Where She Belongs (5 page)

"You're
wrong about that," he said, pacing a little behind her. "You
were born for this job. You weren't born to do little piddly things
like proofread someone else's work. I bet you do more of Trenton's
work than Trenton does."

"That
last one is not true. If you cannot say nice things, do not say
anything. We've been down this road."

Gabe
sighed. "Many a time, sadly. I'm sorry. I said I wouldn't be
negative." He closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them,
they were clear again. "Where was I? Oh right, this job. This is
your birthright. And you are right, you don't have the experience now
to run this on your own. But I would stay beside you every step of
the way, and help you with everything until you were ready."

"I
don't get it. You could run this company with one hand tied behind
your back, and don't try to tell me otherwise. Why are you trying to
get me to take over? This is your right more than mine. You have
blood, sweat and tears in here. You should be pushing me out of the
way and stepping on me while you run forward."

"Because,
this was never mine. I never wanted to be where I am. The only reason
I am this far is because I owed your Dad. He needed someone he could
trust, and I'm honored to say it was me."

"My
Human Resource Management professor would say that it's a horrible
way to run a business."

"What
is?"

"With
family and emotion. She said that it always made what could have been
a good business totally tank. Business decisions cannot be made with
emotions or relationships in mind. They must always be for
profitability and economic sense. She talked about it a lot, but she
was writing a book on the subject."

"That
might have explained her view. Nothing wrong with trusting your gut
or going with what feels right. That gives a business a heart; it
brings everyone together, makes us feel like a team or a family."

"Or
it alienates those who don't feel they are part of the team."

"Those
are opportunities to make connections."

She
smiled at him. "I've always enjoyed debating with you."

"It's
not easy when you are hiding the fact that you talk to me from your
boyfriend."

He
sneered the words at her, and she knew she deserved that. It was
unfair to them both, but she couldn't give either of them up, so she
was left with nothing else to do but lie to Trenton. And since Gabe
had helped her out of many a tight spot, stood up for her, sheltered
her, and lied to her parents for her, she wasn't going to let him go.
He was her link to her past, Trenton was her future.

Bah,
she didn't need to justify any of this to herself. That was crap. She
could do whatever she wanted, if she worked smart and hard.

"Okay,
I deserved that. The alternative is we don't talk at all when I get
back to Toronto."

"I
know we hate each other. At least I'm mature enough to manage to hear
his name without flipping a lid. I bet he'd freak out if he knew we
were going to spend the next two weeks in close quarters. Am I
right?"

"Probably."
Then again, maybe not. Lately Trenton had become so complacent, so
muted, she sometimes wanted to check for a pulse or walk around naked
to get his attention. Of course, the only attention she would get for
nudity would be a frown. She crossed her arms over her chest, not
wanting to admit anything.

"Alright,
let's let that go. You can rely on me for help through all this
stuff. I can help you with nearly everything you'd need to know. I
can advise you on decisions if you are unsure."

"Okay,"
she took a shaky breath. "Let's try this."

She
remained scared to death that one wrong decision would close the
entire company and ruin her family.

"I
promise you won't ruin anything. You're only here for a couple of
weeks." He leaned over and kissed the top of her head.

His
constant touch might drive her crazy.

Crazy
with what? She didn’t dare think about that question.

*
* *

By
the end of the workday, Gabe was exhausted. He'd spent the afternoon
with Shanna looking over spreadsheets, budgets, promotions they were
running and how the company ran its day-to-day, month-to-month
operations. In addition, he also tried to catch up on what he'd
missed the previous day, and what Bryce had left on his desk.

He
also had to think about tomorrow, when he had several rescheduled
meetings to attend, e-mails to answer, phone calls to return.

He
looked at Shanna as she studied something on the screen. He could
scarcely recall what he'd left for her to go over while he answered
some e-mails. She didn't look the least bit tired at all. She looked
energized.

And
from everything they'd talked about, she understood nearly everything
he threw at her. What she didn't understand, she questioned him on.
Intelligently.

At
the beginning, he worried about her lack of confidence. When she
stopped thinking so much, she was fine. She was capable, confident.
Happy.

That
left him to wonder what Trenton was doing to her. Was he such a dick
that he kept Shanna feeling dependent and lacking confidence? Did he
have her thinking she couldn’t get anywhere? Was this why she
was working as his assistant two years later?

Gabe
had removed himself from her life. He had made excuses for the last
few years for not intervening. She asked him to butt out. She got
upset and gave him the silent treatment when he did speak up.
Instead, he listened silently, ignoring the niggling bad thoughts.
Becoming her silent partner in the systematic tearing down.

He
was angry with Trenton. But he was more angry with himself. He
shouldn’t have let any of this happen.

He
stood and looked at his watch. Except for them and the cleaning
staff, the building was empty. Rachel, who had been worked over as
well, stuck her head in sometime ago to say she was leaving. The two
worker bees had barely glanced at her, waving over the computer.

"Shanna."

"I'm
not done."

"I'm
starving. My eyes hurt and I cannot think about business one more
second. I'll take you out for supper before we head for the
hospital."

