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L O G A N
Marriage. A deep and abiding partnership where two people take on
separate roles to build a more complete life together. My parents, Ted and
Doreen Crowne, were perfect partners and perfectly in love. They’d
managed a thriving business and six children in a harmonious house.
I wanted what they had, and no less.
She was out there somewhere, and she’d appear when she was ready. I
wasn’t looking. Wasn’t dating. Wasn’t doing much more than working, and
that was my choice. My first goal was running Crowne Industries, and
when that was in the bag, the marriage would take care of itself.
But my father was a worrier, and if he wasn’t content with my life, I
couldn’t be.
We were in our parents’ Santa Barbara place when my father called my
older brother, Byron, and me up to his office.
Before I sat in the chair across from Dad’s desk, I’d been complacent. I
could beat myself up with that for a long time, and I would. Byron had
given up his shot at running the company, so Dad had groomed me, trained
me, told me everything. I attacked everything he threw at me. No job was
too small. No task too menial. In five years, I knew every nook and corner
of a company with offices on four continents and a research station in
Antarctica.
So I figured he wanted to meet us about Byron’s impending fatherhood
or the wedding that was being planned for after the baby was born.
“What’s this about?” Byron asked before Dad came in, surprising me. I
thought he’d at least have a hint.
“Fucked if I know.”