Brand New Me (2 page)

Because she was Dee-Dee. His little girl—emphasis on
girl
. Who would, apparently, never be allowed to play with the big boys.

She stood, smoothing the skirt of her St. John knit suit. The longer she waited to tell him, the harder it would be. She might as well get it over with now, before she really had anything serious invested in her role here. While he could still replace her easily.

At this point she had precious little invested anywhere. Eight months out of business school, and she still felt like she was spinning her wheels, at least professionally. She’d given it a shot—she really had. But so far, she hadn’t made a dent in Brandenburg, Inc. and its solidly male superstructure. Part of it was her father, but part of it was her.

“Face it, Deirdre,” she muttered, “you’re not cut out for this kind of work.”

Oh, she might do the job competently enough—and lord knew she was more competent than a lot of the people around her father, including that screw-off Craig Dempsey. But by now she knew the difference between competence and joy. And at Brandenburg, Inc., joy was definitely lacking, at least for her.

Normally, Deirdre refrained from trading on her relationship with her father at the office. Not that he’d ever noticed, but it made her feel slightly less dependent on him if she went through the same channels as everybody else. Now, however, she walked toward his office door without slowing down for his admin, Alanis, to announce her.

Her father looked up sharply as she opened the door, then let his face relax. “Hi, sweetheart. Sorry about cutting you off back there, but I didn’t want the boys dozing off.” He gave her a conspiratorial wink. “Bad for the image, you know.”

She did know. The “boys” tuned her out, largely because her father did it first. “I’ve got something I need to discuss with you, Dad.”

Her father waved a hand, grimacing. “No more about that accounting right now. Kaltenburg will get it straightened out.”

“No, this isn’t about that.” She took a breath, drawing her thoughts together.
Center yourself, Deirdre.
“Actually, I’m here to give you my two weeks’ notice.”

“Your…what?” Her father blinked at her, then let his mouth spread into a wide grin. “Goddamn! That boy should have told me!”

Deirdre had practiced her speech in front of a mirror. She’d brainstormed every possible response her father could make and the way she’d deal with each one. She had not, however, anticipated this. “What boy? Tell you what?”

“Dempsey. Why didn’t he tell me you were getting married?”

“Married? To Craig Dempsey?” She managed to keep herself from snarling, but only just. “I’m not getting married to Craig Dempsey. I don’t even like Craig Dempsey.”

Her father’s grin faded. “Then who
are
you marrying, Dee-Dee?”

Deirdre felt like shaking her head. How had this conversation managed to wander so far into La-La Land so quickly? “I’m not marrying anybody, Dad. Whatever gave you that idea?”

Her father looked genuinely confused. “Why else would you quit?”

Okay
. She sighed. Now she was back on reasonably familiar ground. “Because I want to do something on my own. Something separate from Brandenburg, Inc.”

Her father’s eyes narrowed. “Has somebody made you an offer?”

“No. But I’m not really doing much for you here, nothing you couldn’t find somebody else to do. And I’ll be glad to work with whoever you bring in to replace me. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. Now just seemed like a good time to try it.”

“Thinking about what? Just what are you going to be doing with your time, Dee-Dee?”

Deirdre took another deep breath. “I want to go into the restaurant business, to open a coffee roaster. I did that internship a few years ago with that coffee business in Austin. I’ve been interested in the industry ever since. So I decided now’s the time to try it before I get too entrenched anywhere else.”

“Coffee roasting.” Her father’s voice was flat. “You’re going into the coffee roasting business.”

“Yes, but not just roasting. I want to combine custom roasting with a coffee shop, sort of like Starbucks but with different blends and more distinctive roasts. I figure I’ll start small, just a few tables, then work up to something larger once I’m established. Coffee’s one of the fastest growing areas in food service.”

“A coffee shop.” Her father stared at her, eyes narrowing. “You’d go from a position as vice president of a multinational corporation to running a goddamn diner?” He pushed himself up from his chair, planting his fists on the desktop as he leaned forward. “Have you lost your mind? What the hell are you thinking, Deirdre?”

She stared at him blankly. She’d been ready for doubt, even for mockery. She hadn’t anticipated rage. She frowned. “I’m thinking I need to be on my own, Dad. As I said, you don’t really need me here. I don’t seem to be doing much for the company, other than pointing out accounting errors. And actually, I think you might be happier with someone else doing my job.” Probably somebody male, and preferably somebody with a professional sports background.

