Bride by the Book (Crimson Romance) (22 page)

Garner calculated. “That ought to take a good two hours. Don’t worry. We have plenty to occupy us.”

“Thanks for talking to me about him,” Angie said. “I had gotten so used to him, I didn’t realize how crazy he was sounding. By the way, Peter is next door with your brother-in-law.”

“Excellent idea.” He glanced at Vernon, who was studying the standard legal contract Garner had laid before him. “By the way, it might be a good idea if you pay a long visit to Dolly.” He hoped she understood that he wanted her out of the office.

“And leave your front office unattended?”

“It won’t be anything I can’t deal with,” he said drily. “And if you could have some coffee delivered here, it would be much appreciated.”

By this he hoped she understood that she was not to deliver the coffee herself. The longer Vernon went without catching sight of his daughter or Peter, the calmer he would become. By the time Angie’s mother arrived, Garner hoped Vernon would be normal enough to go peacefully with his wife.

He sincerely hoped Mrs. Brownwood took Vernon directly to a hospital or a good neurologist’s office. The man looked and sounded normal enough, but the things he said spoke of a mind that was being affected by something, and Garner did not consider himself anywhere near qualified to make a guess as to what it was.

• • •

Angie walked across the street to the New South Diner and took a seat in a booth. Now that she realized something was badly wrong with her father, she found herself on fire to do something about it. The time until her mother arrived seemed endless, and she wondered how Garner could possibly keep Vernon occupied until then. She wondered if she should locate a neurologist nearby, then decided against it. Her best option was to allow her mother to handle things.

The small diner was empty except for Dolly, who sat behind the counter reading the daily newspaper. She smiled at Dolly and asked for coffee in Styrofoam cups to go, and had just accepted her order when the front door flew open and Cliff dashed in.

“Angie, you’ve got to help me,” he cried. “That guy has my computer in pieces all over my desk. I need that computer. It has all my clients’ information in it.”

“Peter?” Angie asked, blinking. “Why on earth did he take your computer apart?”

“It’s my own fault,” Cliff said, groaning. “I mentioned in passing that it was freezing up on me every time I tried to access the state tax filing system. He said he knew how to fix it, and like a fool, I believed him.”

Angie put on her most comforting expression. “Chances are he does know how to fix it. Peter’s the best there is when it comes to tweaking computer systems. That’s why he’s such a good programmer.”

“Is that the long-haired gaming guy?” Dolly asked. “He’s a computer programmer too?”

“He’s half of BrownWare, the big database company,” Cliff said in a distracted way. “The ‘P’ in VP-Base. You’d think he knows what he’s doing. You’d
pray
he knows what he’s doing. But you don’t
know
he knows what he’s doing when it’s your computer, not to mention your
life
.”

“He knows what he’s doing,” Angie said. “Peter was building computers before I was born. Come on, Cliff. If you’ll carry this coffee in to Garner’s office, I’ll go see what he’s up to.”

“He can take apart anybody’s computer but mine,” Cliff said on a moaning note. “Here, Dolly. Let me carry that coffee. Maybe when I get back to the office, Angie will have it all put back together.”

Angie, trailed by Cliff, hurried back across the street. Cliff carried the coffee toward Garner’s half of the duplex while Angie headed to Cliff’s office.

She opened the door to Cliff’s neatly furnished outer office and immediately focused on the inner office, where Cliff’s equally neat desk now held an intimidating array of computer parts.

“Angie, thank goodness you’re here.” Laura Jones appeared and rushed toward her. “Where’s Cliff? I came down to bring him some copies he needed, and Mr. Van Holden says he doesn’t know where he went.” She reached Angie and grasped her arm. “Angie, what’s he doing in there? What on earth is going on?”

Angie patted Laura’s hand. “Cliff is taking Garner some coffee. I’m here to make sure Peter puts that computer back the way it was.”

“Oh, hi, Ang.” Peter looked up in his vague way. “Come get a look at this motherboard. It’s one of those Jaxxo models with that weird way of attaching the video card. Ought to be outlawed if you ask me.”

