Page 8 of The Wedding Deal
“Why?” she asked—the coffee needed to hurry up with its brewing because she wasn’t alert enough to respond intelligently. Or better yet, keep her internal thoughts inside her head where they belonged.
“We have a lot of work to do.”
“I certainly do. People have been calling nonstop, and the words ‘wrongful termination’ have been tossed around.”
“You can forward those to our lawyer.”
“You didn’t fire her?” Yep. That was another inside thought. What was it about this guy that made it hard to hold back her snark?
“Not yet, but I will if she doesn’t do her job. As I said yesterday afternoon, I’m well within my rights to fire anyone who doesn’t do their job.”
“And as I said yesterday afternoon, there’s a lot of paperwork involved in all the firing you did. Between answering calls and emails, I’ve been compiling it, and I’ll need your help getting it filled out so everything can be properly documented as soon as possible.”
“That can wait. Have any applications come in yet? From the postings we listed?”
“Actually, itcan’twait, because you can’t hire people without completing the paperwork terminating contracts. But yes—that’s the other reason my inbox and voicemail are overflowing. We’ve had a lot of people respond, but I haven’t had the chance to sort through them, so I’m not sure if we’ve had any qualified applicants. I was going to dig in after I grabbed more coffee.”
“Print it all out and bring it to my office. I’d like to go through them with you.”
Every cell in her body froze. In his office. Where he’d be looking like that, all tall and muscled, a teasing of tanned skin left exposed by the top few undone buttons.
Walking a fine line there, Charlotte.
It’d be impossible not to notice his hotness, but she wouldn’t let herself dwell on it. Before long she was sure she’d get used to the way he looked and how her pulse quickened—part of that was because he was her boss and he’d fired everyone. Yeah. That was theonlyreason.
“Charlotte?” His deep voice caressed her skin and sent a zip through her core. She didn’t really have a good reason for that, but it wasn’t like she’d act on the misguided hormonal surge.
Focus on how much harder he’s made your job. How he came in here and fired everyone.She cleared her throat. “I’ll print them out—along with the termination forms—and be in your office shortly.”
He gave a quick nod and gestured to the coffeemaker. “Are you going to share?”
Theglug, glug, glugslowed, and she glanced at the full pot. “I have a feeling I’ll need about this much to get through the day. But I suppose it’ll get cold and gross before I can drink it all, so I’ll share if…” She raised an eyebrow. “You make the next pot.”
He stepped closer, and her heart pounded harder, the jolt she needed from caffeine coming from his nearness instead. “Deal.” He reached around her for a mug and poured coffee into it, filling her mug as well.
Then he lifted the box of crackers and studied them. “Are these shaped like Texas?”
“What else would they be shaped like?” she asked, as if it was a ridiculous question—which it was.
“Is this another one of those lavish expenses we’ve been spending money on?”
She shook the last of the sugar out of the five packets she’d ripped open to pour in her mug. “That’s just how the yummiest crackers come down at the local H-E-B. I bought them myself, and they’re the store brand. Please don’t tell me you’ve been eating your salsa with boring circle or triangle chips?”
He blinked at her. “Thechipsare shaped like Texas?”
She intoned her best accent, although it wasn’t nearly as strong here in the city as in the smaller towns and the southern end of the state. “Honey, you can get most anythin’ shaped like Texas here. Crackers, chips, slices of cheese. Cookies. Even trucks ’round these parts have a Texas edition option—although I wouldn’t recommend eating them.”
She chuckled at her own joke. “Feel free to try some,” she said as she pivoted to the fridge where she kept the good creamer. She poured a generous amount into her cup, the dark liquid turning light brown. She extended it toward him. “Cream? It’s not Texas shaped, but it’s Southern butter pecan flavor, and it’s delicious.”
“No, thank you. I prefer it black.”
“Of course you do. Guys think that drinking their coffee black makes them more macho somehow, but that’s just silly when you could have coffee that tastes good instead.”
“Or maybe I just prefer coffee to taste like coffee.”
“Not buying it.” She moved to put her beloved creamer back in the fridge—she was a bit of a snob when it came to the International Delight brand, too. It was just better than other brands. “I’m gonna head to my desk, and if you decide to pour some in while you’re in here alone, no one will know. Just saying.”
“Can we apply that same idea to not filling out the paperwork? No one has to know.”
