Sometimes It Is Rocket Science

by Thorpe, Kara

  "I'll be right back," she said, voice low and reverent. She gathered the box to her chest and practically floated down the hall to the private bathroom she shared with Georgiana.

  A minute later, Yvonne returned to the office. The magenta underwire bra she'd worn under her conservative sweater peeked out from beneath the V-neckline and deep V back. The wide shoulder straps helped soften her generous chest while the banded empire waist and fluted hem made the ten pounds she'd been trying to lose for months simply disappear.

  "So? You love it, don't you?" From her position flopped in one of Yvonne's visitor's chairs, Georgiana grinned at her assistant.

  "This is a Claire Prask Custom dress. Dress number one of one. The sketch got burned as soon as the dress was finished. Claire Prask personally signed the tag before she stitched it on." Yvonne trailed a fingertip along the silver beads at the waist. "She only does twelve custom orders a year. The waiting list is over five years long, and she's extremely picky about who gets on the list."

  "Yep, you love it." Georgiana's smile widened. She saw no point in telling Yvonne that Claire reserved two secret slots a year for her old friend, and Georgiana had used both orders to select items for her assistant. She'd intended the dress to be a Christmas present, but it made an excellent get-out-of-jail-free card. "Claire will be thrilled. She enjoyed designing that dress."

  "I do love it," Yvonne admitted. Her head snapped back and her eyes narrowed threateningly. "This doesn't mean I completely forgive you."

  "Dinner and symphony tickets on me?"

  Yvonne shook her head. "I'd have to actually have time off for that. Running your life takes up most of mine, you know."

  "Saturday night. I won't go anywhere but the shop at Dan's house. I won't send out any emails, and I won't piss anyone off." Georgiana placed her hand over her heart. "Swear on the memory of my first erector set."

  "Well, I suppose I could take Frankie. He's the least embarrassing of my relatives."

  Georgiana's scowled. She scratched her nose, tilted her head. Yvonne’s cousin Frankie played football for Rice University and, though graceful on the field, he moved like a wrecking ball everywhere else. "Blond or brunet?"

  Laughter burst from Yvonne's lips. "You think I have any standards left, honey? I'll take whatever I can get."

  “Fantastic.” At the sound of footsteps on the stairs just outside the door, Georgiana craned her neck to peer out the window. Robert had sent a text message from the building’s garage while Yvonne was changing in to the dress. She expected him to have at least one member of his entourage with him. The bodyguard or assistant would make the perfect date for Yvonne.

  Allan appeared in her line of sight first, though Cedric was right on his heels. Both were disgustingly handsome and, given Robert’s exacting standards, undoubtedly perfectly capable of holding an intelligent conversation. Or at the very least house-trained. Georgiana flipped a mental coin and pointed at Cedric.

  “You. Saturday night you’re taking Yvonne to Quattro and then the symphony. She’s going to have a good time. The best night of her life.” Quattro was the only Mobil Four-Star restaurant in the city, and Georgiana rarely used the symphony season tickets she’d purchased in her father’s memory.

  To his credit, Cedric didn’t even blink. “Yes, ma’am.”

  "Your elevator is out," Robert said. He looked as cool as a cucumber though he'd just climbed two hundred twenty-four steps. Georgiana wanted to strangle him.

  "I'm on it." Georgiana wearily rose out of the chair. Her arches throbbed in protest and her calves burned with every inch she shuffled forward.

  “Oh no!” Yvonne reached for her boss. “After what you did to the lights in Accounts Receivable three months ago, you promised maintenance you’d keep your wrench to yourself.”

  “Don’t you have dinner reservations to make?” Georgiana’s eyebrows arched. “Unless you’d like me to make them, that is.”

  “No, no, I’ll make them. I’ll just order a fruit basket for maintenance while I’m at it,” Yvonne grumbled.

  “Might want to order me a new pair of those red satin pumps with that spindly heel and the buckle. I broke the heel on the left one on the sixth floor.”

  Yvonne’s gasp echoed in the otherwise silent room. Eyes round with horror and jaw agape, she pressed a hand to her heart. “Those were discontinued last fall. They were impossible to find in your size in the first place. They were gorgeous shoes.”

