“You know, you don’t look so good.”
Right then her stomach totally revolted. She dashed to the bathroom. Thankfully her cabin wasn’t that big. She was quite certain she wouldn’t have made it another step. She dropped to her knees, sick as a dog. What in the world? She hadn’t even eaten that morning.
Once her stomach calmed, she heard the sink turn on. Finn? He was here? He’d witnessed her at her worst. She would have groaned, but she feared doing anything that might upset her stomach again.
“Here. Take this.” He handed her a cold cloth.
“You shouldn’t be here.”
“And leave you alone when you obviously don’t feel well?”
No matter what she said, he wasn’t leaving. And at that moment she didn’t have the energy to argue. Once she’d cleaned up, she walked back to the bedroom. Her stomach wasn’t totally right, but it did feel somewhat better.
“I’m sorry about that.” Her gaze didn’t fully meet his. “You...you were quite the gentleman. Thank you.”
“Do you know what’s bothering you? Is it something you ate?”
“I think it’s seasickness.”
“I’m sure it doesn’t help that we hit some rough water this morning. Are you sure that’s all it is?”
She nodded, certain it had to be the constant roll of the boat.
“You should lie down.”
“I don’t have time.”
“Sure you do.” He guided her back to the king-size bed. “Stay here. I’ll be right back.”
She did as he asked, hoping she’d soon feel like herself. He disappeared out the door like a man on a mission. As she lay there, her mind strayed to her plan for Project Santa. Perhaps she should run it by Finn first. She didn’t want to do anything to embarrass either of them in front of those powerful men.
A few minutes later Finn came rushing back into the room. “How are you feeling now?”
“Better.” It wasn’t a lie.
“I grabbed some ginger ale and toast. Hopefully you’ll be able to keep that down. And I grabbed some medicine for the motion sickness.”
“Thank you.” She sat up in bed and accepted the glass of soda. She tentatively took a sip, not sure what to expect when it hit her stomach. Thankfully, it remained calm.
“I also talked with the captain and he’s set course for what he hopes is smoother water.”
Finn was changing his trip just for her? She didn’t know what to think, except that Finn was a lot more Santa-like than Grinchy.
She took another drink of the soda. So far, so good. Anxious to get on with her day, she got to her feet. She glanced over to find Finn staring at her. “What?”
“The look on your face. Something is bothering you. Is it your stomach again?”
She shook her head. “I told you I’m feeling better.”
He sighed. “You’re sure? You’re not just telling me this to get rid of me?”
“I’m certain. I’ll just get showered and be up to the meeting soon.”
“I could use your help, but I don’t want you pushing yourself.” His gaze searched her face and then he moved to the door. “I should be going.”
“Finn?”
“Yes.”
“There is something I wanted to talk to you about.”
His brow arched. “Is it about your health?”
“No. It’s nothing like that. It’s just an idea I wanted to run past you.”
He glanced at his Rolex. “I’d be happy to hear you out, but not right now. I’m late.” He opened the door. “I’ll see you on deck.” He rushed out the door.
“But—”
The door closed. Her words had been cut off. A frown pulled at her lips. She knew how to help him with Project Santa if he’d just slow down and listen to her. She refused to give up now. There had to be a way to get his attention.
* * *
Had he made a mistake?
Finn sat uncomfortably at the end of the table, knowing if they didn’t come up with a reasonable resolution to their transportation problem today that they would have to cut their losses and scrap the idea of Project Santa. The thought deeply troubled him.
He glanced at his watch for the third time in ten minutes. Where was Holly? Had she been struck with another bout of sickness?
“Listen, I know we need a solution regarding transportation, but all of my rigs are booked from now until Christmas, delivering our toys to stores.” Mr. Wallace tapped his pen on the blank legal pad. “Besides, this wasn’t my part of the arrangement. It’s not my fault Fred wasn’t on top of his business dealings and got in bed with the cartel.”
Mr. Caruso sighed. “I couldn’t possibly reroute all of my snack food shipments. It’d be a logistic disaster. And it would only cover the east coast. What about the children west of the Mississippi?”
All eyes turned to Mr. Santos. The guy shook his head. “I’m in the same boat. My network is on the east coast. And I have no transportation.”
That left one man who hadn’t spoken up, Mr. McMurray. He cleared his throat, visibly uncomfortable being in the hot seat. “And what makes you all think I can pull this off when none of you can?”
Immediately everyone spoke at once, defending why they couldn’t take over the shipping part of the plan. Finn sat back quietly wondering why he ever thought they’d be able to pull off such a big project. It dashed his hopes for future projects of this scale.
At that moment Holly walked into the room. A hush fell over the men and Finn knew why. She looked like a knockout. She wore an aqua, sleeveless sundress. Her golden-brown hair had been piled on top of her head while corkscrew curls framed her face. She wore a little makeup, but definitely on the conservative side. If he hadn’t known that she was feeling under the weather earlier, he wouldn’t have been able to guess it by looking at her.
