Page 4 of Trouble Me
He narrowed his eyes when the nameJennflashed across the screen. “It’s a quarter to five in the morning your time,” he said by way of greeting. “Shouldn’t you be sleeping?”
His assistant’s tone was testy. “Shane, I know what time it is. Even in utero, babies are on their own schedules. Mine’s an early riser, apparently. Besides, you never let me know if you received the résumés I sent you for the ops director position.”
“You really should try to rest. I can hear you pacing.”
She huffed and Shane imagined her rolling her eyes at the phone. “Did you get my emails or not?”
“Yeah, I got them.” He scrolled through his emails until he found the one in question. A couple of clicks and the résumés for each candidate appeared on the screen.
“Perfect. I scheduled them pretty much back-to-back because your afternoon is booked. Your first interview is an Emmaline Reynolds, at nine.”
“Got it.” He read over Emmaline’s résumé, raising a brow at her vast experience. “Who’s next?”
“Ryan Carlisle is at ten and Andrea Smith is at ten forty-five. By the way, I’ve arranged for your temp to show up at eight. Her name is Lindsey. Be nice.”
“I’m always nice.” When she scoffed, he grinned. “I’ll be sweet.” He glanced at his watch, noting he only had about ten minutes before the temp showed up, if she was prompt. He hoped like hell she was.
Shane directed his attention back to the document he was reading. Ryan and Andrea’s credentials didn't wow him like the first one had, but they were respectable. “Do you have any other candidates?”
“I have another three if those don’t work out.”
“What would I do without you?”
“You'd lose your mind.”
Shane chuckled. “Other than it keeping you up at all hours, how’s that baby doing?”
She groaned. “I’ve got six more weeks of this misery. Sorry I was irritable at first.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to your mood swings by now.” Her silence told him he wasn’t a funny guy but he grinned anyway. “You know I don’t expect you to keep the hours I do on the East Coast. Your husband will kick my ass if something happens to you.”
“I’ll be fine. How’s it going in the mountains?”
Shane swiveled his chair toward the wall of windows behind him and stood. Laid out before him, bathed in the golden light of the rising sun, were rows and rows of grapevines. There was a lightness in his heart looking at those vines. He used to run through the vineyards as a kid with his brother, Colin, and work side-by-side with his grandfather. He frowned, pissed and saddened at the same time, noting the condition of the vines. “Well, I’ve managed to find my cabin and eat in a greasy spoon.”
“A greasy spoon? You mean like a real diner?” Jenn's voice ticked up a notch.
“Yeah.” Shane paced in front of the large windows, the image of the waitress floating through his mind. Why the hell did he keep thinking of her? “Why do you sound so shocked?”
“Because, you’re Mr. Organic. Well, at least you have been since you’ve been back from your leave of absence.”
“Yeah, I know. But having landed here well after nine, I didn’t exactly have a lot of choices. Madison Ridge isn’t exactly a hotbed of activity on a weeknight.”
“You have a fridge full of food in that cabin you rented. I know, because I arranged to have it all stocked.”
“For which I am forever grateful.”
“Well, you hit the ground running today. You have the three interviews and a large block of time carved out for Noah Reynolds at three-thirty this afternoon.” She paused. “I wonder if he’s related to your nine o’clock appointment.”
He sighed, taking in the state of the outside buildings and recalling the state of the place from when he’d come in. “I have no idea. But that’s going to take a while with Noah.”
“Oh, and don’t forget about the conference call with that bottle distributor today. It’s on your calendar. That’ll be at seven o’clock your time, by the way.”
“Shit, I forgot. Where’s Colin right now?”
“En route to Italy. He’s going to look at a new system they implemented. Do you need me to contact him?”
Of course, Colin was headed to Europe. It was too early in the implementation phase to check the system, but Colin did what Colin wanted. “No, I’ll call him later. He’s probably not even up yet. I wanted to see if he could sit in on that meeting, but it’s fine. I’ll get a status update on the bottling issues. But can you find out when he returns from Europe and set up a meeting for me, please?”
