The Merger (12 page)

“I have a bag in the lounge, in my locker. I brought some different shoes, but I didn’t think to bring different clothes.”

“You’ll be fine today in what you have on. Don’t feel as though you have to wear your lawyer attire unless we’re in meetings with big clients.”

She nodded. A shopping trip might be in order. She had business attire and almost too casual. There needed to be a middle ground in her wardrobe, just as she
was having
to find one with her attitude as well.

“I’ll meet you back in here in ten. I’m going to head up and talk to my dad and Ed.”

Her stomach tightened when he mentioned his family. It was as if she’d forgotten they would be in the same building. What had they heard about her, she wondered as she left his office and headed toward the break room.

Eyes followed her as she walked down the hall. Had they all heard she was a bitch? Had they seen her fall on her ass on Friday before Spencer pulled her to her feet and then groped all over Tiffany?

The nagging question kept running through her head, why had she come here?

As she opened her locker and pulled out her bag, she remembered why.

Because her husband was still working at PLL and Libby Grayson was pulling his strings. They were in Oregon and she wasn’t. However, they were still embedded in the same company now and she could keep an eye on what he was doing.

Her hope was he wasn’t doing anything that would cause Spencer more grief. He was a stupid man, but he wasn’t mean.

She’d keep her eyes on him through channels. As far as she knew, Spencer wouldn’t know who her husband was. She’d never taken his name.

There would be no need for her to run into him either. He was embedded in a merged company on the coast. She was embedded in a single project through the main company, many miles away.

The flashy BMW was as nice on the inside as it was on the outside, Julie thought as she took in its ambiance. The black leather seats and faux wood trim was beautiful. She wondered what a car like this would set someone back.

One thing was for sure she’d never own one. She’d be lucky if her little Toyota Corolla, which was nearly as old as she was, would hold out another ten years and another one hundred thousand miles. Maybe by then she could afford a car payment again on a much smaller scale than a BMW.

Spencer had on the radio and
Home Sweet Home
played and comforted her.

“You don’t listen to country music?”

He shot her a look and from behind his sunglasses his eyebrows rose. “This is country music.”

She laughed. “This is Mötley Crüe.”

He chuckled with a shake of his head, diverting his attention back to the road. “No, this is Jason Aldean and Vince Neil. Trust me. In ten
minutes,
you’ll have me turning up Blake Shelton nice and loud.”

“The guy from The Voice?”

He was still humored. “You knew who Warner Wright was, but you don’t know Blake Shelton?”

“Warner Wright was on reality TV.”

Spencer let out a grunt. “That was crap TV. And I wouldn’t mention it to him.”

“It was intriguing.”

“I don’t know what anyone sees in that junk. But I know Clara used to watch it.”

Julie shrugged. “I guess it makes you feel normal.”

“Doesn’t it make you wish you were a Kardashian?”

Julie shook her head. “Oh, I could never
fit into
that life. I’m not that pretty.”

He turned toward her again, but he wasn’t laughing—he wasn’t even smiling.

“You’re prettier than all of them combined.”

Her breath caught in her lungs, but somehow she managed to say, “Thank you,” between loud heartbeats pumping in her ears.

Thankfully Spencer pulled up to the lot where two different construction trailers sat. One was landscaped with a parking lot and banners waving to draw attention into the development. The other was a few feet away, in the dirt, with a beat up old Ford pickup parked in front of it.

“So this is it huh? The future Hart Estates?” She looked at the mounds of dirt and machines that moved it.

“It’s going to be amazing.”

She felt the smile settle on her lips. “My mom used to talk about building a house in one of these communities. But they’d lived in their home since they’d been married. Actually, my mother had lived there her whole life. It had been her parents’ home before that.”

Spencer turned off the car. “Ed and Darcy live in my grandparents’ home. It’s very sentimental.”

“Did he move in when they passed?”

Again his brows moved, but this time into a confused V beneath the rim of his glasses. “Passed.” They rose. “Oh, they haven’t died. They moved to a retirement community. They’re both in their nineties, but I think they have a few good years left.”

“Really?”

“You can’t take down a Keller.”

“That’s your mom’s side of the family, right?”

He nodded. “You’ll have to meet all of them some day.” He opened his door and she did the same, stepping out onto the paved lot where he’d parked in front of the sales trailer.

“I’ve already met three of your cousins. How many more are there?”

“You haven’t met Chris and his family or my brother and his wife. Then aunts, uncles, parents.”

Her chest tightened. “I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed already,” she said as she shut the door to the car.

“You won’t when you meet them.”

“And why would I meet them? Are they all involved in the business,” she asked as she skirted the front of the car.

“No. But if you’re with me, you’ll meet them.”

He started toward the sales trailer, but she fell back a step.

What exactly did he mean by
if you’re with me
?

Spencer opened the door to the sales center and a very familiar face smiled up at them.

“Hey guys!” Tiffany stood from behind the desk. Though she worked on a construction site, she was dressed to impress.

Her deep blue dress fit the lovely curves of her body and the top of the dress nicely V
’d
right to the swells of her breasts.

Julie caught herself looking and she was sure Spencer’s gaze was stuck there too. But when she looked at him she noticed he’d picked up a stack of mail and was thumbing through it.

“First day and he has you out here in his
sandbox
, huh?” Tiffany leaned a hip against her desk.

“Yeah, he wanted me to see it.”

