LITMIR.BIZ

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completely lost your mind.” Luke Barrett stared across the room at his grandfather. “You said you wanted me to come over to really talk. This isn’t talking, Pop. This is nuts.”

      Jamison Barrett stood up from behind his desk, and Luke took just a moment to admire the fact that, at eighty, the old man still stood military-straight. Fit and strong, Jamison was a man to be reckoned with—as he always had been. His steel-gray hair was expertly cut, and he wore a tailored navy-blue pin-striped suit with a power red tie. The look he gave his grandson promised a battle.

      “You should know better than to tell an old man he’s crazy,” he said. “We’re sensitive about that sort of thing.”

      Luke shook his head. His grandfather had always been stubborn—Luke was used to that. But a few months ago, the old man had dropped a bomb and, clearly, he hadn’t changed his mind about it.

      “I don’t know what else to call this,” Luke argued, feeling as frustrated as he had when Pop first brought this up. “When the president of a company suddenly makes a U-turn and wants to cut off its most profitable arm, I think that qualifies as nuts.”

      Jamison came around the corner of his desk, probably hoping to put this little meeting on a friendlier footing. “I don’t have any intention of pulling out of the tech world. I only want to dial it back—”

      “Yes,” Luke interrupted. “In favor of wooden rocking horses, bicycles and skateboards.”

      “We’re a toy company first,” Jamison reminded him. “We have been for more than a hundred damn years.”

      “And then we grew into Barrett Toys and Tech,” Luke pointed out.

      “Grew in the wrong direction,” his grandfather snapped.

      “Disagree.” Luke blew out a breath and tried to rein in the exasperation nearly choking him. He had always trusted Pop’s judgment. But in this, he was willing to fight the older man because, damn it, the path to the future wasn’t through the past.

      “I’ve got studies to back me up.”

      “And I’ve got profit and loss statements to prove you’re wrong.”

      “Yeah, we’re making plenty of money, but is that all we want?”

      Luke’s jaw dropped. “Since that is sort of the whole point of being in business, I’m going to say yes.”

      Jamison shook his head in clear disappointment. “You used to have a broader vision.”

      “And you used to listen to me.” Irritated, Luke shoved both hands into his slacks pockets and gave a quick glance around his grandfather’s office.

      It was familiar and warm and pretty much fit the old man to a T. Jamison’s desk was a hand-carved mahogany behemoth that dominated the huge room. If there was ever a tidal wave that swept this far inland, Pop could float on that thing for days.

      On the cream-colored walls were framed posters of their most popular toys over the years, and family photos dotted the shelves that were also lined with leather-bound books that had actually been read. It was a prestigious Victorian office that seemed at war with the present times.

      But then, so was Jamison.

      “I don’t want to argue with you about this again, Pop,” Luke said, trying to keep the impatience he was feeling out of his tone.

      He owed this proud old man everything. Jamison and his wife, Loretta, had raised Luke and his cousin Cole after the boys’ parents were killed in a small plane crash. Luke had been ten and Cole twelve when they went to live with their grandparents as broken, grief-stricken kids. But Jamison and Loretta had picked up the pieces in spite of their own grief at losing both of their sons and daughters-in-law in one horrific accident. They had given their grandsons love and protection and the feeling that their world hadn’t ended.

      Luke and Cole had grown up working at Barrett Toys, knowing that one day they would be in charge. The company was more than a hundred years old and had always stayed current by leaping into the future—taking chances. When Luke was in college and convinced his grandfather that tech toys were going to be the next big thing, Jamison hadn’t hesitated.

      He’d gathered up the finest tech designers he could find, and the Barrett toy company got even bigger, even more successful. Now they were on the cutting edge. Counted as one of the biggest toy and tech companies in the world. For the last few years, Luke had been running the tech division, and Cole worked on the more traditional outlet.

      Okay yes, Cole wasn’t happy that Luke was the heir apparent, especially since he was two years older than Luke, but the cousins had worked that out. Mostly.

      Now, though, none of them knew where they stood. All because Jamison Barrett had gotten a bug up his—

      “I’m not talking about an argument, Luke,” Jamison said, clearly irritated. “I’m talking about what I see every time I walk out of this office. Hell, Luke, if you weren’t glued to your phone like the rest of humanity, you’d see it, too.”

      As irritated as his grandfather, Luke bit back his temper. He’d heard this argument over and over during the last couple of months. “Not this again.”

      “Yes, this. This is about the kids, Luke. As attached to their phones and screens and tablets and games as you are to your email.” Jamison threw both hands high. “Used to be, children were running amok outside with their friends, getting into trouble, climbing trees, swimming.” He glared at Luke. “Hell, you and Cole were in constant motion when you were kids. Making you stay inside and read was looked at like torture!”

      All true, he thought, but he only said, “Times change.”

      Jamison scowled. “Not always for the better. Kids today, all their friends are online, and they wear headsets so they can talk to each other without actually having to see each other. Instead of getting outside, they build ‘virtual’ tree houses. They have carefully written adventures via game boxes.”

      “Hell, most kids probably don’t even know how to ride a bike anymore.”

      Luke shook his head. “Bikes aren’t going to teach them how to navigate what’s becoming a completely digital world.”

      “Right. A digital world.” Jamison nodded sharply. “Who’s going to fix your cars, or air conditioners, or the damn toilet when it breaks? You going to pee digitally, too? It’s going to get mighty hot in your house if you’re only using virtual air-conditioning.”

      “This is ridiculous,” Luke muttered, amazed that he had allowed himself to get sucked into Jamison’s fixation. He had to wonder where his visionary grandfather had gone. Did this happen to all old people? Did they all start slipping into a hole and then pulling the hole in after them?

      “Pop, you’re making the same kind of complaint every generation makes about the newer one. You’ve never been the kind of man to look backward. You’ve always been more interested in the future than the past. This isn’t like you.”

      “Times change.” Jamison tossed Luke’s words back at him. “And I am talking about the future,” the older man argued. “There are all kinds of studies out now about what staring at screens are doing to kids’ minds. That’s why I wanted you to come in. I want you to see them. Read them. Open your damn mind long enough to admit that maybe I’ve got a point.”

      With that, Jamison turned to his desk and started riffling through the papers and files stacked there. Muttering beneath his breath, he checked everywhere, then checked again.

      “I had it right here,” he muttered. “Had Donna print it all out this morning.” Facing Luke again, he said, “I can’t find it right now and damned if I can figure out why—”

      Luke frowned. “Doesn’t matter.”

      “That’s where you’re wrong. Blast it, Luke, I don’t want to be part of

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