A Fairytale for Christmas

Chapter 1

Robin knew his friend had a point. "Well, I'm going to ask my uncle tomorrow. Wish me luck."

"Good luck," both Will and John said.

They finished cleaning up the party and climbed into the van. Robin sighed as he started it up and drove away, eager to get home and get some sleep. At least he would go to bed with the knowledge of another job well done. Hopefully it would counteract the nerves he felt about asking his uncle for the company.

Uncle Richard believed in being fair and had treated Robin like his own son after he went to live with the Notts following the death of his parents. Robin and Keith had been the same age and Robin's aunt had died shortly before his parents, though hers had been expected due to a long battle with cancer while his parents' death had been sudden in a car accident. Uncle Richard had lost his wife and his sister in the span of a few months but did everything he could to help Robin and Keith adjust to their new lives. They did everything together and really bonded as a family.

Yet most times, it seemed Uncle Richard believed the only way to be fair was to make things equal. Or to have the appearance of equality. Which meant that Keith and Robin often had to do the same things together, though Robin didn't complain much. He enjoyed playing soccer but Keith was deadweight on the student council, forcing him to cover for his cousin to make sure things got done.

Which, it had turned out, was just a forerunner to their working relationship as well.

Both he and Keith had earned degrees in business management with Robin eager to join his uncle's businesses to gain experience and grow his skills while Keith joined because he figured it would be easy money. And in many ways, he was just getting paid to be the boss' son – though Robin knew Uncle Richard had no clue how little Keith worked. He covered well for his cousin and let Guy take credit for many things he had done by himself.

After a year working in some of the other companies Richard owned, Robin and Keith had been given his fledgling catering company to run. Richard had told them that they were a great team and he knew that if anyone could grow the company, it would be his boys. Keith hadn't been thrilled at the prospect, preferring to work in the established companies where he could goof off most of the day, but Robin happily took on the challenge. He had the idea to provide so much more than catering and spent the first year running it networking with DJs, bands, venues and other party-related businesses. Soon he had enough contacts to start offering to plan the parties for their clients, allowing them to have to go to one place rather than separate ones. With Will's and John's help, Robin soon built L&N Events – as his uncle allowed him to rebrand it – and they became in demand party planners.

Keith would just show up for the first couple meetings with their clients, pop into the party and leave as soon as he was sure the clients saw him, and then be there for the debrief meeting where the client usually paid and tipped everyone – including him. They were starting to pick up a more high-end clientele and so Keith was more present now, hoping to schmooze his way into high society – especially through marriage. Robin had no doubt his cousin's main goal in his life was to be some trophy husband who didn't have to work and got to life off his wife's money or her family's.

That made Robin nervous that his cousin would fight letting him have full ownership of the company. Even though he could work at any one of Uncle Richard's other companies, none would bring him into the same close contact with the jet set like the event planning business. And Keith certainly wouldn't want to just be an employee – he would believe he deserved to be an owner and continue to do no work for the same pay. If Keith objected, there was a good chance Uncle Richard wouldn't give him the business – even though Robin did all the work.

Which, of course, his uncle didn't know because Robin never told him all of that. So he would think it would be unfair to not split the business fifty-fifty, even with Robin offering to buy him out with his savings and some of his inheritance. He could be stuck working with his cousin forever.