He glanced down at the letter from her ex, a skunk of a man; now he folded it and shoved it into his top desk drawer. After reading the letter, she was a complete mystery to him all over again.
He and Daphne looked at each other in a silent standoff, neither of them certain what to say to the other, like a bad first date.
“Is this an inconvenient time? Do you want me to come back later, after lunch?” Dave, a foreboding man who never lost his high school quarterback swagger, had stuck his head in the doorway and tapped twice on the door frame, as was his custom.
Jesse’s boss oozed what he would call a false confidence; at least it wasn’t based on any accomplishments that Jesse could observe. Dave’s father-in-law had started the company, and Dave’s marriage apparently deemed him qualified to run it. His successes always came at the expense of others, but that wasn’t how the man saw it. In Dave’s world, he had done everyone else a favor by hiring them, and in return he expected unquestioning loyalty. Jesse did his best because, after all, God had commanded that he respect the authority put into place, but it was a struggle.
“So, I see you’ve met your nose. What say you on the matter?” Dave asked in his pompous way.
“I’m anxious to hear Daphne’s amazing ideas. But we were just about to leave for lunch. You wouldn’t care to join us, would you?”
“Me?” Dave said. “No, I’ve got back-to-back meetings all afternoon.” He towered over Daphne in a way that made Jesse want to get between them. “Daphne, welcome to Gibraltar. I assume you’re getting all the help you need to get started and work effectively here.”
Daphne looked toward Jesse. “Absolutely.”
The woman’s raw emotional state after a failed wedding made her a perfect target for Dave’s entrapment mode of unfettered loyalty. Jesse himself had been a prime target because of his loss and desperate need of a different job at the time. His experience with the competition only made the snare that much more effective. He’d have to make sure Daphne didn’t end up like him, stuck at Gibraltar.
“I noticed there were some ticks in your employee files at your former company.” Dave looked at the window as he spun his web. “Not enough to deter me, obviously, but enough where I thought you should be aware that we don’t put up with that kind of thing here at Gibraltar.”
“How did you get a look at my employee file?”
Daphne appeared confused. Her employee file probably said something as innocuous as her French wasn’t very strong. Dave wouldn’t release the details. As was his custom, he’d let her wonder what terrible sins her former employer scribbled into her file.
“Nothing is secret in this day and age,” Dave said. “That’s why it’s always best to be forthright. I can’t help you further your career if you’re not honest with me.”
Dave was so transparent, Jesse could almost hear a sinister laugh emanate after his statement.
That was Jesse’s true job: to entrap Daphne so she felt there was no option for a job elsewhere. Wasn’t that Dave’s modus operandi? Make your employees desperate and grateful, and they won’t leave you until you’re ready to cut ties.
Daphne swallowed, and Jesse stood up. “We’re off to lunch, Dave. Anything else?”
Jesse didn’t understand men like Dave. The man didn’t accept input. He hired the best and the brightest, listened to nothing they had to say, and then when his plans failed, he’d fire the employees who did what they were told. The dynamic was maddening, and it kept the office in a state of paranoid turmoil. They were all so worried a coworker would turn them in, conversations were riddled with subtext and stealth.
Dave looked at Daphne. “You’re going to see that Dayton isn’t missing anything that Paris or San Francisco has. This is going to be home before you sneeze over a scent strip.”
Jesse couldn’t stand to watch her confidence dissipate further. He had to get her out of there. “We’ll miss our reservation,” he said. “You’re sure you can’t join us?” He knew Dave’s schedule didn’t have room for small talk.
“Now wait a minute.” Dave motioned his palm down to tell Jesse to sit. “Maybe we should discuss those marketing reports before you two go to lunch. I’d like to hear how you plan to utilize this nose here. By the way, did you hear we’ve got your nose insured?” Dave rocked back on his heels, looking pleased with himself.
Daphne stared at Jesse, and he wished he could read her mind. She gave a half smile. “Will you excuse me for just a minute?” She exited the room quicker than she’d done the time before.
