by Leanne Davis
She scoffed. “Reputation?”
“Okay. I don’t have one in my personal life. But professionally? Come on, you know I do.”
She grudgingly admitted he did with a silent nod.
He cleared his throat. “So anyway, when I met Chris, something sparked between us. He’s young, sharp, ambitious, and hungry. He moved up swiftly, and far faster than most employees and I believe he’ll continue that steep trajectory. And I know I can trust him.”
“What do you want from Walter?”
“He’s my business partner. Chris will be my construction man. By the time I’m finished with him, he’ll successfully run, build, budget, and bid any building he comes across. Margaret will be able to project manage anything. And Walter? He’ll handle the business side. Meet with clients. Do all the wheeling and dealing. He can handle things like the accounting decisions, as well as the forecasting the big picture in five years. He knows how to invest profits and minimize losses. He’ll decide what jobs we should take and determine how big or little the employee pool needs to be for the upcoming year. You know, the business end. Chris and Margaret construction. Walter, business.”
She folded her arms again. “What are you implying? Got a bit of an ego?”
“Yeah, I do. But it takes three guys to fill in for me and everything I have to do.”
She squinted at him. “What now?”
“You. You’re the final piece to the puzzle, the only one I was missing. I started working with you and noticed your quick mind, hard work, tenacity and honesty. All the qualities I recognized in Chris. Plus, you two work so well together. I soon realized you two and Walter could be a very successful, dynamic, powerful team. Because Margaret isn’t going to work much longer than me.”
“And all because I’m blonde and young, you manage to find this?”
“Yeah. At least, that’s how I started to work with you.” He shrugged, looking sheepish. “I realize that is pure chauvinism and wrong. But even if I hired you for the wrong reasons, I now want to employ you for all the right reasons. I respect your work and I want to groom you and Chris and Walter. Think about it. I spend as much time working with Chris and Walter one-on-one as I do with you. I really am not just coming onto you. I hope you see that.”
Her lips twitched. “Well, I suppose not, unless you’re going after Chris too.”
“No.” He smiled, relaxing his shoulders as if he thought maybe she would not have him arrested before she quit. “I must ask that you don’t share my plan with anyone, especially Chris and Walter. First of all, I don’t know if my plan will begin in a year, or five or ten. You know? I don’t know what I want. Sometimes, I’m tired and simply want to slow down, and enjoy the success I already have. Then I have to wonder if this is what I truly enjoy. Working. I’m not sure where it’ll lead me yet. And until I know, I want to continue the subtle grooming I’ve been doing. If people think I might retire or start sniffing around to see if they could have more investment control in this company, it might change our relationship. I hope it continues to move forward until I’m ready. Does that make sense?”
She puckered her mouth. “I’ll keep your intentions quiet because it’s none of my business or concern.”
“Will you still work here? And come with me today?”
“Why? So you can groom me some more?”
“Yes. For work. For here. Not for my personal purposes.”
She squinted at him. “I hope you mean that, because I do.”
“If you won’t quit, I swear I’ll teach you all that I know as well as the work I should have hired you for in the first place. If I don’t keep my word, sue me.”
He stuck his hand out. Against her better judgment, she tucked her hand into his. Scowling, she added, “I should not stay on here. Half of the reason I will is because I like the job and the people I work with. But right now, that doesn’t include you. And if you make one improper move…”
“I understand.”
She flipped her hair over her shoulder and held her head high as she marched out of there. Some of the dramatic effect was lost because she had to go to her office to grab some paperwork to take with them.
She wasn’t sure she was making the right decision. Lloyd spun a believable story. She’d hold her judgment if she believed he’d gone from hiring her as a joke to being so impressed with her he had to consider grooming her for what? Being part of a team that would take over his business? Ha. She didn’t believe him.
But she had no other offers or prospects and she didn’t want to quit. So she could look at it as she was eyes wide open walking into this situation and taking the power back or being hoodwinked to be made more a joke of. She wanted to believe it was the first. Time would tell. And she had plenty of that.
Chapter Eight
CHRIS SPOTTED HER BLONDE head across the dining room. It was Julia, of that he was sure. He sprinted towards her, but the elevator closed before he could make it. After weaseling her room number from the clerk—he lied and said he was her brother and forgot his key—the man at the desk hadn’t cared enough to try to stop him. Chris quickly found the stairs and started a full run straight up them. Sweating, huffing, and puffing, he finally hit floor number seven and opened the door, his heart hammering. No one was about. The plush carpet muffled any noise.
He found her room number and sucked in a breath, trying to ease his hammering heart. Mustering all of his courage and strength, he knocked.
And knocked.
And knocked.
No one answered. He listened at the door, but heard no sounds. He waited, but no one came.
She wasn’t back. She hadn’t returned to her room yet.