“Good morning, gentlemen. I’m sorry to be late. But I promise I was hard at work.”
The tension around the table evaporated, replaced with smiles and warm greetings. Finn shook his head in disbelief. Who’d have thought a bunch of workaholics could be so easily swayed by a pretty face and long, toned legs?
“Don’t let me interrupt your discussion.” Holly moved to the chair she’d sat in the day before.
Mr. Wallace grunted. “You didn’t interrupt much. Everyone was just making excuses about why they couldn’t take on the shipping portion of Project Santa. We could use a fresh perspective. Do you have any thoughts on the matter?”
“Actually, I do. First, I want to say I’m very impressed with the endeavor you all are undertaking.” She made a point of making eye contact with each man. “And if you would indulge me, I might have a suggestion about the transportation problem.”
“Holly.” The room grew silent. Finn had to give her a chance to gracefully bow out. “Perhaps I didn’t make clear the enormity of this project. The gifts will need to be delivered from coast to coast in every town or city where our companies have a presence.”
She nodded as her steady gaze met his. “I understood.” She leveled her shoulders. “From what I understand, you have a master list of names and locations for the gifts. You also have all of the items sorted and boxed. All you’re lacking is a delivery system.”
Finn noticed a couple of the men had started to fidget with their cell phones. They didn’t have faith in Holly’s ability to overcome such a large obstacle. He had to admit he didn’t know what she could do that they hadn’t already considered.
“That would be correct.” Finn really wanted to know where she was headed. He didn’t like surprises. “We have a sorting facility in St. Louis. From there the packages need to be distributed to numerous cities.”
“And if I understand correctly, you were planning to do this by way of long-haul trucks.”
She shook her head. “My idea is a little different. I started to think about all of the modes of transport. And then I started to think about who I knew in the transportation industry. And I realized my neighbor in New York is a pilot.”
Finn cleared his throat. “So you’re suggesting we have your friend fly all of the packages around the country.”
She frowned at him. “Of course not. That wouldn’t be possible considering there are thousands of packages.”
“Then I’m not following what you’re telling us.”
“My friend is a pilot, but he’s just one of many. When he’s not flying commercially, he takes part in a national flying club.” She glanced around the table and when no one said anything, she explained further. “This flying club has hundreds of members around the country. If we were to enlist their help, we could get the packages to their destinations.”
“I don’t know.” Finn had to think this over. The men started chatting amongst themselves. Finn glanced up to find Holly with a determined look on her face. When she opened her mouth to elaborate, no one noticed.
Finn cleared his throat and then said loudly, “Gentlemen, shall we let Ms. Abrams finish her presentation?”
When silence fell over the room, Holly continued. “I’ve already put feelers out to see if there would be an interest in helping such a worthy cause, and I have close to a hundred pilots willing to fly the packages.”
Finn rubbed his chin. “You trust these people? And they’re going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts?”
“Yes, I trust them. And aren’t you all doing this project out of the goodness of your hearts?”
One by one the men’s heads nodded except Finn’s. He didn’t have faith in her plan. There were just too many moving parts. But he would give her credit for thinking outside the box. He was lucky to have her on staff at Lockwood.
Not about to discuss the pros and cons of her plan in front of her, Finn said, “Thank you for your input. We greatly appreciate your efforts. We’ll need a little bit to discuss it. In the meantime, you could—”
“But don’t you want to hear the rest of my plan?” Holly sent a pleading stare his way.
How could he say no when she turned those big brown eyes his way? He felt his resolve melting.
“Let her finish,” Wallace chimed in.
The other men agreed.
Finn nodded at her to proceed.
“Getting the presents from the distribution center to the airstrip will take more transportation.”
He was almost afraid to ask. “And what did you have in mind?”
“We’ll go public and ask for volunteers.”
“More volunteers?” He shook his head. “I don’t think so.”
“Listen, I know you were hoping to operate under the radar. And I know none of you are in this for the publicity, but if you would reconsider, this project might be bigger and better than before.”
He wanted to put a stop to this, but he knew what it was like to be a child with no Christmas presents. Although his lack of presents had nothing to do with his parents’ financial standing, it still hurt. He didn’t want that to happen to other children, not if he could make a difference.
But he refused to put out a public plea asking for help. He didn’t do it for the Mistletoe Ball, which meant so much to him—a continuation of his mother’s work and a way to support the foundation seeking a cure to the horrible disease that stole his brother’s life. Besides, he was the very last person in the country whom people would want to help. After all of the companies that he’d bought up and spun off into separate entities, causing job consolidation and ultimately downsizing, he was certain people would go out of their way to make sure he failed. He couldn’t let that happen with Project Santa.
