Bet On You

Chapter Eleven

Logan

I am doing my internship at McKenzie holdings, which is our family business. My grandfather opened it with his brothers and it is still a success.

I am doing a degree in Business Science so I can one day take over from my uncles and father in running the business. I am next in line as I am the only son born to them. The girls don't care much about the business side of things, just the money side.

I have a meeting with my uncle Eric. He said he wanted me to sit in on one of his meetings, so I can get the feel of the business and so forth. He is looking to replace the current Chief Operations Officer because he is incompetent. I think it's because of the apparent beef they have that dates to back in the day.

"Hey, Unc."

"Hey, my boy. How are you doing? How's school?" he has a picture in his hand and quickly puts it down when I sit down across from him.

"I'm good. Looking sharp Unc." Me and my uncle have a close relationship, maybe it's because he doesn't have any kids so he's kind of adopted me. I even have my own room at his house and I have a key.

"Got a hot date tonight?" I raise my eyebrows up and down. Ever since I've known my uncle, he has been single, and he seriously has no desire to date. He gets so annoyed when the ladies take notice of him and try to give him their numbers.

"No Son, that time I believe has come and gone for me. You ever love someone with your whole heart and soul? Have them be the centre of your world and the reason you breathe?" he has this sorrowful look on his face and I don't like seeing him like this.

"No" I answer.

"Well, I had that, but I guess I wasn't enough for her because she just left. It was as if we weren't madly in love, I thought she loved me and that you can't make up that kind of love." At this point he has tears in his eyes and it hurts me to see this side of him. So, I get this brilliant idea, only I should've known that he wouldn't go for it.

"How about we look for her?"

"What good will that do? I can't force her to love me again." He says dejectedly.

"What if circumstances beyond her control forced her to leave? Beyond even your control Uncle Eric?"

"Oh, I don't know. Let's get down to business so we can head to mom's for dinner." Well, at least he's not casting the idea away. I really hope we find this woman so that my Uncle can find closure and be able to move on with his life.

When we get to my grandmother's house, everything is prim and proper like the woman herself. While growing up we weren't even allowed to play inside the house, she would beat us up if even one thing was out of place.

I have to say that after Grandpa died; she became worse and was like a woman we don't know. Fine, in the beginning, we excused her behaviour because she had just lost her husband. However, five years later and she still has the same attitude? No.

The woman is so frigid, we can't even just walk in the house, we have to knock like we are not family. Besides, it's not like she doesn't know that someone has entered the gate to the estate because her security system alerts her when someone enters the gate.

She greets us at the door, "Eric, darling. How is the business going?" Wow, that's the first thing that she wants to say to her son after not seeing him for two weeks? She never ceases to amaze me.

"I'm wonderful mom, thanks for asking. And the business is good, don't worry you won't lose your money." Uncle Eric says in a teasing tone.

"Oh, my darling boy, how are you? It's so good to see you looking smart for once and not always wearing those skinny pants and chucks." She says to me with a click of her tongue.

We get settled around the table with the entire family present. This is rare because everyone is always trying to dodge grandmother as she insisted that we call her. Right about now I would be rolling my eyes.

We endure the most uncomfortable dinner of all dinners, with an awkward silence in the air. Before we finish dessert, the butler requests grandmother to accept a phone call. After she leaves the table everyone relaxes and starts talking. Somehow, we end up on the topic of me dating Sarah and how perfect for me she is. This makes me happy because she is it for me, I can feel it because I am halfway in love with her already.

"Okay guys can we not talk about me now, you might even jinx things for me." I say to my family.

"Hey now, jinx doesn't apply in love, you know that right Son?" my dad says while looking at mom with goo-goo eyes, eww.

"Maybe let's talk about getting uncle Eric to date." I laugh but find that none of the adults are laughing.

"Sweetheart it's better to leave that alone." My mom softly tells me.

"No, let the boy speak. Remember when I told you about my first love?" I nod my head, "Well, there will never be another like her and I'm okay with that. Yes, I might have wanted to have some little ones, but I only wanted that with her and no one else."

After getting the okay from Uncle Eric to talk about his love life, they talk about the woman, Diane, that my uncle dated when he was younger. All of a sudden Stacy, one of my younger cousins calls out to her parents.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" My aunt Grace asks.

"Mikayla pinched me here and now I have this thing." She points to the area behind her ear. Then all the adults laugh.

"Honey, that is your birthmark, and it's not because Mikayla pinched you. And Mikayla stop pinching my baby." Aunt Grace says with a laugh.

"No mom, I think you should take a closer look." She gets up from her chair and makes her way to her mother. I laugh silently because oh the joys of being ten again.

"Mikayla, please push your hair to the side." Aunt Grace asks, and the same birth mark appears.

"See Stace, it's a family birth mark, all the girls or at least most of the girls in the family have it and it's just for our family. That's why it's called a birthmark, to show the descendants of grandmother and grandpa. Okay, sweetie." Shame the poor kid looks so confused.

"So, Evan won't have one?"

Uncle Toby inserts himself into the conversation now, "Who is Evan?" he asks with a strong voice that would scare anyone except for his girls.

"Daddy, Evan will be my boyfriend when we are old enough to date." Oh, the little girl has started it now. Before Uncle Toby could get worked up Aunt Grace says something to him that thankfully diffused the situation.