“I’m sure Meredith can find a reason for me to be there while she’s doing her thing,” Mo added. “She and Bronwyn can talk while I clone the hard drive.”
Meredith clapped her hands. “We have a plan. No, wait. We don’t have a plan. When are we doing this? I have patients tomorrow. But I’m done by early afternoon. Can we empty the office tomorrow?”
Bronwyn shook her head. “I want the office cleared out as soon as possible, but how will we justify it? We aren’t ready for that stage. We have no idea what we’re doing. We haven’t picked out paint or anything!”
“Sure we have.” Meredith smirked. “I have a Pinterest board already done for you. I’m thinking we go with this gorgeous pale blue for the walls, ceiling, and trim. There’s something very luxe about having everything the same color, just using different finishes. So a flat on the ceiling, a gloss on the trim, and then maybe an eggshell on the walls?”
“You ... what?”
“Your office is too masculine. You inherited it, and you’ve improved it, but it’s time for a total refresh. I’ve been considering it for a while. We can use the paint as an excuse to take the unwanted items out. Then we’ll go shopping. Once the painting is finished, we can tackle the rest of it a few pieces at a time.”
Bronwyn shook her head. Mo pulled Meredith away from Gray and gave her a hug. “Brilliant. I love it.”
The room filled with chatter until Cal let out a sharp whistle. “Okay. Here’s the plan. Meredith drags Mo back to the office tomorrow afternoon. She has paint samples for Bronwyn to see. They remove everything from the walls and paint some swatches in places where we can cover them up with paintings that are safe. While they’re doing that, Mo gets the hard drive and Bronwyn gets to have some say in her office renovation. I don’t know if I can have a crew available this week, but we should be able to start next Monday.”
“How?” Bronwyn asked.
“I have a crew that’s supposed to be on another job. But it won’t take long to paint your office. I’ll pull a couple of guys, and they can knock it out in a few hours. But that means we need to take everything out of your office and store it somewhere. To be clear, we don’t actually need everything moved out. We could shove it all to the middle and cover it up. But since we’re trying to get it all jostled and moved and switched around, we’ll say we need it out.”
“It does need to go.” Meredith gave Bronwyn a somewhat apologetic smile. “It’s bad, sweetie. It’s time to say hello to new and fresh and modern. We’ll give you a space that’s all yours, free of bugs and cameras, and put some new locks on those doors.”
“That sounds wonderful, actually.” Bronwyn’s eyes had a suspicious shimmer, but it disappeared after a few rapid blinks. “I think this is all a great idea.”
Cal looked at Mo. “You have other jobs in the works. How does this fit into your schedule?”
Why was Cal asking him such a stupid question? “I’ll make it fit.” He turned his focus to Gray. “How are we going to protect her? I’m not comfortable leaving her here alone.”
“We worked that out already.” Meredith gave him a beatific smile. “I’m going to spend the night tonight.”
“You are?” Bronwyn and Gray asked at the same time with almost identical levels of incredulity.
“Yes, I am. This is, of course, how we’re going to sell the quick nature of the office renovation. I was here, we started talking, and let’s face it, everyone knows how much I like to decorate. It will be completely believable. I’ll run to the hardware store in the morning and order the paint. I’m done with patients by two p.m. So that’s when Mo and I will come back over, take pictures off the walls, and remove the creepy camera, then Mo will copy the hard drive.”
“Thanks for letting me in on the plan.” Mo wasn’t angry. Itwas a solid plan. But Meredith did have a tendency to run off and expect everyone to jump on board.
“I just did. And you’re welcome.”
“It sounds to me like you’ve covered tonight and tomorrow afternoon. What about tomorrow morning?” Gray asked.
Meredith held out her hand toward Landry. “I’ll let Landry do the honors on that one.”
“Why, thank you.” Landry gave a slight bow. “Bronwyn, the silly goose, failed to put it on her calendar, but she has a planning session with me tomorrow morning. We will discuss my plans for new workshops, and she will be my guinea pig for a new class. If she likes it, we may add it to the list of options for our guests in the fall.”
It was Bronwyn’s turn to say, “Thanks for letting me in on the plan.” And she said it with the same sarcasm Mo had.
“You’re so welcome,” Landry continued in mock sincerity. “I knew you’d want to drop everything for me, what with me being with child and all.”
Bronwyn’s eye roll was spectacular.
Everyone in the room laughed, but the laughter held the tension of what they’d learned tonight.
“I don’t love the idea of either of you staying here, but I doubt anyone will try anything unless Bronwyn is alone,” Gray said. “I’ll have extra patrols nearby overnight.”
Meredith gave a theatrical sigh. “You’re such a romantic. Some men send flowers. My man sends extra patrols.”
“And some men do both.” Gray pulled her against his chest and returned his attention to Mo. “Maybe you can prioritize checking out the security guards here. Let’s see if we have any bad apples. I want to secure Bronwyn here before we rock the boat too hard.”
“I can do that. It would help if I had a list of names and basic contact info.”
