Under Control

by Shannon Stacey

  It was a habit left over from the pre-divorce family dynamic, though one they thankfully saw a lot less often these days. Their little girl had taken on the role of mediator in an attempt to fend off parental bickering. Derek and Amber had rarely fought. Neither of them had been emotionally invested enough in the marriage to care enough to really fight. But the sniping at each other and constant minor arguments had worn them all down.

  “Dad! Don’t mess up my hair,” she squealed, but then she laughed when he did it again. And so did Isaac and Amber.

  So now, whenever he felt shitty because he wasn’t there to kiss them goodnight every night or he’d missed the moment his little tomboy suddenly cared about her hair, he clung to these moments. Those two smiling faces that lit up when they saw him, and the woman he could honestly call one of his best friends again. Hell, he even liked Jason, the guy Amber had married two months after their divorce was finalized.

  “I wanted to remind you about the Village Hearts meeting next week,” Amber said. “And I was talking to myself out loud and reminded myself to remind you. Isaac heard me and suggested we stop by instead of sending you a text.”

  Village Hearts was a charity near and dear to both their hearts, and when they’d split, they’d both been adamant about staying involved. Derek did more of the behind-the-scenes volunteering, while Amber volunteered directly with the kids. Since that was how they’d generally done it in the past anyway, they were both happy with the arrangement. Amber had always been the calendar keeper who reminded him about things, though, and that was a harder habit to break.

  “Did you put a reminder in my app thing?” he told her, holding up his phone.

  She gave him an exasperated look. “The app thing is called a calendar. And I showed you how to add reminders.”

  And he’d tried to pay attention, but she talked fast and he wasn’t as tech-savvy as she was. “Show me one more time.”

  He pulled up the app on his phone and Amber walked him through setting a reminder for the meeting. She’d hooked their apps together shortly after the split, and everything to do with the kids went into the shared calendar. And when it came to the kids’ stuff, she’d set it to remind Derek when anything fell on him. Sometimes she’d even set multiple reminders that started going off several days and then hours in advance. But she refused to manage his digital calendar for him, no matter how much he tried to sweet-talk her into it.

  “Got it?” Amber asked, jerking his attention back to her.

  “I think so.” Nope.

  “If you’d use it more often, you’d get better at it,” she said. “You don’t have anything in there other than the kids’ calendars and your Tuesday and Friday tours.”

  He shrugged. “That’s all I’ve really got going on. I mean, I hang out at Kincaid’s sometimes, but grabbing a beer with the guys isn’t something I need to schedule.”

  And he did have a paper calendar at home. He was pretty sure it was under a stack of mail he needed to go through. The problem with the paper calendar was that it didn’t have a built-in reminder. If you didn’t look at it, the appointments didn’t exist.

  The alarm sounded, making Isaac jump. Derek had just enough time to kiss them both quickly and then Amber was pulling them out of the way as the guys ran for the trucks.

  “Don’t forget that meeting!” she yelled at him as he stepped into his gear.

  He gave her a wave and then winked at his daughter as Ladder 37 started to roll. He wouldn’t forget the meeting. Village Hearts was too important to him, although it wouldn’t hurt to have his phone remind him.

  That brought his thoughts right back to Olivia of the elevator. He still wasn’t sure exactly what she did, but it sounded like scheduling and calendars and reminders might be something she was very good at it.

  It was a damn good thing kicking himself for not asking for her business card was only a figure of speech or he’d be covered in bruises.

  Chapter Three

  Olivia pulled open the frosted glass door of Broussard Financial Services at precisely 5:50 in the evening. Ten minutes wasn’t early enough to be rude to the hosts of the meeting, but would ensure she was on time and prepared for the scheduled six o’clock start.

  Her heels clicked on the floor as she walked to the receptionist’s desk, where a woman was on her feet. It looked as if she was preparing to leave for the day, but she paused when Olivia entered.

  “Hi, are you here for the Village Hearts meeting?” When Olivia confirmed she was, the woman smiled. “It’s in the boardroom, which is down that hall and on your right. You can’t miss it. Jess is already in there.”

  “Thank you.” Olivia wasn’t sure exactly who Jess was, but she took a deep breath and concentrated on her posture as she followed the receptionist’s directions.

  She wasn’t usually nervous going into meetings, but she wasn’t here to sell McGovern Consulting’s services, which she had complete confidence in. While volunteering with a charity was work-adjacent, as it was an excellent venue for professional networking, it was new to Olivia and new things triggered a low-level buzz of anxiety.

  There were several people in the boardroom, but it was a blonde woman about her age or a little older in an elegant pantsuit who stepped forward to greet her.

  “You must be Olivia McGovern.” She offered her hand, which Olivia shook. “I’m Jessica Broussard Gullotti, but please call me Jess.”

  Broussard Gullotti. She’d seen one of those names written in bold letters on the frosted glass on the way in. But the second...it sounded familiar, but she couldn’t quite place it. “Pleased to meet you. I’m excited to be here.”

  “And we’re excited to have you. It tends to be a little thin around here when it comes to the so-called boring stuff, but I guess as long as everybody shows up when it’s time to donate or help out the kids, I won’t complain.”

