Page 19 of Turning Up the Heat

CHAPTER EIGHT

“SO,WHAT’SALLTHIS?” Gemma asked, flipping through the report Reid handed her. She saw the Cain name printed on several pages.

“We’re making an aggressive push up north,” Reid explained.

“Cain Rum territory,” she noted. She’d known it was coming, and even though she welcomed the challenges of a new launch, she couldn’t help but think of Tom, and she was left feeling conflicted.

He nodded. “Now’s the time.”

Quin spent the next hour detailing a condensed version of the information in the report. It involved some new blends and a new marketing plan to target young, hip, but sophisticated adults—the Wall Street and Hamptons type, exactly Cain’s customers. Quin had put together a great plan, and Reid looked more than satisfied.

When Gemma remained silent, Quin turned his attention to her. “What do you think?” he asked her.

“I like it. And I have a few different batches that should fit that profile in the barrels now.”

Her brothers smiled at her, pleased with her enthusiasm, and she attempted a smile back, but she knew it didn’t reach her eyes. She felt a pit of guilt in her stomach. She was lying to her brothers—hiding a huge truth from them. She’d never lied to them before, and she knew that they would never approve of the night she’d spent holed up in her house with Tom Cain, and how every part of her wanted to see him again.

She noticed that Reid was still watching her. “You okay, Gemma?”

Apparently, she wasn’t putting on a very good act. “Yeah, I’m fine. I’m a little tired. I’m trying to relax and decompress after all the catch-up I had to do after Jamaica.”

“I called a couple of times last night,” Quin told her.

“Sorry,” she said. “I wasn’t around my phone.” The truth was that she had seen Quin’s calls, but she hadn’t felt like talking. She’d needed some time for herself. Residual guilt from how much she’d enjoyed her date with Tom had kept her from answering. “Anything wrong?”

“No. I just wanted to talk. You seem a little distracted. I just wanted to make sure you were okay.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” she asked. She knew they were right, but she hadn’t realized she was acting any differently. Her forbidden encounters with Tom had changed her. She knew she was acting strangely, but she couldn’t come clean now. They wouldn’t understand. “I’m under a lot of pressure lately. Sure, we’re all responsible for the success, and I’m not doing this alone, but I personally put a lot of pressure on myself to continue pushing to get better.” That was the truth. Being on top meant she had to stay there. “I’m just tired.”

Neither Reid nor Quin said anything for a moment. Quin spoke first. “We’re sorry. We didn’t realize how you felt. But how do you expect us to know what you’re going through if you don’t tell us?”

“I tried to not dwell on it, to push past it, but it just made it worse. I had to disconnect for the night. But I won’t shut you guys out anymore, okay?”

“That’s all we need,” Reid assured her.

“God, what’s happened to you guys? You settle down in relationships and now you’re all about the feelings?”

“Yeah, it’s pretty good, huh?” Quin added.

She stood from the table. “I wouldn’t have you guys any other way.” She picked up her copy of the report. “Now, let me get out of here and get back to work, okay?”

The mood in the boardroom was somber and serious as Tom and the rest of the men took in the recent profit and loss numbers. Once, Cain Rum had been on top of the industry, but their market share had fallen dramatically in the past year. If they didn’t act quickly, they would lose everything.

“John,” Tom started, addressing his father. “We need to turn this around. We need an overhaul of how we do things. We need to explore new markets, new processes, a new approach to marketing.”

His father waved him off. “Tom, I’ve been in this business since before you were born. We’ve had downturns in the past, and we’ve come out of them. It’ll be fine.”

Tom tried to keep his emotions in check. “The world has changed in the last fifty years,” he insisted. “I believe this is more than a downturn. This is a downright slump, but there are ways out of this. We need to adapt.”

“And how much do you think all of this would cost? What, we’ll just take the money out of thin air?”

Tom thought of the way the company spent money. The private jet he’d taken to Miami. “There’s room in the budget. Changing is the only way we’ll survive—”

“I won’t hear of this kind of talk. It’s negative and not helping anything.”

“Sir, perhaps Tom is right—” Shane, Tom’s friend and one of the corporate accountants, agreed.

John glared at him, cutting him off.

“You gentlemen might think you know what’s best, but you’re young in this business and have no idea how to maintain a brand over a long time. The only course of action is to ride it out. The fad distilleries, the craft places—like Rexford, especially—are trendy and will fall out of favor soon enough. And we’ll still be here, doing what we’ve always done. An old, familiar standard.”

Tom sat back in his chair, frustrated at not being heard. His fears were coming true. His father was too stubborn and set in his ways to see it, but based on Tom’s own projections, Cain Rum was going to fail, and as much as he tried, there was nothing he could do about it.

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