“Lay them on me.”
“I need to work with an engineer on the hinges that connect the sinking mesh net to the floating milkweed absorbent boom. I’ve tried so many options but it’s a matter of finding something that won’t be corroded by salt water and isn’t so heavy it’ll sink the boom. It has to be just right.”
“West Oil has a research and development team. Let’s get you in with them today once we land.”
“Aren’t you worried about what James is going to say? A couple of days on the job and you’re taking the company jet for personal business. He wanted you wrangling the Pen of crazy people and answering the emails from the fanatics. You’re way off task.”
“I’m positive my assistant, Maribel, has it all under control.” He took out his cell phone and searched the company directory for the correct email address. “I’ve sent a note to the R&D team. I’m sure they’ll be happy to help you sort out the right material to use.”
“It must be something.” Junie eyed him with a mix of astonishment and envy.
“What?”
“To be a man. To be a rich and powerful man. If you lose this job, you’ll get another. You’ll still eat tonight and tomorrow. The freedom that must come with that kind of power blows my mind.”
“That’s not quite true. I’m not a CEO. No one handed down a company to me. I’m not a lawyer, a doctor, or working in the stock market. I’m hired on reputation alone. If I blow an opportunity with a company like West Oil, I won’t be such a hot commodity for a while.”
“Then why did you do all this? I wanted to ask you earlier but . . .” Junie trailed off, averting her eyes back toward the square window.
“You were afraid of my answer?” Hugo laughed. “You thought maybe I’d profess my undying love for you and beg you to live with me in Texas? We’d elope and run off together?”
“I guess that was before I realized you were an emotionally stunted vagabond. Now I know better.”
“But that’s what you were afraid of?”
She twisted up her mouth as she thought about it. “I guess so. I’m not looking for anyone to profess anything to me. I’m so grateful for what you did. I hope it doesn’t hurt your reputation at work. That’s the last thing I want.”
“I’ll be fine. I’m a rich and powerful guy.”
“You’re a little lonely boy who needs a friend.” Her hand slid back to his arm, the warmth overtaking him again. She squeezed it and gave him a sideways look. “I’ll be your friend, Hugo.” She patted him condescendingly.
“Lucky me.” Sarcasm was the only way forward for him right now, the only wall he could try to slide between the two of them. Because there was no doubt he needed some kind of barrier. If the touch of her hand on his arm could give him this kind of reaction, he could only imagine what getting her in his bed might do. He could imagine. He would. He was . . .
Chapter 17
The days felt like months. Junie had nearly forgotten about the bar brawl and the bartender named Aden, who Hugo had promised an interview. It wasn’t until she saw him sitting in the lobby that it all came back to her. “Aden,” Hugo said, extending his hand for a firm handshake.
Junie couldn’t help but smile at Aden’s outfit. It was exactly how her brothers would have dressed had they been given the opportunity. It was his suit. His one suit. The wedding suit. The funeral suit. And apparently his job interview suit. It was too long in the arms and a little wrinkled in the back.
“I’m sorry I missed you yesterday. Junie had a family emergency and I was helping her out. I’m glad to see you came back today. That’s the kind of persistence I like. Why don’t you come into my office and we’ll chat.” Hugo gestured for Aden to join him, but something was clearly not right.
“She said I already had the job.” Aden popped to his feet and tried adjusting his poorly knotted tie. “My background check came back this morning. She said I only had to talk to you about compensation.”
“Who?” Hugo asked, his poker face crumbling. Nothing normally threw him off, but Junie could see this was catching him way off guard.
“Maribel.” Aden didn’t explain any further. He stood, his shoulders back with pride as he stood in the awkward silence.
“She hired you? My assistant Maribel hired you and ran your background check and what, she interviewed you?”
“Pretty thoroughly.” Aden nodded. “She kept saying you were building a team, that we all had to want the same thing. She was very persistent.”
Junie opened her mouth to chime in but thought better of it. If Hugo’s original motive for inviting Aden in was just gratitude or kindness without any intention of actually giving him a job, that ship had now sailed. Apparently with Maribel at the helm.
“Do you even know what the job requires?” Hugo asked, tilting his head as he scrutinized Aden closely.
“Do I have to break up bar fights and mop up puke? Do I go home smelling like beer and cigarette smoke?”
“It’s not likely,” Hugo chuckled. “But the hours will be long. The expectations will be high. You may have to deal with people who aren’t stable or happy.”
“So that part of the job is the same.” Aden caught Junie’s eye, clearly hoping for some backup. She wasn’t getting involved. Who Hugo hired wasn’t her business.
“You’re good with people. You have a high threshold for dealing with bullshit. I think you can handle what I need. But you’re going to need to get up to speed fast. I’m trying to work on some separate projects.”
“I’m good to go.” Aden slapped his hands together and then nervously tucked them into his pockets.
“Did she look at your résumé?” Hugo asked as they began heading to his office.
“Well,” Aden squirmed a bit and shrugged sheepishly.
“Junie, get with the R&D department and I’ll check in with you later. Apparently if you need anything you should just ask Maribel.”
