“I don’t have children. My work is my life. My job requires a lot of travel. It’s not as if companies can come to me! And I don’t think it’s right to have children and then not be there to raise them. I love what I do, so I made a conscious choice.”
Then why the shadow in her eyes?
And what business was that of his?
Particularly since he already owed her so much. She’d interrupted at exactly the right time that morning, preventing him from losing his job, at least temporarily.
Giving him time to close the deal he’d opened at the end of the prior week. To make his company so much money, it would be harder to fire him.
She’d agreed he could have time to come up with a plan to present to Howard regarding his changed life status. A way to convince him that in spite of everything that had happened, he was still a smart business risk.
And she was the expert Howard had just hired—meaning Howard most likely trusted her implicitly. If Flint could stay on her good side...
“I’d appreciate your friend’s information,” he said. He nodded to a pad and pen on his desk that she could use to write down the woman’s name and phone number. All the while, he held the sleeping newborn between his left arm and body.
He could do this. Work. Take care of business. And a baby.
As long as his baby sister didn’t cry again. He’d hold her. Feed her. Burp her. Change her. And hold her again. How hard could it be?
“I’ll leave you to it, then...”
Momentary panic flared as Tamara Frost walked back to the door of his office. “Wait!”
She turned.
“You... What did you want? Initially?” She couldn’t have come to give him her friend’s number. She hadn’t known he had a baby. “When you knock
ed at my door?”
“I’m going to be conducting interviews with all department heads, with all top producers and with some randomly chosen office staff throughout the next week or so. I stopped by to set up an appointment to meet with you. But clearly you need to get your ship in order before I climb aboard.”
She was smooth. All business. If he hadn’t already been attracted to her, he’d have fallen right then. He wasn’t going to start anything—or even think about it. But he couldn’t help his reaction and was smart enough to acknowledge it to himself. Rather that than have it club him over the head at some point. Now that, he couldn’t afford.
Reminding himself he’d decided to stay on her good side, to shield his position with Howard, he sent her a smile reserved for his best clients. “Whatever works for you,” he told her. “I’ll make myself available.” Career came first with him.
The bundle in his arms blew a loud fart.
He’d forgotten, for a brief second, that he was no longer the man he’d been.
“Talk to Mallory,” Tamara said, referring to the friend whose number she’d written down. “Talk to Howard. And then give me a call.”
“I don’t have your number.”
“It’s in the email sent to everyone this morning.”
It was late afternoon and he’d yet to read any company-related mail. He’d handled his clients’ correspondence, though. Made all his phone calls. Set up a couple of important lunches for later in the week.
Flint would have come up with some charming, pithy response if the expert had waited a little longer. Apparently she was too efficient for that.
Watching the door close behind her, he glanced at the baby in his arms and felt...weak.
The boy who’d been resilient enough to get on a school bus as a runt kindergartener and sit among the bullies wasn’t sure how he was going to proceed through the next hour.
Chapter Six
Tamara canceled dinner with her parents two hours after she’d accepted her mother’s invitation. Dr. Sheila Owens had reached her after rounds that afternoon, thrilled that Howard had finally spoken with Tamara about his business problems and that she was already at work, trying to find the thief who was stealing from them. Sheila had wanted them to meet as a family and talk about the issue.
Tamara decided her best efforts would be spent poring over files instead. To begin with, eight years’ worth of Flint Collins’s investments transactions.