  “Should have thought of that before you disabled the elevator and forced me to hike.” Georgiana winked at a grinning Robert. “Next time just leave a nasty voicemail and save yourself the fashion heart attack.”

  “I did not tamper with the elevator”

  “And I didn’t break my shoes.” Georgiana skipped out of the office before Yvonne could retaliate. She wasn’t surprised Robert followed her to the elevator. She retrieved a stainless steel, compact multi-tool from her pocket and used the knife to pry off the access panel. When the alarm beeped, she entered her security code. The beeping stopped.

  “Do you suspect an electrical short?” Robert asked, peering over her shoulder at the circuitry.

  “Not sure yet. Penlight?” Georgiana held her palm up. She grumbled under her breath when, rather than hand over his mini-flashlight, Robert used the light to illuminate the dark recess of the access hole. “I’m appropriating your assistant. He’ll be busy tomorrow night.”

  “Stealing my employees already, doll? I know Texas is a community property state, but aren’t you jumping the gun?”

  “He’s taking Yvonne to dinner. She’s pissed I didn’t tell her about the engagement, which is ridiculous because I didn’t know about the engagement until last night. Your Cedric maybe impervious to bribes, but Yvonne isn’t. Besides, this mess is your fault and you owe me one.”

  “If memory serves correctly, Gigi, it was the flowers you sent to my office that prompted the entire building to congratulate me on my engagement. I believe we are even,” he countered. “A fancy dress and dinner in a swanky restaurant will get you back in Ms. Ruiz’s good graces?”

  “Oh, she forgave me the moment she saw the dress. Dinner’s just protection against future incidents.” Georgiana scowled at the recently updated, computerized controls. “I liked the old system better.”

  With his hip, Robert bumped Georgiana out of the way. “Let me see.” He tapped the end of a USB port with his finger. “Bring me one of your tablet PCs.”

  Though her feet ached, Georgiana rushed back in to the office to retrieve her tablet and returned to Robert’s side. While Robert used Georgiana’s password to log on to the maintenance network, she grabbed two stools from a nearby storage closet. Seated at his side, she asked a question with every keystroke he made. Not knowing how to do something was one of her pet peeves.

  “It’s set to fire mode,” Robert announced a few minutes after logging in. “No wonder the elevator wouldn’t budge.”

  “Is it just a circuit that would trip or a computer glitch? It’s never done that before.” She shifted on the stool so she could get a better look at the tablet’s screen. “Is it something someone could have done?”

  “I would have to perform a full diagnostic and look at the logs.” With a few keystrokes, Robert reset the elevator. The buttons beside his knee lit up. “It’s fairly simple if you know what you’re doing. You wouldn’t necessarily have to be in the building to access the controls. It’s set up for remote access.”

  “Joy.” Georgiana rubbed the back of her neck. She didn’t have time to deal with a prankster or sabotage. “I’ll have the heads of security and maintenance go over the logs and perform a full diagnostic on all the systems.”

  Robert logged out of the program but did not return the tablet to Georgiana. He didn’t want her to have a weapon in her hand when he informed her of his plans for her security system. “Given Prask’s level of interest in you, I think it’s best if Allan evaluates your security here. I’ve already had him look over NOR
A.”

  “Our security here is the same as yours at NS. Our fathers used the same contractors and the guards went to through identical training regimes.” Georgiana’s eyes fell on the small nameplate on the corner of the access panel. Conveyance Solutions, the company who’d installed the new elevator controls was a subsidiary of Prask’s Tomorrow Solutions. She swallowed heavily. “Never mind. I’ll inform my guys, make up a story for them. I don’t want them to think I don’t trust them.”

  Robert followed her gaze to the nameplate. “How long ago was the system installed?”

  “Before Tab’s accident. After Dad died. Somewhere in between the two.” Her life was divided into the period before her father’s death and the period after Tab’s accident. The half a year or so of time between the two incidents was a blur. “It was something Dad had put in motion. I just signed off on the paperwork. There’s nothing to gain by sabotaging the elevator. It’s not as if anyone was in it or the cables snapped. The worst thing is I may have sprained an ankle. If anything, he saved me from having to use the treadmill tonight.”

