Bailey, Debbie - Stephanie's Homecoming [Men of Kinsey 4] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Debbie Bailey

  “Oh for God’s sake, Kane, couldn’t you have waited to flex your muscles for a more appropriate time and place?” Stephanie snapped at him.

  “If I understand the story I heard, Steph, you used me as a buffer, shall we say, between you and these two, so I don’t blame them at all for wanting to see what sort of man will be spending time with their woman.” Shayne turned and smiled at her.

  “Who the fuck do you work for, Shayne, me or them?” she asked.

  “Why, I work for you, Steph, but remember, I’m your balance. I’m to keep you from doing stupid things, remember?”

  The little shit was quick all right.

  Joe stood not far from them, just laughing his ass off.

  “Now that we know you’re in very capable hands, we’ll be on our way,” Turk said as he gently kissed her on the cheek.

  “I’ll see you tomorrow after work, baby. Joe will give you directions to the house. It’s real easy to find.” Kane kissed her gently on the lips, and then he and Turk left the room, leaving her mouth agape.

  Turning to Shayne, Stephanie gave him her best evil villain smile and said, “You and I are having a long talk about boundaries, young man.”

  * * * *

  The meeting started as soon as Joe was sure that everyone was there and seated.

  “I’m glad that everyone is here today, because I have an announcement. As of the end of this week, I will be retiring. I’ve sold the paper to someone who is more than capable of running it just as well if not better than I did.”

  From the back of the room, some dumbass actually had the nerve to say, “Maybe we can talk the new owner into giving those of us who actually have some writing skills more space in the paper.”

  Joe looked really angry when he said, “You all know that you have to earn your spot on the front page. Bringing me some piece of fluff isn’t going to cut it, no matter how well it is written. Maybe the new owner will feel differently.”

  “I hope you didn’t sell out to some idiot who doesn’t know the first thing about running a newspaper,” piped up another smart-mouthed, young jackass.

  Shayne started to stand but was beaten to the punch by a young woman in the front.

  “You all are a bunch of assholes, pardon my language. Joe’s just told you he’s sold his business and is retiring, and all you can think about is what you can get from it. How pathetic are you? Andy, when no one else would hire you after college because your grades, well let’s just say, sucked, who gave you a chance to show that you could really write a good story? And you, Francis—oh I’m sorry, Frank—all you want to write about is whatever cause of the day you seem to find. You write this piece of fluff, get yourself invited to some fancy party or two, and then move on to the next fad. I’d say you’re damn lucky to even have a job.”

  Stephanie leaned forward and whispered to Shayne, “Who is that young woman with the courage of a lion?” She smiled as she continued to listen to her.

  “That’s one of your resident crime reporters. Her name is Tabitha—get this—Aphrodite. Yup, that’s her real name, Tabitha Aphrodite,” Shayne told her.

  “I want to see her in my office right after the meeting, arrange it.”

  Tabitha continued to call out several more of the men and women whom she felt were disrespectful toward Joe.

  You go, girl…Joe walked back to the front, saying, “It’s all right, Tabby, and it’s not me they have to deal with anymore.” He smiled at a couple of the assholes who had said some shitty things about him.

  “Well, what moron did you con into buying this piece-of-shit paper anyway, Joe?” Francis stood and laughed along with a couple of others.

  While normally she would have stood to say something right away, she looked over at Shayne and saw him furiously writing notes and looking more and more pissed off with each word. Joe had been right on the money with this kid. He would be one of this paper’s best assets.

  “Oh, I think you all know her, at least through her reputation in the newspaper business. I’d like you all to meet your new editor in chief and owner of the Kinsey Pictorial, Miss Stephanie Morrison.

  Shocked gasps went up around the room, along with a smattering of real applause.

  “Well, now this paper has a real editor,” the fluff writer in the back said.

  Standing up, Stephanie moved to the front of the room to stand beside her uncle. She looked to Joe for one last nod to go, and when she got it, she knew it was now her show.

