Again the effort on his part was nice, but I couldn’t help feeling like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop. Our new relationship was good but stressful because there weren’t any problems. My head was a bigger mess than I’d realized.
Tuesday afternoon rolled around, and it was a nightmare because Wick had back-to-back team meetings scheduled, and he expected me to both assist him and keep the office running, which was impossible. Something inevitably got half-assed when he tried to do all his meetings in the same day, and he insisted that he wanted me with him to take notes, so everyone who tried to reach either of us would go to voicemail.
He wasn’t always a perfect boss.
It would be a pain in the ass to go through all the messages later, but no matter how much I tried to convince him to do things differently, he simply wouldn’t. My soul shriveled as I handed Wick lists of material prices and other things as he asked for them while he had a tête-á-tête with each group. He normally never sat down, so I couldn’t either, and by late afternoon my feet were aching because my leather dress shoes weren’t made for this much running around. I internally rejoiced as the minutes wound down on the last meeting.
“Does anyone have anything important to add?” Wick asked from in front of the projection screen in the conference room. He looked delicious today in a cream summer suit with his silver hair combed to the side, and I had trouble keeping my mind on the task at hand.
“I’m not excited about having our project yanked for a new one.”
I fought not to roll my eyes. I liked nearly everyone we worked with, but there were a few people I would rather avoid. I watched Wick from the corner of my eye, but this was where he flourished, as if he was born to lead, and he only nodded seriously.
“Xadrian, I get where you’re coming from, but your team doesn’t have the expertise to handle the new hotel by the highway. Based on your preliminary plans it was clear letting you create a mockup for the full project would be a mistake. A waste of time.” Wick didn’t back down or sound angry or mean—he was stating facts.
I shuffled closer to Wick as Xadrian glared at him from a seat at the middle of the long table on the right-hand side. He was tall and should’ve been handsome with his narrow face and wide blue eyes, but he always looked as if he was getting ready to say something rude with a curl to his pink lips. He was damned good at his job, though, so Wick had hired him the second he laid eyes on his resumé and wouldn’t fire him without good reason.
“It’s a hotel,” Xadrian said. He drummed his fingers on the table. “What’s there to know? We make seventy rooms that mirror each other and call it a day.” The other three members of his team nodded, backing him up. In my head I referred to them as his flunkies because they all tended to wear white polos that matched Xadrian’s every day, as if it was a uniform.
Wick hung his head and chuckled. My blood ran cold. It didn’t happen often, but occasionally it was possible to piss him off. I took a step to the side and braced myself. “No. If you give the company a design like that, they’re going to reject it and go with a competitor. I want you to take your folks on a field trip around St. Loren—hell, go to New Orleans, too. We’re not building a big box hotel. People want something with charm or they will go elsewhere. Galyon Wilkes needs to make money on this venture. There are no hotels near the highway, but folks in this area will blow past someplace lacking curb appeal, despite the fortuitous location.”
There was grumbling from the team, and mostly thanks to Xadrian, who liked to argue and fight about everything, the rest of the men didn’t have great attitudes, either. Compared to Tony’s team, with Edgar, Shelby, and Bern, they were a nightmare. Sometimes I hated when Xadrian was last for the day because he brought a low-level anger to every situation and left me in a bad mood for the evening.
“When should we do this research, sir?” Xadrian asked, slamming against the back of his chair. “I don’t like to work without getting paid.”
“As soon as possible. That’s all,” Wick said, and I could hear the fury starting to bubble in his tone. He took special pride in treating his people well. Would he blow up? If Xadrian managed to cross the line with Wick, he would regret it. His team would get the boring projects for the next couple of months, something a lack of vision wouldn’t mess up.
Wick sighed and slung his arm over my shoulders, leaning against me, and I tensed but didn’t want to tell him to stop. We’d discussed being slightly more open about our relationship, and it wasn’t like he was making out with me. Xadrian and the other biggest troublemaker on his team, Hartlee, stared at us as they stood and carried their computers out the door. Hartlee was Xadrian’s opposite in every way—short, platinum blond, and before he met Xadrian, sweet. I wasn’t sure what had happened there. The rest of the team followed after them, and nervousness radiated from the other two men as they whispered together on their way out the door.
“Relax, it’s okay,” Wick muttered.
“I didn’t like how they were looking at us.”
He shrugged and bopped his forehead against my temple. “It’s fine. What’s next?” He shifted so he could stare down into my face intently, and I knew he did this with every person he talked to when he cared about their answer, but my cheeks heated. I cleared my throat. He gave me a tiny smirk I hadn’t seen anyone else ever receive, and my body burned with a fever he’d caused. I wanted to violate my own work rules and drag him into a kiss. He carefully slid my glasses up my nose.
Hell, what did he ask me?I held up the iPad to display his schedule and cleared my throat once more. “Caterers,” I croaked out, enlarging that block on the calendar.
“Caterers?” he asked, frowning.
“Yes, your party is only two weeks away. There are a million things you need to do to get ready and that Mrs. Riggins refuses to be responsible for. She said, and I’m quoting here—‘I’m not touchinga single bit of that damned foolish mess the boss calls a party.’ She’ll make sure the house is clean and the grounds are spotless, but she won’t be involved in anything else.” I knocked my hip against his.
He chuckled. “I may have taken advantage of her hospitality over the years.”
“Apparently.”
Wick shrugged. I held my breath while he glared at the door because I was certain he was thinking about Xadrian and his bullshit, but he rolled his shoulders, as if he was trying to force himself to forget the stress from the meeting, then smiled at me again. “Will you come with me to check over the menu? We’re having meat delivered and cooked at the house, but there are a few side dishes and finger foods that will be brought in. Plus desserts.”
“Why can’t this be an email?” I narrowed my eyes on him.
He waggled his eyebrows and grinned. “We get to taste test the food. It’s bound to be a treat because Bon Repas is rated perfectly everywhere I checked.”
Excitement squirmed through me along with a little apprehension, but he bounced on his heels and his enthusiasm was catching.
“Okay, I’ll go with you.”
My heart nearly stopped as he pressed a kiss to my cheek, but no one was around and he was so happy, so I turned and lightly brushed my mouth against his before I grabbed his sleeve and hauled him toward the door.
Not only did we go to the Bon Repas test kitchen—which meant we didn’t need to eat dinner because we were stuffed when we left—we visited an old man missing all his front teeth, in a small, strange-smelling garage on the outskirts of the city. The walls were blanketed withDanger! Explosives!signs.
