Finally Myra.

37.

*Drake's POV*

Walking in to Joe and Todd's office this morning, I have never been more nervous.

I really ripped up my hotel plan last night and told my mom I wasn't doing the internship in North Carolina.

You know what this woman said.

'Well honey if that's what's going to make you happy then you should do it.'

WOMAN IF YOU WOULD'VE SAID THAT SOONER THIS WOULD'VE BEEN A WHOLE LOT EASIER.

I took a deep breath, and opened the doors to the office building.

I walked up to the receptionists.

"What can I do for you dear?" She looked up at me.

"I'm uh, I'm supposed to be talking with Todd and Joe this morning." I nodded.

"Did you have an appointment?" She raised her eyebrows.

"Oh. Uh-"

"He doesn't need one Janice." Joe came walking down the hall. "This is Drake Adams."

"Oh." She smiled. "Hi dear. Can I get you anything? Water, Coffee?"

"Coffee would be great, thank you." I nodded.

"Cream? Sugar?"

"Black is fine." I smiled.

"I'll get that right to you." She smiled.

"Just bring it to office 4 Jan." Joe smiled. "Come on, Todd is waiting for us." He put his arm over my shoulder and pulled me down the hall.

"She's nice." I nodded.

"She is. She's Bren's little sister." He nodded and pulled me in to an office.

"Good morning kid." Todd smiled.

"Good morning." I gave him a small smile as Joe closed the door.

"So what's going on. What'd you need to talk to us about?" Joe sat on the desk. "Everything going OK on the site?"

"Oh yeah. Everything is fine. I love doing it." I nodded.

"So what's up?" Todd tilted his head.

"Well, I was wondering if you could give me some advice."

"Alright." He nodded.

"You guys built this from the ground up, right?"

"We did."

"I ripped up my hotel plan last night, and called the firm in North Carolina this morning and back out of the internship running. Because I talked to my dad last night and decided houses are what I want to do. I wanna do houses like the one I'm drawing now. Custom houses, green energy houses, old style, modern, all of them. I wanna fall in love with my job. So I was wondering if maybe you two could point me in the right direction to get started." I nodded.

"You don't say?" Todd smiled.

"What?" I gave him a look.

"Nothing." Joe punched his shoulder. "And, well, the first thing you'd want to do is get your portfolio in check. Get a couple pieces drawn up, then come up with a business plan. We had 2 very great business consultants to help us. You know them both, plus you have 2 girls who went through all of this not to long ago."

"And then you want to take that business plan to the bank, apply for a loan. Then depending on the size of the loan, you want to find a few investors. Start off with small projects." Todd nodded. "We started off with sheds, backyard play sets, single stories. And don't get us wrong kid, your degree helps a lot, but a little bit of experience under your belt would do you some good. Building the houses right now, that helps but you need more of the designing."