by Vella Day
With no time to clean up the kitchen, he tossed his cup and plate in the sink and rushed out. The trip only took a few minutes. He landed on top of the hotel, shifted, and exited through the lobby. Needing to hurry, he jogged the one block to the office where he saw Ella leaning against the locked front door. Damn.
“Hey, sorry I’m late.”
“What time did you go to bed?” she asked as her gaze scanned his face.
“Seven hours ago.”
“Hmm.”
“Okay, maybe five.” He didn’t need this interrogation. After he let her into the office, he motioned for her to sit at the reception desk. “I need to make a few calls,” he said. “Then I’ll fly to Thedia to find out about your car.”
“Thank you.”
He walked down the hallway and entered his office. His first phone call was to Gerard Danton to explain about the avalanche and the heavy snow in the area. “I’m hoping the truck will arrive here later today.”
“It better. Delays cost me money,” he grumbled.
Actually, delays cost Tanner money. He’d already quoted the project. As soon as he hung up, a knock sounded on his door, and Ella came in. She’d been wearing a down jacket before, but now that she’d removed it, he could see all of her curves. Damn. He needed to get her an oversized company shirt to wear that would cover her perfect body. She was too much of a distraction looking like she did in her own clothes.
“No one’s called, and I was wondering if you’re going to be here for a bit if I could go to that office supply store and pick up a few things.”
“Sure.” The front door opened. “That might be Clint. Maybe he can take you in case you have too many purchases to carry.”
“That would be awesome. Thank you.”
Her smile once more jacked up his libido. Clint barreled in and abruptly stopped. “Sorry. I didn’t know you had company.”
“Clint, this is Ella Snow. Ella, Clint Singletary, my second-in-command.”
They shook hands. “Nice to meet you, Ella.” Clint looked back at Tanner and tossed him a rather puzzled look.
“Ella is our new office assistant.”
“You actually hired someone?” Clint grinned and turned to her. “Please don’t quit. If Tanner becomes unreasonable, promise you’ll come talk to me first?”
She laughed. “I promise, but I think I can handle him.”
Clint’s eyes widened. “Maybe we can ask her to take some clients out to dinner.”
“What?” she asked.
Tanner waved a hand. “Nothing. The last person we hired insulted all of our clients. We’re thrilled you aren’t the type to do that.”
“Never. My parents raised me better than that.”
Tanner couldn’t believe his luck. “I’m about to head out to look into retrieving Ella’s buried car.” He explained about the avalanche.
“That’s tough. I’m glad Tanner found you in time,” he said.
“You and me both.”
“Since Ella is determined to tame the mess that is my office, would you mind driving her to Stanfield’s.”
“Sure. You know I love office supply stores.” Clint leaned closer to Ella. “If you need any tips on how to organize things, just check out my office.”
There was a time when Tanner was the neat one. “I’m organized. I just haven’t had any time to put things where they belong.”
Clint huffed out a laugh. “Keep telling yourself that.” He turned to Ella. “Ready to check out what Plux has to offer?”
“Totally.”
When Ella walked into the office supply store, she salivated at all of the organizational tools. She had no doubt that if she just scanned and shredded the documents on Tanner’s desk that he’d be able to find things for a while, but she wanted to help him for the future too. There had to be something that would enable him to keep organized on his own—if she chose to leave.
The first thing she bought was a desk organizer that had a drawer to hold things like pencils, pens, and a stapler. It also had three shelves and a place for hanging folders. It would be perfect for him. She bought labels to indicate incoming, outgoing, and things that needed to be filed. Next, she purchased a desk calendar, a three-shelf bookcase, and a file cabinet. She couldn’t believe he and his partners were so ill prepared. At the last minute, she bought a dry erase board, mostly so that she could write reminder messages to him.
“That’s all?” he asked.
Clearly, he thought she was going overboard. “Oh, you’re right. I need a few things for my desk, like a message pad.”
“I think we have one of those.”
“Oh. Then some pencils, a sharpener, and a few pens.”
Clint smiled. “You are a breath of fresh air. I hope Tanner appreciates you.”
“I hope so too.”
Clint paid and then drove them back to the office. “Where would you like all of this stuff?” he asked as they stepped into the main area.
“Just put them next to my desk. It will take me all day to clean up Tanner’s office. I don’t need more clutter in there.”
“Good luck.” His cell rang. “Gotta take this. You going to be okay?”
“Yes.” Ella loved challenges, and Tanner’s office posed a big one.
Clint handed her a key. “For the front door in case you need to go out to lunch.”
“Thanks.” Everyone she’d met was so trusting, which gave her a real sense of being welcomed. Plux was a far cry from living on top of Wagner’s Mountain, that was for sure.
The first order of business was to organize what needed to be scanned so she could decide the best way to catalog the items in the computer.
Three hours later, she’d not only put the mess into neat piles, she’d scanned half of them. Her stomach grumbled. As much as she didn’t relish running into Sasha, without a car, Ella wasn’t sure where else to eat that would be quick.
