I twisted my neck to look up at him and Mickey adjusted so he could look down at me.
“Really?” I asked.
“Yep,” he answered.
“I…that…” I shook my head slightly. “What do you think of that?”
“Dad lived here near on his whole life too, that bein’ ‘near on’ only because he moved to Florida. Still knows practically the whole town. Him and Mom are friendly, they come back, see people, while they’re gone, they stay in touch. They know Ralph’s reputation and not just from me bitchin’ about workin’ for him for the last fifteen years.”
“Okay,” I said when he stopped talking.
“What I’m sayin’ is, he’s heard folks complaining about Ralph too. He thinks, if I go into business, I’ll hit faster than I thought I would.”
“That’s great,” I remarked.
“He’s also still a member of the Club. He knows he can get them to entertain a bid from me but he thinks he could even get them to consider me as the contractor for that whole project. Their golf course development.”
I felt elated.
Then I deflated.
“I hesitate to mention this, but Boston Stone is also a member of that Club,” I reminded him.
“Yeah, babe, but that Club is about a lot of things and legacy is a big one. They might be racist and Stone’s family may have been in Magdalene awhile, but the Donovans have lived in this town for six generations.”
“That didn’t stop him from getting whatever he presented to the town council signed,” I noted.
“I seriously doubt he shared that whatever-that-was was about him losin’ out against me for you. If he did, they would have laughed in his face.”
This was likely correct.
Mickey kept going, “Not sure I could start out by takin’ on a huge project like that. But I figure I could do some sub-contracting. Roofs on those houses at least. Maybe other shit. You know it wouldn’t be hard for me to put together a crew. If I quit Ralph sooner rather than later, get a few jobs, start to establish a reputation, that could happen.”
I began to get excited again.
“That would be wonderful,” I shared quietly and he grinned.
“Yeah, it would.”
“Are you…okay with taking your dad’s money?” I asked carefully.
“As an investor, yeah,” he replied. “He started by sayin’ he’d give me the rest of my inheritance early, cash flat out that he says is mine. Said he wouldn’t mind seein’ me do something with it, enjoy it while he was still alive. To me, it felt like a handout so I refused. An investment, he has a stake in the company, we arrange it so I can buy him out when I can afford it, that might work.”
I twisted so I was facing him more fully. “What does this mean?”
“Means I got the cake in the bank to quit and get going. You filed the papers. And thank you for that, baby,” he finished softly, giving me a sweet, easy grin.
“You’re welcome, Mickey.” I gave him what I hoped was a sweet, easy grin back, knowing he didn’t have to thank me. I’d go to the end of the earth for him.
His arms squeezed before he continued, “We got the insurance stuff mostly sorted. Just need the company officially founded, decide on which insurance we’re going with. Get letterhead. Business cards. Payroll software. Employee handbook. Get the word out for hires. Line up jobs. Pull together my crew. It’s a lot of work but if I can quit and see to it with cake in the bank to cover my family, that shit’d go a lot faster.”
“And I can help, anything you need,” I offered.
“That’d be awesome, Amy,” he whispered.
“This is really wonderful,” I told him.
He drew me nearer. “Yeah. Rhiannon seems to be getting her head out of her ass. We’ll be hirin’ a full-timer at the department soon, which puts me close to chief, which’ll be more income to cover me as I get the business off the ground.” His voice dipped low. “Got you.”
I melted into him.
He kept speaking, “’Cept whatever’s up with my little girl and every day havin’ to go to a job I hate, the rest of life is good.”
The rest of life was good.
We had to get Mickey out of that job and work on finding out what was troubling Aisling and fix it.
Then the entirety of life for Mickey would be good.
And that was the kind of life the kind of man that was Mickey should have in an everyday kind of way.
Life being good.
“I think you should do it,” I told him.
“Even with capital, it’s still a risk,” he told me.
“Yes. I’m sure. And there’ll be worries about that. But I believe in you. Your dad believes in you. Even not having a company set up yet, all those people who call you for patches believe in you. You have all the connections you need. You have an offer of the financial backing you need. Everything is pointing to you doing this, honey. I think you should listen to what the world is telling you and go for it.”