Kelly Jamieson - Crazy Ever After

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Her green-hazel eyes flashed, and her cheeks flushed pink. Bent over his desk like that, he could see down the opening of her blouse where her breasts curved sweetly together. Travis dragged his eyes away from her cleavage and back to her face, stormy and gorgeous.

“We’re not struggling,” he replied.

“Then what’s he talking about?”

Travis sighed. This was why he didn’t want Samara there snooping through things she didn’t need to know. “Have a seat.” He waved a hand at a chair.

Samara straightened, staring at him, then took a seat. She crossed her legs, and once again, he was distracted by her bare calves, elegant and sexy as they brushed together. She gripped the armrest of the chair with one hand.

What was he supposed to tell her? She was a regional manager from San Francisco, but she also owned forty percent of the company now, and she had a right to know.

Shit.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Let me put together some financial information for you to review,” he said slowly.

“Okay, I can do that, but I want to know now.”

“In a nutshell, Cedar Mill has been expanding too quickly over the last number of years. Back about ten years ago, when I started here, Parker was very ambitious and wanted to grow the company quickly.”

“He did.”

“Yes. But he thought it could continue indefinitely. Recently, as I’m sure you’re aware, the economy has not been good.”

“Well, duh.” Her eyes fastened on him.

“Parker thought we were immune from downturns in the economy. But our fundamental business changed also, leaving us vulnerable. We’ve lost market share, and our sales have declined.”

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. “How bad is it?”

“It’s not a disaster.” Travis picked up a pen and turned it over in his fingers. “I believe we can turn things around. We may have to make some tough decisions.”

“Like what?”

“Closing stores. Laying off staff. Cutting back on new products. Reducing our plans to open new stores.”

She rolled her lips inward and stared at him. “Shit.”

Travis nodded glumly.

“Why did I not know this?” Her eyes snapped again.

“You didn’t need to know it,” he replied evenly. “You’re a regional manager.”

“But this...this is my business.”

“It is now. That’s why I’m telling you. Now you have a right to know.”

“Damn right I do! Jesus, Travis. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this.”

“I’m telling you.” He reached deep for patience.

“But you weren’t going to! You were going to let me go into that meeting this afternoon not even knowing the problems we’re facing. How the hell would I convince them I’m the one to lead us out of this mess when I didn’t even know about it?”

“Samara.” He sighed. “That’s been my point all along. How can you lead us out of it when you didn’t even know about it?”

“That is not fair!” She jumped to her feet. “I can get up to speed on what I need to know! Yes, I need some time, but it’s not fair to say I can’t do it without even giving me that chance.”

“These are not going to be easy decisions,” Travis said slowly. “And...since we’re being open here, there are other problems as well.”

She went still then sank back down onto the edge of her chair. “What other problems?”

He told her about the grading problems with some of the growers. “Oh, god.” She chewed on her bottom lip, looking away from him across the office. Then she straightened her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “I can help with this, Travis. I know I can.”

Admiration warmed him inside. She was strong. Not afraid of anything. The vulnerability he’d seen last night was in no way a sign of weakness. He couldn’t prevent the faint smile that curved his lips.

“That’s what we’ll talk about this afternoon.”

“I don’t want to have that meeting this afternoon.”

“What?” He stared at her. “You’re the one who wanted it, Samara.”

She shook her head, her mouth flat. “I don’t feel prepared enough. I want some time to look at the financials, get up to speed on the problems.”

Travis shook his head. Would he ever understand her? “No,” he said. “I want the meeting.”

She made a frustrated sound. “Of course you do. You’re just going to make me look like an idiot so you can take over. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

His body slumped with disappointment as he sat back in his chair. She really didn’t think much of him. Certainly didn’t trust him. The depressing realization of that weighed on his shoulders, seeping down into his bones.

“That is not my plan,” he said heavily. God, he was tired. And it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. “Okay, fine. We’ll put the meeting off for a week to give you time to get up to speed. I’ll start on getting some things together for you.” She did have a right to know, dammit. He’d let her draw her own conclusions from the documentation he gave her about how they’d gotten into this little mess.

“Fine.” She stood and tugged her skirt down. “I’ll be in my office.”

He watched her walk out of the office, spine straight, head high, her cute little butt twitching under the snug skirt.

He sighed again and leaned his head back against the chair. Damn you, Parker!

Now that Samara had some idea of what was going on, there’d be no stopping her. The struggle between her right to know, as Parker’s heir and a forty percent shareholder in the company, and Travis’s desire to protect her and shelter her, battled inside him, leaving his gut knotted and his energy drained. He couldn’t go on like this.

The truth was, as she’d pointed out so many times, she wasn’t a child. She was a grown woman, educated, with good knowledge of the coffee business, more than any other regional manager, certainly. As much as he wanted to see her as a young girl, as much as he wanted to protect her and look after her, he had to acknowledge her abilities. Yeah, he could tell himself Parker would want him to look after her, but Parker had wanted him to have nothing to do with Samara. And even though he was trying to preserve Samara’s high regard for her father, he couldn’t lie to her.

He needed to figure out a new strategy.

“And remember the time in high school when Jason White dumped you for that slut Phoebe Garmon and you wrote all over the bathroom wall at Hannigan’s that he had a tiny little penis?”

