Page 40 of Seductive Nights

Her heartbeat quickened. "Yeah, well, as soon as Grant's office opens this morning, I'll give him a call." She looked down at her watch. "And I have a date tonight."

Carley sipped at her coffee. The smile on her face turned up a notch. She inclined her head and looked at her sister. "A date. Another one. That's three nights in a row you will have seen each other."

Margo shrugged. "Well, not really. I mean, we were at his place the other night, so that doesn't really count. We weren't on a date. Last night was a date. Tonight, he's making me steak at his place."

Carley's eyes rounded and her brows rose into her bangs. "Ooh at his place. Awesome!" She leaned forward and patted Margo's leg. " I'm so happy for you. Did you enjoy yourself with him?"

"I sure did. I did. It was nice. He held my hand. We talked. It was different than Logan. I like being near him. He's... I don't know what to say. I guess I feel safe with him. Like he's... he's got my back. He would never betray me. I don't believe he ever would. I don't understand how you can know that about someone so quickly, but I just feel it. I never felt that with Logan as I look back on it. Never."

Carley nodded. "I think that's a sign. You know they always say trust your gut." Carley smiled. "Trust your gut, Margo. If you have a favorable gut feeling about him, run with it. Good for you!”

Margo nodded. She sipped at her coffee. It was good for her. She finished her coffee and stood. "Okay, I better get ready for work. I have arrangements to make with the title company today for Jace's closing on Friday. They should be ready to start wiring money now, so I'm gonna get that going, and then see if there are messages about any showings I have to do. The usual. What are you gonna do today, Carley?" She stopped and stared at her sister. "Do you have... are you working from home now? What's going on with you?"

Carley's lips turned down into a frown. "You know, I'm thinking about calling and quitting my job. I've been on vacation these last few weeks. I have so much time built up, but I don't really like it there, and I want to be here. And I don't know, I thought I would look for work here. There's probably not a lot, but I thought I would try to look for work here."

Margo shrugged. "Well, I think I might have an availability for an agent at the real estate office if you think you want to try your hand at real estate. I think you mentioned it a few years ago. If you like it, eventually, you will have to take the classes and get your license, but I'm happy to help you along the way."

"Really? Margo, that's fantastic. I never...I mean, don't pity me. Don't offer me a pity job. But if you think you'd really like to work with me, I'll work very hard for you. I'll do the best job I can do, and I know I'll have the best teacher."

Margo chuckled. "I know you'll work hard. I'm not worried about your work ethic at all and with your experience in marketing at large corporations, I think you'll be invaluable."

"Okay, what do you want me to do?" Carley's excitement began to rub off on her.

"Well, this morning, we'll go to the office and muck out Logan's office. You can have that. He only had seven things in the pipeline, and one closes next week, so that's what I'll have you do. I'll have you call the buyer's agent on that closing and the title company. I'll walk you through that. What do you think?"

"That's fantastic. Thank you Margo. Yes, thank you. Yes!” Carley jumped up and hurried down the hall. Margo chuckled as she watched her older sister.

Of the four sisters, the order of their birth was Carley, Margo, Holly, and then Josseline. They were all two years apart, as if they'd all been perfectly timed. Margo was now forty three years old. Carley was forty five. She'd been married and divorced, and she'd been with Don for a long time. Long enough that they bought a house together. But thank goodness Carley didn't marry him. He was a turd. At least all the sisters thought so, though they didn't berate Carley for it. So now, she had a new chance at life, and Margo was excited to help her sister. Lord knows Carley had helped her so much over her life, but especially these last few weeks especially.

Margo showered and entered the kitchen to see Carley whipping up breakfast for them. "I'm making an omelet. How does that sound?"

Margo chuckled. "An omelet is perfect for me."

They ate breakfast together, drank another cup of coffee, and then went to the office together. The office was located on First Street, and she could pull into the driveway and park behind the building. It was just before nine. Her assistant, Addison, was already there.

"Good morning, Margo."

"Good morning. Addison, this is my sister Carley. Carley is going to be trying out the real estate business to see if it's something she's interested in. In the meantime, I'm going to have her in Logan's office. Can you please pull up for her the real estate deals that Logan had in the pipeline? I know there were seven of them, but get the paperwork and the file names for her so she can keep those files and the others. We'll clean out Logan's office."

Addison smiled. "Well, it's nice to meet you, Carley." She reached her hand out, and they shook hands. "I'll get right on the files. Also, there are a couple of messages here. I took them off the voicemail. I don't quite understand them, but someone wants to work here. Sierra, something?"

Margo closed her eyes. When she opened them, she looked at Addison for a moment, who was watching her. She huffed out a breath. "I may as well tell you this. You'll likely hear it, anyway. Sierra Stigler was Logan's mistress and they've been having an affair for seven years. Logan changed his will two years ago to give Sierra Stigler ten percent of this company. What I've managed to figure out, with the help of Grant Park, is that he is only allowed to give ten percent of his half of the company, which is five percent of the entire company. And even that is suspect. As a matter of fact, I need to call Grant and find out what he managed to root out after looking through our incorporation papers."

Addison frowned. "I'm sorry, Margo. I had no idea Logan was involved with anyone else."

Margo shook her head. "You couldn’t have known that anyway, and don't worry, I'm managing all of this...mess."

Addison nodded her head. Her voice was soft when she replied, "On that note, Grant Park left you a message to call him. It's also in these."

She handed over several pink slips of paper that she had pulled off the voicemail.

"Thank you. I'll get Carley situated in Logan's office and then, if you could pull those files, I'll work with her after I call Grant. In the meantime, Sierra Stigler is not working here. She has nothing to say about anything that goes on in this company, and if she comes in here, tell her to leave. If she won't leave, just call the police. We don't want her here, and we're not going to deal with her drama and pettiness. I'm just not gonna do it."

Addison nodded. "Okay, got it.”

Margo looked at Carley and nodded toward the set of doors. Logan and Margo had offices side by side. Their company was small. There were only two other rooms across the hall from their two offices, one was their file room. All their real estate dealings were filed by the last name of the seller and placed on shelves in alphabetical order. They kept them for seven years, and at the end of the seventh year, Addison would clean out those seven-year files and make sure they were scanned into their system. And then she destroyed the documents. She didn't have anything original here anyway other than the offers, and at that point, after they had been closed for seven years, there was no need to keep that either.

The second room was their conference room. It wasn't large, but it served as a clean place to meet with prospective buyers and sellers. It was comfortable and sensibly decorated with pictures of Blossom Springs and the sunsets.

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