North Dakota Weddings (47 page)

Questions lingered behind Barb’s eyes. “I wonder why he’s so hush-hush about it.”

Rayne didn’t respond, because they’d reached the glass doors of the conference room, held open by one of their fellow employees, Simon Jeffers. He smiled. “Hi there, Rayne.”

She replied in kind and thanked him for keeping the door for her. Most of the sixteen chairs around the conference table were occupied except for one seat near the front. The rest of the planning division employees, which accounted for half the company, leaned against the walls, and a few limber ones sat on the floor, legs crossed.

Had that seat been saved for her? Preparing to be formally recognized, if that’s what Harold had in mind, Rayne took the only seat left. She set her file in front of her on the table, a little miffed she didn’t know what was going on. If Harold announced her today, and she hoped he would, he should have given her fair warning. Then again, to his way of thinking, she knew from experience, he probably thought he had.

She wanted to sigh but stifled it, putting on a confident smile. As she glanced around the room, listening to conversations about the holidays and seeing most of her team there, her confidence ignited once again.

Yep. Harold would announce that he’d promoted her to team manager. She’d been one of the first hired on at FountainTech a year ago at the company’s inception, selling herself on her designs alone. She had proven her abilities to coordinate the team’s efforts on projects thereafter.

Rayne slowly released a breath and relaxed into the burgundy leather chair. Two people standing against the wall behind her whispered about Jack and his good looks. Rayne fought the desire to look at the ceiling. The culture these days was focused on one thing, it seemed. Rayne couldn’t afford for her thoughts to go there, because she wasn’t one of the beautiful ones. It would be too depressing. Instead, she considered it a blessing that God had given her more important gifts.

The knob on the door at the head of the conference room clicked, and a hush spread through the room. Harold was obviously standing behind the door, intending to walk through, but held back for some reason. Then the door flew open quickly.
Definitely Harold
.

Tall and authoritative, he stepped through, followed by Jack. A few quiet intakes of breath resounded around the room as though everyone held their breath. Rayne’s eye flicked to Jack’s collar. The lipstick was barely noticeable—how had he gotten it out? With the way he’d suggested she keep an extra shirt in her office, she supposed he’d dealt with similar situations before. Still, the guy exuded efficiency. Probably kept one of those Tide instant spot removers on hand as well.

She figured the stain could only be seen if one knew where to look. As Harold began to talk, she became self-conscious about her own coffee-stained blouse and leaned against the table, positioning her hands to hide the stain. How was she going to hide that when she stood to make her speech? Expectant and filled with enthusiasm, Rayne snapped her attention back to Harold.

But Harold’s announcement had nothing to do with her. Rayne’s heart pounded in her throat. She feared the pulse in her neck was like a neon sign to everyone in the room. Harold was introducing Jack. That was odd. There was never fanfare over a regular employee.

Only managers.

Harold peered around the room. Always in command of his audience, he apparently liked to make eye contact with everyone if he could.

“Welcome back from the holidays. I hope you’re rested and ready to focus your time and energies on creating the best fountain designs in the world.” His deep baritone filled the room like surround sound.

Most cheered their agreement. Harold expected no less. The atmosphere seemed to bubble with anticipation.

“I expect you’re wondering why I called this meeting. We needed to get this year started on the right foot. I’ve hired Jack to manage the design team.” It appeared to Rayne that Harold’s gaze fell everywhere except on her.

Rayne’s heart seemed to stop. She smiled and nodded as if she were excited, fitting in with her fellow employees. When her heart began to beat again, long and loud in her ears, it covered all other sounds. She was in a tunnel, and time seemed to slow around her.

Thump, thump
.

Harold’s lips were moving, but she heard only the…

Thump, thump
.

In slow motion, she swiveled her head, scanning the faces around the conference room.

Thump, thump
.

Her gaze fell on Barb, smiling against the wall in the back of the room, her full attention on Harold.

Thump, thump
.

Then Rayne’s head rotated. She was looking at the front of the room. At Jack.

Thump, thump…thump, thump
…

He was staring back at her. Rayne had a terrible thought. Did he know?

Jack loved moments like these. He soared like an eagle, hearing himself announced as the new manager of the design team. He heard Harold speaking, knew the man was introducing him, but his thoughts had already moved on to what he would say when his turn came.

The only glitch in the moment, in his thoughts, was the look on Rayne Flemming’s face when Harold made his announcement. Though smiling, the light in her eyes dimmed. She looked as if…well, as if the breath had been knocked out of her. Literally.

“You’re up, champ.”

“Thanks, Harold.” Jack smiled and tried not to grit his teeth at the nickname Harold had branded him with. A splinter in his hand would have been less annoying.

Pouring all his energy into appearing enthusiastic, Jack stepped to the front, and Harold eased back against the wall.

Definitely, Jack was back. Today was the premier of his show. He didn’t slow to acknowledge the prick of fear curdling his stomach. Failure wasn’t in his plans. Not this time.

“I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to be FountainTech’s newest member. Even more so because of the talent I’m joining here.” He paused, for effect, his momentary silence building expectation in the room.

He clicked his remote wand, and the PowerPoint presentation he’d whipped together within the last hour flashed on to the whiteboard at the front of the room. “Much of this information you already know, but I want to show it to you in a new light, if you will. FountainTech’s goal is to be the leading provider of water feature designs around the world.”

Jack clicked through the three fountains they’d created in the last year. Two in the United States, one in Egypt. Images of multiple fountains lifting water high into the air, like Old Faithful in Yellowstone National Park, played across the screen in a slide show. Music accompanied each of the images.

