Starburst (31 page)

Kay
picked her up from the airport and smiled when she saw just one person by her
and Peyton was signing an autograph for her. Some people did stare as they
walked to the car, but no one hounded her or yelled questions, and there were
no cameras flashing in her eyes.

They
stopped at a small dinner called, ‘Lucky Dog’ on the way home for lunch. There
were only a few people in the restaurant, and not one of them came up to them.
The older lady waitress acted as though she didn’t know her from Adam, and they
ate in peace, it was extremely refreshing for Peyton.

Kay
pulled up to her ordinary one story brick home and looked to see Peyton’s
reaction, and she had a smile as she observed Kay’s home. Kay let the white
poodle out the back door and showed Peyton where she could put her things. She
had put her in Anna’s old room because the bed was bigger, and it was decorated
more feminine than Trevas’s old room with the walls still painted in his red
and gray high school colors. The room was done in lavender and mint green with
matching curtains that looked out to the back yard.

“You
have a lovely home Kay,” Peyton said, and Kay snickered.

“You
don’t have to be modest Peyton,” she replied.

“You
stop that,” she demanded. “I’m being sincere, I love it, it’s so homey and
feels so comfortable,” she said after looking for the right words.

“Well
thank you, do you want some coffee?”

“Sure,
that sounds great.”

Kay
put on coffee and Peyton looked around at the pictures on the wall. She smiled
at the pictures of Trevas as a small boy and looked at each one of them as he
grew up.

“Trevas
always was a heartbreaker,” she called to Kay, admiring her son.

“Yes
he was always a handsome boy,” she agreed, meeting her back in the living room,
drying her hands on a dishtowel.

“Can
you imagine what their kids would look like?” Peyton asked, thinking about not
only her beautiful daughter, but Kay’s handsome son as well.

“Payton…
shut the hell up. Are you trying to make us grandmas?”

Payton
laughed. “No but it would be nice to have a little one around again. Poor Alley
was raised by a nanny while I was out trying to make it big.”

“My
kids spent a lot of time alone too while I was trying to make it big,” she
replied but not talking about the same kind of big. Kay spent her time trying
to prove that she could run a brand new company in a brand new location.

They
sat at the table and talked and drank coffee. Peyton asked her about Trevas and
Anna's dad, and Kay didn’t lie to her. She told her the truth and explained
that she wasn’t sure who Trevas’s dad was and told her about the time when she
got pregnant, she had partied the whole month and couldn’t remember half of
what she had done. She explained to her that she did marry Anna’s dad and knew
that he was an alcoholic before she ever did it, thinking she could change him
and divorced him three years later.

“Don’t
think I’m going to judge you for your mistakes Kay. I have made plenty of them
myself. Half of which you probably have read about,” she teased.

“You
have to come to work with me tomorrow for a little while.”

“Okay,
but I sense a reason,” she admitted.

“Yeah
I kind of told some people that I work with that you were coming here, they
don’t believe that Peyton Paxton is staying with me, and you are kind of going
to sit in on a meeting with me.”

Peyton
laughed. “Fine, what else would I do anyway?”

Kay
was up early on Wednesday morning, wanting to get in and out of the bathroom so
that Peyton could shower. She dressed in her room in a dark blue skirt that
came just above her knees and a white button up shirt with matching dark blue
buttons on the long sleeved blouse. She wore dark pantyhose and dark blue
heels, with her hair pulled back in a tight bun.

“Am
I underdressed?” Peyton asked, wearing dark jeans and a longed sleeved button
up shirt.

“Lord
no, you are fine. I wouldn’t dress this way either, but there is going to be
some people from ‘Wellington Brass’ in this meeting and I feel like I should
dress the part. You’re fine, I promise.”

Kay
fixed them each a bagel and a cup of coffee before heading over to the factory.
She pulled into her respected parking spot, and they walked through the dark
glassed doors of the office.

“Oh
my God, it is true,” the girl behind the glass window squealed, standing up,
and Peyton smiled at her.