  “First off, let me say that I am so grateful to Joe to allow me to buy my hometown paper from him. I’ve been a part owner for five years but wasn’t able to get home until now, and when Joe said he wanted to retire and take his goddess of a wife on a world cruise, I jumped at the chance. Now down to business…”

  “Finally, someone who really knows what they’re doing,” said the moron in the back.

  Calmly, Stephanie went and sat on the edge of the table in the front of the room.

  “Francis…is it?” she asked, indicating the man in the back to stand.

  “Actually, my friends call me Frank,” he said with a big smile.

  “Well okay then, Francis. Let’s get a few things straight between you and me right from the start. Disrespect from anyone in this room toward anyone one else is a punishable offense in my book. And you, Francis, not only disrespected my mentor but also the man who I have considered my uncle since I was a child, as well as the way he runs his business. You also disrespected Tabitha while she was speaking, and you have disrespected me by interrupting me while I was addressing the group. That, Francis, will cost you dearly. You’re to pack your office up and move all your stuff to the office in the basement until I decide whether or not you’ll be given a chance to redeem yourself, or whether I’ll just fire your fucking ass instead.”

  A number of the men in the back all stood and started to come to his defense until Stephanie got up and started walking toward them slowly.

  “Here’s the thing, gentlemen and ladies, oh, I’m well aware of the bitchy-ass biting that’s been going on around here.” Stopping about halfway between Joe and Francis, she turned around and headed back again.

  “I will meet with each and every one of you, first, individually, and then as a department, to assess things for myself, and trust me, the only three people whose jobs are guaranteed right now are myself, Shayne, and Tabitha. Myself because of the obvious, Shayne because he is now my executive assistant, so if you want to see me, you better be nice to him. Anything you want or need in anything other than a story or a problem within a department, you speak with Shayne first. He’ll know where I am and what kind of mood I’m in at all times. Within a very short time, it will be like you’re hearing my voice when he tells you I’ve said something…okay, that was just a little too creepy.” She laughed, and so did a lot of the others in the room.

  “Tabitha’s job is safe because out of everyone in this room, she’s the only one that showed outright loyalty to Joe and his wife Helen, who has worked alongside for all these years, and in my book, that’s a huge check mark in her favor, so until I have spoken to all of you, read over your contracts, because I will be renegotiating them with some of you, and that’s all for now. Shayne, send my first appointment up in about ten minutes.”

  She and Joe left together, and once they were on the stairs and out of earshot, they both burst out laughing.

  “Poor Francis, he always let his mouth get him into trouble.” Joe actually had tears in his eyes, he was laughing so hard.

  “The bloody moron deserves to sweat for at least a month before I let him out of his dungeon.” Stephanie knew she probably wouldn’t leave him in the basement office that long, but she just wanted Joe to think she was a hard-ass.

  When they finally pulled themselves together, they continued up the stairs and to their respective offices, as if both were still upset about the meeting.

  She hadn’t realized that they’d spent so much time in the stairwell giggling like children,
but she had only just gotten to her desk when Shayne came in with Tabitha behind him.

  “I brought Tabby here for you to speak with, Steph. Is there any particular order you want people brought in after this?” he asked.

  “I want to see Francis next, and then the two other idiots who were egging him on, and then after that I want all the female employees. We take the rest tomorrow. And thanks, Shayne, type up the notes you took, and e-mail them to me and Joe, please.”

  * * * *

  Tabitha Aphrodite sat down and waited for the ax to fall. She never should have stood up and embarrassed Joe in front of everyone. Miss Morrison had said that she still had a job, but maybe she just didn’t want to embarrass her in front of everyone.

  “So, Tabby, is it all right if I call you that, or would you prefer Tabitha?” Steph wanted to make the young woman seated across the desk from her as comfortable with her as possible. For some reason, she had the look of a deer caught in the headlights of a semi, and Stephanie didn’t like that at all.

