"You'll see," I said mysteriously. "Just show up at 8:00, and wear something pretty."
"Fine," she sighed as she closed her purse and smiled at me in a way that, before overhearing the conversation between her and my brother, would have made me fall to my knees and give her anything she wanted. Now, I just wanted her out of my sight until dinner. "I'll be there. And I'll dress nicely."
"You always do," I said as I turned to my computer and saw a host of messages waiting in my inbox. "Right now, I need to get back to work and make sure this business is running smoothly. Then I need to go check the warehouse and talk with Leah."
"Ah yes, your little assistant," Sloan said dismissively. "Be careful. I think she's got a crush on you, Jack."
"Oh, you think so?" I said as I feigned total disinterest. "Hey, do you have your orders from this week written up yet?"
"No, but I'm sure your secretary will be chomping at the bit as soon as I open that door," she said rolling her eyes. "I'll take care of them."
"Good, good," I said waving a hand in her direction to get her to leave. What I really wanted to do was sit her down and grill her about what she'd said about Leah, but I didn't want to tip my hand and doing that definitely would have.
I had two more calls to make before I headed down to meet with Leah. I picked up the phone hoping that, once I was finished, I'd have good news for her.
Chapter Forty-Two
Leah
After Sloan dropped her bomb and walked out of my office, I sat staring at the door in silence. There was no way to deny the fact that I came from the wrong side of the city and, that if Jack was messing around with me, it wasn't anything serious. The advice Molly had given me had only applied to boys who were from our side of town. Trying to apply it to someone like Jack was bound to end in heartbreak—at least for me.
I took the day's orders out to the warehouse floor where Burt and the guys were gathered in preparation for their first full day in the newly renovated warehouse. We’d managed to build the additional space necessary to hold the increased inventory by building storage shelves that could be accessed via overhead catwalks. It was a simple design often used by department stores that allowed workers to climb a set of metal stairs on either side of the platform and access the inventory kept on the second level. We’d had a lift installed on one end so that groups of orders could be quickly brought to the main floor. It had been a quick installation, but I knew it would be highly effective if we could figure out an efficient method of retrieving products.
The construction crew was cleaning up their mess and gathering the left over materials that hadn't been needed as I stood in front of the guys and discussed how we needed to become more efficient now that we were going to have a substantially increased inventory.
"If we stagger the shifts so that we never have down time, then this will fill in the gaps until we figure out how to compensate," I said looking at the schedules in my hand. "Who wants to volunteer?"
"Eh, I'll do it," Burt said raising his hand. "Why not? I'll be in at 5:00 to unload the deliveries. Who’s going to join me?"
A few of the other guys raised their hands and followed Burt's lead. I gave him a grateful smile, knowing that he was not a morning person, but that he was willing to sacrifice in order to keep the warehouse running smoothly. I was also grateful I didn’t have to cajole him into doing it because there was no way I could explain how critical it was that we make this work without giving away Jack's plan.
"I'll be coming in at 6:30 to make sure that all of the orders are in and that we've got the pickups scheduled," I said. "We might need to hire a couple more warehouse workers, but don't count on it happening until we see how the switch goes."
"Isn't that ass backward, Leah?" Burt asked with a grin. "I mean, shouldn't we have help getting this thing off the ground rather than trying to launch it and then hire more people?"
"One would think," I said, returning his grin. "But this is how it's going to go for now, so get used to it, and don't make me crack the whip."
There were some wolf whistles and laughter at Burt's expense, and then we broke up to start the day. I handed Burt the morning's orders and told him that I was running out to take care of something.
"Where you going?" he asked seeing the tense look on my face.
"I need to go home and take care of a couple of things," I said grimly. "They can't wait."
"I got it under control, Leah," he said patting my shoulder like I was one of the guys. "No worries."
I nodded and headed to my office to grab my purse and call a cab. I was pretty sure Jimmy was outside waiting, but I wasn't sure what Jack's schedule was for the day. Besides, I didn't want him to know what I was doing.
*
I called Patrick from the cab and asked him to meet me at the house so we could talk about what we were going to do with Mama's things. He grudgingly agreed and said he'd be there as soon as he could.
After the cab drove away, I stood staring at the charred remains of what had been my home for almost my entire life. There was a “For Sale” sign on the front lawn with the name and number of a realtor I didn't recognize. The fire de
partment had done what they could to clean up the mess, and Patrick had had a company install boards over the broken windows, making the house look abandoned.
Patrick arrived a few minutes later and together we entered the house. It was pitch black inside, so we left the front door open to let in some light.
"I don't know that anything's salvageable," Patrick said as he walked through the burned out living room.