Katie clutched her handbag, shot out the words she wished she’d spoken all those years ago.“Stay away from me, and I’ll do the same.”Before he could respond, she turned and headed for her car, away from the man who’d once told her she owned his heart.
11
Katie was in the office studying the production report.Output was down, orders were up, and they needed more machines and labor to meet the demands.She had a few ideas to solve the issues, but they all involved an influx of cash and the investor wasn’t willing to do that without an efficiency review—conducted by one of their engineers.
If she could only speak with the investor instead of his representative, she might be able to get a read on what he expected and how much time he’d give her to get there.But using a go-between made it difficult to anticipateanything.Katie could read people, whether it be an expression, a frown, a mannerism…or the tone in a person’s voice.However, by the time this investor’s directives reached her, they’d been deciphered and meshed with the characteristics of his right-hand man, Lawrence Pickett.He was a lawyer who loved pin-striped suits, bow ties, and his five nieces.Katie might not know anything about the silent investor, but she knew Lawrence enjoyed the symphony, peanut brittle, and biographies.His gentle demeanor held a sincerity that made him easy to talk to, and she looked forward to hearing from him.
Until this last contact, when he brought up the engineer and the efficiency review.That, she was not looking forward to…
Lawrence, do I need to be worried about this engineer?
His voice had been encouraging when he answered.Just focus on what you can do to improve efficiency without sacrificing the product.
I would never want to sacrifice the product, and I am trying.I would love to explain that to the investor—in person.Lawrence, could you please talk to him and see if he’d be willing to meet with me?It took the man so long to respond, she almost repeated the question.
I will have that conversation with him.
Thank you.She should have asked for a timeframe because it had been three weeks since their chat, and he hadn’t mentioned it again.As soon as she was done with the efficiency engineer dilemma, she’d bring it up again.
“Katie?”
She glanced up from the spreadsheet she was supposed to be reviewing, spotted Glynnis, her assistant, in the doorway.“Yes?”
The young woman’s red hair matched her outfit.“You have a visitor.He’s not on your calendar, so I can tell him you’re unavailable if you like.”
A visitor?Please, do not let it be the engineer.He would never drop in without an appointment, would he?That would be unorthodox and–
“Katie?What would you like me to do?”
“Send him in.”If itwerethe engineer, the sooner they had a conversation about how to proceed with his efficiency studies, the better.She flipped over the spreadsheet and took a deep breath.She could do this…
But when the door opened, the man standing in front of her wasnotthe engineer.“Ian, what are you doing here?”
He ignored the question, moved toward her.“You look good sitting behind that desk.”
“You can’t be here.It’s proprietary.”Why was he here?“My investor would not like it.”
He sank into a chair, crossed a booted foot over his thigh.“Have you ever met the investor?”
What to say to that?“I’ve met his representative, and I assure you, he would not like this.”
A raised brow.“You think he would have an issue with you taking an old friend through the factory?”
Katie clutched the pen in her hand, forced out even breaths.“We were never friends.”
“Right.”The left side of his jaw twitched.“We were a lot more.”
“Why are you really here?”
He rubbed his bearded jaw, studied her.“I’ve been following your company, and from what I can tell, you’ve got more orders than you can fill.It’s great that you’ve got the orders, but not so great that you can’t fill them or meet delivery deadlines.That’s a red flag to an investor.He’ll want to know about efficiency issues, staffing, bottlenecks in the process, and he’ll send someone to take a look.”He leaned back in his chair, crossed his hands over his flat belly.“That’s where I can help.I’m good at problem-solving in these situations.”
“You’rea problem solver?”That was a joke.Ian Finnegancreatedproblems; he did not solve them.“You might have read a few articles about my company, but you don’t know anything about it.”The man and his arrogance were ridiculous.“You want to help?How about you do that by answering a few questions?”When he nodded, she kept her voice even, her expression bland.“Why did you disappear?Why couldn’t you have been man enough to tell me it was over?”Despite her attempts to remain calm, her voice shook.“Not returning my phone calls and then blocking my number?That was just cruel.”And painful.So very painful.
His expression turned guarded, his body rigid.“Did you ever think I was trying to protect you?”
“Protect me?You refused to return my phone calls andblocked my number!You weren’t protecting me; you were trying to get rid of me.”
“That is just not true,” he bit out.
