4
Tanner Durcotte ended his call and sipped his coffee, enjoying the view of the busy New York street from the premier table in one of his restaurants. He liked watching the people scurry by, always in a hurry to get to work. They were like ants, the way they ran along, heads down, occasionally bumping into each other and continuing along their way.
When he had first opened his restaurants, he had considered offering breakfast, but he knew that the majority of these city people liked a quick bite for breakfast, and he preferred his customers stay a while and enjoy their meals, making it more of an experience. It was just as well. He liked having the place all to himself in the morning anyway. Watching the crowd made him feel less lonely for some reason.
He opened the manila folder on the table in front of him and looked at the drawings he had received the day before. Nice. Very nice, actually. The gown was impressive, eye-catching but not gaudy. Its sleek lines and long train were rare these days, and he almost felt bad with what he was about to do. Almost.
He slapped the folder shut and looked back out at the street, the sleek image of the gown still on his mind. If anyone would recognize a good design, he would. He used to own Theorim Designs, one of the premier fashion houses in New York City. Used to.
His fist clenched, his face burned, and his chest tightened with bad memories of how that traitor Marly West had screwed him over and driven him out of business.
“Everything okay, Mr. Durcotte?” The waitress, Kyla, appeared at his elbow with a pot of coffee and a look of concern. When had he started to become familiar with the names of the help? He must be getting soft in his old age, just as his niece Harper always teased.
Thoughts of Harper calmed him. She was the one bright spot in his life. So sweet despite the raw deal life had handed her. Tanner had always tried to shelter her from the realities of life. He didn’t want her to suffer as he had. His fist relaxed, and he took a deep breath.
“Yes, everything is fine.” He smiled and nodded at his cup. She filled it before leaving.
That mess with Theorim had a silver lining. It had given him time to focus on his restaurants. He was lucky the restaurants were thriving, as that all could have gone south due to another traitor—Veronica St. James.
But karma had a way of coming around, and now he’d have a chance to get back at both of them. What a rare opportunity! He should have been overjoyed, but for some reason the victory did not taste very sweet.
He glanced down at his phone on the table. It had gone into sleep mode, and the photo of his late wife, Emily, beamed up at him, making him doubt everything he was about to do. Deep down, he knew Emily would not have approved of many of the things he’d done since she’d died. But Emily wasn’t here. She didn’t know how much he’d been hurt.
He punched in his code, and her face disappeared. Maybe it was time he replaced that screen saver anyway.
He texted Harper to ask her to make a call for him and relay what he needed her to say. He had a momentary pang of indigestion. It wasn’t fair using Harper to do his dirty work, but he had no one else. Besides, he was on the side of right. He would never ask Harper to do anything really bad… just a few little favors.
He settled back in his chair and looked out the window again, a smile firmly planted on his face.
TJ rummaged through the cabinet for the dark-roast coffee pods. He always started his day with as much caffeine as possible, and today he was going to need plenty. He’d have his work cut out for him with the budget for the wedding. Not that he minded. After years on the streets, being back at work in a real job and having a real purpose again was a godsend.
He popped the coffee pod into the machine and placed his mug beneath the spigot. The machine whirred to life and poured his coffee out as he grabbed some milk from the refrigerator. He poured a small amount into his mug and stirred it with a spoon then took a sip. Delicious. He washed off the spoon and headed back to his office.
Settling into his chair, he scoured the proposal that had been shoved into his in-tray after hours. His eyes caught on the name of the person who had filled it out.
Veronica St. James. How did he know that name? It sounded so familiar.
He took another sip of coffee and leaned back in his chair, his brow furrowed as he thought. He hadn’t met many people in the past year. In fact, he’d avoided people. Except for Gertie, of course. She was different. Wait… that’s why the name was familiar. Veronica St. James was that blonde from the cooking contest who had done nothing but yell and boss everyone around.
How in the world had she ended up here? Had to be Gertie’s doing. Gertie had a way of collecting people and giving them a second chance. That’s how TJ had ended up here, a chance for which he’d be eternally grateful.
Did Veronica need a second chance? TJ didn’t know much about her. It’s not as if they’d been friends.
A smile spread across TJ’s face as he remembered the first time he had met Veronica. He had been clean for about a year when he’d ended up on the tropical island of Namara. Not that he could afford to jet away to an island, but the people he owed money to had threatened his family. He’d borrowed money and pulled in some favors to change his last name and get away, so he could keep his parents and sister safe until he earned enough to pay his debt.
He’d been working as a dishwasher on the set of a cooking show when Veronica had barged into the kitchen and demanded that he clean twice the amount of cookware that was needed. That was just the first of many times she’d wreaked havoc in the kitchen. The rest of the kitchen staff had called her “Attila” behind her back.
She was arrogant, bossy, and dismissive. Another guy would have been pissed, but TJ was easygoing and generally happy most of the time. He’d recognized something in her that made him sympathetic. It took a lot to get him ruffled, and her constant outbursts only amused him, which seemed to make her angrier, which amused him even more.