Clint had left right after his phone call and had not returned. After locking up, Ella headed over to the New Frontier Diner. As soon as she stepped inside and didn’t spot Sasha, Ella relaxed. Because it was close to two, the place wasn’t packed. In fact, it was emptier than last night for which she was thankful. Ella slid into the same booth where she and Tanner had dined.
A few minutes later, a woman who looked to be in her fifties came over and handed her a menu. “Welcome, I’m Carolyn. Can I get you anything to drink?”
“I would love a coffee. Black.”
Carolyn didn’t write it down. Instead, she stared. “Weren’t you in here last night with Tanner?”
He must be a regular. “I was.”
She pointed a finger at her and then smiled. “You’re his new girlfriend. Half the town is abuzz to meet you.”
Oh, no. Had they learned her real identity. “Why is that?”
“Are you kidding? Tanner is the most eligible man in town. All of the ladies are after him.”
Without thinking, Ella pasted on a smile. “Please tell them that he’s taken. Very taken.”
Carolyn smiled. “I am glad to hear that. Tanner needs a good woman by his side. All the man does is work, work, work. I’m hoping he’ll have time to relax now that you’re here.”
“Oh, we did plenty of relaxing when he visited me in Thedia.” Ella winked. She couldn’t believe how easily that lie flowed from her lips, but she owed Tanner for saving her and for giving her the job. It wasn’t as if she was the one who’d announced she was his girlfriend.
“So you’re his mate?” Carolyn asked with a glint in her eye.
Decisions, decisions. “Why, yes I am.” Ella hoped Carolyn couldn’t see the pulse beating rapidly at the base of her throat. The lies were compounding—or was it a lie? If her inner snow leopard was right, Tanner was the one for her.
Carolyn grinned. “Let me get your coffee.”
She hurried off. Ella hoped she hadn’t made things worse for Tanner. If so, her employment might be short-lived.
After another wonderful lunc
h, she headed back to the office where she finished scanning the rest of the papers. It was actually rather easy to decide which folders they belonged in. She’d organized them according to supplier. She then checked Tanner’s computer and found his organizational system wasn’t as bad as she’d feared. All it would take was a little tweaking.
Once she placed the file in the correct folder on the computer, she then shredded the paper. When she was done, his desk was almost clean.
The papers too large to scan were stored on the bookshelf with the appropriate label underneath. Even Tanner should be able to understand her system. Since he hadn’t returned from his trip to Thedia, she figured he’d been successful in unearthing her car and was driving it here. If he hadn’t been, he would have flown back and arrived a while ago.
The next step in organizing Tanner McCarson was to sort through his top desk drawer. Now that was a real chore, though she didn’t make much headway. Maybe tomorrow she’d buy him a drawer organizer and try again.
Someone knocked on the office door, and a second later, Clint stuck his head in and glanced around. “Wow. I don’t recognize the place.”
Ella couldn’t have been more pleased. “Do you think Tanner will like it?”
“That is hard to say. He doesn’t like change, but I know he’ll appreciate your effort.”
That wasn’t what she wanted to hear, but Tanner had instructed her to clean up the mess. “I imagine it will take him at least a month to mess it up again.”
Clint laughed. “True. By the way, Tanner called. He has your car, but there was a bit of roadwork on the way here. I wouldn’t wait for him. It’s past five, so you might as well head back to the hotel.”
“That’s okay. I want to do a bit more work.”
Clint nodded to the dry erase board. “Do you want me to mount that?”
“Would you? That would be great.”
“Sure, I’ll get some tools.”
When he left, Ella went to work redoing some of his computer folders by color coding them according to account. With time, Tanner would come to see that her way was the best.
Clint returned. “Where do you want this hung?”
She really appreciated that he was giving her free reign. “I want Tanner to be able to see it in case I need to write reminders on it for him.”
“You don’t know Tanner very well, I see.”
What did that mean? “Maybe not, but he seems a little lost and is in need of someone to help him get through life as easily as possible.”
“Oh, lady. If you can do that, I’ll take you for myself.” He held up a hand. “Hypothetically speaking, of course.”
She liked Clint. He had a good sense of humor. “Just give me time. Tanner will become obsessively neat.” Kind of like she was.
“I see you like the impossible. Good luck.” He took less than fifteen minutes to mount the board. “All set.”
“Thank you!”
Clint nodded, saluted, and then left.
Ella wrote some notes on the board to show Tanner what a good tool this could be. After she wiped down his desk and straightened what she could, it was time to head back to the hotel, have a drink, and relax. Not wanting to run into Sasha without Tanner by her side, Ella decided to order room service at the hotel and then take a long, luxurious bath.
Tomorrow, she’d have her car back and really start her job. Maybe getting stuck in the avalanche had been the best thing to ever happen to her.