Angie grimaced. “You’re probably right, Peter.” She caught Laura’s pleading look and added, “But Mr. Jones needs that computer to finish his work today, so put it back together for him, please.”

“If you insist,” Peter said regretfully. “But this arrangement really needs to be redone, or it’ll never work right.”

“So long as it works,” Laura said.

Angie watched as Peter held up the motherboard and cast a considering glance at it. Peter tended to be extremely focused, and his attention had now been claimed by the insides of Cliff’s computer.

“Oh, it’ll work.” Peter bent over the motherboard. “But if I change a few of the jumper settings and alter the cable attachments—”

“It might be better if you look into setting him up with a new computer,” Angie hastened to advise. “You’ve got a contract for a game, remember. You don’t have time to tinker with someone else’s computer.”

Peter lowered the motherboard and gazed on it. “I’d like to see if those settings work. It ought not be freezing up like he says it’s been doing.”

“I know, but you don’t have time anymore to play with computer parts. Your job is to write programs to run on them.”

“You have to understand the parts if you want to write a good program.” Peter looked around at the various parts scattered over Cliff’s desk. “When Vern and I started out, we first had to build the thing before we could write a program for it.”

“It doesn’t look to me as if it’ll ever be the same again.” Laura did not hesitate to show her obvious bafflement.

“It’ll be much better.” Peter set the motherboard in place with an expert hand and used a tiny screwdriver to attach it. “Half the time, they don’t even put the parts together properly, or plug in the boards all the way, and that’s where a lot of trouble comes from.”

The front door opened and Vernon Brownwood charged inside, followed by Cliff and Garner. Garner caught Angie’s eye and gave her a wry grimace.

“I knew it. You’ve gone into manufacturing.” Vernon came to a halt and glared down at the parts scattered over the desk. “You’ll never make it with desktop PCs these days. Everyone wants a tablet.”

“Oh, it’s you again, Vern.” Peter unscrewed the motherboard, detached it and held it out. “Take a look at the way Jaxxo attaches the video card. I’m thinking that if I change the jumpers here,” he indicated an area of the electronic board, “and alter some of the plug-ins, I can change the way the interface behaves. What do you think?”

“My computer,” Cliff moaned in the background.

Vernon glared at his old friend then frowned at the motherboard. “If that’s a Jaxxo video card, it ought to be changed out for something decent. They get them from some fly-by-night outfit in Malaysia that doesn’t know what it’s doing when it comes to anything electronic.”

To Angie’s astonishment, her father approached the desk, accepted the motherboard and studied it critically.

“They’ve also got a funny way with the memory modules.” Peter indicated the offending lines of computer chips. “In my opinion, they ought to be taken out and rearranged. I’ll bet this configuration costs a lot of speed when it comes to loading web pages or multitasking.”

“But—” Cliff objected.

“I’d be surprised if it managed to load a single webpage,” Vernon agreed. “There’s only one way to find out. Let’s try it.”

Angie backed away slowly until she reached Cliff’s side and spoke in his ear. “Don’t worry. If they don’t get it back together, I will. But chances are, when they’re done, you won’t even recognize the way it runs. They’re both experts, you know.”

Laura put her arm around her husband’s waist. “Let’s watch, darling. I’ve never seen the insides of a computer before.”

“Neither have I, to tell you the truth,” Cliff admitted. “When they put it back together, will it even run?”

“Better than ever,” Angie promised, with an encouraging look at Cliff. “I’ll bet you’ll never have a problem with it freezing up on you again.”

“Just so long as they don’t touch anything on my hard drive.” Cliff covered his eyes with one hand. “I don’t know if I can watch.”

Angie backed slowly out of the room and Garner joined her in the big anteroom.

“Sorry about the invasion,” Garner said. “When Cliff brought in the coffee, he said you were going to get Peter to put his computer back together again. Your father heard that and came charging over to put a stop to your ‘illegal manufacturing actions.’”

“He and Peter will be busy on that computer for another hour or so, I hope.” She went into his arms gratefully. “By that time, my mother ought to be here. She said she’d call when she drove into town.”

She stood in Garner’s arms and absorbed the warmth and comfort he offered. She hadn’t even realized how anxious she felt until she rested her head on his shoulder and felt his big palm stroking gently down her back.