He leaned forward, wilting against the door. So, was she with Lloyd? She had to be, there was no other reasonable explanation. Anger riled his gut. He fisted his hands, flexing his fingers and clasping them. No. This wasn’t right. He shouldn’t have been freaking out at Julia for doing whatever she chose to do. She was young, single, unattached and had every right to be with whomever she chose. He rationally knew that. His mom was right, though; he never told her how he felt. He never once suggested a different option. She was attractive, interesting, cool and pretty hard to figure out. An air of mystery made her intriguing, and a challenge to understand. She wasn’t any typical blonde, bimbo, or airhead. She might not have known what she was doing when she first started working, or anything else about the construction industry, but she already proved that she was eager to learn, and she retained and applied any information that was supplied to her. She had good initiative and followed through. Qualities that were as valuable as experience or education.
That’s why Chris never should have insinuated, okay… he pretty much outright accused her of getting hired strictly because of her youth and looks. Then he bluntly implied that Lloyd only wanted those things from her. But that was before she had flourished in the job. She owned it now. And she was quickly becoming an indispensable asset to most of the field superintendents. She was their go-to person, before anyone bothered the project managers or Lloyd, or any of the other upper management and important people. They didn’t have time for all the nuts and bolts of construction that Julia did.
Suppliers and subcontractors didn’t often respond to a job superintendent’s call. A call from the main office always got things done quicker, cheaper, and better. Julia had become the person they called for those instances.
And now Chris annihilated her confidence and status in the company. What he did was wrong. Whatever she did, even if he strongly disapproved, she wasn’t doing anything wrong.
It also meant—He couldn’t find the words to describe it without flinching. No. Nope. His brain refused to go there, no matter how logical and rational he tried to be. That would mean, from there forward, he could never have a ghost of a chance with Julia. Nope, not after she slept with his father! He shuddered. There was no going back from that. There was no way he could turn that wrong into a right. He could never consider any
kind of relationship with her after that, not anything. But that wasn’t her fault, since she didn’t know how he felt. He refused to speak up about it. And it might have cost him the only possible chance in his twenty-eight years to be with a woman that made him feel the way she could. The mere thought of her felt like an unexpected punch to the gut. Never mind when he was in her presence. Chris adored Julia. And he never once dared to tell her. He got a few whiffs of Lloyd’s interest in her before now, but he never considered she might feel the same for the older man. And why shouldn’t she?
Chris blew it. Forever. His heart dipped lower than his guts.
However, he still owed her an apology. If he left there without doing that, his mother would have most likely disowned him. He had to be punished for taking out his hurt and what his mother referred to as his fragile ego because Julia chose someone else instead of him. That was his problem, not hers.
And of course, it wasn’t her fault that he wanted to sleep with her so badly.
Sighing, he slid down the wall onto his butt, beside her door, his legs outstretched. He had to pull them in whenever someone walked by. Leaning back, he stared up at the ceiling while ruminating over his lost chances and the ache of regret it left in his heart. Huge regret. But Lloyd was his biological dad. His own flesh and blood. Jesus, they couldn’t possibly… share a girl? He shuddered. Ugh. Yuck. Even if Lloyd had no clue about the identity of his son and Julia had no idea about his secret relationship to her boss, and now, most likely, her lover, Chris knew.
Then again, what proof did he have that Julia ever wanted anything with him? Not even remotely. She wasn’t blown over by him, that was for sure. She called him a friend and had grown comfortable enough with him to ask the questions she might not have asked anyone else. So he was a fraction of a degree above some of the other workers, he certainly was astute enough to know he was not her bucket list fantasy. He got that. She was too hung up on how big he was. Not her preferred type, which he suspected from all the comments she made and her stolen glances. He slid his hand over his bald head and fingered the few earrings that outlined his ears. His nose was a little too large for his face and slightly crooked. He had very bright blue eyes, and more than one woman had gushed about those. Some women told him that his shaved head seemed to highlight all of his other features, but mostly, his eyes. Still, he wasn’t what Julia was looking for.
She probably would have been attracted to someone like his father. Polished. Well-dressed. Massive locks of hair. He sighed, leaning forward, and feeling more glum and depressed as he waited in the generic hallway.
Eventually, he drifted off to sleep, but approaching footsteps woke him up. Startled to see the attractive blonde coming towards him down the long hallway, he clambered to his feet. From quite a way back, Julia paused and then stopped. Her mouth opened into a surprised “O” as her eyes rounded out with astonishment. With unmasked surprise, she said, “Chris?” Her tone suggested she couldn’t believe her eyes. She blinked a few times as if to make sure she wasn’t imagining his presence there.
Sheepishly, and feeling worse than before, he nodded. “Yeah. It’s me.”
Julia’s eyebrows dropped down and she started walking again, her left hand holding a pair of high heels and in her right hand, her room card-key. She seemed ready to plow right through him if he didn’t move. He stepped to the side and didn’t fail to notice she was wearing the same dress from the first day he met her. His heart dipped down. She looked so pretty in it. Petite, and so well put-together. The back dropped down to a sharp V that ended in the middle her back. His fingers twitched with desire. He longed to run his hands over, the smooth, tanned skin he glimpsed there. She unlocked her room and opened the door. Only then did she glare up at him.
