Page 40 of Pursuit of Happiness

“Lily Gantry. Gantry Oil and Renewables. She’s an industry leaderin renewable resources and has worked hard to bring her family’s business awayfrom oil production and into other energy sources. She worked with the speechteam on some of your position papers.”

“Hold up.”

Meredith and Jen both turned to face Gordon who wore a frown.“Gantry Oil was recently the focus of a federal investigation here in Dallasand you’re going to give her exclusive access?”

“Lily Gantry hasn’t been the focus of anything other than awardsfor her work in the field of energy development,” Jen said with a snarl. “Andshe happens to be married to the criminal bureau chief of the US attorney’soffice, Peyton Davis. She’s heavily involved in charitable causes, andconnected eight ways to Sunday. Meredith has everything to gain from having asit-down with her, and if she declines it would look bad. Do you really thinkI’d put my own sister in a position that would be harmful to her?”

Gordon held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not saying thereisn’t a good reason to meet with Lily Gantry, but I need to be in on thediscussion about things like this or I’m not doing my job.” He stared pointedlyat Meredith. “You understand what I’m saying, right?”

Meredith did. Gordon’s contract gave him veto power over anyother staff member, including Jen, and Meredith could sense his growingaggravation at the way Jen tried to circle around him. His statement about notdoing his job was code for Jen wasn’t letting him do his job, and Meredith knewit was only a matter of time before he bowed out. It was becoming more and moreof a problem, and she was going to have to deal with it. Soon. “I understand.I’m going to take this meeting, but, Jen, while I’m talking to Lily, give theother names on your list to Gordon, and let his team do an initial vettingbefore we meet. Thanks.”

The bus was parked near the tarmac, and a team was loading theirluggage into the storage compartment. They’d stay in Dallas overnight and headdownstate to Austin in the morning, followed by a trip to Houston in theafternoon. Meredith walked up the steps of the bus and headed toward herprivate room in the back with Jen on her heels. When she reached the door,Meredith kept her hand on the handle and faced her. “We need to talk about whatjust happened.”

“What?”

Meredith wasn’t falling for the “what in the world are youtalking about” tone. “I need everyone on the team to work together.”

“You should be telling that to him. Gordon may have a lot ofinsider contacts, but we need influencers. People like Lily Gantry havepowerful friends, and their influence spreads wide. It’ll be the best tenminutes you spend on this junket. Way more productive than a few remarks at adinner full of stuffed shirts.”

Meredith shut her eyes and squeezed the bridge of her nose toward off the headache that was crawling its way up her neck. “I will talk toGordon, but he’s got a strategy. It’s carefully thought out, and I signed offon it. I’m happy to incorporate your ideas, but it’s hard if you’re going tospring them on me at the last minute. A little notice would be nice. That’s allI’m saying.” For now. They’d hash this out in more detail later, but Meredithwanted five minutes alone before she had to make nice to strangers. Again.

Jen nodded. “Okay. I hear you.” She glanced back toward the frontof the bus. “Are you ready?”

“I need to make a phone call. Give me five.”

“Do you want me to get someone on the line?”

Meredith couldn’t tell if Jen was being nosy or just didn’t thinkshe was capable of doing simple things on her own anymore. If she won inNovember, there were lots of little things she’d no longer be able to do forherself, but she wasn’t ready to surrender all her independence quite yet.“I’ve got this. If I’m not out in five, feel free to knock.” Without waitingfor a response, Meredith ducked into her room and sank onto the bed. The tinyspace was her sanctuary for the few minutes she was able to rest during theseroad trips in between the plane flights, but right now she needed somethingmore important than rest.

Stevie answered on the first ring. “I was hoping you’d call.Aren’t you due at a dinner in just a bit?”

Meredith laughed, happy beyond belief at the sound of Stevie’svoice. “Maybe I should hire you to go on the road with me since you seem tohave such a good handle on my schedule. I can barely keep up with what city I’min.”

“How’s Dallas?”

“From what I can see out my bus window, it looks like pretty mucheverywhere else I’ve been today.”

“You just need some barbecue or a big juicy steak. Some meaty,Western thing, and you’ll be just fine.”

“I miss you.” The words spilled out of Meredith’s mouth beforeshe could stop them, and once they were out there, she wasn’t sure why she’dheld back.

“I miss you too. This is harder than I thought it would be.”

“Just a few more days and I’ll be back in New York.”

“I can’t wait to see you.”

“Me too, you.” Meredith fished around for something else to say.Something that didn’t remind them both of the distance between them. “Talk tome about your day. I need to hear about the days of normal people. People whodon’t try to navigate the circumference of the earth in twenty-four hours.”

“Okay, but I’m not sure it was normal. I talked to the prosecutorin the Barkley case today. She released more discovery, but not all of it, yetshe continues to pressure me to get him to give up a bigger fish in exchangefor a plea deal. The good news is I may have come up with an idea to getBarkley to communicate with me.”

“Sounds promising.”

“I hope so, because my initial review of the evidence only leftme more confused than ever, and I think our only shot is for him to starthelping me sift through it. The prosecutor’s been dangling the promise of asweet plea offer, but I can’t tell if it’s decent until I have a better idea ofthe case against him.”

“Anything you can tell me?”

“No, but even if I could, would you really want me to?”

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