Diaz sighed. “Yeah.”
“You could have had me working solo.” She’d leaned toward it before and was still probably the best in the division for it.
“Could have.” Diaz shook his head. “But you’re best qualified to be my second. Victoria is better at training up a new person in a team. I’m going to find her a new partner. Someone fresh.”
“That’ll take some shaking out.” Victoria and Marc had been close.
“It’ll be your responsibility to oversee it.” Diaz sounded very happy to hand off that particular assignment.
“Joy.” Maybe it wasn’t too late to reconsider.
“I plan to have you get to know each of our new hires, make sure I didn’t fuck up the hiring process. Confirm they’re a good culture fit in the first few weeks.” Diaz moved around to the other side of his desk. “You’ll be in charge of intel in general, nothing you haven’t been doing already. So this is sort of an expansion on those responsibilities.”
She narrowed her eyes. Casual as his move was, was he retreating?
“We’ve actually got a new hire. Not going to be a field operative.” Diaz lifted his chin to indicate the tablet in her hand. “Man’s a project manager. He’ll be responsible for keeping our in-progress contracts organized, draw up new statements of work or change orders, and build a finance team to handle invoices, expenses and all that. I figured you could get started with the on boarding process for him.”
“And what’s our on boarding process?” She tapped the tablet’s screen to pull up the new hire files and froze.
“I figure you could establish that as you went.” Diaz said quietly. “Maybe you could figure out which office is going to be his for starters. He’s over in one of the pods waiting.”
*
Kyle was pacing when she walked into the pod. Turning to face her, he swallowed hard. She didn’t look happy to see him.
“You’re here.” Her voice was quiet, neutral.
“Yes.” Maybe she didn’t want him to be.
“As a new hire.”
He nodded, straightening. Funny how he had so much confidence and self-assurance, arrogance even, and facing her he wanted to apologize like a schoolboy who isn’t absolutely sure what he’s done wrong but saying sorry just in case. “Safeguard had need of someone with my experience.”
“True.” She set a tablet on the table. “I’m supposed to find you an office.”
Well, fortune didn’t favor the hesitant. “Will you be here for the day only or are you staying?”
“Would you have a problem working with me?” Her dark eyes were still unreadable. But he’d spent time with Lizzy over the past few days and he was sure he hadn’t imagined the slight quaver in her voice. Her vulnerability.
Something she trusted to him.
“I was going to try to find you, regardless. Working with you is going to be a new experience.” He straightened his tie and resisted the urge to fuss with his suit jacket. He would not fidget further. “It depends on just how much you can put up with me.”
She lifted an eyebrow.
He grinned. “I’m impressed with the facilities here. Can I talk you into testing the opacity settings on some of the conference rooms?”
“No.” Her response was immediate, sharp, but she didn’t hide her smile.
He stepped toward her and held his hands out. After a moment, she placed hers in his.
“I won’t work here if you feel uncomfortable.” He glanced around through the glass and then returned his gaze to hers. “I can find another position someplace else.”
She tipped her head to the side slightly. “You want to work here though.”
“Yes.” He nodded. “It’s an interesting change. Challenging position. And I’ve learned this place does things that have a direct impact on people’s lives. I’d like to reconnect with that feeling again.”
“So what do I have to do with it?” She had stilled, waiting for his answer.
Everything.
And somehow, he needed to let her know because otherwise, she’d shut down and withdraw behind a professional wall. He could see her bracing for it. He didn’t want her to.
“Meeting you was the last thing I could have anticipated.” He wasn’t exactly sure what he was going to say but he figured he would start and let it flow, unplanned. Sincere. And hope she didn’t hate him. “I can’t say if I’d have thanked you if I’d known how much I would change after meeting you.”
He’d been a carefree bachelor living a shallow life. He’d thought he’d been happy. Now, he was sure he wouldn’t be if he couldn’t at least let her know how he felt.