  “Tabby’s fine, Miss Morrison,” she said quietly.

  “Call me Stephanie, please. Every time I hear someone call me Miss Morrison, I expect to get a rap on the knuckles from my third-grade teacher.”

  “Okay, Stephanie it is, then.” Tabby gave her a small smile.

  “Now, from everything I’ve read from Joe, you, my dear, are an exceptional crime reporter, and I’m really curious as to know why you chose to cover that particular area. Usually it’s covered by a grizzled old man who can handle seeing blood and talking to the slime of the planet, not a tiny, young woman who looks afraid of her own shadow.”

  Tabby’s eyes widened at her boss’s observation of her. No one other than Joe and Helen knew why she did what she did, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready to tell Steph yet.

  “Didn’t Joe tell you why I do what I do, Steph?” she asked.

  “Nope, he told me that you would tell me when you’re ready. If it’s not now, don’t worry about it. Once you get to know me, you’ll realize I’m pretty easy to talk to, and anything you tell me stays with me until the day I die.”

  “Can you give me a few days to sort through everything before I come to you?” Tabby had such an adorable presence about her that it only served to make Steph want to delve into the psyche of this young woman. Obviously there was a very personal reason behind it, and Steph couldn’t wait to find out what it was.

  “You take all the time you need, sweetie. Now let’s go over this piss-poor contract of yours. First, I’ll tell you that I love and respect Joe, but he paid his best reporters shit wages. I understand why, but now that I’m here, our advertising boys are going to have to earn their keep, that’s for sure. So what I think we need to do is, first off, I’m going to promote you to associate head of your department with a large salary increase. The only person you are to answer to is me, not your department head, just me. Until I can figure out your moronic department head, that’s the way it’s going to be, okay. Next, you’ve been working out of a cubicle in the pits, right, well, pack up your things and take Frank’s office. He won’t need it for quite some time, and you are going to need to be able to have some privacy, so it’s now yours.”

  After a few more minutes and a lot of thank-yous from Tabby, Stephanie walked her to the door, gave her a hug, and told Shayne to send Francis in.

  Francis Kyle came into her office with his tail between his legs. Sitting across the desk, she could see the sweat running down the side of his face and the shake of his hands as he held them out in apology.

  “I want to apologize for my behavior at the meeting today, Miss Morrison. You were right. I was extremely disrespectful to Joe and Tabby, and that is unacceptable. And I didn’t mean to…well, yes I did, but I wasn’t thinking at the time when I interrupted you, and I’m truly sorry about that as well, and if you want to fire my ass, you have every reason to.”

  Wow, this was a whole different Francis Kyle from the one in the meeting, but was this the real Frank or just a man sucking up to his boss?

  “Well, this is a surprise,” Stephanie told him up front. “I had expected you to come in, guns blazing, calling me every name in the book, and telling me that I could shove your job up my ass. I never expected an apology, and I must say it’s thrown me a bit. I’m not sure whether to take you at your word or not.” The one thing that Stephanie had learned along the way was that honesty was always the best way to go.

  “I understand you not trusting me, Stephanie, but I assure you I am sincere. I love Joe dearly for giving me the chance when no one else would, but I’m tired of doing the fluff pieces, and all people think I’m capable of is doing the expose on the ladies’ luncheons or a short piece on some society event. I know I can write better stuff, and I guess, with some of the guys egging me on, I kinda let my anger override my common sense and respect for Joe, and I’ve already apologized to both him and Helen for my stupidity.”

  Stephanie was usually a pretty good judge of character, and Frank seemed to be sincere, so she was going to give him a chance. He’d either hang himself or do an incredible job. She just wasn’t quite sure which yet.

  “Okay, Frank, you’re going to get your chance, let’s see what you do with it.”

  Stephanie smiled, told Frank to wait a minute, and went to speak with Joe. She may have been a pretty good judge of character, but she wanted to bounce this idea off her friend.

