One Week (HaleStorm) (5 page)

***

B
y the time they’d finished both their coffees and Elise had started her second muffin, they’d actually settled into a pretty good rhythm together. With Elise’s trusty spreadsheets laid out on the conference room table between them, things flowed easily. Professionally. Safely.

“Okay, this is some of the more involved stuff for you to keep in mind for later. They want you to show proper management of your firewall, for example.” She glanced at Michael. “That’s sort of subjective. I presume they just want proof that it’s being regularly maintained. Maybe if we could take a screen capture of the settings....”

He handed over a sheet of paper. “A screen shot of our firewall’s rule set, taken the day they came to root around in all of our business.” Another sheet of paper. “Another more recent screen shot to show the adjustments made since.” He smiled. “Next?”

The soft, dark fur of his arm brushed her skin as he pulled away. Elise took the stomach flutters as a sign she’d had enough muffins. “Next. Next....” She tapped her lip and scanned her sheet for the next blank space. “Server configuration?”

With exaggerated flourish, another sheet of paper appeared in front of her.

“O-kay.”  She narrowed her eyes at him. “External building security specs?”

More paper. “Booyah.”

“Mr. Hale, I don’t think the company president is allowed to say ‘booyah’.”

Big grin. “Sure I can. You thought that documentation was going to be a pain to produce and here I had it all printed off and ready to go for you first thing this morning. So I repeat. Booyah.”

She bit her lips together to keep from smiling. “You’ll also need to provide an up-to-date security clearance for all employees supporting this project once it goes live.”

Three more stacks of paper found their way into her hands.

Elise couldn’t keep her mouth closed.

Michael chuckled. “I studied your checklist as soon as you gave it to me,” he said. “Sent out a few requests.”

“Thank you.” The way he’d gone above and beyond to help warmed her. Sure, this was his company and ultimately whatever helped her, helped him. He still hadn’t needed to go out of his way like this.

“Of course.” His grin widened. “Now. It seems like we’re moving along really well. Tell me what’s next.”

His BlackBerry buzzed.

“Do you need to get that?”

He shook his head as he tapped a reply. “Sales issue. Hopefully they can handle it without me. So. Next?”

She returned his smile, and indicated all the papers he’d given her. “Actually, I don’t suppose you have a paperclip? I’d like to corral all these dead trees you just handed me before my piles get out of order.”

He held one up. A purple one. “Yes. Heaven forbid we disturb your neatly-organized piles.”

“Where—” Her phone buzzed. Awfully early to be hearing from her mother. Worry danced on the back of her neck. “I’m sorry. It’s my mom. Do you mind if I step into the hall and let her know I’ll call her later?”

“By all means.”

When Elise returned, she placed her phone on the table in front of her next to a small mound of purple paper clips. She paused, her pulse quickening as she picked up and put down one at a time. “Where did these come from?”

“Turned out I had an assorted box of color ones in my desk drawer. Long conference call yesterday about computer based training.” He shrugged. “The things you do when you’re bored.”

She laughed, even as her gut tightened around those things he’d done that she hadn’t forgiven. Holding on got harder with every passing hour, with every chocolate chip muffin and every purple paper clip. “I hate to even imagine.”

“Yeah, you think that’s bad? We’ve got satellite offices on the west coast and the project manger over there is what you might call a slow talker.” He mock winced as he crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. His feet tapped hers, hitting Elise with a startled jolt. “One of these days I’m going to stretch out on the floor and go right to sleep.”

“You would not.”

“I might.”

They both smiled and for a moment that weird thing happened where their gazes met and something kind of clicked in the silence between them. Before Elise could think about it too hard, a knock sounded at the door.

Craig George, HaleStorm’s sales manager, stuck his head in the door. “Oh, hey there, Michael.” He gave a fast nod to Elise. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but I’ve got a presentation for CKE Global in a couple of hours. They want a discount on the bid that I can’t authorize without your go-ahead.”

Michael held up his BlackBerry. “I sent you a reply. Told you to hold firm on twenty percent. We take a bigger cut than twenty, we’ll lose money on the project.”

