She glared at him. “Fine—but I’m not happy. You’ll see I’m right, and when you do, I’ll expect a full apology.”
“Deal.” His heart lifted like a hot air balloon, the sensation freeing and frightening all at once. To get his feet back on the ground, he motioned towards the whiteboard. “We’re missing someone.”
“Right.” She scrunched her nose. “Julia Lottes.” The name landed heavily on the board.
“That doesn’t sound good.”
“It’s not. She’s Raquel’s best friend.”
He slumped. “That’s definitely not good. Any chance she could come around to your way of thinking? I mean, isn’t she worried about her job if the company splits? Aren’t they all?”
“None of the board members would lose their jobs—except maybe Guy. If there’s no operations to oversee, then we don’t need a chief operating officer. Everett, Hugh, and Julia would transfer with the brand and work as consultants to facilitate the merger. After that, they’d be absorbed into whatever company we sold to.
“Leon would continue to manage the factories. If they are parceled off, then he’ll retire. He’s already hinted at wanting to do just that. I get the feeling he’s only stuck around this long because Dad was sick.”
“Nice guy.”
“One of the best.” She recapped the marker. “I’m going to set you up in the main offices. I’d like you to get a feel for things and report in.”
"You want me to spy for you?”
She scowled. “I don’t want you rifling through drawers or hard drives or anything like that.”
“Then what—exactly—do you want? I need a clear understanding of what you expect from me.”
Her mouth flattened with annoyance. “I want you to take over a few of the things I took over when Dad stopped coming into the office.”
“Like?” he pressed.
“Like overseeing flavor development. We haven’t released a new flavor in months, and we can’t float forever on what we’ve got now. Also, several of our recent releases haven’t done as well as we’d like—they may need tweaking.”
“I don’t have the background or training …”
She cut off his protests with a slash of her hand. “We have staff who are trained, but they’ve been without a manager for a while now, and I know they feel as though they don’t have a voice. They’re in the kitchens daily, doing their jobs, and I can’t remember the last time I checked in on them.”
“Okay, that sounds harmless enough.”
She folded her arms. “That’s a funny word to use—harmless. Were you assuming I’d ask you to do harm?”
He scraped his palm down his face. “Assumptions are dangerous, remember?”
“Yes, they are.” She considered him with a sharp eye.
He waited, wondering if this was the moment she would lay his sins at his feet and demand an explanation—or expect him to live up to his horrid reputation. He could do neither, and breathed a silent sigh of relief as she moved on.
“I’d also like you to take a look at our packaging. Raquel dabbled in designing something new, but she dropped all of that about three months ago. I’m assuming—” She stopped talking. Nash held back a smirk as she reworded her thoughts. “Ibelievethat’s when she came up with the idea of breaking up the company. Since Hazel’s would no longer sell product, she didn’t need to come up with a new look.”
“That’s … plausible.”
“This will put you in direct contact with Julia. The two of you will work together on this without me.”
“What if Raquel decides to jump back in?”
“Let her. She’s got a great eye for this type of thing, and she’s an asset when she wants to be.”
“And then I can keep an eye on her for you?” He quirked an eyebrow, challenging her to deny the real reason she wanted him close to her sister.
Kenzi leaned forward, resting her elbow on the table and her chin on her hand. “I don’t know how much she’ll trust you, because it’s obvious we’re in cahoots, but yeah. Whatever you can observe that would help our cause would be great.”