Chapter Six
Tanner hadn’t expected to take all day to retrieve Ella’s car, but he wasn’t in charge of traffic. At least now she wouldn’t be stranded in Plux without a way out. He parked her fancy car in the lot behind the hotel and then headed to the office. Needing to keep informed about the day’s events, he had called Clint a few times, but his second-in-command said everything was under control.
Tanner half expected Ella to call with some emergency, but she hadn’t. He couldn’t remember the last time he hadn’t had to deal with an irate client for a whole day.
The lights were off in the office. Good. Clint had gone home, and clearly Ella had returned to the hotel. When he stepped into his office, he froze. “What the hell?”
Sure, he’d asked her to straighten up, scan, and shred some documents, but there was no way she could do all of that in one day. He walked over to his desk and touched the organizer. Where had that come from? Did Ella think he needed this?
When he looked at the labels on the hanging folders and on the shelves themselves, he had to admit they might come in handy. He checked out what she’d placed on the new bookcase and liked how she’d set it up. Not that he thought she was just a pretty face, but she didn’t seem like the uber organized person to him. Tanner was rather proud of himself for hiring her.
Ella had mentioned she might do a little rearranging of his folders on his computer. When he studied them, he shook his head. Color coded folders? No self-respecting business owner wanted that.
And her folder names? They didn’t make a lot of sense, but he wasn’t about to trash anything until she explained her system. If he deleted some billing information, it could be disastrous. As he leaned back in his chair, he noticed the whiteboard directly to the left of the door. That was new. On it was a note: Hi, Tanner. Don’t be upset by how I labeled everything. I’ll explain it all tomorrow—Ella.
Thankfully, she understood that change didn’t come easily to him. While he had planned on working this evening, he couldn’t find anything to do. Sure, he’d asked her to shred whatever she scanned, but that meant he’d have to find it on his computer, and right now he wasn’t in the mood. Trying not to let this new system bother him, Tanner pushed back his chair and headed out. Tomorrow would be a new day indeed.
When Ella knocked on his office door the next morning and peeked her head in, any frustration he’d had disappeared, especially since he smelled the coffee in her hand.
“I wanted to thank you for driving my car back here. I owe you. A lot,” she said.
“It wasn’t a big deal. It was probably better that I got out of your hair for the day so you could do your organizational work in here.”
She set down the cup. “You don’t seem pleased.”
“No. I am. It’s different, that’s all.”
Ella smiled, dragged the spare chair in his office around to his side of the desk, and sat down. She scooted closer to him, and her scent made his cock harden. Not good.
“Let me explain what I did.”
When she reached across him to rotate his computer screen toward her, Tanner leaned back. He’d never had such a visceral reaction to anyone before, and it bothered him. He was a man of control, and Ella was definitely messing with his state of mind. “I figured out some of it, but the colors were a bit over the top.”
She laughed. “I didn’t take you for someone who wasn’t secure in his masculinity.”
Now she’d crossed the line. “I am totally fine with who I am.”
Ella grinned, acting as if she’d won some prize. “Good, then colors it is.”
Had she just manipulated him? No woman ever did that.
For the next half hour, Ella explained how she’d organized everything by clients. She had a spreadsheet that listed who was up-to-date in their payments and who was behind. She also had itemized which suppliers he owed money to. By the time she finished, his head was spinning.
“That is amazing. How did you know how to do all that?”
“My father is in the business.”
He hadn’t expected that. “Really? Does he do commercial or residential?”
She looked off to the side. “A little of both.”
Clearly, she didn’t want to discuss it. That was okay. Tanner wasn’t in any rush to learn about her deep, dark secrets. “Nice.”
The phone rang on his desk as well as in the entryway. She pushed back her chair. “I’ll get that!”
He chuckled. He loved her enthusiasm. Her voice traveled down the hallway, and the
n his line buzzed. “Yes, Ella?”
“It’s Mr. Domingo on the line.”
“Thanks.” His firm was buying windows from him. “John, how’s it going?”
They talked about adding a new line of windows for one of the restaurants. Tanner felt a bit calmer today during their discussion. It might have been because his desk was clean, his files were under control, and he had a beautiful assistant who could run interference for him.
After he hung up, he dug into his pending file. He had to admit, having his tasks prioritized was a luxury. Before he realized it, it was after one. He hadn’t seen Clint today, but the plan had been for him to go to the construction site. It was possible that Ella had gone to lunch without his knowledge, but he doubted it.
He headed down the hallway and saw her at her desk. He found it curious that her computer desktop looked just like his.
“Hey,” he said. “Did you copy the files from my computer to yours?”
Her body stiffened. “Yes. I didn’t want to have to run to you every few minutes for information. If a customer calls and asks how much he owes, I want to be able to give him the information without having to go through you.”
That was incredible. “I never thought to do that. Did you copy everything?” He had some personal items on his computer.
“No. Only what pertains to the vendors and your employees.”
Was there anything this woman couldn’t do? “Sounds great. Have you eaten?”
“No.”
“Would you like to have lunch at the diner?”
Ella hesitated. “Sure, but aren’t you afraid of running into Sasha?”