“When your mom arrives, will she be able to get him to see a doctor?” Garner asked.

“Heavens, Garner, I don’t know.” Angie thought a moment. “Generally, they each take care of their own responsibilities, because their professions are so different. We were never a stereotypical family.”

Garner chuckled softly against her hair. “Well, this will be a learning experience for both of them. Do you want to go back in and watch them work on Cliff’s computer?”

“Not me.” Angie shook her head. “I’ve seen them work on plenty of computers.”

“Then let’s go back to the office. There’s something I need to talk to you about.”

Angie walked ahead of him into the office and felt astonished at the amount of comfort she derived from seeing her own desk and her little black Rolodex sitting on it. She had never felt that way upon walking into her office at BrownWare. She actually looked forward to typing up another legal brief, or filling in a legal form … anything that had nothing whatsoever to do with the programming of computer software.

Garner’s hand at her back guided her gently into his office, and he shut the door before turning her to face him.

“Angie, you need to think seriously about what’s going to happen in the next few days and weeks,” he said.

Something about his face warned her that he intended to say things she did not want to hear.

“Nothing is going to happen that my mother can’t deal with.” She willed him to believe her. “If there’s anything wrong with my father, she’ll make sure he gets the proper treatment. It has nothing to do with me.”

“I’m talking about BrownWare,” he said, with exaggerated patience. “What’s going to happen at BrownWare if your father is out of commission for a while? Who’s running the company in his absence?”

Angie turned and walked toward the window that looked out over the flower beds and the quiet street she loved so much. “I don’t know. Daddy and Peter were the official managers, and I used to do the day-to-day tasks, like prodding the development lab and meeting with people from companies where we hoped to license VP-Base.” She shrugged and focused on the profusion of colorful moss roses. “It no longer has anything to do with me. For all I know, he’s promoted somebody.”

“Was there anybody he could have promoted?” Garner came to stand behind her and clasped her shoulders lightly. “Somebody who knew the company’s business as well as you did?”

It was yet another trick question, she realized. Garner seemed to specialize in them. She said nothing.

“Angie, if your father has to go to a hospital or something, somebody is going to have to run the company.” He tried to turn her to face him, but Angie resisted. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but Peter doesn’t strike me as the type who can deal with the day-to-day decisions involved in running a company like BrownWare.”

“If Daddy had to go for treatment, Peter would have to take over,” Angie stated.

“Angie—”

“I don’t work there anymore,” she interrupted. She clenched her fists and felt the old helpless tension invade her body. “I don’t live there anymore. I’m out of the loop, and I intend to stay out.”

Garner remained silent.

Angie’s disquiet mounted. “If you’re suggesting that I’m the one who should run the company, I won’t. I can’t go back there, Garner.”

“Sure you can,” Garner said, in comforting tones. “You can do anything if you have to.” He squeezed her shoulders lightly then let her go. “But you may not have to. For all we know, your father may be physically fine. He may just have some sort of grudge against you and Peter.”

But Angie knew, even as his hands fell from her shoulders, that Garner thought she ought to start making plans to fly back to California.

“Let’s hope so,” she said, striving for lightness. “Is there anything you need me to do, now that the office is free of distractions?”

Garner drew in a deep breath. “Angie, I’ve been thinking things over, and it turns out that I’m not going to be needing a secretary much longer.”

Angie froze, unable to believe her ears. “What?”

“You heard me. You’ve been here long enough to realize that business isn’t exactly booming here in a small-town practice like mine. My biggest problem was getting so far behind in filing. Now that you’ve gotten everything caught up … ”

He trailed off, and Angie turned to stare at him. His gaze rested on a stack of files on his desk, and he did not raise his head to look at her.

“So you’re firing me?” she asked, unable to believe it.

“That’s right. And if you’re wise, you’ll wait until your father’s situation is settled before you go looking for another secretarial job.”

Angie glared at him but he refused to meet her gaze. “You’re firing me so I’ll have to go back to BrownWare? Is that it? You think I’ll just go meekly back to Palo Alto and not even make an attempt at finding another job here?”