  Jess gave her a brief rundown on Village Hearts, a lot of which Olivia already knew from the overview Kelsey had put together for her. They offered support for families with children suffering long-term health crises—whether due to injury or illness—by helping take care of the children’s siblings. Whether it was helping with school pickups and transportation, babysitting or just setting up some fun playdates, Village Hearts would help.

  “We can also help parents find other charities and organizations to help with their child and their financial situation,” Jess said, “but when a family is overwhelmed by having a child with a serious health issue, it’s easy for the needs of their other children to get overlooked, especially the little ones.”

  “It takes a village,” Olivia said.

  Jess grinned. “Exactly. Let me introduce you to some people.”

  There were whirlwind introductions, since the meeting would be starting, but Olivia didn’t sweat it. She was pretty good at making names-to-faces connections and, while taking notes in her notebook during the meeting, she’d jot down some observations about each person, which would help cement the hasty introductions in her mind. Thanks to Kelsey’s notes, Olivia already knew that George and Ella Orfanakis were in charge. Her parents had started the charity when Ella needed a liver transplant as a child and they’d struggled to maintain a sense of normalcy for her younger brother, Frankie, who was also on the board.

  The last person to meet was across the room, and Olivia doubted there would be time for introductions, since George was taking his seat at the head of the massive conference table. But when the man turned to grab a cookie from a tray and she could see slightly more than his profile, she sucked in a breath and clenched her fingers around her notebook.

  It was the firefighter from the elevator. Derek. The man she’d been spending more than a little mental time with each night as she fell asleep, because he was a safe fantasy. She was never supposed to see him again.

  “And that guy scoping out the baked goods is Derek Gilma
n. He’s a firefighter, actually. He works with my husband, Rick.”

  Gullotti. That’s where Olivia had heard the name. Rick Gullotti was one of the men she’d talked to briefly after being pulled out of the elevator.

  Praying her face wasn’t as hot as it felt, she forced a smile. “We’ve met, actually. Derek and I were briefly stuck in an elevator together and your husband helped get us out.”

  “Wait, you’re—” Jess stopped talking for a second, her gaze flicking to Derek and back before she spoke again. “I heard about that. I’m glad it wasn’t anything more serious.”

  “Me, too,” she said, hoping her response wasn’t too wooden, but she was too busy trying to figure out what was happening to care all that much.

  Seeing Derek was a shock. And Jess’s reaction was odd, as if Olivia had been the topic of somebody’s conversation. But most of all, her own response to seeing the firefighter was downright alarming.

  She probably shouldn’t have spent quite so much time remembering how good his hands had felt on her skin. And she definitely shouldn’t have been imagining her back pressed up against the elevator with her legs wrapped around the man.

  He chose that moment to turn in her direction. His eyes met hers and he froze with a cookie halfway to his mouth. Olivia’s cheeks felt hot again and she gave him what she hoped was a polite, nice to see you again smile. Derek returned the smile, and then started across the room toward her.

  “Let’s get started,” George said in a loud voice, startling her.

  Derek didn’t look away from her as she obediently took a seat, and for a long and strangely nerve-racking moment, she was afraid he was going to sit next to her. Considering what she’d imagined him doing to her last night, she wasn’t sure her nerves could handle that.

  But he stayed on his side of the table and took a bite of his cookie while George called the meeting to order. Of course he started by introducing their newest member, even though she’d already met everybody one-on-one, and thanking her for her involvement. Once the spotlight was off her, Olivia opened the leather cover and sifted through the notebook inserts crammed into it until she found the slim one she’d added for Village Hearts.

  Prepared to take notes, including adding a question mark to anything she needed to catch up on, she listened to George go over some statistics from the last month.

  It didn’t take but a few minutes before she realized Derek sitting across from her might be worse than if he’d sat next to her. He was in her peripheral vision and she was keenly aware that he was watching her while he listened and ate his cookie. Not staring, exactly, but he spent a lot more time looking at her than he did looking at George.

  She might have assumed he vaguely recognized her and was trying to place where he knew her from if not for the slightly weird way Jess had reacted when she said she’d been stuck in the elevator with him.

  Wait, you’re—And then the quick glance at Derek as she cut off her sentence.

  “I don’t feel like we did a great job at promoting the auction fundraiser last year,” Ella was saying, and Olivia jerked her attention back to the business at hand. It wasn’t like her to get distracted like that. Of course, she wasn’t usually presented with a distraction like Derek while she was trying to focus.

  “I feel like there was a disconnect in the images we put out,” Ella continued. “The poster made it clear the charity supports children, which is great. But for this particular event—a dinner and dancing while auctioning off some very nice items—I feel like we need to be targeting wallets more than hearts, I think. It’s hard to explain. We had a good turnout, but I’d like to attract some bigger spenders.”

  “There’s a wide range of items, though,” Derek said, and Olivia’s skin tingled at the sound of his voice. She’d imagined that voice whispering some pretty dirty things in her ear since the last time she saw him. “We don’t want to make it look like such a high-end event that the core community doesn’t bother showing up.”

