Construction Beauty Queen (17 page)

She took a deep breath and stood to face him. She hadn’t been nervous telling Ron, her parents, or Trevor what she wanted, but she was nervous now. As much as she tried to pretend Matt was the same as anyone else in town, he wasn’t. He was more, so much more. “I’d like to do projections, crunch some numbers, and work up proposals for you. It could be very minimal. Say, five hours a week. That would be as a business consultant, so I’d expect a professional hourly fee.”

His forehead crinkled in confusion. She resisted the urge to smooth it out. If she wanted him to see her as a professional, she couldn’t allow her physical actions to betray her. And from the look on his face, she had a long way to go to achieve that goal.

“Then for the next, let’s say, year I’d work another ten hours a week on your bookkeeping, business management, and administrative duties for a substantially lower fee.” The work would guarantee a certain income, so she could eat and have running water while she got her core consulting business up and running.

“Let me get this straight.” He cupped his hands around her elbows. “Instead of working for me for a month, now you want to work for me for a year, and you want a raise?”

Had her proposal sounded that greedy? She’d hoped it would be a win-win for both of them. “I’d be an independent contractor, so I wouldn’t technically be your employee.”

“What does Ron say about it?”

“This doesn’t have anything to do with him. This is about you and your company.” She’d given him her best proposal. She’d laid everything out for him, short of tattooing her feelings across her forehead. She didn’t know whether to be grateful or cry that he was oblivious.

“I think it’s a monumentally bad idea.” Matt released her arm and backed away.

She willed her voice not to choke up. She’d come too far to give up with her first rejection. She crossed the room to him and put her hand on his shoulder. “Would it be so hard to put a little faith in my abilities?”

“I’m not knocking your ability. It’s your commitment I don’t trust.”

Still? Other than time, she had no way to prove she was here for the long haul. She wasn’t sure she was patient enough to wait years for him to believe in her. Keeping one hand on his shoulder, she pressed her other palm gently against his bristled cheek and turned his head toward her. “I’m committed to Kortville—I explained that already. I’m dedicated to making you as successful as I can—as your employee, as a service provider with a vested interest, and as a fellow businessperson who wants to see you succeed for your own sake and for the sake of the town.”

His cinnamon-brown eyes snapped to hers, heating her from the inside out. “A service provider?”

“Business service,” she clarified. Although her needs suddenly felt a lot less businesslike and a lot more personal. She knew she risked her fledging professional reputation by focusing on the chemistry between them. But if she could convince him of how devoted her heart and soul were, he’d no longer see logistics and different lifestyles as obstacles. She could convince him he could count on her on every level.

She stood on her tiptoes and pressed her lips to his. She leaned into him, sliding her hands around his head and through the hair curling over the neckline of his T-shirt. She liked how he felt, overdue for a haircut, his body on edge.

She slid her fingertips over his temples and brushed lightly against his eyelids. He closed his eyes as she intended. She slowly massaged the bridge of his nose, feeling his tension drain away. She was doing this to him, relaxing him, drawing out the response she wanted him to feel. She could imagine doing this years from now after a hard day at work.

Her body tensed, and her hands froze. She couldn’t start dreaming of forever while he was still dreaming up ways to push her out.

“Are you okay?” Matt’s voice was warm and husky against her lips.

She tipped her head back and looked in his eyes. “More than okay when I’m with you.” Then she moved her hands gently over his face again and pressed her lips to the hollow of his throat.

His pulse jackhammered beneath her lips. “I don’t even know why you’re here.”

“I don’t want to be anywhere else.” For the first time, that was the absolute truth. She kissed her way up his neck and along his jawline, enjoying the feel of his facial hair against her cheek. She moved her hands higher up his head and brought his mouth down to hers.

His hot, sweet breath caressed her mouth, but Matt turned his head at the last second and her lips connected with his cheek instead. “Don’t.” His voice was raspy as he moved away from her. “I can’t do this, not with Jenny asleep in the next room.”

“Can’t kiss me, or can’t trust me to make your business better?” Right now the physical loss hurt most. Her arms ached to wrap around him again.