“Good
morning Jess and yes it is true so get it over with, give her whatever it is
you want signed. I’m on vacation, I don’t want to be here all day,” she teased.

The
young girl pulled her copy of the Black DVD from her bag, and Peyton happily
signed it for her and Kay had to take their picture.

Peyton
followed Kay through the door, and she unlocked her office door. “I hope this
is okay Peyton. I hate to bore you with all of this. I know you didn’t come
here to follow me around work.”

“It’s
great Kay, I love it. I have never been in a factory before. What do you do
here?”

“What
do we make here or what do I do here?”

“What
do you make? I can kind of see that you are very important around here.”

Kay
snickered. “I don’t know if I would say that and we make a lot of different
things, metal products for furnaces, car radios, coffee pots, wells, restaurant
equipment and a lot more. I will show you when we go out on the floor.”

There
was a tap on the door, and Kevin Montgomery stuck his head in. “Do you have a
minute?” he asked.

“Why
Kevin, because you need something or you’re just dying to meet Peyton Paxton?”

“I’m
dying to meet Peyton Paxton,” he said honestly.

Peyton
smiled at the well-dressed man and shook his hand. “Hi,” she said, and he was
so flustered he could barely speak.

“I’m
Kevin Montgomery, and it is a pleasure to meet you Ms. Paxton.”

“Peyton,
please,” she replied.

“Can
you get your tongue back in your mouth and pay attention to me for five
minutes?” Kay asked Kevin.

“Yes,
I’m all yours,” he replied with full attention.

“Good,
is there a proposal for everyone in the conference room?” she asked.

“There
is one for all three of the people from ‘Wellington Brass’, and you and I will
have one as well.”

“I
want Manny and Pete to have one too, and print one for Peyton too. She will be
sitting in with us just so it looks like they are involved but tell them to
keep their mouth shut during the meeting.”

“I
will have Jess print a couple more.”

“And
tell her to make sure there are coffee and refreshments as well.”

Kevin
disappeared with a smile toward Peyton.

“Damn
Kay, why the hell aren’t you chasing that? Did you smell that guy?”

Kay
laughed. “Kevin is the business manager here, and I don’t mix business with
pleasure, it has never come out good for me, I steer clear of it.”

“Wait,
I thought you told me that your friend Ken worked with you.”

“No,
I told you he was a sales rep for one of the companies we buy metal plates
from. He lives in Wyoming and is only here a couple times a month.”

“I’m
afraid I would still have to try that, at least once,” she said, still thinking
about the handsome man who didn’t wear a ring.

Peyton
laughed and took out two pairs of earplugs and safety glasses from a filing
cabinet drawer. “Come on, I will show you the plant.”

They
walked out the double doors that said, ‘Safety equipment required beyond this
point.’ The floor was as big as four football fields, noisy with clattering
metal and grinding of lathes and drills, shaping metal into its intended
purpose. Kay politely let the workers meet Peyton and sign autographs for them
as they walked.

“Kay
Evans to shipping please, Kay to shipping,” they heard over the loud speaker,
and made their way back to the shipping department.

“What’s
up Charles?” Kay asked.

“This
is not what I have in my paper work that we are supposed to get. I didn’t want
to accept it if we didn’t order it.”

Kay
took the clipboard and nodded at the trucker while they gawked at Peyton. She
climbed up on the back of the truck in her skirt, inspecting what was being
dropped. “I see the 2,100’s, I will take those but I don’t need the O-rings right
now,” she said stepping down with the help of Charles’s hand. “Get with Ben
right away Charles to find out what happened. I need the 6,100’s ASAP.”

“Okay,
got it,” he assured her, and they were once again on their way.

“You
are very important here Kay,” Peyton exclaimed.

“I
don’t know if I’m important or I hire incompetents,” she joked. “I’m only
teasing, I’m very fortunate to have the employees that I have.” She looked at
her watch. “Let’s go to a meeting.”

“What
is the meeting for?” Peyton wanted to know.

“We
are trying to get a contract with ‘Wellington Brass’ and manufacture a steel
plate for a gas well component.”