Craig made a pained face. “I’d really like to meet these guys halfway. As a customer, they could be great for referrals.”

“No.” Michael shook his head. “I saw the specs when they put a call out for bids. It’s a risky project.”

Elise could see from the look on his face that Mr. Sales-guy didn’t want to budge, and resisted the urge to open her mouth. This was so none of her business, and Michael clearly had the situation under control. Still, new sales wouldn’t matter if they couldn’t shore up HaleStorm’s shaky foundation. This guy needed a lesson in priorities.

“They’re saying they’ve already got another contractor offering a lower bid. I need to walk in there ready to play ball.”

Michael stood and braced his knuckles on the conference room table. “Let me take a look at your proposal.”

Elise tried not to notice the way Michael’s forehead creased so deeply. The day—the week—had hardly begun and he already looked exhausted. A pang of jealousy came back to punch at her sympathy and she found herself wishing he’d been as concerned about
her
career five years ago as he was about all the people under him now.

Craig stepped back, holding the door for Michael. “Thanks, man. ‘Preciate it.”

Michael shook his head. To Elise, he said. “Hang tight. I’ll be right back.”

“I’ll be here,” she said.

M
ichael didn’t make it back to Elise until late Tuesday afternoon, striding into the conference room after being pulled away for the umpteenth time. He ignored the grateful smile Elise gave the tech guy who had come in to set up a printer. “Sorry,” he said with to her unnecessary volume. “Scheduling miscommunication this time.”

While Steve from desktop support jumped a little at the sharpness in Michael’s tone, Elise only smiled slightly and refocused on her spreadsheet. “You’re an important man with important responsibilities,” she murmured. “Completely understandable.”

Michael frowned as he sat. “Thank you.”
I think.

Steve seemed to hover nearby with indecision. “Is there anything else either of you need?” The young man looked from Michael to Elise, where his gaze lingered.

For right or for wrong, Michael did not approve of the way the young tech support guy seemed to inhale Elise with his eyes. “Steve, there’s an excess of crumpled paper by the printer in the developers’ area which usually means a jam. Check that out if you would, please.”

“Absolutely, Mr. Hale.” The young man nearly backed over a chair in his escape for the door.

“Thank you for your help, Steve,” Elise added. She brushed her shiny red hair from her shoulder and flashed the kid a blinding smile. “You’ve been just awesome.”

Oh, Jesus, you’d think she stripped down to her underwear and handed the kid a suitcase full of money the way his baby-face lit up. “No sweat, Elise.” With that, the young man bounded out of the room like an excited bunny who’d gotten his paws on the world’s juiciest carrot.

Michael got up to close the door behind him, leaning his back against the cool wood surface. “‘You’ve been just awesome’? Are you serious?”

She leaned over and poked the eraser of her pencil against his arm. “The way you stormed in here barking and blustering, I figured I oughta throw the poor guy a bone. Didn’t your mother ever teach you that you catch more flies with honey than by being an asshole?”

He repressed a sneer as he straightened his tie and dropped into the chair next to hers. “My mother didn’t teach me a whole hell of a lot, thank you. And I didn’t mean to bark.”

“Doesn’t matter. He’s new here and you run the company. You might as well be God.”

Michael took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “Okay. I was an asshole.”

“Yes.” Her focus remained on her task, but a hint of humor played across her face. “You’ve clearly had a tough day since I saw you last. I’m terribly sorry.”

He looked at his watch. Dammit, they’d gotten so near to close of business. “The day is shot and I’ve been in this room not even an hour. The interruptions are driving me batshit.”

Silence while she clicked some things on her spreadsheet. “You hired PermaSolv, and by extension me, to untangle this mess. Your assistance already has truly been invaluable. However, while you have been putting out fires all day, I have been here working. Because that is my job. Running HaleStorm is your job.”

But when I’m alone with you in this room I can relax and ignore the rest of the bullshit. I remember how great it always was to talk to you.
“You’re right,” he said. He pretended to pay attention to the papers she’d stacked in front of his seat “I’d like to remind you, however, that you asked for an assistant. Again, nobody has a higher stake in this than I do. This is already Thanksgiving week. If we don’t get these documents to the client next week, the rest of these people may not have jobs after the New Year. So I hope you can understand my blustering.” He turned to find himself staring right into the softness of her gray eyes.