“Can’t kiss you
and
can’t make any business decisions…not when all I want is to kiss you and…more…all night long.”

Chapter Ten

Veronica had taken care to present herself as the type of person her parents were accustomed to doing business with—dressed in a cream pantsuit, sensible heels, and pearls. Hopefully, they wouldn’t notice that her hands had shaken as she’d applied her makeup.

The office door opened, and she walked down the hall to meet them. Instead, Matt stormed through the reception area straight toward her, holding a file folder of papers. His jaw was locked. His gaze was furious.

“What’s wrong?” She didn’t back up, refusing to let him intimidate her.

“Besides the fact that I didn’t sleep at all last night because I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing you?” His shoulder bumped against her as he pressed her back against the wall.

“Why does that make you so angry?” She raised her face and pressed her lips to his unshaven chin. Picking up where they left off would be perfectly agreeable to her if her parents weren’t due to walk through the door at any moment.

“It wouldn’t if you weren’t trying to interfere with this.” He waved the stack of papers, and she caught a glimpse of the partnership document. She settled her hand on his shoulder. “We didn’t get around to talking about a few things last night, including the way you’re dividing the profits within your partnership with Ron.”

He pushed her hand away. “Our partnership is between him and me.”

She cupped his face in both her hands, needing him to hear her out. “I’m not trying to get in the middle of it, but I want you to make sure you understand your rights. Because you’re working full time in Kortville Construction and Ron’s not, you’re supposed to be taking a salary. Then you two can divide what’s left equally. You’ve been dividing the profits without taking the salary into account.”

“So that gives you the right to think you can dissolve our partnership?”

“Of course not. But I’m saying the three years of wages he owes you can be used for you to buy him out. It’s exactly what you wanted!” She kissed his lips in her excitement, wanting to celebrate with him.

He jerked back. “This partnership ties Ron to Kortville. Don’t cut him out, or you’ll cut out the entire town.” This time, his lips slammed on hers. There was no sweetness, no lingering, no gentleness.

She pressed her hands against the wall behind her. She wanted to caress him, to show him that she was part of his team. But he wasn’t flirting with her, wasn’t trying to build something with her. Yet she had too much pent-up desire they’d never acted on last night, and she wanted him, even if she knew he was touching her for all the wrong reasons.

His hand pushed away the lapel of her blazer and molded itself against her breast. Veronica moaned her acceptance of his touch. If this was how he destroyed his enemies, what a way to go down.

“What the hell is going on here?” her father thundered.

Matt dropped his hands, as if her skin was molten steel, and stepped back. “Excuse me. This…was completely inappropriate,” he said, addressing her parents.

Then he looked at Veronica, his face a mask, with none of the desire he’d shown a moment ago. “The partnership stays in place. In the future, please refrain from giving any input into the way I conduct my business.” He marched out of the office.

“Good lord, that man has turned you into trailer trash.” Dad shuddered.

Veronica looked down at her disheveled blazer, hardly able to recognize the heat that had caused her rumpled state when Matt had turned his emotions to freezing. Regardless, she wasn’t the type of person her parents would do business with if she looked and acted like they’d just witnessed. She wasn’t their debutante daughter, and she wasn’t a strong small-town woman, either.

Dad was right. She’d crossed the line into trailer trash.

She ducked into the hall out of sight and tucked in her shirt. Then she rubbed her fingers over what was no doubt her hopelessly smeared lipstick and hugged her cream blazer across her chest.

She took a deep breath and stepped back into the reception area. “Mother, Dad, welcome. I have everything set up in the conference room, so why don’t you come on back.”

“What the heck is going on?” Dad demanded. “Do you want to press charges against that overmuscled brawn who was mauling you?”

“Matt wouldn’t never intentionally hurt anyone,” Veronica said, horrified that he would think so. “Any passion between us is mutual.” Actually, more on her side than his, but Dad didn’t need the specifics.

“Is what I just witnessed what you’ve been doing the whole time we thought you were working construction?” Dad asked as she walked through the conference room doorway.

