Company Man Read Online Free PDF Page B

Julia, who was frankly a hell of a lot easier to console, and then there was his own sadness, which sapped his ability to be a good and understanding dad.
    He looked at Lucas, could hear the tinny, percussive hiss coming from the earphones. He wondered what kind of crappy music Lucas was listening to now. He caught a whiff of stale smoke in the room, which smelled like regular cigarettes, though he wasn’t sure.
    There was a baffling disconnect between Lucas on the inside and Lucas on the outside. Externally, Lucas was a mature sixteen, a tall and handsome man. His almost feminine prettiness had taken on a sharp-featured masculinity. His eyebrows, above blue eyes with long lashes, were dark and thick. The Lucas inside, though, was five or six: petulant, easily wounded, expert at finding insult in the most unexpected places, capable of holding grudges to the end of time.
    â€œYou’re not smoking, are you?”
    Lucas cast his father a look of withering contempt. “Ever hear of second-hand smoke? I was around people who were smoking.”
    â€œZiggy doesn’t smoke.” Kenny Ziegler was a big, strapping blond kid, a swimmer who was Lucas’s best friend from when he was still on the swim team. But ever since Lucas had quit swimming, six months or so ago, he hadn’t been hanging out with Ziggy nearly as much. Nick doubted that Lucas had actually spent the afternoon and evening at Ziggy’s house. Somewhere else: some other friend, probably.
    Lucas’s stare was unwavering. His music squealed and hissed.
    â€œYou got homework?” Nick persisted.
    â€œI don’t need you to monitor me, Nick.” Nick. That was something else new, calling his father by his first name. Some of Lucas’s friends had always called their own parents by their first names, but Nick and Laura had always insisted on the traditional “Mom” and “Dad.” Lucas was just trying to push his buttons. He’d been calling him Nick for the last month or so.
    â€œCan you please take those earphones out when I’m talking to you?”
    â€œI can hear you just fine,” Lucas said. “Where’s Barney?”
    â€œTake off the earphones, Luke.”
    Lucas yanked them out of his ears by the dangling wire, let them drop on his chest, the tinny sound now louder and more distinct.
    â€œSomething happened to Barney. Something pretty bad.”
    â€œWhat are you talking about?”
    â€œWe found him…Someone killed him, Luke.”
    Lucas whipped his legs around until he was perched on the edge of the bed, looking as if he were about to launch himself toward Nick.
    â€œ Killed him?”
    â€œWe found him in the pool today—some nut…” Nick couldn’t continue, couldn’t relive the gruesome scene.
    â€œThis is the same guy who keeps breaking in, isn’t it? The spray-paint graffiti guy.”
    â€œLooks that way.”
    â€œIt’s because of you !” Lucas’s eyes widened, gleaming with tears. “All those people you fired, the way everyone in town hates you.”
    Nick didn’t know how to answer.
    â€œLike half the kids in school, their parents got laid off by you. It’s fucking embarrassing.”
    â€œLucas, listen to me—”
    Lucas gave him a ferocious look, eyes bulging, teeth bared, as if Nick were the one who’d killed Barney. “Why don’t you get the fuck out of my room,” he said, his voice cracking.
    Nick’s reaction surprised himself. If he’d talked that way to his father, he’d have had the shit beaten out of him. But instead of flying into a fury, he was instead overcome by calm, patient sorrow—his heart ached for the kid, for what he’d had to go through. “Lucas,” Nick said, so softly it was almost a whisper, “don’t you ever talk to me like that again.” He turned around and quietly closed the door behind him. His heart wasn’t in