Her lips, the color of warm cocoa today, parted in a smile. For only a moment the pressure of her fingers squeezing his forearm made his pulse jump. “Yes, I can understand.” Her thumb made circles on his wrist, and heat pooled in Michael’s body where it really shouldn’t. “Relax,” she said with a smile. “I’ve been making good progress.”

A knock came at the door. Tom Courtland stuck his head in the room. “Hey, Michael I’m sorry to interr—”

“No.” Michael stood. He’d gotten jack shit done that day in-between putting out fires. He needed more time with this project.

He
wanted
more time with Elise. He shouldn’t, but fuck shouldn’t. He did. “No more interrupting. I’ve been interrupted all damned day. Can it wait?”

Tom seemed to consider the question. “I think it can.”

“Thank you.” He motioned to Elise. “I promised Elise I’d show her the security measures we’ve installed over at the external data center before dinnertime.” He pointed to Tom. “Call me if there’s anything urgent.”

Tom seemed to hesitate before he nodded. “Sure thing.”

He hadn’t, but to Elise’s credit, she didn’t ask any questions. She checked her phone, made quiet “oh” as if possibly she hadn’t realized the time, grabbed her laptop and her purse, and followed him out. Not a word was said by either of them as he charged through the developers’ area, down the elevator crowded with guys from the sales team, and out to the parking garage.

When they made it to his car and as they were driving out of the parking garage, she finally said, “Nice Jag.”

“Thanks. Got it as a birthday present to myself after Becca and I decided to separate.”

“Two celebrations in one?”

He laughed. “I figured it was either start fucking around or get a new car.”

“Well,” she said. “Cars last longer.”

He hit the gas at a light. “Exactly.”

She tapped her fingers on the window. “So where are we really going? Maybe I have my wires crossed, but I don’t recall us discussing the data center.”

“Dinner.”

“Dinner?”

“Dinner.”

“Are you bullshitting me?”

He spared her a fast glance. “I never bullshit about money, sex, or food.”

“Ten minutes ago we had a conversation about your validation deadline. And you want to take a dinner break?”

“It’s too early in the week to be as tired as we both are, and we’ll probably be burning the candle at both ends until that damned documentation gets presented on Tuesday. For some reason of cosmic planetary alignment or who the fuck knows what, nobody in that building can so much as tie their shoes today without my help. I need a fucking drink and an artery-clogging appetizer. I need thirty minutes to fucking breathe. You said yourself we’re making good progress?”

She seemed to hesitate. “So far. It’s still early.”

Michael held up a hand. “Okay. I know it’s early, and don’t think for one second that taking a sanity break means I’m not serious as pneumonia about this fucking deadline. But I’m ready to go off, and you keep rubbing your eyes. I’ve seen guys break systems because of stupid mistakes they made when they were running on nothing but fumes and energy drinks.”

And Jesus, he and Elise had been getting along when his sales lead came in and pulled him away that morning. Michael hadn’t had anything good and easy in his life in months. He needed to sit across from her at a restaurant table, the way they used to when she was a starving student—and he stupidly tried to pretend they could be buddies—and have a conversation with her that wasn’t rife with tension and unspoken regrets. He stopped at another red and turned to look at her dead-on, disturbingly pleased to find her mouth open in shock.

Elise crossed her arms and leaned back in the seat with a quiet huff. “I hadn’t thought of it quite that way.” She nodded and slapped his arm as the light turned green. “Okay. Dinner. You’re buying.”

He smiled and hit the gas. “Absolutely.”

***

C
lancy’s Pub sat in the back corner of a charming shopping center about a mile down the road from HaleStorm Engineering’s office park. As much as Elise wanted to remain stiff and businesslike in Michael’s presence, it got harder every minute. The pub’s warm atmosphere and the “small” Guinness she’d ordered were really getting to her. Or perhaps working side-by-side with the man after so many years reminded her of the reasons she’d liked him so much. Either way, she had a fuzzy glow that extended beyond a mild buzz.