  * * * *

  Joe and his wife, Helen, were sitting in his office having coffee when she knocked on the door. The minute she stuck her head through, there was a loud squeal, and Stephanie was unceremoniously pulled into the arms of a buxom blonde.

  “Dammit, Helen, let the poor girl breathe. Those boobs of yours are smothering her.” Joe laughed, pulling his wife into his arms.

  “Oh shit, sweetie, I’m sorry, I’m just so excited to see you and to have you back home. I can’t wait for our first girl’s night when we get back.”

  Helen Kenyon was one of a kind. A former beauty queen, she’d moved to Kinsey when Stephanie was still in diapers. She moved to get away from what she called “the wolves,” who appeared to think that just because she was drop-dead gorgeous, she didn’t have a brain in her head. It seemed that every time she started working for a company, the only way she would be able to get promoted was on her back, and as a woman raised on a Texas ranch, that wasn’t ever going to happen, but when she told her boss that, she usually got fired, or else a wife or a girlfriend would come into the office for a visit, take one look at her, and insist that she be fired. When Helen heard of an opening as an office assistant at the paper, she had applied. Joe hired her from only a couple of phone interviews. He’d always said that it was her voice that he fell for, so when she arrived to start her first day, he fell instantly for the beauty.

  It took him awhile to win her trust and to prove to her that she wasn’t just a pretty face to him, but since then they’d both been very happy. The only downside was that, because of an illness as a child, Joe couldn’t have any children. They both loved kids, so when Helen met Stephanie, she became very special to her and Joe, and they both loved her as if she was their own. Whenever her parents needed a babysitter for a night, or if they wanted to take a “big people’s” vacation, she always stayed with Helen and Joe and had the best time.

  “It’s so good to see you, and you’re still drop-dead gorgeous, lady.” Stephanie smiled and kissed her friend’s cheek.

  “Knock it off, sweetie, maybe twenty years ago.” Helen blushed.

  Joe slapped his wife on the ass and said, “How many times do you have to be reminded that you’re still as beautiful as the day I met you, baby?”

  Steph didn’t think she’d ever seen the color of pink that her friend’s face turned or the look of pure adoration in her eyes when she looked at her husband.

  “Oh good God, you two, can’t you wait until you’re on your trip to start making googly eyes at each other? It reminds me of what my parents looked like
after they had come back from one of their long talks in their bedroom. Gross.” Steph laughed, making a shivering motion with her body.

  “I need a bit of advice from you two about this Frank guy. I have him in my office, and he seems very apologetic, but I don’t know him as well as you. He looks sincere, but what do you think?” Pulling a chair out, she sat down and waited for the others to join her.

  “Frank is usually a really great guy, but lately he’s been spouting off, and I haven’t been able to get him to tell me why,” Joe said, the look of his face one of sadness.

  “I think I know why, so I’m going to give him a chance. Do you still have those files on the history of the paper, Joe?” Steph asked.

  “Yeah, just a sec.” Joe went to his file cabinet and pulled out three large folders and handed them to her.

  “You’re going to get Frank to write the historical piece?” he queried.

  “It’s going to be his one chance. I think he’s been waiting to be given something other than the fluff pieces, and I think you were waiting for him to bring you something other than the fluff pieces, so I’m going to start fresh with him and see what he can do.”

  “I knew selling you this paper would be the right thing to do. You would have inherited it anyway, but this way I can take my wonderful wife on the cruise she’s always wanted.” Joe looked lovingly at Helen.

  Stephanie’s gut clenched when he said she would have inherited it. She’d never thought of her life without Joe and Helen, so she wasn’t prepared for it.

  Sniffing back a rogue tear, she left the office with a promise to meet them at their place in an hour.

  Back in her office, Frank was still sitting there waiting.

  Handing the files to him, she said, “I want you to write a story about the history of this paper. Those folders have some of the information you’ll need, but a lot of it is in the archives downstairs. Some of the information you’ll find online and at city hall.