Samara grinned at her friends Gia, Bailey and Liz, sitting with her around a small table in a trendy downtown eatery. They’d just finished dinner and a couple of bottles of wine amid a raft of reminiscence and a lot of laughter.

“He was so furious about that!”

“But it was hilarious! He deserved it.”

“So are you staying here permanently, then?” Gia posed the question to Samara, both hands clasped around the wineglass on the white tablecloth in front of her.

Samara didn’t know how to answer that question. The reality of her father being gone still hadn’t totally sunk in, and she’d been so busy fighting with Travis about who was going to run the company, it now hit her like a Pacific Ocean breaker that, if she was going to move back to Portland, her life had just completely changed.

“I guess I am.”

“That’s so great!” Liz lifted her glass of wine. “We’re so happy to have you back, Samara. Truly, this has been so much fun tonight.”

“You’re going to miss San Francisco,” Bailey said. “Portland’s nothing like that.”

“No,” Samara agreed slowly. “It’s different.”

“There must be so much to do there,” Liz said.

Samara smiled at her friends. There must be, she thought ruefully, but she’d never taken advantage of even a fraction of everything the city had to offer because she’d been so immersed in her school and then work. She hadn’t made any close friends, feeling emotionally numb and detached after she’d taken off from Portland, and had only dated sporadically, for the same reason. At least partly. The other part—Travis. There’d never been another man who’d attracted her or interested her in the same hot and hungry way Travis had.

“You’ll have to come to Pilates class with us,” Bailey said. “We go every Wednesday. It’s the most awesome workout.”

“Sure,” Samara said. “Sounds good.”

Bailey turned to Gia. “You know who you should introduce her to?”

Gia lifted a brow and shot an amused glance at Samara. “Who?”

“Brent’s brother.”

Samara opened her mouth to speak, but Liz beat her to it.

“Yes! He’d be perfect for her!”

“I don’t think so,” Samara began, turning her wine glass stem between her fingers.

“Why not? If you’re going to stay here—”

“Is he a funeral director too?” Samara asked.

“What’s wrong with being a funeral director?” Gia frowned.

“Nothing! Nothing at all. Just asking.”

“Well, he’s not. He’s an accountant.”

“Oooh. Exciting.”

Gia frowned again. “He’s a nice guy.”

Samara sat back in her chair and looked at the three faces of her friends, trying to do what they thought was a good deed, and her heart swelled with affection for them. Something she hadn’t felt for a long, long time. She smiled. “Thanks, you guys, but seriously, I’m going to be too busy to date for the next while. I have a ton of stuff to learn about the business. Travis gave me a whole whack of reports and financial data to go over, and....well, there are some problems at the company I need to figure out and try to come up with solutions.”

“Travis.” Gia gave Samara a look from beneath her lashes. “Travis Murray.”

“Yes.”

“He’s the guy you had—”

“Would you look at the time!” Samara tapped her watch and pushed her chair back. “I need to get home and start looking at some of that stuff. It’s been so nice to see you all again...”

“Sit.” Gia held up her hand.

Gia knew about the crush she’d had on Travis all those years ago, but even she didn’t know the truth about what had happened. Liz and Bailey knew nothing and were looking with wide-eyed glances from Gia to Samara and back again.

Samara subsided into her chair. “Gia...”

“Is he married?”

“No.”

“I thought he moved away too.”

“Yes. To Los Angeles. He’s back now too, to deal with things—”

“So you two will be working together?”

“Yes.” Samara saw the wheels turning in Gia’s head. “That was a long time ago, Gia.”

“What was?” Bailey leaned forward. “Who is this guy?”

Samara waited for Gia to spill it all, her tummy tight. She swallowed. “He’s my dad’s business partner,” she managed to say. She held Gia’s gaze and willed her to keep that embarrassing secret to herself.

Gia’s eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head. Oh-oh. If she’d wanted Gia to get that idea out of her head, she’d handled this all wrong. Now Gia knew there was more to it than just a teenage crush.

To Samara’s intense relief, Gia dropped the subject, but Samara knew it wasn’t dead and gone and she’d hear more about it from her friend.

As they all hugged goodbye on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, Samara’s chest grew warm and achy. As much as she hated to admit it, she’d missed having friends and missed the history she shared with these women, the laughter and tears and experiences that had bonded them together. She’d had nothing like that in San Francisco, just some casual work acquaintances, and only now did she realize how much she’d missed their friendship.

“Call me,” Gia whispered in her ear as they hugged. “If you want to talk, I’m here.”

Samara pulled back and gave her friend a hesitant smile. It had been so long since she’d shared personal things with a girlfriend. “I will,” she whispered back.

When she walked into the house a short while later, Travis was sitting on the couch in the den with his laptop on the coffee table in front of him. He wore a pair of cargo shorts and a snug short-sleeved T-shirt that hugged his well-muscled chest and arms, his blond hair sticking up in all directions as if he’d been running his hands through it.

He looked up at her. “Hi. Have fun with your friends?”

“Yes.” The warm relaxation she’d felt earlier disappeared, replaced with tingling tightness at seeing Travis. “It was great to catch up with them.”

“Good.” He smiled.

She paused. “I’m going upstairs now to do some work.”

He glanced at his watch. “It’s almost ten o’clock. You’re going to do work now?”