“No, sir. Miss Smith failed to update a few files this morning as requested,” Hagerty said, obviously trying to push responsibility onto her.
But Lottie was done. With Hagerty and his incompetence and with this job, if the new owners sided with him.
“That’s not quite accurate,” she said when the man turned to her for her explanation. “I arrived this morning to this stack of files on my desk. Since they were not part of my assigned caseload, and there was nothing to indicate they were a priority, I got on with my own work. I’ve covered for his incompetence long enough and frankly, I’m tired of rushing and having to do nearly double everyone else’s workload without acknowledgement or compensation.”
“She’s lying,” Hagerty sputtered, still trying to make her look bad.
“No, she’s not.”
“He hasn’t done his own work in months.”
“I used to do his work until he decided to push it off onto Lottie.”
Lottie blinked as several of her coworkers stood up and backed her up. She had to several times to keep the tears that suddenly filled her eyes from falling. A glance at Travis showed he was ready to step in and beat the shit out of Hagerty. Shewould have giggled at that except that was the last thing this tense moment needed.
Before she could do something inappropriate, Travis stepped into the fray. “Why don’t I escort Miss Smith to HR while you have a talk with Mr. Hagerty?”
Guiding Lottie from the bullpen was as much for his sake as it was for hers. If he had stayed and heard that nasty little man say another word it would have been hard for him to not step in and beat the shit out of Lottie’s supervisor. Then he would have had had to deal with the police because, sure as hell was hot, the weaselly little pissant would have him arrested for assault.
He waited until they were around the corner and out of sight of the bullpen before he stopped and pulled Lottie into his arms for a hug. Dropping a kiss on the top of her head, he smiled when her arms wrapped around his middle. She held him tight as she pressed her body closer into his. She shook like a leaf in a high wind and her breathing was unsteady, as if she were trying not to cry.
Looking around, he saw an open door and empty office beyond. He tightened his hold on her and lifted her off the floor before walking into the office and closing the door so they had a bit more privacy. From the look of the office, this was one of the empty ones Sam and Paul had offered him to use for running D4R.
“Why didn’t you tell me you were having problems with that asshole?” he asked as he set her on her feet again.
She breathed him in for a few more seconds before releasing him and taking a step back. He had no choice but to release herthough that was the last thing he wanted to do. After all, they were at her place of work.
She wiped her hands over her face before taking a deep breath to try and settle herself. A second one and she dropped her hands to her sides and looked up at her. Her Big Lottie mask was firmly in place.
“I didn’t tell you because I only met you a few days ago. Plus I didn’t want you to think you needed to protect me. This is my job. I’m supposed to be able to take care of myself here.”
She took a moment to look around and sighed when she realized they were in an office and behind a closed door.
“Besides, it’s your fault I didn’t do his work this morning,” she said with a small grin. “I thought about putting his work before mine, but then I thought about what my Daddy would say and decided it was time I stood up for myself and that meant doing my work first. I was planning to go see HR at lunchtime to file a couple complaints against Hagerty anyway.”
“A couple complaints?”
“Uh-huh. I thought about just quitting this morning, but I still need this job for a few more months while I finalize plans for the candy store. But, depending on whether your friends side with him or me, I may be out of here today.”
“Lottie-love, I can pretty much guarantee that you’d have a job here for as long as you’d want, but you also don’t have to continue working here if you’d rather spend your days getting your candystore up and running instead.”
A knock on the door interrupted their conversation. Opening the door, Travis found Sam standing on the other side, looking pissed. “You get lost on the way to HR?”
“We needed a minute to talk,” he said before wrapping an arm around Lottie. “Lottie-love, this is Sam. He and Paul are my partners in D4R. They’re the sons of the current owners here andwill be stepping in to run the business so their fathers can spend more time on the golf course and pickleball courts.”
Sam chuckled as he held out his hand. “Good to meet you, Miss Smith. I’m sorry it had to be under such disturbing circumstances. Travis has told us a lot about you and I look forward to getting to know you better in the future.”
Travis pulled Lottie into his side and growled, “Mine,” earning another chuckle from Sam while Lottie giggled and nudged his side.
“Thank you. Now, if you gentlemen will excuse me, I really should go talk to HR.”
“We’ll go with you,” the two men said at the same time.
Only problem was that when they arrived at the HR office, the head of the department refused to allow them to sit in on the meeting.
“I’ll be out here,” Travis said as he backed into the hall. “When you’re finished, I’ll take you to lunch so we can talk about our future.”
Lottie hesitated for a few seconds before nodding in agreement.