“I don’t think she’s ready to work yet.” Jesse shrugged.
“You give everyone too much leeway. You give an inch, they take a mile. That’s why your employees don’t have the respect for you that’s needed. Don’t baby her, and she’ll be fine. She has to sniff stuff, for crying out loud. How hard could her life be?”
Jesse ignored the part about his employees not respecting him. The dig had no merit; he knew it wasn’t true. “Daphne says she creates on emotion. If her emotional state is not great, that’s going to come out in the product. As it would with any artist.”
Dave rolled his eyes. “I didn’t expect this from you. It’s your job to get the business side out of her. Kensie can make recommendations for her to work on products that will make money. It’s more than pretty-smelling water here. She needs to understand that.”
“Kensie’s ideas all have to do with how to make housecleaning sexy. She’s not exactly our market. I don’t think she’s ever actually cleaned something in her life.”
More importantly, none of her ideas have worked.
“I’ll never understand why you’re so hard on Kensie. Are you jealous of her success because she’s so young?” Dave yanked the top of a chair and pulled it under him. “Being a good leader does not mean being in competition with those under you, those you can grow.”
It took every ounce of strength Jesse possessed to keep quiet.
“I’m looking at the results. Not one of Kensie’s studies has produced a profitable product yet.” Jesse slid a report across his desk toward Dave. “That doesn’t make you nervous—putting your faith into another one of these marketing reports?”
“What do you have against that poor girl? Is it because she didn’t go to college? I’ll remind you, I worked my way up as well.”
Married your way up is more like it.
“She’s ineffective. That’s all. Her studies haven’t proven to be of any use in the market.”
“Daphne’s not pregnant, is she?”
“What?” Jesse said. “Why would you even ask that question?”
“She was going to get married and she didn’t, so I thought maybe it was a shotgun wedding gone wrong. And she’s excusing herself in the middle of an important meeting. You don’t think that’s a little strange?”
“Who thinks like that?”
“Maybe if you did, we’d have a profitable quarter. Nothing wrong with seeing the world the way it really is.”
Jesse knew better than to speak. No good could come from anything he might say.
Dave cleared his throat and leaned back in the chair. “I handpicked you for this project, Jesse. You make this investment pay off, and they’re going to pay attention at the board meeting.” Dave kept his voice low and turned to swing at the door behind him until it slammed shut. “You understand that even having a nose on staff can increase the stock values. All we have to do is convince the stockholders we’ve got the ability to do something special. You too busy for it? Want me to pass it off to beauty? I know they’d be thrilled to get her.”
“No, no. I appreciate your trust in me, and I will make the most out of it.” All he needed was the tired accusation that he wasn’t a team player.
“And she’s obviously available,” Dave whispered. “You just have to wait until she lets go of this other guy in her head. Timing couldn’t be better.”
“I didn’t notice.” Jesse wanted Dave out of his office. He wanted to know if Daph
ne was off crying in the bathroom. “This lunch is strictly business.”
“You worry too much. But you’re not a married man, Jesse, and that’s why you’ve got this promotion in your sights. You’ve got no wife to hold you back.”
Jesse winced at the thought that a wife held one back. Statistics didn’t support that notion, actually, but Dave saw the world differently, and there was no sense in arguing facts. Life was one big business opportunity to Dave, and for all the man’s faults, in the guy’s head he was doing Jesse a favor. So Jesse tried to be grateful.
“This is just the start. I expect you two to visit the fashion shows, the bridal shows to get ideas for new scents. That’s how Procter & Gamble does it.”
“Procter & Gamble has money.”
“Got to spend money to make money.” Dave tapped the desk twice.
Banks weren’t lending, and Gibraltar’s P&L sheet would hardly entice them anyway. Even Dave would eventually have to come to the conclusion he had tried to warn him about. Until then, he would continue to charm the skin off a snake and sport an aura of success.