Funny how life could turn the tables. On the cooking show, Veronica had been the one calling the shots, but now he was calling them, at least in regard to the budget. And the proposal she’d handed in for the wedding was far too high.
He reached for his calculator and started to mark up the file with a red pen, circling and crossing out numbers as he moved down the page.
He had changed a lot in the six months that had passed since he’d been on the cooking show. He wondered if Veronica would even recognize him. Probably not. He doubted she’d paid much attention to him. He’d simply been a skinny dishwasher she could boss around. He was sure she didn’t even know his name. On the island, she hadn’t bothered to ask. She’d usually been too busy barking orders at him.
After the cooking show wrapped, he’d left the island and returned to New York. He’d paid off his debt and even had money left over to help him get a fresh start.
He’d stayed in a halfway house for a while, but had given up his room to a scrawny kid who would never have survived on the streets. TJ knew how to survive, so he’d bought a cheap tent and set up at one of his old haunts under a bridge. It wouldn’t be for long, just until he could get enough money for the first and last month’s rent all apartment owners demanded.
Even though he had a degree in accounting, his skills were rusty, and he had a big gap in his resume. He got a job at a small furniture company working in the delivery department. The pay wasn’t much, but the tips were all cash, and the job didn’t require him to dress up, so the fact he showed up in jeans and tattered shirts really didn’t matter. The long hours hadn’t bothered him and had the added benefit of building his muscles much more than a gym membership would have. Plus the long work hours meant less time in the tent.
He’d been working toward a plan. Get a steady job. Get a place. Take some classes to get back into accounting. Get his life back together. Then reestablish contact with his family. It was this last one that was most important.
But then things had gone terribly wrong. His chest tightened with panic at t
he memory of waking in the middle of the night trapped in the smoke-filled tent. The stench of burning plastic, the terrifying crackling as the flames engulfed the tent. TJ had tried to battle his way out, but the tent had collapsed in on him, covering him in a scorching blanket of flames and melting nylon.
TJ’s breath came in shallow pants as he heard the sound of his own screams. He rubbed the scars on the backs of his hands, his eyes seeing only the blistering orange sheets of fire.
“Everything okay, doll?” a familiar voice dragged TJ back to the present, and he looked up to see Gertie smiling at him.
“Everything’s great, Gertie.” He managed a tight smile.
“That’s my boy! I’m here all day if you need me, doll!” she said, wheeling herself away.
TJ’s smile widened. He loved that crazy old woman. She’d given him a chance many wouldn’t have, and he was determined to make sure this first event was a huge success.
Funny, the tent fire had been the thing that had allowed Gertie to find him. Apparently she’d been searching for him for a while, wanting to offer him this job, but because he’d given up his spot at the halfway house, she couldn’t find him there, and his delivery job was under-the-table. The fire had landed him in the hospital, and that’s how Gertie found him.
If it hadn’t been for Gertie giving him this job, TJ didn’t know where he’d be now. But now all the bad days were behind him. His debt was paid. He had an apartment and had even reconnected with his family, though his sister was still coming to grips with the fact that he’d stayed away so long. He still couldn’t make her understand it had all been to protect her.
Life was looking up for him for the first time in a long time.
He finished marking up Veronica’s proposal and dialed her extension, disguising his voice a little when she answered. He wanted to mess with her a bit. That had always been fun on the island. He asked her to come to his office to review what she had submitted and hung up, quickly running his hands through his short hair and straightening his shirt.
A few seconds later, someone tapped on his open door, and he looked up, taken aback. She looked different from when he had last seen her. She’d lost weight and now he could see she had curves in all the right places. Her hair color was a bit toned down from the harsh bright blond, and her tresses fell across her shoulders like silk, not frizzy and haggard as on the island.
She hesitated in the doorway. He thought he saw a slight flicker of recognition in her eyes, but he could tell that she couldn’t quite place him.
TJ stood. “Hi, I’m TJ. Come on in. Grab a seat. He held out his hand, and they shook. Her skin was soft but her handshake firm. He motioned for her to sit across from him, and then he sat back down, pulling the cuffs of his white button-down shirt over the scars on the backs of his hand self-consciously. “I just wanted to go over the proposal with you. You did a good job, but it’s too much money.”
A crease formed between Veronica’s brows as she eyed the red-marked proposal on his desk. He waited for her to lash out at him as she had done on the island, but instead she took a deep breath and sat back in the chair.
“Could you give me some specifics on what’s too much? As you can see, the bottom line is exactly the amount of the budget.”
“Right, the total budget, but that needs to include the band and photographer. You need to come in way below that.” TJ pointed at a line on the sheet. “Here’s an example. These flowers… they’re way too much. We have agreements with local florists. The one you are using isn’t on the list, so maybe that’s why it’s pricier.”
“The florist was already agreed upon by the bride, and the groom’s father gave a nonrefundable deposit. They are providing all the flowers for the church service, so I had no choice but to use them for the bouquets as well. Otherwise we risk the flowers being totally different quality,” Veronica explained firmly.
