Page 108 of Theirs to Take

“Yeah, I know, but I’m the person who will be working directly with your employees and I think that the more that I know about their training and what’s expected of them, the better.”

“You know, they’re your employees too,” Alex countered.

“I know that, but it’s going to take me some time to accept all of this. McTavish Industries is a bit much, but I’ll figure it all out soon enough,” Evan assured.

“How’s Carrie working out for you?” Alex asked. He looked Evan over as if he was waiting for him to say something negative about his cousin.

“She seems great,” Evan said, “I mean, she got us both in and out of HR quickly. She seems very nice, and she’s been nothing but professional.”

“Good to know,” Alex said. “My uncle called us to see if we could take her in—you know, give her a job and a place to live. Rod and I are sure that she was in some kind of trouble back in Scotland, but we’re not sure what it was. My uncle didn’t really fill in the blanks for us. He asked if we could do him a favor and we agreed.”

“How could you not?” Evan asked. “That’s what family does for each other, right?”

“Yes,” Alex breathed. “Do you have a large family?” he asked. When he interviewed for the job, the topics of conversation were kept very professional. Rod and Alex didn’t ask him any personalquestions, other than if he had a wife and kids. He told them that he was single and had no kids, and that seemed to seal the deal for him. They were looking for someone who could be married to the job, and that was definitely him.

“I have a brother,” he said, “and, my mom is still alive. My dad wasn’t ever really in the picture. He took off after my younger brother was born and I don’t really remember him.”

“I’m sorry,” Alex said.

Evan shrugged, “Nothing to be sorry for,” he insisted. “You can’t miss something or in this case, someone you never really knew.”

“I guess you can’t,” Alex agreed.

“I understand what you meant about helping family though,” Evan said, “I’ve had to bail my brother, Eli, out of a few jams. I’m four years older than he is and I’ve always taken it upon myself to be more like a father figure to him, especially when he was going through his teen years. God, that kid was trouble.”

“Yeah, Rod gave us all a run for our money during those years too,” Alex said. “But we found a way to get through.”

“I guess we’re both lucky that our brothers turned out okay. Eli is an insurance risk assessor now and he does all right for himself,” Evan said.

“Really,” Alex said. “We’re actually looking for someone who can do that for our clients here at the company. Having a risk assessor on board internally would help us with jury selection too. Do you think your brother would be interested?” he asked. The idea of working with his kid brother kind of worried him, but it might be cool to have Eli around. Evan was always telling his little brother that they never had any spare time to spend with each other. If they worked at the same place, they’d be able to spend a little more time with each other. Evan just wasn’t sure if that was a good or bad thing.

“Well, it is my job to help find new talent,” Evan admitted, “you know, as your new Business Manager Partner. I can ask Eli if he’s looking.”

“That would be great, and if he’s happy where he is, maybe he could recommend someone else,” Alex said. “Either way, we need to find some people to fill that department.”

“On it,” Evan promised. “I’ll set up some interviews for you in the next few weeks.”

“Thanks,” Alex said, “I have a meeting that I need to get to. Listen, my cousin is still adjusting to being in a new country. If she seems to be struggling, would you mind telling me or Rod? We want to help her as much as possible, but we don’t want to overstep.”

“I’ll keep an eye on her, but honestly, she seems great,” Evan said. They had only just met, but she seemed very competent in her job, at least.

“Thanks, man,” Alex said. He walked out of Evan’s office and shut the door on his way out. Evan sat back in his chair, looking out the wall of windows that lined one side of his office. As far as views went, it was pretty spectacular. He wasn’t sure how he had gotten so lucky, but that was exactly how he was feeling about landing his new position. He was working at his dream job, and that was something that he never thought would happen. Lucky didn’t begin to describe how he was feeling, but it was at least a start.

The rest of the day passed in a blur of meetings and training videos. Evan noticed that Carrie was still at her desk, and it was after five. They were supposed to meet each other for dinner at six and he was about to head out. He needed to run home to change, and then, he’d run back across town to meet Carrie at the restaurant that she had picked.

“Um, I’m going to run home to change, and then, do you still want to meet for dinner?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah,” she whispered, shoving her cell phone back into her purse. “I’m sorry, but I forgot about our dinner plans. Um, something has come up and I have to cancel. I’m so sorry,” she said. He looked her over, noting that her eyes were red and puffy like she had been crying.

“Are you all right?” he asked. “You look like you’ve been crying.”

“I’ve just had some news from home, but I’ll be fine. I guess I get a bit weepy when I get messages from my old friends back in Scotland. I’m just feeling a bit homesick.”

“I’m sure that it can’t be easy,” he agreed. “I’ve never lived anywhere else, so I wouldn’t know how to help you. Are you sure that you wouldn’t want to come to dinner to help forget your homesick blues?” he asked.

“I’m sure, but thank you, Evan,” she said.

“No problem,” he said. “See you in the morning then.”

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