“Oh yes, you can,” he growled, “and if you think that is beneath you, or that, for some reason, you are entitled to your salary and perks just because of who you are instead of what you know, then I guess I have no choice.”
The meds were making him crazy. Robin suddenly rolled over, propped herself on her elbows to try a different tact. “Dad,” she said calmly, “let’s talk about what’s really bothering you. I know you are mad at me, but—”
“The good thing is that you can work from home and it won’t be as time-consuming as what you were doing, although God knows what that was. Don’t you see what I am doing here? I want you to slow down, get you to take the time to understand what’s important in life. I’m doing this because I love you and I want to do the right thing by you, Robbie. I don’t want to leave behind a spoiled kid with no idea how to succeed me, much less run my company.”
Myriad emotions—anger, hurt, sadness—filled her throat, and Robin closed her eyes. “You make it sound as if I offer no value to LTI.”
“You’ll be a whole lot more valuable when you know what you are doing.”
A tear slipped from the corner of her eye and raced down her cheek. “And if I don’t want to go to Minot or Burdette?”
Dad sighed heavily. “If you don’t want to go, then I guess you better find yourself another job, baby.”
Stabbed through the heart.
“Now listen! You’re going to learn a lot! I’m making you an acquisitions specialist, working directly for Evan. He’s going to guide you every step of the way.”
Robin caught her breath and abruptly sat up. “So basically, you are demoting me to bubble wrap.”
“Think of it as training. Evan is the best in the business and he’s been telling me for a long time you need this and he’s more than happy to do it.”
Well hell, thanks a lot, Evan. And now, of all the people in the universe, was going to be her mentor. Robin’s fragile ego was in a death spiral.
“Now. What about this arrest? What do I need to do?”
He had already humiliated her enough; she didn’t need any more of his help. “It’s taken care of.”
“What about the office? The operations manager at the freight yard says it is gone.”
“Dad, I’m really tired, okay? I don’t want to talk about it right now.”
He paused, said reluctantly, “Okay, baby. You get some rest. We’ll talk again on Monday.”
Oh boy, she could hardly wait. “Bye,” she said tightly, clicked off, and tossed the phone onto a pillow. So this was what an alternate universe looked like. Robin Through the Looking Glass, where she was not the VP of the Southwest Region any longer, but Queen of Peanuts and Bubble Wrap. With a groan, Robin pushed herself up off the bed, went to her closet and pulled, from the maybe pile, a pair of old jeans ripped at the knees and a cutoff Houston Astros T-shirt. Her mind was numb, devoid of everything but two very basic facts: She was hungry. And she needed a drink.
But when she emerged from her bedroom, Robin was startled for the thousandth time by the presence of Jacob Manning. Hadn’t he gone home yet? She frowned at his back as she padded into the dining room. Well, if she was going to have to get used to him being around, at least he wasn’t hard to look at. Now that she knew he wasn’t a total weirdo. She casually took in the breadth of his shoulders, his lean waist, and his very nice butt. He was scraping something; she walked toward him, saw the hint of a tattoo under the sleeve of his T-shirt.
She moved closer.
Handydude glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
Her face burned. He must have heard quite a lot of her exchange with Dad. “Why are you still here?” she demanded, acutely conscious of her flush.
“Ah. I see Godzilla is up and at ‘em again. You hired me, remember? Signed a contract?”
“Damn that contract,” she muttered.
Fix-it Guy grinned and pointed with his blade to the brick. “See this?”
Robin peered closely.
“Antique brick. People pay a fortune for it now.” He paused, stepped back to admire it. “No telling how much of it there is. We’ll know when we strip away these hard layers of paint. I’m going to test different areas so we’ll know how best to remove it. Then I’ll get my crews started.” He looked at Robin then, his gaze drifting up to her hair.
Self-conscious, Robin ran a hand over the top of her head, wincing at the wild feel of it. Embarrassed again, she glanced down and remembered she was wearing dirty, torn jeans and an ancient T-shirt cut off at the midriff. Well, looky here, she was already dressing the part of Bubble Wrap Queen. The only thing missing was the double-wide.
Not that Handy Andy seemed to notice. As he continued to brush away years of paint, Robin noticed that he had a very muscular arm. An Atlas arm, one of those you see in commercials holding up the world and babies in tires. An Atlas arm that was connected to an Atlas torso, and—