“Okay,” Bryan said. “So I’m sure I don’t have to tell you, you’re a pig-headed, short-sighted
idiot sometimes, Patrick.”
“Might as well
kick me when I’m down,” Patrick grumbled.
“No, hear me
out. All is not lost! You’ll just have to fight harder for it, rather than
rolling over and giving up. Lee’s not moving except as a last resort. He’s
invested his heart in the business, Patrick, as much as you have. He’s much
more than an employee, and I don’t mean the fact he’s in love with you.”
“Hey, I have no
idea if that’s tru—”
Bryanignored him and stood
abruptly, his tone more excited. “Has it ever occurred to you to treat him as
more than a gopher? He runs that place whether you’re there or not. Yet you
sometimes lord it over him like he’s just a clerk.”
It was an
unconscious echo of what Lee himself had said. When was anyone going to give
Patrick the chance to prove that wrong? “You think I don’t know that?”