Every time Junie anticipated a reaction from Hugo he stunned her. Mystified her. Maribel had just hired someone without even talking to him. He walked right into that shitstorm. Yet he stayed so cool. Made the best of it. Turned the situation around. Junie had grown up with men who were far more like firecrackers with lit fuses. Even her father, a generally kind man, wasn’t one to reserve judgment or turn lemons into lemonade. Maybe this was what made Hugo successful. The question was, where was the line? When he did reach it, when his own fuse burned all the way down, how bad was the explosion?
“Is he gone?” Maribel whispered from around the corner, her body tucked on the other side of the wall.
“Hugo? Yes, he went to his office with Aden.”
“I sort of hired him,” Maribel reported as she covered her mouth sheepishly.
“He sort of knows that.” Junie wanted to throw her arms around Maribel. She’d been so kind. Now so brave. It was absolutely adorable.
“How mad is he?”
“He seems to have taken it pretty well. He and Aden are chatting. I think you’ll be all right. Just tell him you were trying to show initiative.”
“I was trying to get that hot bartender to be in the office every day,” Maribel whispered, her cheeks ablaze with embarrassment. “He is gorgeous.”
“Gee, if you like him I have five brothers all cut from the same cloth. But don’t hire them. I couldn’t deal with that chaos.”
“Don’t tell Aden or Hugo what I said,” Maribel pleaded. “He did seem like a go-getter. Very eager. Do you think I should go in and say I’m sorry?”
“Hell no. Go in with a couple of coffees and act like nothing happened. See if they want cream and sugar and then stroll out of there with your head held high.”
“Oh, how is your brother? I hope you don’t mind Hugo telling me what happened. You left in such a hurry he wanted to make sure I had some idea what was going on. It was so nice of him to help you get up there.”
“Loch will be all right. He’s banged up, but he’ll survive.” She thought about leaving the conv
ersation there. Oversharing was never her thing. Girl talk was not her speed. But something about Maribel’s eager face made her cave. “It was really nice to have him up there. I was a wreck. I’m not sure I could have made it all work without him. And I’m not sure I’d have come back.”
“It’s a good thing you did. Guess what came in?”
“What?”
“Your patent is officially pending. Whoever Hugo knows in that office must have owed him a lot of favors. It has your name on it and everything. It looks so official. Here.” Maribel pulled a folder out from her shoulder bag and handed it over.
“I can’t believe it.” For all the steps she’d taken, all the work she’d done, somehow this felt like the first real leap forward. The first move in the right direction. Something that couldn’t be undone or taken from her.
“So what’s next?”
“I have a meeting with someone in research and development. You know where I can find them?”
“Of course. I have made every inch of this building my business now. Come with me. I’ll get you set up.”
“I’m nervous. These people are probably way more educated than I am. Way more experienced. They’re probably going to laugh me right out of the lab.”
“Let them try.” Maribel adjusted her shoulder bag and straightened her back. “I’m done walking around these offices like people are doing me some kind of favor. I work hard. I always have. Go in there and own it. You invented something. Something Hugo thinks is worth pursuing. Don’t let them intimidate you.”
“I had you pegged all wrong, Maribel.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
Chapter 18
“This is brilliant.” Jennifer Cherry flipped through the paperwork Junie had brought in and kept shaking her head. “The milkweed is hydrophobic. It repels water but absorbs oil. How incredible.”
“Yes, it’s far more effective than any of the polypropylene materials currently used in oil clean up now.” The lab at the West Oil office wasn’t at all what she imagined. There were no beakers or crazy looking equipment. It was mostly just computers and stacks of papers. “Where do you guys do all the test trials and stuff?”
“Oh, not here. This is the think tank. We aren’t working on actual equipment. We do design and develop ideas that get turned into prototypes. Mostly what I work on is improving the rigs out in the ocean. James West gave us a very clear directive. Make the rigs safer. We’ve been nonstop in developing improvements.”
“You’re an engineer?” Junie asked, making sure not to give her the same look of surprise she’d often get when trying to discuss anything of substance.
“Yes, I went to MIT. I never thought I’d work for an oil company. I’m a tree hugger. But when I heard what West Oil intended to do, I wanted to be a part of the solution. Mostly we’ve developed things for ensuring the safety of the people working on the rigs. But we have an initiative for next year that will have an environmental focus.”
“You’re so lucky.” Junie watched as Jennifer returned to the paperwork, devouring all the information she could. Her short brown hair was tied up and her white lab coat was crisp and clean. This had been the kind of place her father would clean at night. Jennifer was the kind of person he’d see packing up and leaving at the end of the day, and he was optimistic enough to believe that his daughter would be able to do the same someday. But that wasn’t the case. It never would be. Junie didn’t graduate from MIT. She got a degree at the closest community college and was still paying her student loans.
“Why am I lucky? You’re the one who just patented your own invention that could revolutionize environmental cleanup. I’m shocked you’ve gotten the company to buy in. This isn’t’ really in their current line of business. They are trying to minimize spill, but I’ve never heard them talk about cleanup solutions. You’re out pacing me by a mile.”
