Page 44 of Jake

Lauren nodded, taking a seat on the large brown leather sofa. “Anything I can help with at all?”

“No, but thank you for offering.” Jake studied himself in the mirror, fixing his hair and tie before turning to her.

She stood and straightened his tie for him, as it still looked slightly off, before kissing his lips. “I’ll be here when you get done.”

Jake opened his mouth like he was going to say something and then closed it, offering her a nod before leaving the office and closing the door behind him.

Chapter Fourteen

This day had been nothing like he had hoped. He hated dealing with the contracts when it came to the clients that were just never going to be satisfied.

It was rare now that he even directly handled any contracts other than putting his face into the meetings to briefly greet new clients. These had been needy from the beginning, and he really shouldn’t have even negotiated the contract with them.

Here they were, weeks before delivery of their new robotic warehouse system, and the clients were getting cold feet. So he’d spent most of his afternoon wrapped up in his conference room instead of with Lauren as he’d planned.

To her credit, she’d somehow managed her way into doing Max’s job while Max helped him with demonstrations and pacifying this client. She’d deftly handled all his calls and emails while they worked on this.

She hadn’t complained, and after about an hour into this last-minute meeting, she’d even had lunch delivered to everyone and catered it herself. Lauren had come in with a smile on her face and greeted everyone individually, while delivering food.

He’d never had a woman who would have been willing to come wait in his office without complaining, much less step up and take on things that she didn’t have to to help. There was also the fact that when he introduced her as his girlfriend to the clients, that somehow improved everyone’s outlook.

Two hours after her lunch, he was finally ushering everyone out. He let Max walk them to the elevator and went in search of Lauren.

He found her in his office. Phones and notes and two laptops were spread out on the long coffee table and Lauren sat on the couch, feet up next to her as always. She had swept her hair up into a messy bun thing and was typing away on a tablet in her lap as she talked on the phone.

“I understand that you would like to speak with Mr. Arnoldson right away, but unfortunately he is tied up for the afternoon.” She paused, listening. “Right. I’m happy to take a message and will pass it along for a call back as soon as he can.”

Jake quietly closed the door and waited for her to finish the call before he interrupted her. He had no intentions of taking any calls today, so whoever it was could wait until Monday.

“I do have your contract up in front of me. I can do my best to answer your questions, or you can leave a message.” Her tone was firm, but bordered on bored, and frankly, he found it hot.

“Okay, great.” She proceeded to write something down. “Thank you so much. You have a great weekend.” No sooner than she got the last out, she was pulling the phone from her face and hanging up.

Jake clapped, drawing her attention to him. “Nicely handled,” he told her.

“Your clients aren’t as easy to talk down as Cade’s, but maybe that’s because I know most of his personally.” She shrugged, putting her feet down and smoothing the blue skirt she’d tucked around herself.

“Thank you so much for helping out. I am so sorry it took so long.” He sat next to her.

“It’s not a problem. I hope bringing food was okay. I didn’t know if it would help, but food usually brings tension down.” She chewed her lip, not looking at him.

“That was a brilliant idea.” He barely caught her small smile. “You ate too, right?”

“I did. Max gave me a card to order everything on,” she admitted.

“Good, it worked out really well, and they are gone.” He sighed and leaned back on the sofa. “They really liked you too, and it helped.”

“I’m glad I could help. It seemed really important and painful.” She shuffled several papers around. “Also, Max needs a raise. This is more than I do.”

“Done.” He sat forward and pulled her back with him. “Thank you.” He placed a kiss on the top of her head as they both relaxed for just a moment.

Two soft knocks on the door were the only warning they got before Max let himself in. “Oh, oh, I’m sorry.” Max almost fell over trying to back out of the office.

“It’s fine, Max. We are just relaxing after all that,” Jake laughed out.

“Here, I have a bunch of stuff for you.” Lauren sat up and started piling things together.

“Okay.” Max hesitated but eventually walked fully into the office.

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