“Mm.” Jack shook his head and glanced back at his hypnotized group. “No matter how many times I watch that, I’ll never stop loving it. It will never cease to mesmerize me or to inspire me.

“These images are part of what drew me to your company. You’re probably wondering about my background. I came from a similar design company, Elemental Innovations.”

He heard a few whispers in the room. He didn’t mention he hadn’t worked for EI in over six months. In his opinion, FountainTech was far ahead of his old company, and he was jazzed about this opportunity. “And before that I worked at Disney as an imagination engineer—an Imagineer.” He grinned, always loving that title.

“And that’s what I want from my team. Anything we can imagine, we can create.”

Rayne Flemming unexpectedly came into his mind, and he looked her way, but she had her head down, writing on a notepad. Next, Jack chose a slide with employee names. “If your name is up there, you are a member of the team I’ll be managing. Over this next week, I plan to find out your strengths and weaknesses and effectively reorganize things. Expect to meet with me one on one.”

Finished with his short presentation, he raised the lighting, noting the hopeful looks and shimmering eyes. Good. Just what he liked to see. “Questions?”

Immediately a hand shot up. A blond at the back of the room. “My name is Heidi. What exactly did you do at the companies where you worked before?”

Oh come on. He’d hoped for something, well, more imaginative. For the next twenty minutes, he answered questions. For some reason, he couldn’t get his mind off Rayne. He stood at the end of the table, his pant legs touching the edge. She was seated next to where he stood, looking dazed. Disappointment tried to kill his moment, but it would never beat Jack.

He’d expected much more from Rayne than he’d gotten in her reaction.

When the questions finally ended, Harold moved forward to stand next to Jack.

“Thank you, Jack. I’m sure everyone is as equally impressed as I am, and eager to get to work.”

Too soon the meeting was over. Frankly, Jack loved the attention. But Harold was right. Time to get to work. The employees filed from the room, Rayne in their midst. Jack frowned. He’d intended to speak to her before she left, but she’d simply melted out of the room with the others.

“I knew I was right to hire you, Jack. I know you won’t let me down.” Harold winked then started to leave as well.

“Harold, can I ask you something?”

The man paused, waiting.

“It’s about Rayne Fleming.”

Harold’s eyes brightened. “She’ll be the star of your team. Treat her right.”

Jack shook his head. “Something’s wrong.”

Angling his head, Harold studied Jack. “You read people well, Jack. Several weeks ago, I talked to Rayne about managing the team. She would do a good job, no doubt. But I needed someone less creative and craftier for the job.” Harold squeezed Jack’s shoulder. “You’re the man. Good thing for me you came onto the scene when you did.”

Harold grinned, making a clucking sound out of the side of his mouth, then left the conference room.

Jack stared after him. Had he meant crafty in a good way? Or crafty as in scheming and conniving? Jack considered himself highly creative as well. He stared at the floor, calming his anger.

Rayne’s reaction made perfect sense now. Harold had dangled the carrot in her face then offered it to Jack. She’d had no warning. She’d been blindsided. As he gathered up his notes and the flash drive holding his PowerPoint, Jack became worried. Very worried.

The most valuable person on his team, Rayne Flemming, could very well leave the company over this. Jack rushed out of the conference room, only one thought pressing him.

I can’t afford to lose her…
.

T
he higher your aim, the harder your fall.”
Her father’s words—spoken in a rare moment when he’d revealed his own life’s disappointments—seemed to mock her.

Tears seared the back of Rayne’s eyes, where she kept them imprisoned. She needed time to order her thoughts. Lunch couldn’t come fast enough, but now she wished she hadn’t invited Barb to join her. At the time, she’d wanted to appease Barb, and she admitted to herself, she’d been counting on having something to celebrate. Maybe she could use her coffee-stained shirt as an excuse—she needed to change into a new one.

With the back of her hand, Rayne brushed away the lone tear that had managed to slip past her guard. Tears had no place in the corporate world.

She leaned against the windowsill. From the fifth floor, she could see a good bit of Fargo, though the view was somewhat obstructed by a few other tall buildings that stood near the bank where FountainTech leased offices. Snow clung to the rooftops and edged the streets and sidewalks, and though the white stuff was as familiar to her as her mother’s voice, today it chilled her soul.

How had she so grossly misunderstood Harold’s intentions toward her career? Or had the fault been his—dangling the promotion, knowing from the beginning how important this goal was to her. Was it simply an oversight, or was it intentional? Regardless, she’d assigned far too much significance to the promotion, thinking of it as a fleece that would let her know that she’d made the right decision when she’d left home and left her parents’ expectations unfulfilled.

Would she be like Gideon and continue to question God?

She scoffed out loud. It was ridiculous to have considered Harold’s decision a fleece to begin with. Promotion or no promotion, she could no more give up this dream of creating her designs than air or water. She admitted to herself that, although she’d not been indifferent to the prospect of the boost to her career, this promotion had been all about proving herself to her parents. Her current position wasn’t enough to earn their approval.

The big question now was, where would she go from here? How should she react? She’d better figure that out and quickly. The questions assailed her like a blizzard in her mind, lashing at all her neatly constructed plans, ideas about who she was and where she wanted to go, blinding her to the future.

In the distance, the sky began to clear, and the snow clouds, having spent their load, were beginning to push out. Focusing on the blue edging the horizon, Rayne drew in a weighty breath.

A whiff of burnt popcorn seeped under her door. She hated that her office was so close to the kitchen—something else she’d thought would change after this morning’s meeting. Tugging her chair back from the desk, she sank into it, longing for her earlier enthusiasm. She had a new boss now. Someone else to impress.