Absolutely, Positively

Trevelyan. What can I do for you today?”

    “Good morning, Verna. Would you please tell my grandfather that I want to see him for a few minutes?”

    “Certainly.” Verna pressed the intercom button on her desk. “Mr. Stratton?”

    “What is it, Verna?” Parker Stratton's voice was gravelly with age, but it had lost none of its authority.

    “Mr. Trevelyan is here to see you.”

    There was a brief pause. Then Parker's voice came back through the intercom in a low growl. “Tell him I'm busy. Give him an appointment for next week.”

    Harry nodded pleasantly to the receptionist and started past her desk. “Thanks, Verna. Hold all his calls until I leave.”

    “But, Mr. Trevelyan,” Verna called anxiously. “Mr. Stratton says he's busy at the moment.”

    “He can't be busy. He's officially retired.” Harry went around the corner, past the tasteful display of art glass that occupied one wall. He opened the door of Parker's office without bothering to knock.

    Parker was seated behind his desk. He had a gold pen in one gnarled hand. He still had a finger on the intercom button. He glowered at Harry. “You've got the manners of a damned Trevelyan.”

    “I am a Trevelyan.” Harry closed the door and took a chair. “Unfortunately for you, I'm also a Stratton.”

    “I assume you didn't barge into my office to discuss genealogy. What do you want?”

    “I'm here to talk about Brandon's plans to go into business for himself.”

    “Damn it to hell.” Parker tossed aside the gold pen. “I knew sooner or later you'd interfere in this fiasco. Did Danielle go crying to you? Or was it Olivia?”

    “I've talked to both of them. I've also talked to Brandon.”

    “What the hell is it with you, Harry? Why do you always have to get involved in family stuff like this?”

    “Beats me. Maybe it's because I am family.” Harry stretched his legs out in front of him and contemplated his grandfather.

    A few years ago at the age of seventy, Parker had reluctantly turned over the day-to-day operation of Stratton Properties to his son, Gilford. Nothing short of an act of God, however, could keep Parker from going into his office every day. Stratton Properties was his life.

    Parker had lived and breathed business from the cradle, and the diet had served him well. He used a cane when his arthritic knee bothered him, but other than that, he was in excellent health. He looked at least ten years younger than his chronological age, thanks to his fine Stratton bone structure. His doctor had told him that he had the heart and lungs of a man twenty years younger.

    Stratton Properties was a part of Parker, as necessary to him as the very air he breathed. The day he died, he would be seated behind his desk.

    “I'll get right to the point,” Harry said. “I think you should give Brandon his chance. Tell him you're behind him. Tell him there will be no reprisals.”

    Parker aimed a finger at him. “You stay out of this, by God. As far as I'm concerned, you're the reason he's taken this damn fool notion into his head in the first place.”

    Harry held up both hands, palms out. “Scout's honor, I never once encouraged him to try his hand at commercial property management. He came up with the idea all on his own.”

    “The hell he did. He saw how you walked away from your Stratton heritage, and he's decided to show everyone else in the family that he's just as goddamned stubborn and independent as you are.”

    “I think you're giving me entirely too much credit,” Harry said.

    “I'm not giving you any credit.” Parker's eyes turned fierce. “I'm giving you the full blame for this stupid situation. If you hadn't come along, Brandon would never have thought about leaving the firm.”

    “You can't be sure of that.”

    “I am sure of it, damn it,” Parker insisted. “You've been a bad influence on him.”

    “He wants to spread his wings a little. Why not let him do it?”

    Parker's hand clenched into a bunched fist. “He won't survive a year out there on his own.”

    “You don't know that for certain. After all, he's got Stratton blood in his veins. Your blood. Who knows what he can do?”

    “You've got Stratton blood in your veins, too.” Parker's eyes narrowed. “But it wasn't enough to turn you into a businessman.”

    “We both know that I wasn't cut out for the corporate world,” Harry said mildly.

    “You mean you weren't cut out to face the real world. You prefer to hide in your