“How are you liking the restaurant?” she asked, not wanting to talk about Gloria anymore. “All settled in?”
He shook his head. “That’s going to take a while. The place is great. Talk about busy. When the orders get going, that kitchen is crazy. How do you keep it straight?”
“Sometimes I don’t,” she admitted. “If you think it’s insane now, wait until Penny gets back. Edouard is a good chef, but he doesn’t challenge himself the same way. Penny liked to test herself on the specials.”
“Everyone talks about how great she is,” Ryan told her. “I’m looking forward to working with her.”
His blond hair looked gold in the bright morning sun. It was perfectly cut, maybe a tiny bit too long, which only made her want to touch the layered strands more. He was good-looking without being pretty, funny, smart and possibly interested in her. Did life get any better?
Okay, her divorce wasn’t final, but wasn’t she entitled to a rebound guy? Someone who would take her mind off her lying, cheating bastard of a husband and show her a good time? Wasn’t it the law?
“Penny’s the best,” Dani said. “I’m glad she’s my sister-in-law again.”
“Again?”
“She and Cal were married before. Things didn’t work out between them for a lot of reasons. But when Cal hired Penny to bring The Waterfront back from the brink, they were thrown together a lot. One thing led to another and now they’re married again.”
“With a baby on the way,” he added.
Dani nodded, not bothering to explain Cal wasn’t the father. It was yet another Buchanan complication and she saw no point in scaring off her potential boy toy.
She giggled. Boy toy? What would Ryan think of the title?
“Okay, you’re always doing that,” he said. “You laugh at something and only you know the reason.”
“Sorry. I guess I find myself entertaining.”
“You make me laugh,” he said.
Was it her imagination or had he just moved a little closer?
Before she could decide, he glanced at his watch. “Tell you what—we have a good hour before we have to be at the restaurant. Let’s walk around the city some. You can show me your favorite sights and I’ll be impressed.”
A shiver of pleasure rippled through her. “Sounds like a plan.” She glanced around to get her bearings, then pointed. “Let’s go that way. I’ll take you to the big downtown Nordstrom store. I know what you’re thinking. It’s just another department store. But you’d be wrong. It’s an amazing place.”
She held her coffee in one hand while her other hung free. Without warning, Ryan captured it in his.
“You have no idea what I’m thinking, Dani. None at all.”
He laced his fingers with hers and squeezed slightly.
Okay then, she thought, barely able to breathe from the shock of a strange man holding her hand after a good ten years of being with Hugh.
He was right—she didn’t know what he was thinking. But she had to admit, she kind of liked it.
ELISSA WAITED until her shift was over to knock on Frank’s open office door. He looked up and waved her in.
“Hey, Elissa. How’s it going? How’s Zoe? She excited about starting school?” The man was in his fifties, overweight and genuinely nice. She knew she’d gotten lucky when she’d found this job.
“Very. Every night we discuss what she’s going to wear the first week and it constantly changes.” She smiled. “I met her teacher and she seems great. So we’re happy.”
“Good. Good.” He waved to the chair in front of his big, paper-covered desk. “What can I do you for? You have plenty of vacation time racked up. Want to use some?”
“Not just yet.” Not only couldn’t she afford to go anywhere right now, she always liked to keep plenty of vacation time in the bank in case of emergency. One serious bout of the flu for either her or Zoe could use up her sick leave and she liked having a buffer.
“I know you’re not here about money,” Frank joked. “You’ve never once asked me for an advance.”
She fidgeted, wishing she did want a loan, or something equally easy to discuss. “No, it’s not money. I just…” She pleated her apron between her fingers. “You know I like working here, Frank. It’s been great, these past three years. The money is terrific, I love the hours and you offer the best benefits in town.”
Frank groaned. “Elissa, no. You can’t. Come on, honey, don’t leave. You’re one of my best people. I can depend on you, the customers love you. Who’s trying to steal you away?”
“What?” She shook her head, although it was nice to know he wouldn’t want to lose her. “No, I’m not quitting. Not at all. I want to stay. I love my job.”
He frowned. “Then what’s this all about?”
“I, ah…” She cleared her throat. “Do you know Gloria Buchanan?”
Frank sighed heavily and leaned back in his squeaky wooden chair. “Oh, yeah. Old, rich, pain in the ass, if you’ll excuse my French.”
Elissa felt an instant and overpowering sense of relief. “You don’t like her?”
Frank shrugged. “I don’t know her. She’s on a lot of the same charity committees I’m on, although she’s always in charge. Has to be. I hate working with her, because it’s her way or a big fight. I swear, she could wear down a rock. I stay quiet and do my bit.” He looked at Elissa. “How do you know her?”
“I don’t, but I know her grandson. He lives in my building. We’re just friends, but somehow Gloria found out and came to see me.”
“I’ll bet that wasn’t pretty,” Frank grumbled. “What did she do?”
“Made some vague threats.” They hadn’t been vague, but suddenly Elissa didn’t feel much like explaining them.
But Frank was a bright guy. “She use my name? Did she threaten you with—” He swore under his breath. “Let me guess. The old bitch doesn’t think you’re the right type for her precious grandson? She said she could get you fired.”
“Something like that.”
“Elissa, that would never happen, no matter who came to me. I judge my people on what I see here, every day. You know that, right?”
She nodded, feeling more foolish by the second. “I know. I shouldn’t have let her get to me. I just got scared.”
“Who wouldn’t? Gloria Buchanan is not a nice person. You stay clear of her.”
As Gloria was currently in the hospital recovering from a heart attack, that wasn’t going to be difficult.
“Thanks, Frank,” she said as she stood. “I appreciate you talking to me.”