She
dragged her eyes away from the computer and blinked at him. Then she
looked at her cell phone. "Good grief! It's nearly seven. Gabe."

He
loved when she said his name. He tried to stuff his smile, but he
couldn’t help it. "I figured it was around that time. The
building is empty, except the cleaning staff."

"We
should just head for the hospital." She logged off her computer.

"No,
we need to go eat. Your mother will be appalled if we don't. Come on.
You can call her on the way if you are worried." He pulled his
cell phone from his pocket and handed it to her. "Your dad's
room is in the contacts."

"Is
there anything you don't do well?"

"I
cannot color coordinate, I have no aptitude for home decoration. And
I'm mean when I fight. At least according to my ex-wife. What are
your faults?" He exited the office, watching over his shoulder
to make sure she was following.

"Hold
on." She was on the phone. He led her to the stairwell. "Ma,
it's me. Shanna, yeah. Gabe and I― what? Yes, things went well,
as you can guess by the late hour. Gabe―I don't know if he
showed me everything, there's a lot to take in. We― can you
just listen for a second. We're going for supper, since we are just
leaving the office."

Gabe
could sympathize with Shanna. All day she had been interrupting him
to ask questions. Not that he was complaining. It was just
frustrating to be unable to finish a thought.

Something
pressed into his side and he moved away from it. As he came out of
his thoughts, he realized the item poking him was his phone. He took
it. "Thank you."

"Thank
you," she murmured back. "I was serious about what I said
to Rachel earlier. How glad I am you are part of our family."

"You
consider me part of your family?"

"Always.
Well, maybe not always. I don't know when it happened. You came back
from college to work at the mill, your mom had just moved away, so
Mom and Dad adopted you. I was what? Maybe eleven, twelve? You were
this big brother figure."

He
recalled feeling like she was his little sister. He'd tease her when
he attended supper with her family. He didn't recall exactly when he
noticed her becoming a woman, he guessed after his marriage started
falling apart. She'd left for college not long before that, and she
started calling him almost daily.

Her
classes were challenging, she didn't have any friends. For someone
who grew up in a small town, who knew nearly everyone, who went from
kindergarten to graduation with the same people, college was
overwhelming and scary.

Bryce
had helped him through his first semester, and he seemed destined to
pass the favor on. Lisa hated his talks with Shanna. She complained
and started fights. He realized later that she used excuses like the
Whittikars and his work schedule, to pick fights with him because she
was unhappy.

"Hello?"
she said. "You got lost there."

"Sorry.
I was thinking about all the things we went through together."
And when that all changed, but he hadn't gotten to that part of the
story yet. Maybe later.

Now
he should enjoy being with the woman she'd become. And she'd become
quite the woman. He'd have to be blind not to notice her beauty. Long
legs, well, long enough as she was an average five foot five inches,
give or take. She'd always been skinny. He used to tease her about
it, but she'd filled out a bit. She had breasts, small breasts, but
they were noticeable, and if he stayed behind her, he could watch her
hips and ass sway in a hypnotizing fashion. Not that he'd planned to
stare at her behind.

She
must have felt his gaze on her, because she stopped and looked over
her shoulder. He felt himself blushing. "Stop looking me over.
I'm the same girl you've known forever."

He
shook his head. "You are not." And he finally acknowledged
that he was attracted to her. His body had made that clear earlier
when he flirted with her, in front of Rachel, no less. Thankfully
Rachel was not the gossiping type. If she hadn’t been in the
room, he likely would have made an ass out of himself.

"No,
you're not. You've matured. You left here a girl, and now you're a
woman. Having you actually here is totally different from our phone
relationship we've had for the past five years. Totally different."

"No,
I guess not. We've both changed, in many ways. We are different
people from five years ago."

For
one, it was acceptable for him to be attracted to her and to pursue a
relationship. Should he want a relationship. Her boyfriend
notwithstanding.

"I'm
really glad you decided to stick around and give me a chance to get
to know you again. I really missed you. I didn't know it ‘til
now."

She
walked past him and opened the doors to the parking lot and the world
at large, totally ignoring his comment.

As
he watched her head for his car, a horrible thought hit him.

What
if Bryce was right?

Chapter 3

Shanna
couldn't open her eyes to look for her cell phone, which would not
stop ringing. It was the third time it woke her. She hadn't stayed up
until midnight local time, two in the morning in the East, on
purpose. After supper with Gabe then a quick visit at the hospital,
she came home to check her email to find a message from Trenton. He
needed her to look over his proposal changes before he sent them to
his father to look over.

Make
corrections, add anything you think might be missing. In general work
that Shanna magic.

Great.

She'd
worked her magic all right, until she thought her eyes might bleed.
But it had been what she had promised Trenton when she proposed
staying for two weeks to make her dad happy. And she had to promise
that she would still keep up with whatever Trenton needed her to get
done.

Shanna
managed to open one eye to look at the clock. Seven-twenty. "Hello,"
she said, holding the phone against her head, realizing her voice
sounded as if she'd spent the night at a party, screaming her head
off.