Veronica closed the door behind her. She had everything set up, exactly how she’d planned for their meeting. But she was back to proving that she was in Kortville for business and not in need of a family intervention. “His name is Matt, and the answer is an unequivocal no. I’m sorry you had to witness such poor judgment on my part. I won’t embarrass you again.”

“I’m not worried about you embarrassing me. I’m worried about you being taken advantage of and getting hurt. It’s not too late to come back to your life in Chicago,” Dad said.

“I didn’t have a life in Chicago,” she stated calmly. “All I had was an extension of your and Mother’s lives. I had to come down here to make a life of my own.”

“I’m almost afraid to ask. Are you making a life for yourself as a hooker or a construction worker?”

“George!” Mother said, sounding horrified. “You know your daughter better than that.”

Sadly, Veronica wasn’t sure that he did. “I’m not going to be a construction worker. I’m not going to work for Ron’s distribution company, either.” Her hands trembled. Telling them she wouldn’t do what they’d never wanted her to do was easy. But explaining in no uncertain terms that she wouldn’t follow the path they’d laid out for her and going so far as to open her intended path to their scrutiny and criticism was much harder.

“Well, for goodness sake, come home and marry Trevor,” Dad boomed, standing in front of the table. “He’s dying for you to come back.”

“No, he’s not. If that’s what he told you, it’s because he’s too much of a wimp to admit that he’s having second thoughts about the merger. Please sit down, Dad.” She positioned herself at the head of the table. Mother followed her lead and sat next to Dad’s chair.

“Of course, he’s bound to have second thoughts if he sees you going at it with some other guy,” he grumbled, finally taking his seat.

This was not the business meeting she wanted to have. But then Dad had never taken her ambitions seriously, even when her reputation had been pristine. “Regardless of my personal behavior this morning, you and Trevor don’t need to merge. Your company will be stronger if you have a customer relationship with him and keep the businesses separate.”

“You don’t know anything about my business,” he said belligerently.

He really didn’t know anything about her, did he? She’d left home because she’d believed that was never going to change. But she wanted him to know what his daughter was really made of and how much of him she carried inside her. She held her hand out to him across the table and tried one more time. “Dad, all the business models and thesis papers I did for my MBA were of your business. I know your company inside out.”

He grunted.

She ignored his rudeness. “I can tell you a dozen things off the top of my head to improve it, but you don’t want to hear what I have to say, because you think my job is to smile and look pretty. If that’s all you want out of me, I’ll smile and look pretty when I visit you, but the rest of the time I’m going to use my brain and business skills on a company that will accept them.”

“If you’re not going to work at the job your grandfather promised you, what company are you going to use them on?” Mother asked. She, at least, had heard something Veronica was saying.

“I’m going to start my own consulting business.”

“Your own business?” Dad thundered in disbelief, ruddiness rising in his cheeks. “Who’s going to pay you for advice when you haven’t worked a day in your life?”

“The lady who owns the diner. The people who own the Laundromat. The guy who runs the convenience store.” She ticked them off confidently.

Mother gave a small smile as she stood and went to the coffee maker.

“You can’t make a living off clients like that.” Dad dismissed them all with a sharp gesture of his hand, nearly knocking over the mug that Mother handed to him.

Veronica didn’t expect to make an income that her father would consider a comfortable living, but she was determined to make enough for herself. “I have to start somewhere.”

Dad peered into the steaming cup. “You’re not going to come back and marry Trevor?”

She shook her head. “I’m not. Paige knows it, even if he hasn’t figured it out.”

“Humph.” He glared at his coffee without drinking it. For the first time he seemed to consider that she meant what she was telling him.

“It’s no secret he wanted to merge because he got suckered into a long-term lease in that gorgeous new office building with too much space and too high of rent.”

“The deal makes perfect sense,” Dad argued. “Our building is so old it’d be cheaper to tear it down than repair it, and Trevor’s building is in a better location.”

“Have you looked anywhere besides his overpriced Taj Mahal? Industrial land is going for bargain prices right now. I worked up an estimate on a new building from a construction company that does quality work. Assuming you don’t soup it up with marble floors and crystal chandeliers, you’ll save more money going this route on your own than if you’d tried to merge the two companies.” She slid a file folder across the table. “See for yourself.”

