Page 8 of An Engagement for Erica

“That brings us to the here and now,” she said.

“Yes,” he said. “My father was a dick. He was hated by all. No one liked him, let alone loved him. Or I should say the only ones that could stand being around him were those that had their noses up his ass hoping for a handout. He discarded people as easily as he did empty bottles of alcohol and pill containers when they were empty.”

“Nothing at all like you,” she said.

She remembered that he often talked about how much he worked out to relieve stress. He always ate healthy when they had meals together and rarely drank alcohol.

The last part she didn’t know. It was one of those things she’d heard.

It made her wonder if he did everything the opposite of what his father represented.

Not much different than her with her mother.

“No,” he said. “I could have washed my hands of things, told my grandfather to find someone else to clean up this mess and I’ll come on when I planned.”

“When did you plan?” she asked.

“When I was fifty,” he said. “Fifteen years from now.”

“As I’m learning, life doesn’t always go the way you plan,” she said drily.

“Nope,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “But together we are going to try to get things on track. If anyone can do it, it’s you.”

She looked up quickly from her laptop where she was getting ready to open a document.

“That is very sweet of you to say.”

“I’m not a sweet person,” he said. “You know that. Are you going to relax now or do we need to chat some more about our past and history? I thought you had some things to tie up today and needed to make this a short meeting.”

She fought back the heat from filling her face.

Erica hadn’t lied about tying things up, but there was nothing that had a set time to it.

It was more about the fact she needed to get in a good frame of mind and that meant preparing for how long she’d be in Tucker’s presence.

“I’m flexible,” she said. “I wasn’t sure if you wanted me to start interviewing staff today and was trying to get prepared.”

“No,” he said. “I’ll be announcing your services soon. I’m hoping that helps some.” There was a knock at his door so he stopped. “Come in.”

“I’m sorry to interrupt,” Alice said. “But John is out here. He said he’s emailed you five times and you haven’t gotten back to him. There is a problem he needs to speak to you about.”

“Tell him to take a seat and I’ll be out in a minute.”

“I can get up and give you some privacy,” she said.

“He can cool off,” he said. “He’s one person that isn’t giving me shit, but he won’t leave me alone and that is almost worse. He’s my Controller. The CFO is out on medical leave and will be back next week. Thank God. John was terrified of my father and has to tell me every move he makes now. I’m not my father. I just want him to do his job.”

His exasperated tone had her smiling. Maybe it was the light humor in his dark eyes. Like he was sharing some secret with her. She could see where they’d end up back to the way they were before she passed out.

If she could get it in her head it wouldn’t affect their working relationship.

That was hard to do looking into his eyes, his dark hair styled like always, his silver button-down shirt, undone at the top, with the black pants he had on and black shoes.

He was never in a suit and tie, but he demanded respect and exuded power in his appearance, stature and mannerisms.

Just like he had some power over her hormones right now too.

Yikes!

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