she could hear the trace of an Irish accent. It was faint, but definitely there. “She’s never shown any interest in what Richard built, has she? She has no idea what we do here, she said that herself. She’s never even been in the shop before. I’m surprised she managed to find it today.” He looked at Lexie then. “And no offense, but do you even have any idea how to run a business?”

Lexie felt heat rush down her spine—but not from embarrassment this time. “What, are you some kind of award-winning entrepreneur?” He only offered her a glance, seemingly unbothered by her attempt at an insult. He was annoyed about this all for sure—but he didn’t seem surprised. She wondered if he’d already known, at her dad’s funeral. Maybe he hadn’t been disapproving of her leaving early, after all. Maybe he was just generally disapproving of her.

Lexie turned her attention to the solicitor. “Is there any way for me to get out of this?”

Howard offered her a sympathetic smile. “I’m afraid not, no.”

Lexie looked between Howard and Ange, hoping for one of them to say, Haha—gotcha! “So I’m just supposed to run my dad’s business with someone I’ve never even heard of?”

That got a retort out of Theo. “Why would you have heard of me? You never bothered to answer your dad’s calls or ask him anything about his life—and it’s not like you’re ever actually around.”

Lexie felt the sting of that, even though she knew it was stupid to let some stranger get to her. “You don’t even know me,” she snapped. “You have no idea what I—”

Ange held up her hands to stop them. “OK. Let’s just stay calm, shall we? Howard is a busy man, and I’m sure he wants to get this all wrapped up.”

Lexie took a breath, did her best to bite back her temper. She was usually pretty good at staying calm—but she’d like to see anyone calmly deal with this being dropped in their laps. “What about Rachel?”

There was a pause, then Howard said, “She’s been left the house.”

“The house?”

“Your dad’s house. It’s on the outside of Bath—a little cottage, really.”

Lexie wondered briefly if he was saying little in an attempt to mediate the sting. Well, that about summed it up, didn’t it? Rachel, the favorite daughter, had been given a house, whereas she’d been left a job to do—one she by no means wanted—and not just that, but she had to manage it with a stranger who seemed to despise the idea of her already. And she had to commit to running the damn thing, whereas presumably Rachel could just sell the cottage and be done with it. Nice one, Richard.

“No. I can’t do this,” Lexie said, shaking her head for emphasis.

“What a shocker,” Theo muttered.

“Theo!” Ange barked.

He held both hands up, a sign of surrender.

“Why don’t you let it all sink in, Lexie?” Ange said. “Howard, you’ll be around to answer any questions Lexie might have, won’t you?”

“Of course. I’ll leave my card; you can call anytime.”

Howard stood up, gathering his papers. Were they done, just like that?