Leaving the rest in the borrowed container, I replaced it on the table behind me and then recounted all of the packets. Eight, eight, eight, and eight.
Perfect.
I took a deep breath and set the container back along the edge of the table with the condiments and napkins, and…
And I stopped, looking up to catch my brother standing at the table with a drink in his hand, watching me.
Shit.
I rolled my eyes and waited for him to sit down.
We hadn’t seen each other in four days. I’d offered to help with student council after school this week, and he’d been buried in research and papers.
His white oxford was wrinkled and open at the collar, but he still drew women’s eyes as he approached the table. He leaned back in his chair, giving me the eye that said he was thinking and he had things he wasn’t sure he should say or how to say them.
“Out with it,” I relented, shaking my head and looking at the tabletop.
“I don’t know what to say.”
I shot my eyes up, tucking in my chair. “Then stop looking at me like I’m Howard Hughes,” I ordered. “It’s a nondestructive disorder that’s very common. It soothes me.”
“Nondestructive,” he repeated, taking a drink. “Was it five or six times that you went back into your apartment to make sure your stove was off today?”
I shifted, straightening my shoulders as the server came by, setting down waters on our table.
“Well, how am I supposed to remember if I shut it off after cooking the heroin?” I joked, and my brother broke out in a laugh.
I knew he thought my obsessive-compulsive bullshit was baggage that I needed help getting past, but the truth was, it was something I felt I needed.
Ever since I was sixteen anyway.
When someone you trusted steals your sense of security and holds your life in the palm of his hand for two whole years, your mind finds ways to compensate for the loss of control.
I felt safer when things were in order. When I had dominion over even the most trivial of matters.
My entire family – my parents and sister, now gone, and my brother – had paid a hefty price for letting someone we thought we could trust into our lives all those years ago.
In comparison, my little compulsive disorder was of no concern to me.
If I didn’t count the sugar packets or make sure the stove was off four times this morning or brush my teeth for a count of one hundred twenty seconds, something bad would happen. I didn’t know what, and I knew it was ridiculous, but I still felt safer carrying on with my day.
Normally, during work, when I was busy, it didn’t concern me as much, but when I was idle – like now – I tended to fiddle, arrange, and count.
It was a false sense of security, but it was something.
Control over anything, even if it couldn’t be everything, calmed me.
“So how’s school?” he asked.
I leaned my elbows on the table and took a sip of beer. “It’s pretty good. I like the kids.”
The kids were actually the easy part. Keeping their attention was hard and energy-consuming, but keeping up with all of the side duties was more frustrating and a huge time suck.
“You look tired,” he commented.
“So do you,” I shot back, smiling. “Don’t worry. I’m fine, Jack. I’m on my feet all day, and by end time I’ve hit the wall, but it’s a good kind of exhausted.”
“Like tennis?”
I paused, thinking about that one.
“Kind of,” I answered. “Only better, I guess. I used to feel like I went out there on the court and gave my all. I used every muscle and every ounce of perseverance to fight through the struggle.”
“And now?” he pressed.
“And now I do the same thing, but I know why,” I answered. “There’s a reason for all of it.”
He watched me, a thoughtful look crossing his face. He seemed to buy what I told him, and why shouldn’t he? It was true.
Tennis had been my life. It was fun at times and nearly unbearable at others, and while I hadn’t known what the purpose of working and competing were, I went to bed with the satisfaction that I’d pushed my body to the limit and fought hard.
But I also never felt compelled to do it.
“Avery would be proud,” Jack said in a low voice, giving me a small smile.
I looked away, sadness twisting my stomach.
Would she? Would my sister be proud that I was living her dream?
FIVE
TYLER
“So did you deal with it?” Jay asked about Christian’s teacher as he trailed behind me with his face buried in a press packet for next Monday’s television interview.
I pushed through my office doors, seeing Corinne, my assistant, pouring water into glasses around the conference table off to the left in preparation for our meeting this morning.
“Of course,” I mumbled, rounding my desk and unbuttoning my jacket.
“Well, you canceled a TV spot for that meeting. You can’t do that again,” he warned.
I cocked an eyebrow and ignored him, looking over his shoulder to Corinne and mouthing, Coffee.
She nodded and left the room.
I let out a breath and focused on the computer screen, checking my messages. “I didn’t ask for the TV spot to begin with,” I reminded him. “I’m not even running for senator yet. Officially, anyway,” I added. “Don’t you think we’re jumping the gun?”
“Tyler, that’s what I need to talk to you about.” His tone sounded annoyed. “You won’t win anything until you step up the schmoozing. The reason campaigns have funds is because they run off donations.”
I shook my head, glancing over my schedule for the day. “I don’t like donations.” I felt like I had to repeat that on a daily basis for him.
“Yes, I understand that. Believe me,” he said, sounding even more annoyed, “I’m well aware of your feelings on the subject.”
I didn’t need help funding my campaign. I’d built the fifth-largest media company in the South, with interests in television, Internet, and communication. Then I’d sold it and started all over from the ground up, building one of the top-ten-largest construction companies in the world.
It wasn’t that I’d disliked the media world. I’d hated it.
I’d thought that media would be a great place to network and be visible for my political aspirations, but making something that you couldn’t touch felt empty.
I realized I didn’t need to wait to get into office to make positive change. I could start now.
So once I’d felt satisfied that I’d taken the company as far as I could on my own, I’d handed it over, and now I built fleets of things I could touch. Towers, homes, skyscrapers, ships, and even the equipment that built these things. I produced something, and better yet, it was something people needed. Something that gave people jobs.
I owned the sixty-story building that housed my office, more real estate than I knew what to do with, and I certainly didn’t need handouts from people who wanted to have a politician in their pocket.
I had accomplished my successes on my own, and I’d get the Senate on my own.
But my brother had different ideas.
“Tyler, let me explain something.” He dropped his binder on the chair and planted his hands on my desk, leaning down. “When you’re not vying for donations, you’re also not vying for support. When Blackwell got a two-million-dollar donation, he also got their endorsement…” He explained it as if I were a child.
“He got the votes of everyone in that organization,” he went on. “And their friends. And their friends,” he added. “Donations aren’t just about money. They’re about other people putting their confidence in you. They’ll publicly endorse you, because they have a stake in your success when you have their cash.”