“He’s pretty proud of all this. Come here, I’ll show you what it will look like.”

Tiffany moved from behind the desk and walked toward a display in the center of the room which had the development mapped out and tiny pins sporadically around the map.

“This is what the development will look like,” she said leaning over the display.

Julie noted just how tall she was and then noticed her
footwear
.

“I like your shoes,” she complimented.

“I got a bonus last quarter. Splurged.”

“Aren’t you worried they’ll get ruined out here?”

Tiffany looked at Julie’s athletic clad feet. “I have a pair just like that under my desk. Most people understand when I switch them out to go look at lots.”

Julie didn’t want to, but she smiled. “So what are the pins?” she asked directing her attention back to the display.

“Those are the lots we’ve sold already.”

“So the first houses to go up?”

“You got it. You want to see the designs?”

Julie nodded enthusiastically and Tiffany walked her to the other end of the trailer where large posters lined the walls.

“It’ll have everything from the ranch style homes with two bedrooms, perfect for your retired
couple,
to six bedroom homes for big families.”

“That has to be immense.”

“They are all roomy and beautiful.” Tiffany lowered her head toward Julie. “Nothing in my taste mind you. I like efficient and small. Easier to clean.”

Julie let her eyes wander over the designs. They seemed to focus on the four bedrooms, three and a half bath, with
the master
suite on the main floor. She walked closer to it.

Beneath the poster
were
design options for everything from the trim around the house, the shingles on the roof of the house, and the floor in the kitchen.

“People can choose all of this?”

“Yep.
Custom
home really, but with the options we give you.”

“Perfect for your new families with the park right in the middle of the development.”

Tiffany nodded. “That’s what Spencer had in mind. Ed designed the park.”

Julie looked around and noticed Spencer wasn’t there. She wasn’t sure when he’d snuck out, but it had to be between her mentally driving the streets on the display and picking out
countertops
looking at the design posters.

“So you work here? With Spencer?” Julie swallowed hard waiting for her answer.

“Temporary job.
Well,
until the development is done. I’m a jewelry designer, but it’s more of a hobby.” She tucked those red curls that swayed at her shoulders behind her ears to flash a set of ornate hoops encrusted with what looked like small sapphires.

“You made those?”

“I did. Not a cheap hobby,” she said running her fingers through her hair to bring it back to place.

“I thought you meant wire and beads.”

Tiffany laughed. “Why bother then? If you’re going to do it, go for the real good stuff.” She too looked around. “Where did he go?”

Julie shrugged. “Didn’t see him leave.”

“Typical. He’s like some superhero who can disappear through walls. C’mon, I’ll introduce you to Chuck and show you where you’ll be working.”

Tiffany headed toward the back door of the trailer to a small path between the two mobile offices.

“Aren’t you going to change your shoes?” Julie asked.

“Chuck likes it when I wear these. Watch him fall all over himself.”

“That’s sexist isn’t it?”

“Man has been married for twenty-five years. Wife is a gem. He has four kids, but he’s still a man. He will be tongue tied for about ninety seconds. Maybe a whole two minutes when he sees you too.”

“I don’t know if I want to work around a man like that.”

Tiffany slowed and turned toward her. “You do. He appreciates the look of a woman, but he is a solid man, in a solid relationship. He’ll have your back, but he’ll never touch you or say a word to you that isn’t strictly polite. Of
course,
the words not said to you are all curse words,” she said on a laugh.

Tiffany gently walked up the two wooden steps to the door of the trailer on her toes and yanked it open.

Julie watched the man standing next to Spencer take a sweeping look at Tiffany from head to toe and back again.

“Hey, Chuck,” she said in an airy voice. “Brought your work companion to meet you.”

Julie watched as he gave her the same head to toe glance and his mouth opened slightly.

Julie waited for him to say something, anything, but Tiffany had been right. He’d been rendered speechless.

She shifted her gaze to Spencer and was surprised to find his eyes meet hers. The corner of his mouth lifted in a grin.

Quickly, Julie pushed her shoulders back and approached the dumbstricken Chuck. “Hello. I’m Julie Jacobson.”

Chuck’s hand reached for hers, but it still took a few more seconds before he could say, “Nice to meet you. Chuck.”

Spencer cleared his throat. “C’mon, Chuck. Let’s go look at these walls. Tiff, get her settled in,” he said as he picked up a clipboard and slid his sunglasses off his head and onto his face, then walked out with Chuck in tow.

When the door closed behind them Tiffany burst into laughter. “I told you.”

“How am I supposed to work in here with that man?”

“He’ll get used to you. Wait until he cusses and then
backtracks
to make it go away. You’ll enjoy him.”

Julie wasn’t sure what she’d gotten herself into, but she was glad that she’d finally gotten past her insecurity around Tiffany. Hadn’t Spencer told her they weren’t an item? They were casual friends. Well, she was a casual friend too. They’d both kissed him, though she was very sure Tiffany had done quite a bit of that with him and more.

So why was it that she wasn’t jealous?

Tiffany had set Julie up in the construction trailer, on the side of
a mobile
wall. It would give her as much privacy as possible. And there had been an open invitation that when she needed some more comforting space she could visit the sales trailer if no one
was
house shopping.

In a few weeks the model, which was still bare, would be ready for them to move their offices into. At that
time,
she’d work in the house with Tiffany and Chuck could have his space back.