Her father straightened slowly, his jaw firming. She knew that look. It meant somebody was going to suffer. And this time that somebody was probably going to be her. “I won’t pay for this, Deirdre.”

She stiffened her spine. “No sir, I didn’t expect you to. It’s my business and I’ll pay for it.”

His mouth twisted slightly, as if he’d tasted something bitter. “So how did you expect to pay for it? I have approval on all your trust funds. And I won’t approve any damn fool coffee shop. You’ve got a job here, and I expect you to do it.”

Deirdre swallowed. She should have anticipated this particular move.
Three months. The funds revert to me in three months.
“I have my savings, Dad. And my portfolio. That should be enough to get me started.”

“You can’t sell any Brandenburg, Inc. stock without approval of the family, Deirdre.” Her father’s eyes bored through her. “Did you forget that? I won’t approve it. And I’ll make sure nobody else does either.”

“Aunt Reba will,” she blurted, and was immediately sorry she had.

Her father folded his arms across his chest. “Reba. Is that it? Did my fool sister put you up to this?”

She gritted her teeth. She knew from long experience that she wouldn’t win any verbal battles with her father. “Nobody ‘put me up to this’, Dad. I told you. I’ve wanted to do this since college. And now seemed like the right time.”

“All right then.” Her father’s voice sounded like a preacher threatening fire and brimstone. “Go ahead. Leave a job that most business majors would have killed to get. Go open your damn coffee shop. But you don’t get a penny from me, not a penny, you understand? No cosigned loans, no stock approval, no credit. Go on out there and see how you do on your own, without any cushion from me.”

Deirdre licked her lips. “I’m sorry you’re upset, Dad.”

“Upset?” For a moment, her father looked as if steam might issue from his ears. “You’re making the mistake of your life. How the hell do you expect me to feel?”

Her pulse hammered in her ears. Her stomach roiled with a mixture of emotions—righteous anger with a soupçon of terror and maybe a touch of guilt. “I sort of hoped you’d feel proud of me.”

“Proud of you?” Her father’s mouth drew up into a sneer. “Think again.”

She sighed. “Okay, I guess there’s nothing more to talk about then. I have some vacation time coming. I’ll take it over the next two weeks. As I said, if you want me to help train my replacement, I will.”

Her father’s face had turned the color of a nasty sunburn. “No. You don’t get vacation time. I told you—you get nothing. I want you out of here now. You’ve got thirty minutes to clear out your desk. Security will escort you to the front door.”

Deirdre’s throat clenched so tightly she had a hard time breathing. “If that’s what you want,” she managed to murmur.

He said nothing, his eyes burning holes in her back as she left the room.

Outside the office she took a moment to catch her breath. Her heart hammered painfully. That particular conversation was going to hurt deep down to her toes as soon as she let it, but she didn’t have time for that right now. “Thirty minutes,” she muttered. “Well, thank god I believe in uncluttered desks.”

Chapter Two

Deirdre cradled her cousin Docia’s son, watching Docia make iced tea. The converted barn where she lived had a huge combination living-dining room, with bedrooms overhead. A shaft of sunlight fell across the scarlet and blue carpet on the planked pine floor, picking out the warm gold of the wood.

Docia had been her hero for as long as she could remember. Six feet tall, flaming red hair, outsized opinions to go along with her statuesque frame. Deirdre didn’t think she’d ever seen Docia intimidated, afraid to say what she thought. She’d always done her best to follow her cousin’s example, and she’d succeeded with everyone except her father. Of course, in a lot of ways, her father was the only one who counted.

She swallowed hard, trying to fight down the now familiar surge of panic in her gut.
It’ll be all right, Deirdre. You can do this. You can.

The baby in her arms gurgled, blowing a tiny bubble in her direction. She smiled down at his baby grin, ignoring her own churning stomach. “How’d you decide on Rolf? Is that a family name?”

Docia grimaced. “A Toleffson family name, and the alternative was Thor. I figured Rolf would at least give the kid a chance, although he’ll probably get Muppet jokes. Or people who think it means Roll on the Floor Laughing.”

