“I did.” He smiled, remembering the morning after. “It was...interesting.”
“Who is she?”
Harlan just looked at him.
“Don’t tell me there wasn’t a woman involved. Not after seeing the look on your face. Besides, I know you,” he added.
“There was a woman, but not like you’re thinking.”
“Who is it?”
“My office manager.”
“Savannah?” Travis looked at him like he’d lost his mind.
Travis was the only one of his family who knew he’d been secretly dating Savannah in high school, and that they broke up. His brother had seen what a wreck he was afterward, but Harlan had never told anyone exactly why they broke up.
“Savannah Taylor? Are you kidding me? You’re going there again? After she messed you up so bad? I thought you’d been cured of her years ago.”
“I did get over her.” Mostly. “But I hadn’t seen her or talked to her in years until Saturday night.” Not to mention, he hadn’t kissed her in years. “To tell the truth, I don’t know what the hell I’m doing.” He suspected he was no more “cured” of Savannah now than he had been all those years ago.
“You never would say why you two broke up. Obviously it wasn’t your choice.”
Harlan grimaced, aware Travis had always had the wrong idea about what happened and he’d never set him straight. “It wasn’t Savannah’s either. I broke up with her.”
“What the hell? You never told me that. I always assumed she’d blown you off. Butyoudumpedher? Why? You were crazy in love with the girl.”
“It’s a long story and not one I can go into right now.”
Travis pulled his phone from his pocket and checked the time. “I don’t have time, either. I gotta go, but meet me at Booze’s after work. We’ll grab a beer and you can tell me that story.”
Some of it, Harlan thought. But some of it was just between him and Savannah.
“Savannah, can you comein here?” Harlan said from the doorway of his office Tuesday morning. “And bring your tablet.”
Bill had come to the office the day before but had said he was going to stay out of Harlan’s way as much as he could. He’d be in and out of the office in the coming weeks, until the gas station project was finished but today he was on site. Liv worked three days a week in the afternoons, filing and other things of that sort while she went to community college in San Antonio.
Which left Savannah alone with Harlan today. She wished she could say he didn’t affect her at all and he was simply her boss, but that would be a big, fat lie. She’d been able to present a professional facade. Probably because Harlan did. Of course, that might have something to do with the fact that today was only Tuesday, the second day she’d worked with him.
Apparently, he’d forgotten all about that Sunday morning kiss they’d shared. She hadn’t. Damn it.
“What can I do for you?” she asked.
“Have a seat.”
She did as he suggested, wondering why he’d called her in and why he seemed to be thinking of the best way to say something.
“I’m going to be perfectly honest here. I mean Bill no disrespect, but I get the feeling he likes doing things the way he’s always done them.”
Savannah laughed. “He’ll be the first to admit that. He’s a little old-fashioned.”
“So I gathered. I want you to write up a business plan that would make this office more efficient as well as enable us to take on more projects. Tell me what you want, what you think is necessary immediately, what you’d like to have but may not need right away, and anything you want but think of it as a pipe dream.”
She perked up at that. “Things we need immediately? You mean new software?”
“Yes. Whatever you think will make our jobs easier.”
New software. Basically carte blanche to revamp the entire system. How many times in the past had she talked to Bill about these things? He’d turned her down so often she’d almost quit asking. This had been the one major area of disagreement between Savannah and her former boss. Otherwise, though, she loved the job so she’d stifled her natural inclination to update their processes.