“Anytime. You have a problem, you come to me. Nobody gets to my girls.”
She smiled and left. But as she walked into the back room and crossed to her locker, her smile faded. How could she have been so stupid? How could she have let one mean old woman frighten her so much? Why hadn’t she thought things through instead of running?
It was her past, she acknowledged. Those first couple of years after she’d had Zoe had been awful. She’d had to work while caring for a baby and paying for day care. She’d always been one step away from disaster. She’d learned to lie low. Apparently the scars from that time hadn’t completely faded. And that, combined with Neil’s ongoing threats, had a way of making her jump to conclusions.
No more, she told herself. She wasn’t going to let anyone run her life. Next time a rich old woman threatened her, she would stand her ground.
A fairly safe promise, she thought as she got her purse and her car keys out of her locker. How many other rich old women were going to bother with her?
Still, she felt better for having made the decision. And for knowing her job was safe. As she headed toward her car, she had the urge to talk to Walker and tell him what had happened. She wanted to share her relief—and, okay, she wanted to hear his voice.
It was the kiss, she was forced to admit. It had changed everything. Not only had she experienced passion for the first time in over five years, she’d done so with a man she trusted.
How long had it been since she’d felt that for any guy? Not that it mattered. Even if she was willing to break her “no sex for thirteen more years” rule, Walker wasn’t. He’d made it clear that he wasn’t willing to take things to the next level.
Better for them both, she thought, then sighed. Lying to herself was never a good sign.
WALKER ENTERED Gloria’s office at seven in the morning. He’d put off going in for three days, but he no longer had a choice. He’d agreed to take responsibility for Buchanan Enterprises and he would. Hating every minute of it didn’t count.
He stepped off the executive floor and headed for his grandmother’s office. The hallway was quiet and dark, which made him want to look for snipers. He ignored the urge and kept moving.
Apparently he was the first to arrive. Or so he thought until he rounded the corner and saw a small, dark-haired woman putting her purse into the bottom drawer of her desk.
She looked up when she saw him and offered a smile that made her look both uncomfortable and afraid.
“Mr. Buchanan,” she said. “Good morning. I’m Vicki, one of your grandmother’s assistants. We spoke on the phone a couple of days ago. Let me again say how sorry we all are to hear about what happened. Our prayers are with Mrs. Buchanan through her recovery.”
The speech was really nice, but it would have been a whole lot more meaningful if she’d been able to say it without looking as if she would bolt at any second.
“Thank you,” he told her. “The family appreciates everyone’s concern.”
She nodded. “Would you like me to show you around the floor? Or would you prefer to see the office? There’s coffee, of course. Kit sets it up on a timer every evening before she leaves.”
“Kit is my grandmother’s other assistant?”
“Yes, Kit works from two in the afternoon until midnight. We trade off our weekends and there are two other executive assistants who have the training to take over if one of us has to be gone.”
She reminded him of a nervous dog. He would swear he could see her trembling as she spoke.
“Let’s take things slowly,” he said, his voice as calm as he could make it. “I’ll need to see my grandmother’s calendar for the next couple of weeks. Also, if you could let me know about monthly and quarterly meetings that might be coming up.”
“Of course.” She pulled a small pad out of her skirt pocket and wrote quickly. “Is ten minutes sufficient? I could work faster.”
“How about any time before nine this morning?”
Vicki blinked at him. “But that’s a two-hour window.”
“I know.”
“All right. Let me show you the office, then I’ll get your coffee.”
Walker had never been an officer, so he’d never been in a position to have someone bring him anything. He could only imagine what would have happened if he’d asked.
“Why don’t you show me where the coffee is and I’ll get it myself?”
“But you can’t,” she breathed. “Mr. Buchanan—”
“Walker,” he said. “Call me Walker. I don’t know how my grandmother ran things, Vicki. To be honest, I don’t know much about the company. I’m here to keep things from falling apart until she gets better. So you’re going to have to be patient with me.”
“Of course,” she said, looking terrified. “I’m sorry. I wasn’t being critical.”
She was like a wounded wild animal, ready to run for cover. It made him tired just to be here.
“You weren’t critical. You offered to get me coffee. There’s a difference. Now let’s go see where I can get my caffeine fix for the next hour.”
She led the way into a small kitchen, then watched as he poured himself a mug of the steaming coffee.
“Help yourself,” he said when he was finished.
“Mrs. Buchanan prefers that the staff doesn’t use her personal equipment. I’ll go down to the lunchroom later. We have a machine there.”
He’d known Gloria was a real bitch, but even he was surprised by how she treated her people.
“I’m not going to say anything,” he told Vicki. “Just help yourself.”
Then, while she watched in obvious amazement, he poured a second mug and handed it to her.
“I, ah, thank you,” she whispered.
“You’re welcome.” He kept his smile easy, while on the inside, all he could think about was getting the hell out of here. Right now snipers didn’t sound all that bad.
“THE MANAGERS FROM the various restaurants meet here twice a week,” Vicki said an hour later as she walked him through Gloria’s calendar. “Except for The Downtown Sports Bar. Reid is supposed to be in charge, but he doesn’t come to the meetings.”
“Not a surprise,” Walker said with a grin. “My brother isn’t into following the rules.”
Vicki nodded without smiling back. “Mrs. Buchanan sees the chefs once a week, except for the chef at The Waterfront. It’s in Chef Jackson’s contract that she doesn’t have to attend those meetings. That doesn’t make Mrs. Buchanan very happy.”
Walker wasn’t surprised. Lucky Penny, missing out on meetings with his grandmother.
“There are mini staff meetings every afternoon at four and major ones once a week. Then each department meets with Mrs. Buchanan individually once a week.”