Chapter 70: Perkins Place
*Don’t take revenge. Let karma do all the work. – Lisa Morfitt*
Sunday dinner was being held in the hospital cafeteria for the foreseeable future. An invitation had been extended to all of Reese’s sisters, but so far only Michelle had joined them. Today Bunny was craving pepperoni pizza with heavy sauce and extra cheese. This simplified everything since Helen and JD had moved just yesterday.
They were sitting around waiting for the pizza delivery, when Jolene got Reese’s attention.
“What do you need, Princess?” He asked as he sat in the chair with his arm around Helen. Reese wore a tight Dean’s List t-shirt that clung to his muscles.
Jolene smiled at him as she adjusted her loose skirt covering her legs. “I was told to ask about Perkins Place.” She said hoarsely.
Dean sat up and clapped her hands excitedly. “Oh! I love this story!”
Reese shook his head as he grinned at his niece. “There’s no special effects in this movie.”
“No, just sweet revenge.”
Chuckling, he pressed a kiss to Helen’s hair before settling in to tell a story.
“Mrs. Perkins was my English teacher in high school. I sucked at English. Barely passed it and that was only with Heather helping me. Dad and Laurie were going through a bad divorce and Mrs. Perkins was separated from her husband.”
“Pop-pop and Nana Laurie ended up getting remarried a few years later.” Dean interjected.
“They did. But at the time, Mrs. Perkins thought she was going to be the next ex-Mrs. Reese. Dad took her on one date and then, what’s the new term, ghosted her.”
Dean laughed and leaned into JD. “Old people.”
“Watch how fast this old man can implement a six feet rule.” Reese warned with a grin.
JD placed an arm around her shoulder and grinned at Reese, almost daring him to try. Dean giggled as she snuggled into her boyfriend’s side and her uncle cocked an eyebrow at them.
“Anyway, Mrs. Perkins went back to her husband and dad carried on with his life. And then I was in her class. Her husband *never* forgave her for leaving him and I later found out that the reason she left was because she had a crush on dad from high school. Dad thought he was having dinner with an old friend from school. She thought they were on a date.”
A man carrying a tall stack of pizzas entered the cafeteria and looked around. Jaxon stood up and walked over to him.
“Did they bring extra parm?” Bunny called out and the man nodded.
“She’s pregnant.” Jaxon proudly explained. He signed the credit card slip and handed it back.
Grinning, the man handed over a small bag of parmesan packets. “Just had my first. Congratulations.”
“You too.” Jaxon replied, accepting the bag and seven pizzas.
Returning to the large table that they had taken over; he sat the pizzas down as Ty placed the plates and napkins on the table. He pulled a collection of plastic forks and knives out of his pants pocket.
“Pockets. I want pockets.” Bunny said dreamily.
“Wear men’s jeans.” Dean suggested.
“Is that why you wear guys jeans?” JD asked as plates were being filled with pizza.
“Yup. Not much difference in juniors and young men’s skinny jeans.” she said licking her fingers. “And if I want bling, I just go see Daphne and she puts on whatever I want. But let’s get back to story time.”
Reese accepted the plate that Helen handed him. “Joseph Perkins was in the same class as me and graduated top of the class. I graduated in alphabetical order and was just glad to graduate.”
Dean grinned. “Magna cum laude. Summa cum laude. Thank the lordy.”
“I was the last one.” Reese admitted. “Joseph was the first and his mom never let me forget it. Told me that I would never amount to anything, and her son was going places. Then my senior year, Heather got pregnant. Mrs. Perkins told me at graduation that now not only was my life screwed, but I had ruined her life too.”
He paused to take a bite of pizza.
“She sounds like a bitch.” Ty said between his own bites.
“Understatement.” Reese agreed. “I saw her a few days before I shipped out and she told me that it was a good thing that I was going to the military. Otherwise, I would never do anything with my life.”
“She sounds like a horrible teacher.” Jolene said.
“She sounds like a horrible person.” Helen corrected.
“Yeah, well, I went to the navy and Joseph went to Harvard. He got a business degree, and I got a divorce. He took over his dad’s business and I did a full twenty. Retired from the navy at thirty-eight with degrees in business, finance, real estate and contract law. With all of that and my construction background with the Seabees, I started my first business.”
“O.A.R. Investments.” Dean supplied as her uncle took another bite. He nodded as he chewed.
“Now when I started, my office was the cab of my pickup with a clip board, a phone and secondhand laptop. But I worked my ass off, made good investments and started growing my business. By the time I was forty-five, Oar was worth just under two million.”
“Bragging?” Bunny teased.
“No but putting it in context for the next part of my story.” He grinned like a hungry wolf and his eyes sparkled with dark humor.
“Joseph Perkins came to see me about five or six years ago. His dad was dead, and the business was crumbling. He’d lost all of the investors and owed the bank over a million dollars. He was looking at bankruptcy just to make payroll.”
“And where was Mrs. Perkins precious baby boy going?” Dean smirked. “Debtors prison.”
“Okay, Scrooge.” JD said as she laughed.
“I offered to buy Perkins Enterprises and their properties for fair market value. I had a complete workup done on it and an audit of the books. We settled on a price with him retaining partial ownership of some of the properties with the option to buy him out. There’s only one property that he still owns part of.”
“Tell them about the contract.” Dean said excitedly.
“When we signed the contract, I asked that his mom be there. Although he and I had stayed in contact and were friends, I had not seen her in years. Lawyers are there. His family is there. Heather and the kids are there.”
“The asshole side of Owen was there.” Dean added.
“Joseph signed the contract. I looked Mrs. Perkins dead in the eye and asked her if she remembered telling me that I would never do anything with my life. After she said yes, I signed the contract and told her that I had just done something with my life.”
“First thing I did was change the name of the company from Perkins to Reese. Then I liquidated the bad investment properties and streamlined the companies. Oar still does my high end, RI does just about everything else. Perkins Place used to be named Cori Crossing, after Mrs. Perkins, so I changed it to Perkins Place.”
“You do have a PhD in assholery.” Jolene laughed softly.
“Oh, yeah.” Bunny agreed. “You don’t want to be in crosshairs when he’s mad.”
“How did you know about the hunting lodge that Hanks’ family has?” Jolene asked quietly.
Reese gave her a wolfish grin. “Don’t you worry about it. You just worry about getting better.”
Log in with Google Account
Chapters
Favorite
Settings