Finn met her gaze. “I’m not going to make this a publicity campaign.”
“But at least hear me out.”
He didn’t want to. His gut told him she was about to give them a unique but tempting solution to their problem—but it would come at a steep price.
“Go ahead.” Wallace spoke up. “Tell us how you would recruit these people?”
“We could start a media page on MyFace.” She paused and looked around the table. “Do you know about the social networking service?”
They all nodded.
“Good. Well, it’s hugely popular. With a page set up on it specifically for Project Santa, we can post updates and anything else. It even allows for spreadsheets and files. So there can be an official sign-up sheet. Or if you are worried about privacy, I could set up an online form that dumps into a private spreadsheet. In fact, last night when I couldn’t sleep I started work on the graphics for the media page.”
Caruso smiled at her. “You’re a real go-getter. I can see why Finn scooped you up. You must make his life so easy at the office.”
“Actually, he and I, well, we don’t normally work together.”
“Really?” Caruso turned to Finn. “What’s wrong with you? How could you let this bright young lady get away from you?”
Finn kept a stony expression, not wanting any of them to get a hint that there was far more to this relationship than either of them was letting on. “I already had a fully capable assistant by the time Holly was hired. She normally works in the legal department, but with my assistant eloping, Holly agreed to fill in.”
“And she’s done an excellent job with her research.” Caruso turned a smile to Holly.
“Yes, she has,” Mr. McMurray agreed. “It isn’t exactly the most straightforward option, but it definitely deserves further investigation.”
Finn was proud that she’d taken the initiative, but he was not expecting the next words out of his mouth. “And we need to give her presentation some serious consideration.”
“Agreed.” The word echoed around the table.
Holly’s hesitant smile broadened into a full-fledged smile that lit up her eyes. “Thank you all for listening to me.” Her cloaked gaze met Finn’s. “I have work to do. I’ll be in my cabin should you need me.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
WHAT HAD SHE been thinking?
Holly paced in her cabin, going over the meeting in her mind—more specifically the deepening frown on Finn’s face as she’d presented her idea to distribute the gifts. Why had she even bothered? It wasn’t like it was part of her job duties—far from it. But there was something about Project Santa that drew her in. She’d wanted to help.
And now she’d made a mess of things. Having Finn upset with her would not help her get the personal recommendation she needed to land the new job and get her the big pay increase she needed to secure her mother’s early retirement.
She should have kept the ideas to herself. When would she ever learn? When it came to Finn, she found herself acting first and thinking later. Just like that kiss in his cabin. If they hadn’t been interrupted, she knew there would have been no stopping them. Her logic and sanity had gotten lost in the steamy heat of the moment.
Going forward, she would be the perfect employee and that included keeping her hands to herself. She glanced down, realizing she’d been wringing her hands together. She groaned.
She knew Finn was going to shoot down her proposal. His disapproval had been written all over his face. She didn’t understand his reaction. It wasn’t like he had a better suggestion. No matter what Finn said, she still believed in her grass-roots approach.
Knock-knock.
For a moment she considered ignoring it. She wasn’t in any state of mind to deal with Finn. She didn’t think it was possible to paste on a smile right now and act like the pe
rfect, obedient assistant. And that would be detrimental to her ultimate goal—leaving Lockwood—leaving Finn.
Knock-knock.
“Holly, I know you’re in there. We need to talk.” Finn’s tone was cool and restrained.
She hesitated. He was obviously not happy with her. And on this yacht, even though it was quite spacious, she wouldn’t be able to avoid him for long. So she might as well get it over with.
She took a calming breath, choking down her frustration. On wooden legs, she moved toward the door. Her stomach felt as though a rock had settled in the bottom of it. You can do this.
She swung the door open. “Can I do something for you?”
“Yes. I need an explanation of what happened at the meeting.” He strode past her and stopped in the middle of the room.
Was it that he didn’t like her idea? Or was he upset that it had been her idea and not his? She’d heard rumors that he was a bit of a control freak.
She swallowed hard. “I presented an idea I thought would save Project Santa. What else is there to explain?”
“When did you have time to come up with this idea?”
“Last night when you were playing cards.”
His gaze narrowed in on her. “You should have brought it to my attention before making the presentation.” His voice rumbled as he spoke. “We should have gone over it together. I’m not accustomed to having employees take the lead on one of my projects without consulting me.”
Seriously? This was the thanks she got for going above and beyond her job duties—not to mention sacrificing her sleep—all in order to help him. Maybe it was her lack of sleep or her growing hunger, but she wasn’t going to stand by quietly while he railed against her efforts to help.
She straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I’ll have you know that I tried to tell you about my idea this morning, but you didn’t have time to listen. And something tells me that isn’t what has you riled up. So what is it?”
His heated gaze met hers. “I knew this was going to be a mistake—”
“What? My plan?”
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