Dave wasn’t finished. “This woman, Daphne, has the ability to transform household products for us and give us a real shot at a greater market share. Have you thought of a way to get her to stay yet?”
Jesse had indeed thought of a way; in fact, he’d wrangled a promise out of her to stay until Christmas. But he didn’t think he had the heart to force her to keep it. How could he put her in the same position he found himself in—at the mercy of Dave?
“Excuse me, Dave, but we’re going to be late for our lunch reservation. I’ll grab Daphne on the way out.” The concept of a lunch reservation at the Spaghetti Warehouse was laughable, but if he had to listen to any more of Dave’s “pep talk,” he wouldn’t be able to focus.
“Right,” Dave said.
Jesse’s phone trilled, and he glanced at the caller ID display. “That’s my sister—I have to take this.” He waited for Dave to exit and picked up the phone. “Abby, everything okay?”
“Yeah, no problems. I just need you to take over early tomorrow night, okay? If it’s a problem, I can take Ben next door for an hour.”
“No, I can be home at a decent hour. What’s up?”
“Spike made dinner plans and told me to dress up.”
She gave a little giggle, and Lord forgive him, Jesse’s first thought was of himself. What if Abby went on with her own life—which she should do—where would that leave Ben and him? Maybe the only reason Dave’s ways annoyed him so much was that he possessed the same flaws.
“Jesse, did you hear me?” Abby asked.
“Yeah. Sorry, what time did you want me home?”
“Is five okay?”
“No problem. I have to run. Kiss Ben for me. And, Abby?”
“Yeah?”
“Never mind. Just kiss Ben for me.”
“I will. He’s watching Thomas the Tank Engine, or I’d let him talk to you. Face it, you’re no competition for James the Red Engine.”
“No, I’m not. See you soon.” He hung up the phone, grabbed his sport coat, and ran to meet Daphne. Standing outside the ladies’ restroom, he felt ridiculous.
Kensie emerged, and he tried his best to appear casual.
“Jesse. Waiting for someone?” She stood with her arms wrapped tightly about her and her lips pursed.
Jesse didn’t answer. That girl made Scarlett O’Hara seem low maintenance.
“I took her to the lab, as you know. John and Willard are both working on projects for me, and I want them done. Daphne stayed in there jabbering, and I have nothing to present to Dave. Can you let your new employee know to keep her chitchat to a minimum so the rest of us can get some work done?”
He rolled his eyes. “Kensie, could you at least let her have a full day of work before you disparage her reputation?”
Kensie shrugged. “Suit yourself, but when you find yourself ensnared, don’t come running to me for help.”
“Duly noted.”
“They work together so well in there, and you wouldn’t want to mess with that dynamic. Not to mention, the fragrance lab is rarely used, so she can have that space all to herself. Plus, she’s got all that emotional baggage from being dumped.”
Jesse stifled a laugh. “How do you know she was dumped? What if she dumped the fiancé?”
Kensie shook her head. “No, she didn’t. I looked her up on Facebook. She’s public. You should talk to her about that. She needs to change her privacy settings if she’s going to be living alone. Her status update said, Sorry for the inconvenience, Mark changed his mind. She totally got dumped. Right at the altar! That is harsh.”
As if she had any empathy for her latest competition. Kensie was used to being the center of attention, a spark of light in a colorless lab.
“Why don’t you take her to lunch tomorrow and see if you’re right?” Jesse suggested. The last thing he needed was Kensie’s green-eyed monster rearing its head in the midst of the company’s crisis.
“Seriously, there’s malice in that. Guys don’t just leave you at the altar. It’s like on 48 Hours when someone is stabbed forty times versus being shot. There’s emotional rage. It’s an act of passionate rage, leaving her at the altar.”
“I’ll take your word for it.”
“Unless she wouldn’t let him go, and he couldn’t break up with her rationally. Then he didn’t know how to get away from her, so he bailed. You see that all the time on Cheaters.”
“On what?”