“What are you doing here? At…” She glanced at her wristwatch, adding, “At two o’clock in the morning?”
Chris winced. It was much later than he thought. If she were this late, there was no doubt in Chris’s mind as to where she’d been. But why did Lloyd send her out all alone in the middle of the night? What a damn prick.
Rubbing his neck, Chris dropped his face downwards and blushed with shame, while his neck and cheeks grew flaming hot. “I came… I just came to apologize. For saying the things I said to you. It was all wrong of me and I had no right.”
Her eyebrows twitched and her scowl deepened. “Well, of course you didn’t. But why would you drive all the way over here to say that? I mean, what did you do? Just sit here waiting for me? How did you know it was my room?”
“I convinced the clerk that I was your brother. He wasn’t as concerned about your privacy and the hotel rules as you might have hoped. He didn’t even bother to question me. And yeah, I came all the way here. I felt so lousy and—”
“And you were waiting here to what? Confirm or deny your accusations? Maybe now you’re just a plain, old-fashioned stalker?”
“No. No, not a stalker. My mother insisted I—”
“You told your mother what you said to me?”
“Yeah.” He stared down at the multicolored patterned carpet in the hallway.
“Why would you do such a thing?”
He shrugged his shoulder muscles, tightening up with anxiety. He wasn’t sure how to reply. “She realized something was up. I can’t lie to her and she just told me everything that I already knew. I was a dick. And an asshole. I don’t deserve your forgiveness but I still have to ask for it.”
Julia tossed her shoes through the open doorway and angrily crossed her arms over her chest. “You were. What are you? A mama’s boy?”
He nodded, shrugging. “Well, I guess so. Yeah.”
She stared up at him until her lips twitched. “You don’t look like one. You don’t live with her too, do you? Down in her basement? With your cat?”
He might have been ashamed, tired, and mortified over where Julia was tonight but his lips twitched in response. She always made him laugh. “You mean, like you? Should I remind you where you live? And no, I don’t live with her. Just me and the cat.”
The door next to Julia’s burst open and a head poked out. “Some of us are trying to sleep!” They glanced at each other in surprise after the head ducked back in and slammed the door shut.
She sighed. “I guess you better come in.”
Julia entered first, setting her key and purse on the dresser top. She clicked on the floor lamp next to it. Her room was as neat and tidy as it must have been on check-in. She had a small bag on the suitcase rack that was open but nothing seemed to be taken out or put away.
She turned towards him. The closed hotel room made it much more intimate and exciting. Her gaze traveled over him until she eyed him wearily. “What are you really doing here, Chris? This is insane. I can’t believe you’d come up here like this. Duh. You owe me an apology, okay, but a simple text or a phone call would have been the logical start.”
“I shouldn’t have suggested you were coming here for the reasons I did. Or let you think you weren’t good at your job and important to the company. You are. I know how often you help out and that’s because you help me out the most.”
Her mouth flattened to a mean line. “And before I returned? You realized I wasn’t downstairs or in here, so do you have any questions? Or comments?”
“No.” He shook his head, sucking in air. “No. Whatever you choose to do with yourself in your personal life is strictly your business.”
“No matter what I do or don’t do, it isn’t any of your business.”
“No. It isn’t.”
Her mouth puckering with disdain, she stared at him for a few moments before muttering, “I refuse to confirm or deny anything to you about anything or anybody.”
“Okay.”
“Is it okay? Or am I somehow sullied now? Changed? My ability to do the job I was hired to do is not hampered by the partner I choose to have sex with, is it? Isn’t that what got you so bent out of shape? Why don’t you ask if I’m still as pure as the driven snow as I was the
n?”
He shook his head. “I was way out of line. Nothing is changed about you… or us… regardless… of ...”
“Having sex with Lloyd? Is that what you mean?”
Shuddering, Chris tried to keep it from showing. “Yes.”
“I walked the site with Lloyd, along with three other men from the Orson Group. Do you know who they are? It’s a large dental chain who intends to build a branch in Oregon to use as their headquarters. So it must include both the corporate offices and the practicing offices to treat dental patients. That makes it a complicated building. Their discussion went on for hours, long past dinner, and after they finally left, Lloyd and I had drinks until now.”
“Except… you don’t drink.”
Her mouth flashed the tiniest smile. “How shrewd of you to remember. No. I don’t. I had water, but Lloyd drank. Before we continue this discussion, you should know that I confronted him about what you said. Turns out, you were right. He admitted hiring me for the exact reasons you stated before. Stupid me, I should have seen it. But I didn’t. I assumed better of him. Harboring those salacious intentions towards me, he intended to use his symbolic position just as you said. So I suppose you shouldn’t apologize for telling me the truth. And I must admit, I might have overreacted to it. That’s because it hurt and humiliated me. But that is what Lloyd wanted from me. However, he also said I was the first assistant to actually do the job, and do it well, and now he admits that I’ve become a valuable employee. He named off all the specific problems I caught or helped find solutions to. That was enough to convince me he noticed something beyond my boob size.”