Peyton
and Kay walked back through the door that led to the offices. Kevin was just
getting ready to enter the conference room and stopped, holding the door for
the two ladies. Peyton looked up and thanked him, and something extremely weird
happened when their eyes met. Why did she feel very uncomfortable around him
all of a sudden?

Kay
sat at the end of the table, and Kevin pulled out a chair for Peyton to her
right and he sat across from her as the other two men sat across from each
other on the same end. They had twenty minutes or so before Jess would lead the
guests to the same room.

“Kay
does this mean our poker game is off Saturday?” Kevin asked, wondering if
Peyton’s visit was going to cancel their monthly poker game.

“I
don’t know. I kind of forgot about it. Can you play poker Peyton?”

“I
can play good enough, sounds like fun,” she replied, letting them know that
they shouldn’t cancel their plans for her.

They
all stood when the two men and one female were guided into the room by Jess,
the secretary. They did the introductions, and the three were astonished by the
presence of Peyton Paxton, joining their meeting.

Kay
stood and started the meeting after they had all declined coffee. She went
through the whole spill of the proposal, and the three business guests, passed
notes and whispered periodically at each other and then she opened it up for
questions or discussion.

“This
all looks good on paper Ms. Evans, but we do have another proposal that we are
considering as well, and quite frankly their quote came in quite a bit under
yours,” the man at the very end of the table spoke.

Kay
didn’t answer right away and discreetly wrote something down on one of the
papers in her well prepared folder. “Can I use you?” it said, she slid it to
Peyton, who scribbled “Yes.”

“I’m
sure you did Mr. Piars. I have seen that proposal myself, and I have to say
that I wasn’t as impressed as you seem to be. First of all ‘Camdon’ is an
eighty year old company with eighty year old equipment. I’m a seventeen year
old company with new equipment. I can push twice the material out as they can
in one shift, which leads to another benefit for using my company. Do you
really think you are going to save money by taking twice as long to manufacture
your part? I’m sure you have seen the recall that ‘Camdon’ had, just three
months ago,” she continued not letting him answer. “They shipped over seven
thousand parts before the defect was caught. Mr. Piars, my quality control
inspectors spend their day going from part to part, recording precise measurements
of every part manufactured here. And we are also ISO 9000 certified, I assure you,
they are not. I run three shifts per day, they run one. Are you sure your part
is going to get top priority?” she again didn’t give him time to answer. “Not
to mention they are not giving you an autograph or a photo with Peyton Paxton.”

“So
you are saying that I don’t get to get my picture taken with Peyton Paxton if I
don’t sign your contract?” he asked amused.

“That
is exactly what I’m saying,” she smirked.

He
laughed. “Can we have a few minutes?” he asked.

“Yes,
absolutely,” she replied and her clan, including Peyton stepped out into the
hall.

She
took a deep breath and tried to relax. “You did great Kay,” Kevin tried to
reassure her.

She
shook her head and Peyton could tell that she was nervous about the whole deal.

“You
two can go,” she told Pete and Manny, not needing them to go back in and they
disappeared back to their offices.

After
a very short time, the female of the three opened the door and beckoned them
back in.

The
leader of the pack, Mr. Piars stood and shook her hand. “I look forward to working
with you Ms. Evans,” he smiled, and told her that their attorney would go over
the contract, and he would have the signed one back to her by the end of the
week.

“Thank
you very much Mr. Piars and I look forward to doing business with you as well.”

“You
do know that the only reason I chose you over ‘Camdon’ is because you promised
a picture with Peyton Paxton, don’t you?”

Kay
laughed, “I highly doubt that, but Peyton has agreed and is more than happy to
fulfill your request.”

All
three of them got their pictures taken with Peyton and her autograph. As soon
as they were gone and the door was shut, Kevin threw his hand up in the air,
and she high fived him.

“Yes!”
she yelled excited. “Tell me what those numbers were again,” she requested from
Kevin.

“Eighty
three thousand in profit,” he said, emphasizing the word profit.

Peyton
had no idea what was going on but assumed they had just made a very good
business deal.