Paulette’s eyes widened, and then she looked to Travis for direction, which irritated Samara.
“No, you’re not,” he said.
“Yes, I am.”
They stared each other down while Paulette looked from one to the other.
“Would you excuse us for a few minutes, Paulette?” Travis asked softly.
“Of course.” Paulette booked it out of there, moving as if a snarling beast was snapping at her ankles.
“What were you working on?” Samara asked, dropping her purse onto a chair.
“Nothing much. Paulette is canceling meetings and a trip scheduled for next month.”
Samara nodded. “Seriously. What can I do?”
Travis shook his head. “Samara, you really don’t need to be here. You can’t be in any state of mind to be thinking about the business.”
“I want to make sure that people know the business is safe,” she insisted, crossing her arms over her chest, meeting his gaze. “It is safe, isn’t it?”
Travis hesitated. “Of course it’s safe. But losing a highly visible, charismatic CEO like your father does have potential impacts.”
“Like some of the partners might not want to continue to do business with us, without him there? Is that right?”
“Well...it’s possible. I don’t have any hints of that yet, but of course it’s too soon to tell.”
“What if I called them myself? Reassured them that—”
“I’m doing that, Samara,” he interrupted, his voice hard.
“But you...” She trailed off then tried again. “I’m family. That would carry some weight, wouldn’t it?”
He sighed. “Maybe. But, Samara, you don’t need to do this.”
Why didn’t he understand? She lifted her chin. “I want to, Travis.”
She dragged her gaze away from his look of frustration to study the office. It was just as she remembered, nothing particularly fancy. She wandered over to the big U-shaped desk unit in the corner and stood looking at the framed photographs of her and her mother sitting on one shelf, the computer sitting dark and silent, the various office supplies neatly arranged. Paulette must have tidied up in there because her father wasn’t known for being neat and organized. His desk was usually piled with papers, journals and magazines, even burlap bags of coffee beans.
She nibbled her bottom lip and turned back to face Travis.
“Why don’t you want me here?”
His eyes widened then narrowed. “What makes you think I don’t want you here?”
She laughed. “Come on, Travis. It’s as obvious as a hooker on 82nd Street.”
“Jesus.” He shook his head. “It’s not that I don’t want you here,” he continued patiently. “It’s just that you have enough on your plate right now.”
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first ten times you said that.”
“Then why aren’t you listening to me?” The words came out from between his clenched teeth.
“Travis.” This time her voice went softer, and she met his eyes. “Seriously. I’m not trying to be a pain in the ass. I really want to help.” She turned back to the neat-as-a-pin desk, walked around behind it, and sat in her father’s chair. She pushed the button on the computer to start booting it up.
“What are you doing?”
“Just going to look in his computer files.”
She glanced at Travis, at the muscle flicking in his tight jaw, almost expecting to see smoke coming out his ears.
“Okay,” he finally said, surprising her. “I’ll finish up with Paulette and see you at home later.”
He picked up some papers from the table and left the office, closing the door with a loud smack.
Samara sighed and watched the computer boot up. She really wasn’t sure what she was going to do, but she had to start somewhere.
She logged onto her father’s computer but was halted by the need to enter a password. She nibbled her bottom lip, debating about trying a few options. Then she pushed back from the desk and went to find Paulette.
“Do you know Dad’s computer password?” she asked her.
Paulette gave her a long look, then said, “Yes. I have access to his computer.”
“Can I have the password?” Samara kept a smile in place.
“I should check with Travis...”
“No! You don’t have to check with him.” Samara’s hands curled into fists. “It’s fine, Paulette, you can give it to me.”
“Um. Okay.” She picked up a sticky note and jotted down a series of letters and numbers, then handed it to Samara. “That works for his email program too.”
“Thank you, Paulette.”
She spent the next hour clicking through various files and folders, reading documents, contracts, correspondence, soaking it all into her brain like a sponge. Sure, she didn’t have as much experience as Travis, but she wasn’t stupid. She understood the business, and it wasn’t hard for her to figure things out as she read through agreements and contracts with suppliers and other stakeholders.
When she went into her father’s emails though, she felt a little squirm of discomfort. Emails seemed more personal, more private. When she scrolled through his inbox, she was disturbed to see message after message from Travis, several different threads on various topics that they’d clearly been emailing back and forth about. In fact it looked like the majority of his email was from Travis.
So they had continued to have a relationship. Her brows tugged down into a frown. Had her father forgiven him for what he’d done? She stopped, hesitating to open the emails. Her father might be gone, but Travis was still very much here, and she felt guilty reading their correspondence. But how better to understand what they’d been working on together? She bit her bottom lip then straightened her shoulders and opened the most recent message.
Her eyes moved over the screen. They’d been communicating about the coffee organizations in Brazil and Guatemala. She read through the back and forth messages. Importing coffee was one of her father’s responsibilities while Travis oversaw the wholesale and retail operations from their L.A. office. And yet her dad had been discussing that recent deal in Brazil with Travis.
She clicked to another email. Same kind of thing, different topic. Some customs stuff, problems with grading. Another email was about Parker’s attempts to arrange a meeting with the CEO of Alpha Air about a partnership. She supposed Travis should be in the loop on things like that.
Then she found the email that told Travis Dad had succeeded in meeting with Duane Scanlon, the CEO of Alpha Air, and he’d fill him in on the meeting when he was back from Matagalpa.
Except he never came back. What had happened at that meeting? She would need to follow up on that.
Samara looked through more emails then shut down the computer. She grabbed the papers she’d used to scribble notes, folded them and stuffed them into her purse. Why hadn’t she thought to bring her laptop or a USB drive so she could save some stuff and look at it later? She shook her head. She wasn’t thinking completely clearly. Travis had been right about that, much as she hated to admit it.
She left the office, but paused to poke her head into Paulette’s. She was talking on the phone. Samara mouthed a goodbye and waved at her.
“Could you hold a moment, please?” Paulette beckoned Samara in. She pressed a button on the phone and lowered the receiver. “Are you leaving, Samara?”
“Yes. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
Paulette nodded, her eyes sad.
Samara paused and sent Paulette a sympathetic smile. Damn. She wasn’t the only one hurting. She had to remember that. “I’m so sorry, Paulette,” she said softly. “It’ll all be okay.”