“I brought you some pineapple upside-down cake,” Grandma called after her as she walked on to the kitchen. Inside, Robin dropped her bag—the Jaeger linen pantsuit already forgotten—glanced at the cake, and continued on to the dining room.
Jake had made some amazing progress over the last few hours—he had managed to strip most of the brick wall in the entry and had removed all the trim. When she came in, he flashed that warm smile of his. “Aha. The prodigal granddaughter returns.”
Robin could feel her grin was ridiculously huge. “I take it you met Lil and Elmer.”
“Yep. Nice folks.”
They were certainly that, even if they did drive her absolutely nuts. She punched a key on her computer, scanned the half dozen e-mails from Lucy, then leaned over to look at the answering machine. No messages. Apparently, Eldagirt couldn’t be bothered to call her today. This was really beginning to annoy her to no end—this was business, not a social call. How could she just ignore her like that? The more Robin thought of it, the more inept she felt, which she didn’t need, which only made her madder.
“Okay, that does it,” she said aloud. “I’ve had it.” She angrily snatched the phone off its cradle. “I am going to give this Wirt chick a piece of my mind! I may never get in to see her, but I’ll feel much better.”
“Going in with both barrels, huh?” Jake asked, chuckling.
“Got a better idea, Hammerman?”
“No. But you know what they say.”
“No, what do they say?” she muttered absently as she began punching the numbers.
“You catch more flies with honey.”
Robin paused in her abuse of the phone’s number pad. “Huh?”
“You are going about this deal all wrong.”
Okay, he was a hunk, but not hunk enough for that. “Excuse me?” she asked, ignoring the beeping of the phone.
“Oh my—” He made a sort of groaning sound, then was suddenly striding forward, his hand out. “Give it over. I’ll do it.”
That was such an absurd suggestion that Robin burst out laughing. “What, you’ll call Eldagirt?”
He motioned impatiently for the phone. “Hand it over.”
“You don’t know what you’re doing!”
“Well, it’s obvious you don’t, either. Come on, you have nothing to lose at this point. Hand it over.”
Grinning, Robin put the receiver down in his open palm.
Jake grinned triumphantly. “Got a number?”
She grabbed the phone back from his hand, pounded the numbers she now knew by heart, and handed the phone back to him.
With a far too superior wink, Jake put the phone to his ear. Robin folded her arms and grinned in anticipation of his failure; Jake’s smile only broadened.
“Hey, Jake Manning here,” he said suddenly. “How ya doing?” He pointedly turned away from Robin. “Oh, I’m doing pretty good. Could stand a little rain down here in Houston though. What’s the weather over there?”
Robin rolled her eyes, slid into one of the dining room chairs and counted the seconds until they hung up on him. One-one thousand, two-one thousand. . .
“Oh, is that right?” Jake asked cheerfully, turning to give Robin a wink. “We’ve been pretty lucky, but I’d be glad to get a little rain before everything dries up.”
It had rained buckets last week.
Jake laughed easily. “You got that right. Say listen, let me tell you why I called . . . er, what did you say your name was? Carol. So anyway, Carol, I’m down here with a shipping company that is growing by leaps and bounds, and we’re starting to ship freight all over the world. The thing is, we don’t have a reliable packing materials company to serve us.”
He paused, nodded his head. “That’s what I’m saying,” he agreed. “You start shipping all kinds of stuff, and you don’t have a reputable packing supply company with a proven track record, and you’re sunk. So we’re trying to find us a partner who can make sure we have the materials we need to be competitive.”
He paused again; his brows lifted at something Carol said, and he flashed a grin at Robin that indicated he had hit the right spot. But just as quickly, he frowned. “Umm . . . leartransportindustries.”
He paused; then his frown deepened. Robin leaned forward.
“Yeah, I know, I hear you—No, you’re right about that. Not good. What? Ah . . .” Jake glanced over his shoulder at Robin and quickly strolled farther away, into the entry. “Robin,” he muttered. At least Robin thought that was what he’d said, and felt a sharp stab of panic. She stood up, followed him into the entry.
“Uh . . . sure. Yes, I think we can fix that, sure. Not to worry. What? Hey, whatever works for you—okay, great! That’s great, Carol. I really appreciate it,” he said and turned to smile again at Robin. “Thanks again and we look forward to hearing back.”
With that, he hung up and grinned at Robin. “Ms. Wirt will call you in the morning.”
Was she imagining things, or did his chest puff up an inch or two? “You’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
She gaped at him.