“It’s not spelled like that.” She shifted Rolf to her other shoulder, noting the slightly wet patch he left behind. She stifled another clench in her chest, this one entirely practical. She only had two pairs of jeans and a couple of knit shirts, along with a single pair of khakis—not much for a job search in Konigsburg. Why the hell hadn’t she spent some of her money on non-working clothes when she’d still had money to spend?

“Are you ready to tell me what’s going on, Dee, or do you need another glass of tea?” Docia smiled down at her, but her eyes were speculative. “I’m really happy to have you here, but it’s not like you to show up without any warning in a car full of power suits.”

Another glass of tea would be welcome, but Deirdre knew she couldn’t put explanations off forever. “Thanks for the tea, Dosh. I’m here because I quit my job with Brandenburg, Inc.”

Docia raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“Because I wanted to do something different.” Deirdre blew out a quick breath, not meeting her cousin’s gaze. “I want to open a custom coffee roaster with a coffee shop. Dad doesn’t think much of the idea.”

“But you had that internship with the coffee roaster in Austin. I remember. I stopped by and visited you once. And you were a barista too. You and Allie had all those conversations about free trade coffee the summer when you worked here.”

Ironic that Docia remembered everything her father seemed to have forgotten. “Dad wants me to go on working for him, I guess. He’s not too open to alternatives.”

Docia grimaced. “No, he’s not known for that. So does Uncle John know where you are right now, that you were coming up here to visit me?”

Deirdre shrugged. “I didn’t tell him. I don’t think he cares.”

Docia leaned forward, resting her hand on Deirdre’s knee. “Sweetie, of course he cares. He just lost his temper. When he’s had a chance to cool down, he’ll understand. You’re all he’s got.”

“Maybe. I don’t think he’s going to cool down this time, though. Not for a while, anyway. I mean, he had security escort me out of the building after I quit, and when I got back to my apartment, they told me I had a day to clear out my things.” Deirdre rubbed a hand against Rolf’s warm back as he snuggled against her. It was oddly soothing.

Docia’s eyes widened. “He evicted his own daughter?”

Deirdre shrugged. “Well, the apartment is owned by the company, after all, and I quit. So technically I wasn’t entitled to it anymore.”

“For god’s sake, Dee, you’re a major stockholder in that company. So am I, for that matter.”

“I was.” She blew out a breath. “I mean, I still am. But my stock account is sort of in limbo at the moment. Daddy has control of it and he cut off my access.”

Docia frowned. “But you’ve got other accounts, right? Savings? Credit cards?”

“The cards have been cancelled. And my savings accounts are frozen.” Deirdre took another deep breath, trying to east the tension in her shoulders. “I knew I should have taken Dad’s name off those accounts after I graduated from college, opened new ones in my own name, but I never got around to doing it. And, of course, the trusts are blocked, but I expected that.”

“But how can he freeze your savings accounts? It’s your money, right?”

“It’s my money, but it’s in accounts he controls. I don’t know how he managed to block them, but since he’s a signatory on most of them, and since Brandenburg, Inc. is a major stock holder in the bank, he probably just pulled some strings.”

Docia shook her head. “I think you need a good lawyer, Dee. And a good accountant. Believe me, I can set you up with both. The Toleffsons are a full-service family.”

Deirdre shrugged. “It wouldn’t help. No matter who I found, Dad would have better ones, and more of them. I just have to guts it out for three months until I hit twenty-five. That’s when I come into the trusts. I don’t think there’s any way he could block that. They’re part of Mama’s will.”

“But what will you live on until then?”

“Well—” Deirdre licked her lips, “—I’ve got an account here in Konigsburg. The money I earned that summer I worked as a barista, and some from the job in Austin.”

“Your money from working for three months one summer? How far will that go?”

“Not far,” Deirdre agreed. “I’ll need to find a job here in town while I look for shop locations.”

“Around here, in Konigsburg?” Docia gave her one of her dazzling smiles. “That’s wonderful, Dee. And it’s smart—you’ve already got family here, and friends.”

Deirdre nodded. “Konigsburg was always my first choice for a location. There’s no coffee roaster closer than Austin and lots of restaurants to buy custom blends. But I’ll need to get a job before I can start working on the shop. You know, just temporarily.” She managed to keep her smile bright. “I don’t suppose you know anyone who needs some part-time help?”