  “That’s a good point,” one of the other women said. “We want to appeal to people with deep pockets who aren’t necessarily involved with Village Hearts, but it’s important to celebrate the everyday people who do the work, too.”

  “I would suggest splitting your marketing campaign,” Olivia said, and all heads swiveled to her, but she kept her gaze on George and Ella at the end of the table. “It sounds like your promotion for last year was considered successful, so I’d continue that. Make marketing materials geared toward the children and some of the more fun, affordable items going up for auction, along with a date night for a good-cause theme. Those are the images your core community, as Derek called them, will be sharing on their social media accounts.”

  Ella was nodding and nobody jumped in, so she kept going. “At the same time, I’d set up some promotions specifically targeted toward people who support similar charities, along with donors to local hospitals and others whose donations come from their accountants’ advice rather than the heart. A more elegant advertisement, pushing the dinner and any high-end auction items. Rather than the word-of-mouth, organic sharing the Village Hearts community and their friends and family will generate, this marketing would be driven by keywords and very specific ad targeting.”

  When she was finished speaking, nobody said anything for a moment and Olivia forced herself not to fidget while she waited for feedback from the rest of the room. She didn’t think she’d stepped on anybody’s toes, but it wouldn’t matter. Once she made a commitment to something, she followed through, so she wouldn’t hold back ideas or information to save anybody’s ego.

  “Wow.” George leaned back in his chair, tapping his pen on the table. “That sounds great. I’ve gotta be honest, though. I didn’t understand all of that, and I think we did okay with Facebook last year, but I don’t think any of us really know the level of stuff you’re talking about.”

  “I have a social media and marketing manager on my staff,” Olivia said. “McGovern Consulting would be happy to donate two hours per week of her time, as well as an hour of my assistant’s, to help with promotion for the auction. It doesn’t sound like a lot of time, but they’re very good and very fast.”

  “That’s a generous offer,” Ella said. “If you’re sure...”

  “I am.” Olivia had already spoken to Kelsey and Brynn about it. While they’d be paid the same whether they were working on something for McGovern Consulting or Village Hearts, she wouldn’t throw a new twist in their workflow without asking them first.

  “I’ll touch base with you later in the week about the accounting and tax docs related to that,” Jess said.

  Olivia nodded. “And we’ll need to give Brynn, my marketing manager, admin access to the organization’s Facebook page.”

  “I’d be the contact person for that,” Ella told her. “If you give her my contact info, we’ll get her added.”

  “Perfect,” George said. “Let’s go over the list of items we have so far, so we can see how much more we need to drum up.”

  Olivia turned to a fresh page and wrote in a header so she could take notes to pass on to Brynn. The items they’d be auctioning off would impact the marketing, so the more information she had up front, the better.

  But as she tried to focus on George, she caught Derek watching her again, and this time she glanced over. He didn’t look away. He just gave her a warm smile that made his eyes crinkle at the corners, and she smiled back.

  * * *

  Derek was trying like hell to focus on the meeting, especially since Amber would expect a full report, but Olivia from the elevator was sitting across the table from him and she had a habit of tapping the end of her pen against her bottom lip when she was thinking.

  Her mouth was a hell of a lot more interesting to him than whatever George was talking about.

  It’s a good thing he hadn’t already taken a bite of the cookie in his hand b
efore he turned and saw her or he probably would have choked on it. He’d known somebody new was showing up, but he hadn’t bothered to ask for a name, assuming they’d be introduced at the meeting. And even if he had known, he hadn’t gotten Olivia’s last name in the elevator and he would have told himself it was a coincidence. That there was more than one Olivia in Boston.

  But it was her—the woman from the elevator who’d been in his mind constantly since then—and he was on his way to talk to her when George, with the worst timing ever, chose that moment to start the meeting. Not getting a way to contact her had been a colossal mistake, but he was going to remedy that before they left tonight. He hoped.

  For now, he forced his attention away from Olivia and back to the business at hand because he handled a lot of the business of the auction items. When it came to divvying up the work, he preferred that to being involved with the dinner or dancing plans.

  “I’ve been promised four tickets to a Patriots game, but we haven’t nailed down which game yet.” George paused, looking at Olivia. “That’s usually one of our biggest ticket items.”

  “I’ll make a note of that. The Patriots...that’s football, right?” When all heads turned her way at once she blushed. “My parents didn’t watch sports and I haven’t really paid attention except for seeing news clips and overhearing conversations.”

  “How can you be from Boston and not know who the Patriots are?” George asked and her blush deepened.

  “She did know,” Derek said. “They play football, just like she said, and we have four tickets to auction off. I’ve also got gift certificates to some local restaurants and a weekend stay at an inn on the South Shore.”

  “Oh?” Ella perked up.

  Derek shrugged. “It’s not a wicked-expensive inn, but it would be a good weekend getaway for a working couple. It’s really nice, but in an affordable area for dining out and stuff like that.”

  “Sounds good,” George said, but Derek’s attention had already shifted back to Olivia, who was taking what appeared to be very diligent notes. He wondered if she knew she was cute as hell when she was concentrating.