“What’s this for?”
“The product update meeting. Follow. Follow.” Jillian crooked her finger and sauntered out of the room. Her scarf trailed behind her.
Ginny took one last look around the room that had once been the hub of Brent Lockwood’s life. The feeling that she’d lost another piece of her father weighed her down. She missed his desk. Of all the items he’d left behind in this world, the desk was the one thing that she’d been looking forward to seeing again. They’d shared hours at that desk. One could say it was the nucleus of their relationship.
She rubbed the goose bumps off her arms. First Quinton left her standing on the dance floor, adrift in a sea of questions—feeling alone. And now, the loss of a desk gave her shivers. She wasn’t sure which one was more disturbing.Quinton,whispered her soul.
Shaking off ghosts and whispers, she headed for the meeting.
Jack waited for her by the door. His floral bow tie told her that he and Dianne were still together. It was nice to know a marriage could last.
She smiled. “Did they assign you to walk me around today?”
He rubbed his ear. “I thought you might need a friendly face.”
“That doesn’t encourage me to go into this meeting,” she joked.
Jack rubbed his ear again but didn’t respond. His silence was more telling than any explanation he could have come up with. So that’s how it was going to be, was it?
Jillian tapped her foot outside the door to the conference room. “Let’s get you seated.”
Ginny lifted an eyebrow. “I could have found a chair.”
“Yes, but you move like you’re still in Africa. You need to learn to hustle.”
Hustle. The word grated. She’d heard it so many times growing up that she likened it to being force-fed lima beans. Time already moved too fast. Except when she was in Quinton’s arms on the dance floor. That was the one place time had slowed down. She’d felt so at home with him, so at peace with herself and the world. Having that experience threw every other minute of her day into sharp contrast. She’d wracked her brain to figure out what had caused him to dash off and not come back. So far, all she’d come up with was that he truly did need to talk to someone. If there was one thing she was sure about, it was that Quinton was a good person. His eyes were too easy to read.
Unlike other people in her life. Like Jillian. Despite their civil tones and the warmish welcome, Ginny wasn’t sure if her stepmother was her ally or her frenemy.
“India. Jillian, I was inIndialast week.” She walked past her and into the already full room.
There were several empty chairs at the head of the table, and Ginny took one, leaving the other for Jillian. She was in charge of this meeting, while Ginny was here to observe. Jack took the chair on her other side, and she smiled at him. He was right: it was nice to have a friendly face.
Most of the people seated around the table were in their thirties, though there were a few who could be in their late twenties like her. A glance at the agenda told her that these were the leaders for projects in R&D. She squared her shoulders, ready to find out what the company was up to these days.
Jillian tapped her pen on the desk to bring everyone to attention. Heads swiveled her direction and conversations were cut off mid-sentence. “Ladies and gentlemen, this is Virginia Lockwood.”
Someone gasped, and the room went still. The air conditioner kicked on and lifted a piece of paper off the table. It settled gently on the glass.
Ginny offered a closed-lipped smile. No one smiled back. A few people’s mouths hung open. One man stared at her as if she were an illusion. He actually rubbed his eyes and blinked.
Jillian jumped into the first item on the agenda, acting as if things were fine. Ginny’s instincts said otherwise. She leaned over to speak to Jack. “What’s with the shock and awe?”
“You’re a story come to life. No one thought you were real. They assumed you were a threat Jillian hung over their heads to motivate them to show profits each quarter.”
Ginny shook her head. She could only imagine the image Jillian had created of her. “Where are Thomas and Suzette?” Research teams had turnover, but those two were the staying kind.
“Retired,” Jack whispered back.
They weren’t that old …
Maybe they were. Ginny wasn’t the same bright-eyed coed who’d interned here between semesters and palled around with Quinn on campus. She was all grown up—just like Dad had planned when he came up with the ten-year plan. The only flaw in the plan was that he wasn’t here to see it come to fruition. If he had been here, her introduction would have been quite different. She wouldn’t feel adrift.
She could use a good anchor. A friend.
Immediately she yearned for Quinn. Being able to talk to him, work through ideas and issues that come up, would be a life raft in this crazy corporate ocean.
“Parker!” Jillian snapped, yanking Ginny off her train of thought.
