by Julie Cannon
“There is no such thing as the perfect woman,” Maggie said, refilling Dana’s empty mug with the remaining beer in the pitcher between them.
“I caught one,” Lauren had said wistfully. Lauren and her partner Elliott had been together for several blissful years, and Lauren was expecting their first child in a few months.
Dana corrected her. “Don’t you mean you let her catch you?”
“Well, there is that.” Lauren rubbed her belly.
“I reiterate my claim,” Maggie said decisively.
“Well, I think she exists. You can’t tell me there isn’t a woman out there who’s confident without being arrogant, self-sufficient, independent, honest, and faithful, as well as cherishes her mother.” There were several more attributes Dana wouldn’t compromise on, but she didn’t think she needed to bring them up.
“You don’t even like your mother,” Lauren said, a look of exasperation on her face.
Dana defended herself. “We’re not talking about me.”
Maggie piped up next. “You’re talking about a woman that doesn’t exist. No one’s that perfect.”
“I’m not looking for perfection, Maggie.” But was she? Even though some of the women Dana dated had a few of her mandatory traits, some ended up being the exact opposite of what she had just defined. But she refused to believe there wasn’t one woman who had it all. And she would remain single until she found her, even if it was years in the future.
“I like my own company and lately prefer it to those around me. Present company excluded, of course,” she said quickly. “I’ll be fine, have a great time, and will come back tanned and rested for my interview at Martin Engineering.”
“Why are you going back to work so soon? You’ve got enough money to last you months. Take some time off, you deserve it. You work too hard. No wonder you can’t find a woman.”
“Maggie, that’s not fair!” Dana was completely exasperated. They recycled this old topic of conversation at least once every few months. “I have no trouble finding women, as you call them. You just named three.”
“And I could rattle off at least half a dozen more too, which is exactly my point,” Maggie replied.
“And just how many women have you dated?” Dana knew the answer was far more than she’d just been accused of cycling through.
Maggie mimicked Dana’s previous response. “We’re not talking about me.”
“And we’re not talking about me anymore either,” Dana said with finality.
*
Less than twenty-four hours later Dee jumped at the blast of the ship’s horn. She wasn’t expecting it and had lost all track of her surroundings other than the feel of the warm breeze on her face. It had been far too long since she had gotten away from the rat race of her career, over-zealous friends trying to set her up with “the perfect woman,” and her mother. The first was long overdue, the second well meaning if not a bit tiring, and the third just a plain old pain in the ass.
She was between jobs, having left her previous employer two weeks ago with a hefty severance check in her pocket. Brady and Black, a small boutique public-relations firm, had been acquired by one of the largest firms in the world, and within three weeks, she had packed her office possessions into two boxes and was saying good-bye to friends and co-workers she had spent thousands of hours with. Between her savings and the final check from Brady, she didn’t have to worry about working for at least a year, and much longer if she sold the Microsoft stock her grandmother had left her.
Minnie, as her mother’s mother preferred to be called, had been a woman far ahead of her time. She’d managed to save a dollar here and two dollars there for years and, unbeknownst to anyone, especially Dee’s mother, had bought blocks of Intel and Microsoft stock when it was in the single digits. When she died at the ripe old age of ninety-two and her will was read, that was the first time anyone had any clue that Minnie was a multi-millionaire. She left it all to Dee, and her mother had just about blown a gasket. Deloris had been hounding her ever since.
This trip was Minnie’s idea, in fact. Dee would talk to her grandmother for hours about everything. She was her sounding board for life, love, and work. Minnie taught her how to stand up for herself, give to those that didn’t have, and cast her fishing line to the exact spot she was aiming at. When Dee said she wanted to go to college, her mother had scoffed but Minnie had supported her decision. When, at fourteen, Dee hesitantly confided in Minnie that she had “those funny feelings” for Karen Sharpe, Minnie hugged her and told her she loved her no matter what.
Deloris Worthington, on the other hand, loved easily and, based on the number of stepfathers Dee had, often carelessly. She was currently “between husbands,” as Dee told her friends, positive her mother wouldn’t disappoint her with yet another one soon. Her mother was more afraid of being alone than she was of being unhappy. Thankfully, Dee was nothing like her.
“So how do you think it went?” Lauren asked, pulling Dana’s attention back to the present.
“You mean other than the obvious elephant in the room? I have no idea what they asked me or what I said, but I got the impression it was the right thing. They said they’d let me know in a few days what the next steps would be.”
“I still don’t understand why you want this job. Martin doesn’t have a good reputation. If Emery Barrett doesn’t pull this off you could go down with her.”
“But she is turning it around. Sure, they ran into some trouble with the government and how they conducted business, but Emery has a fabulous reputation for taking a company on the brink of disaster and turning it into a huge moneymaker. Her reputation is phenomenal in this area, and the opportunity to be a part of this kind of transformation really interests me.”