“Cheaters. It’s a television show where they catch cheaters in action.”
“I think you watch too much TV.”
“She probably didn’t get her way. I know how these princesses work; I went to high school with a ton of them. Mommy and Daddy buy them everything they need, and—”
“This is fascinating, but I have work to do.” If life’s lessons had taught him anything, it was that he wasn’t a great judge of stability. His mother was depressed most of his childhood, so he couldn’t discount Kensie’s judgments rashly. But he did consider the source. He was probably looking for a rationale for why he’d noticed Daphne’s beauty in the first place.
“Women know other women. You men, you think people say everything they’re thinking, but women know they’re like an iceberg. There’s a huge amount of communication that goes on underneath the surface.” Kensie’s mind changed gears. “Are you leaving now? Because I have some marketing to discuss with John, and if he won’t be preoccupied with Daphne, now’s a good time.”
Daphne came out of the restroom, and suddenly he felt like a stalker, waiting there for her. But his heart squeezed at the sight of her, and her electric smile dispelled his fears. Her doll-like waist, those eyes that created an invisible connection inside of him—they endangered him. If he allowed it to happen, Daphne would shatter his carefully constructed world. He needed to help her out of the trap of Gibraltar, and yet some unseen force drew him toward her. He thought again of the letter and wondered how much to reveal to her. He had to think of Ben and himself, but that’s exactly what he’d said before Hannah died. What if his priorities were screwed up again?
“Is it time to go?” Daphne’s wide blue eyes met his, and he focused on his loafers rather than give her any power over him.
He fought the urge to step toward her. “Yes. Then I’ll take you back to your place, and you can rest up for tomorrow.”
“I haven’t been there yet.” She pulled out a scrap of paper from her handbag. “This is the address. It’s not too far out of your way, is it?”
He perused the address. “Nothing is too far here in Dayton, but this is actually quite close to my place.” He rubbed at the back of his neck again.
She had a house. She was committed to Dayton. He took the news like an unwelcome houseguest. He didn’t want to feel any obligation to Daphne. He had enough obligations in his life.
“My father bought it for me. Well, for us. My fiancé and me. It was supposed to be a wed
ding gift. Now I guess it’s an independence gift.” She looked at the address in his hands. “I’m going to make a hotel reservation on my phone. That’s best until I know . . .”
“Know—?” He tried to understand what she was wrestling with, but she was tapping something on her phone.
Kensie was still standing there, listening to their conversation and smiling. She gave Jesse a look and then spoke to Daphne. “Is it true you got jilted at the altar?”
Jesse clasped his eyes shut.
“It is,” Daphne stated plainly. “Then I sneaked into my own reception and took the top layer of the cake and the cologne bottles I’d made as gifts for the male guests. Oh, and my maid of honor and I ate the whole layer of cake in one sitting.”
Jesse chuckled. “Good for you. No sense in letting good cake go to waste.”
“Why didn’t he show up? Did you guys have a fight or something?”
“Marriage was going to get in the way of his dating life, so we decided to call it off. Anything else you want to know?”
Daphne winked at Jesse, and he smiled despite himself.
“No,” Kensie answered meekly. “That will about do it.” She crossed her arms over her chest again. “Oh, but, Daphne, I’d like to meet with you tomorrow once you’re settled and let you know which products I’d like you to work on.”
Daphne smiled sweetly. “Sure, Kensie. I’m looking forward to it.”
Chapter 6
Jesse realized his mistake at once. He may as well have taken her to McDonald’s. The red-and-white checkered tablecloths stained with former patrons’ meals, the Chianti bottles dripping with wax and dust, the sticky menus, all fused together in a perfect storm of degradation. It made it look like he’d railroaded her into agreeing to stay and he wasn’t going to put in any kind of effort whatsoever. As if he took no pride in his position. If Dave observed them in this run-down pizza shack, he’d think Jesse’s main objective was to rid Gibraltar of Daphne’s presence as soon as possible.
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