  “Georgiana.”

  “I said we’d do it your way. Have Allan do the evaluation. I will be kept in the loop, though. Non-negotiable.” Georgiana popped the access panel back in place. “Still wish we had the old system. That was practically unhackable.”

  “And you would have been able to fix it,” Robert added, sly grin curving his lips.

  “Well, yeah. That, too.” Georgiana folded her arms across her chest and puffed out her lower lip. A good bit of old-fashioned repair work would have gone a long way to making up for her less than spectacular morning.

  Robert watched her out of the corner of his eye. With sweat drying on her skin, hair mussed, and makeup streaked she shouldn’t have held his attention so fully, but she did. He longed to bury his fingers in that thick, curling hair and lick the salt off her skin. Pouting over having her fun ruined and repairing an elevator with him, she was most genuine, most approachable, than any woman he’d met.

  “I want to take you to dinner. Tomorrow night. Somewhere that’ll cause a splash, and we can get the tongues wagging.”

  “Can’t.” She shrugged, slipped the tablet from his lax grasp. “I promised Yvonne I wouldn’t do anything to ruin her night out. It’s dinner at home and a night in the workshop for me.”

  “Tonight then.”

  “No can do. We’re doing the big move, remember? As soon as I’m done here, I have to go home and pack.” She jabbed her finger in his shoulder. “You’re not skipping out on us, either. You and those behemoths you hired are in charge of carrying boxes. There’s no way in hell I’m letting outsiders in either house.”

  “How much could there possibly be? I know teenage boys. Tab can’t have more than a suitcase or two.”

  Georgiana’s eyebrows disappeared beneath her bangs. “Three words, Bobby: My. Entire. Closet.”

  She hopped off the stool and left a sputtering Robert behind. While not as rewarding as mechanical work, it eased some of the tension knotting her shoulders. She grinned merrily at Yvonne. “Saturday all squared away?”

  “Yes, it is. I think you’re out of favors with the head chef at Quattro, though.” A crease appeared between Yvonne’s brows. “Are you sure you won’t need me Saturday?”

  “Absolutely certain. I promise I won’t leave the house, and,” she paused to glance over her shoulder at Robert, “I’ll make red beans and rice and keep Bobby chained up inside. It’ll be a fire-less night for everyone.” Her eye twitched, she waggled a finger at a smug Yvonne. “Don’t you dare say whatever’s running through your mind now.”

  Yvonne mimed zipping her lips closed. She gestured at her dress then pointed at the bathroom. Georgiana nodded. Once Yvonne was out of the room, Georgiana turned her blinding smile on Allan. “I’ll have a quick meeting with my security department before noon. As long as you don’t ruffle too many feathers, I’ll smooth the way for your evaluation.”

  “Discreet is my middle name, ma’am,” Allan responded, dimples appearing in his tanned cheeks.

  “Perfect.” Georgiana sidled up to Cedric. “If you give me your email address, I’ll send you directions to Quattro. Take Dan’s Jag. Anything else will be wasted on Yvonne. Treat her like you would your sister’s best friend. Pick up flowers; she likes peach roses. The florist two blocks from Dan’s does the best arrangements. Ask for Stacy. Don’t let her have a cocktail before dinner or she’ll fall asleep during the symphony. She likes white wine. She’ll tell you she likes merlot if you suggest it, but she doesn’t.”

  She was pleased to see Cedric jotting notes in a small, leather notebook. She had made the right decision when she’d picked Cedric. To keep up with Robert’s hectic business and social life, Cedric had to be highly flexible and quick on his feet. He’d get along perfectly with Yvonne.

  “You do know they’re going to talk about us all night, don’t you?” Robert slipped an arm around Georgiana’s shoulders and tucked her against his side. He dropped his chin so he could continue to whisper in her ear. “Every embarrassing thing you’ve done will be fair game.”

  “That’s okay.” She tilted her head back to poke her tongue out at him. “My list is far, far shorter than yours.”

  Chapter Sixteen:

  "Pickup." Georgiana lobbed the small bit of twisted, scratched metal at Robert.