“Aren’t all flowers the same? I mean, it’s an additional three thousand dollars to go with that florist. It might seem small in the whole scheme of things, but it’s actually a decent chunk of change. And again, it’s just flowers.” TJ kept his face impassive even though he could see his words had hit a nerve.
He had to admit he was kind of getting a kick out of messing with her just like on the island, but the truth was, he did need to keep things within budget for Gertie. And who cared if the flowers came from a different florist? A daisy was a daisy, wasn’t it?
“What? Just flowers? No, not all flowers are the same! Some florists are really crappy and don’t use the freshest stock. Do we really want to risk having wilted, dying flowers for our first wedding reception?” Veronica shot back, defending her choice. Suddenly her eyes narrowed. “Wait a minute. I know you. How do I know you? The island! You’re that dishwasher!”
TJ laughed and held up his hands. “Guilty as charged.”
“What are you doing here?” Veronica demanded, looking around the room as if she thought she might be getting punked.
“Gertie hired me.”
“A dishwasher? To do accounting?” Her voice sounded incredulous, but as she eyed him, TJ could tell that she was starting to see he was much more than a dishwasher.
“I’m not really a dishwasher. I was down on my luck back then. Gertie befriended me and knew my real story. You know how Gertie likes to champion the underdog.”
Veronica’s left brow shot up, but she didn’t pry into his background. She simply said, “Yes, I do.”
“Anyway, Gertie knew that I have a degree in finance. She needed a finance guy here, so she looked me up. I’m grateful she did and want to make sure her new endeavor is a success.” TJ sat back in his chair. “How did you end up here?”
“Same way. Gertie liked my work on the cooking show and offered me a job. I’m also grateful and want to make sure her new endeavor is a success.”
TJ caught a glimpse of the Veronica he knew from the island in the way she agreed with him but made it sound like a challenge. “Good then. We’re on the same page. And now that you’ve explained the flowers, I get it. But if you want to keep the flowers, you have to trim somewhere else. There are other expenses in the background besides what you have on this page, and Gertie was very clear about the bottom line. We have to stick to it. You need to come in below fifty thousand.”
Veronica held his gaze for a second then looked down at the papers and nodded as she scooped them up and stood. “I’ll rework it and get this back to you as soon as possible. I know Edward is in a rush to have the numbers finalized.”
TJ stared at the doorway for a few seconds after she left. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who had changed since the cooking show. And even though Veronica hadn’t been as argumentative or bossy, he had the distinct feeling that things were about to get a lot more interesting now that they would be working together.
5
Veronica marched down the hall toward her office, her cheeks burning. She reached into her pocket for her lip balm, swiping it haphazardly across her lips as she mumbled to herself.
“Really? The dishwasher is now the finance guy, and he’s making her redo all of her work? Is this real life?”
But he wasn’t really a dishwasher. He’d been a finance guy the whole time. So then how had he ended up working as a dishwasher on the cooking show? He must have done something really bad. But Veronica trusted Gertie, and if Gertie thought he would do a good job, then Veronica had to trust that he would. TJ had been a hard worker on the island.
TJ. So that was his name. Veronica felt ashamed she’d never even thought to ask back on the island. But that was the old Veronica. The new Veronica treated people better. Like not prying into his personal life to find out what, exactly, he’d done, even though she was dying to know.
She passed the girl that she’d met in the break room yesterday, Harper, but didn’t stop to talk to her. She didn’t have time for chitchat right now because she had to redo this stupid proposal.
She plopped herself down at her desk an
d spread the paperwork TJ had given her across her desk. She hunched over the papers, working quickly to cross off items and jot notes. It would have been nice if Gertie had mentioned that she didn’t have the entire budget for the things on her list. Oh well, she’d figure it out. She really needed to get down to the storage area and see what Gertie had in stock.
As she worked, her thoughts drifted back to TJ. He’d changed since she’d last seen him on the island. Then he had been scrawny; now not so much. He’d filled out in a good way. The scraggly beard was gone, and his hair was cut short. With his bangs out of his face, his blue eyes were really noticeable—as was his ever-present, annoyingly cheerful attitude.
Why was he always so damn happy anyway? He had mentioned being down on his luck when he had worked on the island. Could have fooled her. He always seemed to be smiling and laughing. Was it really possible to always be happy? Maybe she should try it.
But not today. Today she had to get this proposal finished. She didn’t have time to waste trying to figure out how to smile and act happy all the time.
She couldn’t order any of the items she needed for Marly’s wedding until TJ approved this stupid thing, and with only eight days until the wedding, she needed every second she could get. She didn’t want to drive up delivery costs by having to overnight things.
She logged onto her computer and immediately got an error message. What? She entered her password again, slowly typing it out while mumbling to herself. It worked, but now there was another error message on the screen.
Great. The internet connection wasn’t working. Fine. The file is on the in-house server, so no big deal.
Wait… nope… can’t access that either.
What is going on?
Veronica’s anxiety soared, and she hit the keys harder, retyping the password. Nothing. Dammit! This proposal needs to be approved today before Gertie meets with Edward!
What Goes Around Comes Around Page 3
