Gunnar’s original company, and then
spotted one at the opposite end that first showed her name as owner, and then
her company name below it. It made her feel good to see that they had
taken her words to heart, and realized that she was just as important to the
company as they were. Gunnar probably didn’t like it, she smiled, but Wes
must have straightened him out about not making any more important decisions
without her.
On second glance she reflected on how pleasantly different these new
surroundings were, completely the opposite of the tiny, country kitchen kind of
ma and pa thing she and Ben were used to. Their business made a healthy
profit, but it was never really something they pushed. It must have been
the potential for long term growth that was so appealing for someone with a
business background. When she let herself admit it, Cassie knew that she
didn’t blame Wes for taking advantage of the opportunity to buy into her
business. The way the intrusion was handled made her more than a little
irritated, but it was the fact that her husband put all of this together before
she even knew what was happening that drove her crazy. He and Gunnar had
flown in some of the same shows across the country but they never had more than
a passing acquaintance as far as she knew, and how Wes got involved was an even
bigger mystery. She was about to get a closer look at her office but she
was thrown forward as the door hit her from behind.
“Oh my god, are you okay.” A stunning blonde, in a tight blue-gray mini
suit knelt down beside her, pushing a large handled Nordstrom shopping bag
aside in order to give Cassie a hand back up. “I can’t believe I did
that, you see, I thought I locked the door when I left, but, well I must have
been wrong.” She gave a nervous laugh, and pulled the edges of her large
rimmed, designer sunglasses slowly from her face, trying to gauge if Cassie was
going to be angry or not.
“Let me guess,” Cassie was laughing inside, “You must be the secretary?”
She watched the young woman bristle in response. “Well actually, I’m the
front office manager.”
“Oh.” Cassie nodded. “Of course. You’ll have to excuse me, I’m not
used to being a part of such a large organization so I’m a little inept at all
this politically correct stuff.”
“What?” The woman looked at Cassie like she’d spoken a foreign language
or something.
“Nothing.” Cassie waived her hand, and stifled an overwhelming urge to
roll her eyes at the obvious reason this particular woman had been hired.
“Listen, my name is Cassandra Harrington, and I’m he-”
“So you’re the new partner Wes and Gunnar were arguing about.”
Cassie watched in awe as the nearly six foot tall, all leg, uber- beauty
hiked it around the counter stopping in the middle just long enough to snap her
well-manicured, fire engine red nails together. “I have some keys around here
for you.”
Cassie instantly caught sight of the spare set tacked up to the back of a peg
board, with a bright yellow post it beside it that read, HER KEYS.
“Maybe, right, there, behind you?” She pointed after giving her a few
minutes to remember on her own.
“Yeah, there they are.” She took two long strides to the other side of
her work area and wrestled with the tack that held them on. “Of course if
I keep forgetting to lock the door, you’re not really going to need them are
you?” She laughed at her own joke, bent forward to riffle through her
bag, and came up with what looked to be a sandwich. “Lunch,” she held up
the food and whispered like it was a secret indulgence,