“But I’ll never have the credentials you do. I don’t know how to launch a product like this or be taken seriously. I bet when you walk in a room everyone listens.”
“When I walk in a room people wonder if I’m there to take their coffee order. When I draft a proposed design, I sign the memo J. Malone, hoping people will think it stands for Jeff or something. I do have the degree but I don’t get to walk around with it to show everyone I’m worth listening to. Female engineers are still rare, but we’re banding together and making sure we get our due. You may not have the degree but you’ve done something amazing. I’ll help any way I can.”
Junie went on to explain the challenge with the hinge, and Jennifer sprang right into action. They were brainstorming options and possibilities together as if they were colleagues. It was exhilarating. All of this had been. But still Junie was waiting. Surely something would happen. Something would snatch this progress away from her.
“I’m going to send the design to my team in the lab downtown. They’ll take our suggestions and create a new prototype that meets the parameters. Let’s get some real trials set up and get this sucker tested. I’ll mark it as urgent.”
“You can do that?” Junie lowered her voice as if they were breaking some kind of rule. There was so much gray area around this project. Technically Hugo was supporting it, but how much authority over something like this did he really have? It wasn’t what he was hired for and it had to be costing the company money now.
“You said you’re doing this for James West right? What department are you in?”
“Well I’m doing it so I can present it to James in hopes that he’ll make an investment in the production of it. I don’t technically work for West Oil but this is a project Hugo Ronaldo has asked that I pursue.” Junie’s ears tingled with a prickly heat as she watched Jennifer’s excitement fade.
“Oh. I’m not sure I can have this sent over to the trial team then. We have a really tight approval process. Our time and the labs resources are expensive and closely monitored. I thought this had come down straight from James and wouldn’t need to go through the same channels. I really want to help, but I’m not sure I can.”
“I understand. Maybe I’ll get a meeting with James first, and he’ll be so impressed with it he’ll fund further testing.”
Jennifer’s shoulders sank. “His expectation is very high. Trust me. We pitch things all day long and he is the gatekeeper. You have to have all your ducks in a row before he’ll consider listening. If this thing hasn’t been perfected and tested he won’t give you the time of day. Can you take it to a private lab for further development and testing?”
“I can’t afford anything like that. The ones we’ve designed and tested were all done in my hometown with friends and people willing to help me in their spare time. It’s why I’m here in the first place. I know it’s out of order, but it’s the only way I can move forward. I’m capped out on my resources.”
“I get it.” Jennifer pulled off her glasses and rubbed at her eyes. “There has to be something you can do. This is too good to let it die on the vine. Give me the afternoon to make some calls and I’ll get back with you. The good news is I think we worked out the issue with the hinge and now the design is solid.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate the help and all the nice things you said. It means a lot to me. I haven’t been all that hopeful about this, but I’m starting to think I’ve got a shot.”
“Leave me your number and I’ll check in with you later.”
They parted ways with a hug. Not at all what Junie was expecting when she heard she’d be working with an engineer today. Though the meeting itself was unexpected. That was the new theme of her life. Hugo had been the biggest surprise of them all. He never reacted the way she expected, the way all the men she’d always knew reacted to things. Somehow he’d found a way to be powerful without it being at someone’s expense. Her phone chirped with a message as she headed back toward his office.
Hugo: Let’s grab lunch.
That sounds good.
Junie hesitated before she typed the rest of her message. Sh
e was about to do something crazy. Something spontaneous and foolish. But it couldn’t be helped now. Her desire for Hugo was pulsing in her at breakneck speed. It had been so long since she’d been excited and hopeful. He’d made that possible. Everything that had happened, all the progress, was thanks to him. And outside of all of that, she wanted to be in his arms. To be held by him. To be kissed and touched. For the first time a good life felt possible, and she wanted to lean in to it rather than wait for it to fall apart.
How about room service in your hotel room?
Hugo: . . . because you are dying for a turkey club?
Because I’m dying to be in your hotel room.
Hugo: Ten minutes. But no room service. No interruptions.
Junie tucked her phone away and felt her pulse rising as she headed for the elevator. Could the people she was passing tell what she was about to do? Could they hear how hard her heart was thumping? She didn’t care. Nothing mattered right now. It wasn’t about consequences or failures. It was only about giving in to the urge she’d been fighting since the moment she’d first laid eyes on Hugo.
Thinking of the advice she’d been given, she dug her phone out again and dialed Val.
“Hello?”
“I’m doing it.” Junie’s voice was so hushed she couldn’t be sure Val could even hear her.
“Doing what?”
“Doing him.” Junie knew that would be enough. Her lifelong friend could decode the message.
“Right now?”
“Not right this minute, but we’re meeting in his hotel room for lunch. I’m on my way.”
“Good!”
“I’m just thinking though—”
“Stop,” Val ordered. “That’s all you ever do. You’re always thinking and planning and working. Right now let your lady bits do the thinking. Go.”
“What if—?”
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