Dad gave her a long look. She met his gaze without flinching, even though her heart was pounding painfully. She’d put everything she had into this proposal. She needed him to at least give it a chance. Slowly, he opened the file and glanced down.

“Kortville Construction?” He slammed the folder shut. “Are you crazy? I’m not hiring some Podunk company that’s half owned by my father-in-law who hates me.”

“Dad.” She reached out and covered his hands with her own over the papers. “You’re letting your emotions make your decisions, and that’s not how you run a business. Use your head. Look at the numbers. You don’t have to go with Kortville Construction, of course. Other companies can build what you need for roughly the same cost. But at least look at the proposal.” She slid his hand away and opened the folder again.

Instead of slamming it shut, he studied it quietly for a minute. Then he looked up and met her gaze. “Where did you get such accurate financial numbers for my business?”

He really hadn’t listened to a word she’d said. She bit back a sigh. “You’ve had them lying out on your desk at home for years. All I had to do was turn on your computer to learn more details. Like everyone else, you assumed that putting numbers together was beyond the capabilities of a pretty little blonde like me.”

“I never thought you were stupid, Veronica.”

“Well, you certainly never thought I had anything to say worth listening to.” She stood up. She’d pushed; now she was ready to step back and let him make the next move—or not. “Take that home and look it over. Show it to your board and your vice presidents. Give me a call if you’re interested or if you have any questions.”

Dad stayed seated. He flipped through the file folder and drained his coffee. Finally, he looked up again. “I’ll think about it.”

Those four words might not have held any promise, but to Veronica they held a world of hope. For the first time, her father was seriously considering what she had to offer.

…

Matt’s life had become a giant eggshell walk. His hormones were on edge, piqued and frustrated by half-finished encounters with Veronica. Worse, he was afraid she might have approached Ron with her plan for dissolving the partnership.

Ron had reconciled with his daughter. He’d also decided to go through with the sale of the distribution center, since Veronica no longer planned to run it. And rumors were thick that he intended to spend more time partying with his new city friends. Kortville Construction was suddenly his only remaining tie to the town.

Kortville needed that bond for Ron to go through with the funds he’d promised to various causes, instead of packing up and walking out on them for his new and improved life. Matt felt personally responsible for making sure he did whatever it took to keep Ron involved, even at the expense of giving up his right to run his company entirely on his own.

On Friday evening, he walked into the diner with Jenny, looking forward to a good meal that he didn’t have to cook. After dinner, Jenny was sleeping over at Stephanie’s house, and Matt had a quiet night to himself, which he intended to use to figure out a plan to keep his company running smoothly
and
to save his town.

He stopped cold as he spotted Veronica sitting in a booth along the back wall. Her blond hair shimmered around her. Her pink button-down blouse stretched across her chest as she leaned forward intently.

This time, Pauline wasn’t forcing espressos down her throat. The other customers weren’t whispering about her or glaring over rumors about the destruction she could cause. In fact, Wilbur and Agatha, both wearing shirts in fluorescent plaid designs that made his eyes hurt, were sitting across from her and appeared to be hanging on to her every word.

“Aren’t we going to sit down?” Jenny asked, confused. “Hey, Veronica’s here. Let’s sit by her.”

“No, wait.”

Jenny didn’t stop, but Veronica froze at the sound of his voice. He watched her shoulders stiffen, but then she turned slowly and aimed her trademark wide smile at Jenny.

“Hi. Uncle Matt didn’t tell me you were going to be here, too. Can we sit with you?”

“Jenny, she’s already eating with someone else. We’re not going to interrupt. Let’s sit in this empty booth.” Matt pointed to the one behind Veronica.

Veronica’s smile didn’t waver as she continued to focus on Jenny. “You can lean over the back of the seat. It’ll be almost like you’re sitting with me.”

Except she didn’t have to include Matt. He couldn’t blame her. He’d made a point not to include her in anything since he’d last kissed her.