Joe paused. Huh? What meeting had she gone to without telling him? “Yeah, maybe there is,” he said. “I’d like to see the audited financial statements for the last few years. Can you get me those?”
“Absolutely,” she said. “I’ll bring them to your office in a few minutes. Anything else?”
“Tax assessments,” he continued and listed off a few other things he’d like to review. Then he went back to his office. Thankfully, Paige hadn’t questioned his authority to look at that documentation.
The afternoon passed quickly with something to sink his teeth into. At about four o’clock, Tara appeared in his office.
“How’s it going?” she asked with a falsely sweet smile.
He returned the smile. “Very educational.” She tried to hide her look of surprise, but he saw it flicker in her eyes.
“Really. That’s good.” She moved across the office, closer to his desk, to peer at what he was doing. Her eyes widened.
“Hey,” she said. “That’s not the stuff I gave you.”
He met her eyes. “The stuff you gave me was useless,” he said softly. “I was wasting my time.”
Her cheeks pinkened and her eyes shifted. “But…how did you get that?”
He shrugged. “I have my ways.”
They stared each other down and a tense heat grew between them.
“Don’t dick me around, Tara,” he finally said. “I know you don’t want me here, but I’m here. If you have a problem with that, you deal with Tyrone.”
Her mouth firmed and her eyes flashed. Turning on one sensible heel, she left his office.
And that’s what she did.
She stormed into her grandfather’s office, hurling the door shut behind her.
“This isn’t going to work.”
He looked up from the work on his desk.
“What isn’t going to work?” he inquired, but she knew he knew what she was talking about.
“I cannot work with that man. He’s extremely annoying and pushy. He helped himself to our financial statements and started going through a whole bunch of other sensitive financial information.”
Tyrone leaned back in his chair. “I’d expect him to be up to speed on the financial picture,” he said. “I don’t have a problem with that.”
She clenched her fists, still standing in front of his desk. She willed herself to calm down, knowing if she wanted to convince Grandpa this was a mistake, she would have to present her arguments calmly and rationally.
She took a seat and crossed her legs, marshalling her thoughts.
“Look,” she said, more calmly. “Having two managers is never going to work. Neither of us is sure what the extent of his authority is. In fact, I’m never sure what the extent of my authority is around here, with you second guessing everything.”
Tyrone frowned. Oops. Wrong thing to say.
“I mean, we need to have authority levels and lines of decision making clearly laid out,” she said.
“We can do that.”
“But with him gone. He’s just in the way here! I don’t have time to teach him every little thing about this business. I’m busy running it myself. If I don’t have time to do the work, the business may suffer.”
He smiled. “I’m not buying that one,” he said. “I realize it will take some of your time initially to get him up to speed, but the up-front investment will pay off when he can take some of the burden off you. Give you time to do the things you should be doing.”
“Oh for God’s sake.” She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going to be a charity princess like Sasha. I’m not interested in that.”
“You should be finding a husband. Having babies. You know the talk about you—you scare men away with your attitude.”
“What attitude?” Like she needed to ask. She swallowed a sigh. She knew, thanks to that disastrous relationship with Hugh. He hadn’t hesitated to tell her how her independence and need for control were humiliating and emasculating as he’d dumped her. Grandpa had drilled it into her over and over again—act like a lady, soft and sweet and not too smart. It had worked with Sasha, but Tara wasn’t going to get like Sasha. And what Grandpa didn’t know was that there actually were some men who liked a strong woman. Men who needed to be dominated, tied up, bound and gagged and flogged—but no, she wasn’t about to share that part of her life with him.
“Never mind,” she said shortly.
She couldn’t let Joe take some of the burden off her. Her fear was he would take all the burden off her. Her fear was she was losing control of her own destiny, her family business. If she didn’t have to work twelve-hour days, what would she do? Her whole sense of self was tied up in the job. She was her job. She could not be like Sasha, much as Grandpa wanted that. Her stomach cramped at the thought.
The fear struck deep and she trembled as she realized she was not going to convince him. With a heavy heart, she returned to her own office. Joe’s confident competence, his business knowledge and his intensely compelling personality made her want to scream with impotent frustration.
Chapter Six
Sasha dressed carefully for her tour of Santa Barbara Youth Action. As the newest member of the fundraising committee, she was getting a tour so she’d know what they were all about. But it was the director of the center, who’d be giving her the tour, she was really interested in.
God, Nick Findlay was hot. Like a slightly older, bigger Justin Timberlake. Short dark hair that she wanted to run her hands over. Lean, athletic body.
So she dressed in her best pink suit, silk blouse and diamond earrings. She studied her French manicure. Alita had done an impeccable job this week.
At the center, Nick greeted her with a reserved smile she found incredibly sexy and a firm handshake as she walked in. “Nice to see you again, Sasha.”
Her heart fluttered in her chest and she returned the smile. “Nice to see you too.”
“Come right this way.” He led her through a large area that looked like a big family room—couches and chairs arranged in groupings, books and magazines scattered over tables. A big pool table took up space on one side of the room and a table tennis game on the other. The noise and energy in the room bombarded her.
About fifty kids ranging in age from about seven to teens all appeared to be yelling or laughing or running around and she stopped dead, taken aback. “Whoa.”
He laughed. “Yeah, it’s crazy. When the kids are in school, it’s much quieter. This is where the kids hang out. There are lots of activities for them to do as you can see. We have more things outside—a basketball court, and a play structure for the younger kids.”
He gave her a tour of the entire building, even outside to see the playground and, lord, more kids outside played basketball on the court and climbed on the structure. There were more leaders out there too.
“This is a busy place,” Sasha commented.
“It’s summer,” Nick said easily. “Kids need somewhere to go during the day. During the school year, we’re only open from two o’clock to six o’clock. Kids just come after school.”
“Of course.”
It must take a lot of money to keep the place going. A lot of money and a lot of work. Memberships were very inexpensive and they let kids join without paying if their family couldn’t afford it. She assumed most of their money came from donations. Which was why she was there. To raise money.
The whole place was very impressive, actually.
Nick was impressive too. The last time she’d seen him at a meeting, he’d been wearing a businesslike suit and tie. Today he was dressed casually in cargo pants and T-shirt. He was relaxed around the kids, teasing and joking with them, even grabbing the basketball and joining in the game for a moment, showing off some fast, athletic moves. Wow.