  Robert dropped the piece in the pile along the west wall of the workshop. Georgiana had marked off two spaces with blue painter’s tape. A picture of the same model as Tab’s SUV was taped above one section, while a picture of a pickup was above the other. Ever since he'd wandered down into the workshop, Robert had been putting pieces into the appropriate piles.

  "I'm not entirely convinced you're not guessing. There's no way you can tell with some of the smaller parts."

  Georgiana glanced up from section of fiberglass she'd been examining. Grease was smeared across both cheeks and her nose. Chips of blue paint and dust coated her hair and coveralls. She wiped the back of her hand across her forehead and succeeded in streaking grease along the only expanse of previously unmarred skin.

  "It's hardly my fault you wasted your time fooling around with computers when you could have been learning something important like where the drive shaft is located and what it does."

  "I wouldn't call giving up a Spring Break at South Padre so I could redesign the servers and system configurations for the company so that it was stable and secure 'fooling around.'"

  "I would."

  "Of course you would. Never mind the fact that you were one who finally got your father to implement my servers at his company. I gave a two-hour presentation and demo, but all you had to do was flutter your eyelashes and say ‘please’. Of course, when I asked you to help, you dashed off to Indianapolis for gearhead camp."

  Georgiana tossed a washer at his head. She didn't bother pointing out that he'd attended the same camp at the racetrack a year earlier. "Do you even remember how to change a tire, Bobby?"

  "I have AAA and Allan." Robert set the screw on the corner of his desk. "Face it, doll, computers and automation are the way to go. I could program a robot to do it for me. It could change all four tires in the time it would take a person to change one."

  "And who would build that robot for you, hmm? Do you know what tolerance allowances to make so the joints don't fail? All the programming in the world won't save you if you can't get the arm to turn enough or at the right angle or apply enough torque. You can be as smug as you want to, buddy, but you need me just as much as I need you."

  Robert shoved his hands in the pockets of his jeans. It was growing exponentially difficult to resist the urge to press her against the nearest vertical surface and kiss her until she couldn't breathe, much less argue with him. He wondered if the coveralls were one of her favorite sets or if she'd mind a few rips and lost buttons. The patch of bare skin above her collarbone looked like it was designed for nibbling.

  "Bobby!" Georgiana's voice, ri
ch with exasperation, interrupted his increasingly x-rated daydream. She waved her hand in the air, a section of seatbelt dangling from her fist. "Mercedes."

  Robert's stomach sank when he caught the specks of dried blood on the seatbelt. If Georgiana hadn't noticed her brother's blood, he wasn't going to bring it to her attention. The longer time he spent with Tab, the fonder he grew of the younger Collier. The teen wasn't as talkative as Robert remembered, but he was just as passionate about computers. While packing up for the move, they'd had a lively debate over which gaming platform was the easiest to exploit. Tab was quickly turning in to the younger brother Robert had often longed to have; Robert hated seeing anyone he loved in pain.

  "We have separate rooms, doll," Robert said, putting the seatbelt and his more maudlin thoughts aside. "I don't think that's going to help our story at all. Dad's bound to be suspicious."

  "The rooms are across the hall from each other." Georgiana squinted at a blackened triangle of sheet metal. "Besides, Dan knows I'm on nightmare duty every night."

  "Every night?"

  "That's what I said. Pickup." She frowned, squinted until her eyes were nearly shut. "I think."

  Robert tossed the piece in the appropriate pile. He'd caught Georgiana yawning during their dinner of burgers and onion rings. She'd dozed off for a few minutes while Tab and Robert argued about the vulnerability of wireless input devices. Her exhaustion made him tired. "When do you sleep?"

  "When Tab does. Can you see if there's a serial number on that round piece near your right foot?"

  Georgiana wiped her hands on her coveralls. She took advantage of Robert's momentary distraction to shamelessly ogle him. He'd changed out of his suit before hauling boxes. The sleeves of his plaid cotton shirt were rolled up to his elbows, highlighting the corded muscles of his forearms, and the fit of his jeans was downright criminal. Though enticing when in business mogul persona, he was unexpectedly devastating when relaxed.