Page 256 of Small Town Firsts
“Right, but seeing you with food reminds me I haven’t eaten.”
“Sir, your growling stomach should do that without my help.”
As if I paid attention to such physical cues.
I would soon find out exactly how good I’d had it before.
Before vacations.
Before retirements.
Before I’d succumbed to a life of no meals and no sleep.
I grunted. “This is not enough notice. How am I supposed to hire a temp in,” I consulted my Apple watch, “six days, eighteen hours, and eleven minutes?”
“I know it’s short notice.”
“Short? Try minuscule.”
“But I have the perfect solution.”
My shoulders unknotted for the first time since she’d walked into my office. “You’ve decided to cancel?”
April scowled. Until today, I’d never seen anything but a serene, unruffled expression on my assistant’s face. That was one reason I appreciated her so much. She wasn’t prone to mood swings.
Mood swings were a good part of why I was single. My mother had enough of them to change the weather from across town.
I didn’t need any additional stress in my life. The calmer a woman was, the better. That went for men too, although that was a different dynamic because I didn’t get naked with them.
For that matter, I didn’t get naked with women much recently either.
Moving on.
“I can’t cancel. My grandmother needs me. She and Biff were together for two years.”
It took everything I possessed not to give a mock shudder. “I’m grievously sorry for her loss, but why does her misfortune have to become mine?”
April huffed out a breath. “Biff isn’t dead. Have you been listening at all?”
“Of course I have.” I adjusted my cuff links. “You’re cruising to Alaska?”
“Seriously?”
“Look, I have back-to-back meetings this afternoon.” Normally, at this point in a conversation I did not want to have, I would text my assistant to call me with a made-up appointment. That was hard to do when she was the one seated across from me.
One more reason I hated unplanned, unnecessary vacations.
“Not according to your Daytimer.”
“There were a few last minute additions.”
“Mmm-hmm. You know, I’m beginning to rethink my backup plan.”
Hope bloomed inside me like a daisy in spring. “You are?”
“I always thought you were a fair, equitable boss who didn’t play power games.”
“I do not. Ever.”
