“Amenable,” he repeated. “That must be a first for you.”
He waved his hand in the general direction of the dead animal gallery. “Get rid of all this. Donate it, sell it, keep it, ship it back to Martin Brayburn. I don’t care what you do with it so long as you get it out. Once that’s complete, we’ll discuss what I want to replace it with. If anything.”
“Should I be writing this down?” she asked sweetly.
“If you think you need to.”
Sophie rolled her eyes. “Anything else? Boss?”
“Mr. Wyatt,” he corrected.
“Whatever.” She was already heading to the door.
“Sophie,” he called, just as she was about to walk out.
She felt a weird jolt at hearing him say her first name. She ignored said jolt. “Yeah?”
“Do you think we’ll be able to survive a week of…this?”
She didn’t have to ask what he meant by “this.” But of course neither one of them would put a name to it and say it out loud.
Not with their history. Not with their work relationship. Not with her sister.
“I don’t know, Mr. Wyatt,” she responded. “But it will be fun to find out.”
CHAPTER FIVE
I don’t think Bambi would appreciate how much trouble you’re giving me,” Sophie muttered at the deer head that was staying stubbornly mounted to Gray’s office wall. “Oh God. You’re not Bambi, are you?”
The thought made her shiver, which in turn made her teeter on the ladder.
“Pull it together, Sophie,” she commanded once she’d regained her balance.
She pushed Bambi out of her mind and tried to force herself to think of the hunting trophy as a thing.
Davie the Deer was the last to go, and was proving far more stubborn than Elvis the Elk, Morrie the Moose, and Benny the Bear.
Not that she’d gotten attached to the poor guys while she’d been taking them down or anything.
“Come on, Davie,” she said, easing her hands around to where the plaque met the wall. “Work with me here. This looked so easy when Jeff did it.”
Jeff Andrews was Brayburn’s vice president of sales and had become one of her first friends at the company ever since he’d rescued her Red Vines from the vending machine on her first day. He’d offered to help her out, and she’d happily taken him up on it.
But after handily pulling down most of the heads, Jeff had deserted her. Something about couples’ therapy with the wife. He’d seemed more excited about the dead animals.
“Focus, Sophie.” She had to get the damn wall cleared before he returned from his dentist’s appointment.
Today was it. The end of their one-week trial. Sophie couldn’t afford to fail at the one task Gray had asked of her. As in, she literally could not afford it. Not after the whopping credit card bill she’d opened this morning. Unemployment was not an option. Even if the alternative was being employed by the devil.
Sophie took a deep breath and tugged again at the deer. Nothing. Kicking off her shoes, she let them drop to the floor and tried once more. She felt two nails break, and the obstinate deer head stayed exactly where it was.
She pulled back to glare at Davie for several moments. “I hate you,” she whispered. “You’re going to get me fired.”
Feeling frazzled and desperate, Sophie grabbed at Davie’s nose and pulled as hard as she could.
Davie stayed.
Sophie did not.