Dana had read everything possible on Emery, every article on her management style, and even went so far as to talk to several people who had been on her staff at other companies. Everything pointed to the fact that Emery was a dynamic, charismatic, shrewd, and very smart woman. One article in the Harvard Business Review went so far as to say her insight was akin to a crystal ball. She had an uncanny knack of knowing exactly when to take chances and when to play it safe.
“But if she doesn’t succeed, you could go down with her,” Lauren pointed out for the umpteenth time.
“She won’t. She never has. Having me on the team increases her chance for success by ten times. I am exactly what she needs.” Dana was nothing but confident in her capabilities.
“Is that what you told her?”
“Not exactly in those words but I got my point across. At least I think I did. I’m not sure what I said. It’s all a little fuzzy after Emery walked into the room.” The interview still felt a bit more than surreal even now, an hour after it.
“Do you think she’ll hire you?”
That was the hundred-thousand-dollar question. Normally at this stage of the interview process Dana had a pretty good idea of the outcome. By the time she got to the CEO it was usually her job to lose. She’d never encountered this situation. She bet that the number of times it had happened to anyone in the world could probably be counted on one hand.
She and Lauren confirmed their lunch date for the next day, said their good-byes, and Dana took her Coke onto the patio. She settled into one of the high-backed chairs, her favorite spot on the deck. From here she could see the ocean through the trees and hear the birds chatting nearby.
She had debated with herself for months, trying to decide if she wanted to cut down some of the tall trees to enhance her view of the lake, but at the same time she didn’t want to lose any of the thick, mature trees that had sold her on the property. In compromise she simply thinned out some of the dead wood and scrub and called it paradise.
She had bought the five acres three years ago and it was still a work in progress, as she often described it. The house was over a hundred years old, and even after new plumbing, wiring, a roof, and double-paned windows, it still needed work. Now that the house was fou
ndationally sound she could begin on the inside. The plans to remodel the kitchen were on her desk in the study, along with the estimate from a local contractor. She had signed the contract, sent the first check, and was anxious to get started. He was scheduled to be on her back doorstep the day after tomorrow and, as he had stated on more than one occasion, “in only six short weeks” her kitchen would go from early 1970s—complete with the requisite olive-green appliances, practically non-existent laminate countertops, and a chipped cast-iron sink—to a high-efficiency gas stove and range, a Sub-Zero refrigerator/freezer, and sixty square feet of granite countertop. She doubted it would be ready in six weeks but was prepared for it to take as long as necessary to be exactly as she wanted it.
Dana put her bare feet on the small table and settled in to think. She wanted this job. When she had first heard that Martin Engineering was looking for someone to help develop their long-term strategy she jumped at it, putting out feelers and inquiries until she connected with the search firm recruiting for the position. The fact that a female led Martin in a very male-dominated field also interested her.
Dana had endured an exhausting interview process even before she got to Emery. Between the two three-hour exploratory interviews with the search firm, the two-day executive assessment, and the five people at Martin she had spoken with, Dana felt like she had been poked, prodded, and examined to the nth degree. The final step was the interview this morning.
Talking with Emery simply reinforced her desire for this job. She wanted to work with a visionary leader, someone who had great ideas and wasn’t afraid to take chances, and that person was Emery Barrett. But what about EJ Connor? What in the hell was she going to do with her memories of that person? What would her life be like if Emery offered her the job? Equally important, what would she do if she didn’t?
Chapter Four
Somehow Emery got through the morning. Adam, her administrative assistant, ran her office like a tight ship and had everything completely organized for her return. A retired general’s aide, Adam was a godsend on more than one occasion, and it was scary how he knew what Emery needed almost before she did. He could draft most of her correspondence and write her a thirty-minute speech with only a few key points that she provided. He had been her right hand, left hand, and everything in between for eight years. Some days she felt like she went wherever Adam told her whenever he told her it was time to go. And today was one of those days. Thank God, because she didn’t know if she could have done anything by herself if she had to.
After the shock of the interview with Dana, Adam had kept her on schedule as she met with each of her department heads for a brief update of what had transpired during her absence. She was an absolute professional but couldn’t keep her mind from drifting to the first day of the cruise.
The deck was crowded. Women of all ages, shapes, sizes, and colors jostled for position against the rail. Most were waving to familiar faces on the port, a few were kissing, some looked nervous, while others, like herself, were simply enjoying the warm late-afternoon sun on their face as the ship slowly moved through the crystal-clear water of the port of Ft. Lauderdale.
No one was sending her off on the twenty-one-day cruise to the southern Caribbean. She had insisted that Julia drop her off at the airport and continue on to work. Julia, her best friend since middle school, was a pediatrician with a bustling practice in Mission Bay, a suburb of San Diego, and, other than an acquaintance or two, EJ’s only friend. Work kept her from taking the time to cultivate friendships, which was perfectly fine with her.
