I pulled away from him quickly. “We’re doing better.”
“And you, Tate Rawlins, the king of all this!” Blaise waved his arms out, indicating the company at large.
“It takes a lot of work.”
“Well, now that I’m here, perhaps you might be able to rest a little, huh?” Blaise smiled as he slapped me on the back.
“Careful. I might take you back to the States with me.”
“Do you think that’s a threat? I would love to live over there with my cousins.”
One thing Blaise hadn’t lost was his ability to joke around. But from what I’d heard from Uncle Reg, the guy was the epitome of a rich kid playboy. I’d like to see how well he worked before taking him to my head office back in California.
“How are Uncle Reg and Aunt Sylvie? How are your sisters?”
Blaise hissed out the side of his mouth and rolled his eyes. “Bernadette is Bernadette. She is crazy and wild and a lost cause.Maman et Papaare both well, and Moëlle is a bright young entrepreneur with a brilliant mind.”
I remembered both women as small girls. I’d met Moëlle only a handful of times, given the distance between us and the age difference. “How old is she now? The last I saw her, she’d barely begun to talk.”
Blaise was every bit the proud big brother at the mention of his little sister. “She had her eighteenth birthday this past October.”
I balked. “I can’t imagine her as an adult. We could pass one another in the street, and I would never even know it was her.”
Blaise took out his cell phone and scrolled past photos of him in different countries with different women, groups of people, and Bernadette with her china-colored skin and bright red curls until he settled on a slim young woman who was sitting on a green, vintage couch. She was looking casual in jeans and a pink, long-sleeved top. Her long, dark blonde hair framed her face and fell almost all the way down to her midriff.
“Here she is. My little sister. Not so little anymore, but much more sensible than my silly twenty-two-year-old sister.”
“You say she recently turned eighteen? Does that mean she’s off to college?”
“Oui,” Blaise said with a nod.
“What is she studying?”
“Business.”
I had to admit, the cogs were turning in my head. “Do you think she would be interested in a position with Rawlins Industries?”
“A traineeship, you mean?” he asked, tipping his head to the side.
“Of sorts,” I said with a nod.
“I could put it to her and see what she says.”
“I’d appreciate it.” We moved away from the window and toward Roger. “What’s your new position here?”
“I am your new operations manager here in London,” Blaise answered.
“Great. Welcome to the family business. Let’s see how you do.”
Blaise chuckled. “I’ll do well, I’m sure.”
At least the guy had confidence. He needed it for this high-stress position.
Roger clapped his hands together. “Right, then. Where shall we start, Mr. Rawlins?”
I folded my hands together in front of me. “I want to say hi to the employees on the floor and thank them for their hard work. Then I want to see the marine energy project.”
With a nod, Roger turned to Blaise. “Young man, fetch the project files for your cousin.”