Page 48 of Her Honorable Hero

9

Miranda gotto work early on Monday morning. Since Griff’s team had had a long deployment, he’d taken some of his leave this week so he could take care of Livvie and she could get caught up at work. She shot off two e-mails and stared at the massive size of her inbox stuffed with e-mails that had come in over the weekend. She couldn’t concentrate. When she realized she was biting at her thumbnail she damn near threw her hands up in disgust. She needed to get her shit together.

She sat back in her chair and looked at the five pictures on her desk. Susan had put them there. One was of the entire Porter clan, with her, Livvie and Griff in the middle. She was so lucky to be part of this family.

Next was a candid shot that Beth Preston took of Griff leaning over her hospital bed soon after she had woken up. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days, but the smile on his face was breathtaking. Just for this picture alone, Beth would always hold a special place in her heart. She turned to the next picture. This was one of her and Griff again, only she had a pissed-off look on her face. Griff said it was her stubborn look and he had a dog-eared copy in his wallet.

It was during these few days that Griff managed to convince her to recuperate at his home. To this day, she had no earthly idea how he could have managed that. She vaguely remembered an argument, but it was so fuzzy, like a dream.

The third picture showed her with her work computer on her lap, and Griff holding her phone over her head with her trying to grab it back from him. Nope, no memory of that.

Yeah, she had been suffering from a severe case of ‘like’ on the train. Oh hell, who was she kidding, she had a hell of a crush on the big goofy, sexy SEAL. But moving in with him when she was vulnerable as hell? That should have been the last thing she would have ever agreed to, that was not her. Not, not, not.

Miranda felt a gooey smile covering her face. If it had been a little bit of brain damage that had caused her to agree, she thanked God for it, because it had been the best decision of her life.

There was a knock on her door and Miranda set down the picture, finally in the mood to get shit done.

“Come in,” Miranda called out.

“I brought you some coffee,” Susan said as she plunked a Starbuck’s cup on her desk. Miranda knew it would be hot and black, just the way she liked it.

“How’d you know I’d be in early?”

Susan rolled her eyes. “You’re always in early after Griff’s been on deployment. He likes to stay home for a few days and play Mr. Mom.”

Miranda took a sip of the black gold and smiled at her assistant. “You are a wonder.”

“I know,” Susan said impishly as she pulled up a chair. “So what’s on today’s agenda? Did anything new hit your inbox this weekend?”

“I still have to check,” Miranda admitted. “We’re going to have to get the lead out. My report that they’re going to reference for the meeting with the Joint Chief’s is needed in six weeks. We’re down to the wire, and I’ve got a bad feeling. The assholes are being cagey.”

Susan’s eyes got wide. “Don’t tell me that after the international publicity Lartronics received on this project, that they’re going to screw it up,” she breathed. “Are they giving you a hard time?”

“I don’t care about them giving me a hard time, it’s the three generals who have my attention. We can’t afford to have anything go wrong.”

“Wait a minute Miranda, it isn’t going to reflect badly on TAID if Lartronics screws-up on delivering this,” Susan protested. “Our job was to test everything and give the Pentagon an unbiased assessment of the viability, before they went into production. If you give a green light, or put a stop on it, either way, we’re fine. Unless we’re trying to get work with Lartronics after this project, is that it?”

“I wish it were that simple. If Lartronics fails, our name is always going to be connected to a failed project.”

Susan sat up in her chair. “But that’s not fair.”

“That’s how the game works,” Miranda sighed.

“But I thought everything looked good.”

“So far it has,” Miranda agreed slowly. “We’ve ensured that their materials were top of the line. The sub-contractors were all inspected and approved by everyone. The assembly is being done here in the States, and they built in enough lead time to get things put together without error. But I think the math on the original plans is off, and when it comes time for the demonstration, it’s going to fail.”

“So what are you doing to fix it?”

That was another thing she loved about Susan. She had absolute confidence in Miranda’s abilities to take care of things. Miranda was pretty sure she would be able to, too. She might hate being in the limelight, but she knew her damn job. However, this one was going to be tough. That was the reason Miranda had been going through her feel-good file, she’d needed a boost. Something to stimulate some ideas.

“I’m doing it. I just sent an e-mail allocating overtime to the quality control department. I want their findings in forty-eight hours. In the meantime, I’m going to ask Riya to give me the names of some mathematicians she would recommend. I’m not going to let this project fail.”

“So you’re not going to wait for the QC results,” Susan chuckled.

“Nope. Let’s hope I’m wrong, but I want to have my ducks in a row in case I’m right.”

“Which you probably will be. Will the CTO at Lartronics be mad at you?”