Her hair blew in her face and, irritated with it and just about everything in her life, she turned into the wind, effectively blowing it off her face. Squinting into the sun she saw another lone passenger standing at the front of the ship, or the bow, as it was known. EJ looked around for the woman’s companion, wondering what she could be doing that was more important than being with her woman as the cruise began. She had read that entering and leaving the home port was one of the most memorable events of a cruise.
She watched the woman remove her cap and lift her face to the sky, as if worshiping the warmth. From her vantage point, EJ guessed she was probably shorter than her own five foot nine inches, and she thought ahead enough to put her long, blond hair in a ponytail. She was thin without being skinny, the muscles in her tanned, bare arms clearly defined without being too muscular. Whereas other women ogled breasts, legs, and butts, EJ admittedly was an arm girl. There was something dangerously sexy about a woman with muscles. Just by looking at her EJ could practically feel the confidence the woman exuded.
Maybe she was traveling alone, EJ thought, but then changed her mind. A woman who looked like that would have multiple choices of traveling companions. Maybe she was still unpacking and settling in. Maybe she was already seasick. There were a thousand maybes, and EJ knew only that if she were sharing the woman’s cabin, she wouldn’t be on the deck alone.
The blast of the ship’s horn was loud and unexpected, and EJ saw the woman was as startled as she was. After the wretched noise stopped she watched her slowly walk around the deck stopping and chatting with several other passengers. From her vantage point EJ assumed she was making polite small talk. She’d seen it enough in the hundreds of obligatory social events that were a part of her job. The woman’s conversations were brief, accompanied by courteous handshakes before she moved on.
The woman looked her way, their eyes meeting for a moment before she started a conversation with another couple. An unfamiliar sense of disappointment buzzed in EJ’s chest, but a very familiar spark of interest flared somewhere else. This might just be the rest and relaxation the doctor didn’t order.
Chapter Five
The restaurant Dana was looking for was just up the street on the left. She had been surprised when Jack, the head of human resources, called her and said that Emery wanted to meet for lunch. When Dana inquired if he or any other member of the Martin leadership team would be attending, her heart skipped when he told her that it would only be her and Emery. To say she was nervous was an understatement. She had gotten very little sleep the night before, her dreams filled with the first time she saw Emery.
Dee had been the last to be seated at her table, a stuck zipper making her arrive a few minutes late for dinner. She was looking forward to the opportunity to meet the women at her table tonight. The women she dined with were an interesting mix of young and old, and the conversation was lively and interesting. Dee felt someone’s eyes on her throughout her meal, and when she looked around in an attempt to determine who it might be, she met the gaze of the woman sitting directly across from her a few tables away.
The woman with short, spiky hair looked to be in her mid-thirties, about the same age as Dee, and from what she could see was quite stunning in her black suit. Dee watched the interplay of the group at that table and guessed that none of the other women were traveling with her.
From thirty feet away Dee watched the woman’s face transform from mildly curious to intensely interested. This trip might be more interesting than she’d anticipated, but then the redhead sitting next to the woman reached out and touched her, asserting her claim.
Dee choked down her disappointment with a fresh glass of cabernet. Something about the woman in black kept drawing Dee’s attention, almost making her become rude to the others at her table. Even though she was on vacation and likely to experience things she had only dreamed about, she would never compromise her principles. And going after another woman’s woman was number one on her unforgivable list.
Dana glanced at her watch. Even though she had spent ten minutes looking for a place to park, she was still a few minutes early. She took the opportunity to study Emery, who was already there and drummed her fingers on the top of the table. It was a nervous gesture she exhibited several times throughout their cruise, and Dana didn’t think Emery was even aware of it.
Today she was wearing a dark-gray suit jacket over a plum-colored shirt opened at the
collar. Dana knew the colors would bring out the flecks of red in her eyes—the flecks that flashed with desire. A glass of water sat half empty in front of Emery, the sweat dripping down the side reminding Dana of how Emery had looked walking out of the surf, water dripping off her firm, smooth skin, standing under the cascading water in the shower.
“For God’s sake, Dana, pull it together. This is a business meeting. You’ve had dozens of them. This is just another one,” she murmured softly. With the advent of the Bluetooth, nobody paid any attention to anyone that looked like they were talking to themselves. But as much as she tried to convince herself, this was not just another business lunch.
The hostess escorted her to Emery’s table and Emery stood as she approached. “Thank you,” Dana said to the woman just before Emery extended her hand.
“Ms. Worthington.”
Emery’s voice was as melodic and sexy as she remembered. Dana braced herself for the moment their hands touched. The same jolt of pleasure sizzled through her as it had every other time their flesh met.
The waiter took her drink order and Dana used the time to collect herself. Sitting across from Emery like this brought back far too many memories. She struggled to look her in the eye.
“This is…uh…awkward,” Emery said.
“No,” Dana said, her voice stronger than she felt. “Awkward was when you walked into that conference room the other day.” Emery looked at her, then just as quickly glanced away.
