Laina Turner - Presley Thurman 09 - Romance & Revenge (6 page)

Chapter 7

“Cooper,
it’s Presley,” I said into his voicemail hesitantly. “I just wanted… I wanted to see how you were. Call me, OK? I think we should talk.” I set the phone down on the counter and reached for the coffee pot, wondering if it was too early in the morning to put Baileys in my coffee, or better yet, the pumpkin pie liqueur left over from Christmas. That stuff was amazing and I needed something to make settle my nerves. I almost felt worse, now having left that voicemail. What if he didn’t call back? It would be more rejection.

“You finally did it.”

I jumped, startled to find Katy behind me. She was all dressed and ready to go for the day, and here I was in my pajamas, wanting to put alcohol in my coffee at eight a.m. Something was definitely wrong with me.

“Was it because you didn’t h
ave fun last night with Willie? Is that what finally prompted you to call him?”

“I had fun. Do you think I didn’
t? You don’t think Willie thought I had a bad time do you?” I was worried because I didn’t want to have come across as rude to Willie. My not being able to get my mind off Cooper certainly didn’t have anything to do with him and I would have hated to give that impression.

“Relax. He
couldn’t tell anything was wrong. Though he did notice you were a bit upset when he asked about your dating status, but I know you. I could tell you were trying really hard to be chipper. Too hard. Since we were having a good time I can only assume Cooper kept invading your thoughts?”

“He was and you were right
. I should be the one to make a move just as much as he should, so I decided to buck up and call him. But I got his voicemail as you could hear and now I have to wait for him to call back. If he calls back. If he doesn’t, it’ll be worse than if I’d never called him.” I felt like I was tying myself up in knots in what seemed to be a vicious circle.             

“Don’t forget you need to call James
, too,” Katy said.

“I was going to do that after my call to
Cooper.”

“James? Is he bugging you to w
ork at Silk again?” Jared asked, joining us in the kitchen, putting his favorite K-cup in and pushing the button to start.

I shook my head. “No. Well
, I guess that could be it,” I said and filled him in on what Willie had told us and that James had called me a few times and wanted me to call him back.

“See what I miss when I go to bed early because
I’ve had too much to drink,” Jared said, pretending to be disappointed.

“Funny!
Why don’t you call James right now?  I’m curious,“ said Katy.

“OK.
Might as well get it over with,” I said. I was sure James just wanted me to work at Silk again and I didn’t relish actually talking to him. He wasn’t one of my favorite people. Knowing he was in some legal trouble made me skeptical as well.

I sat down on one of the bar stools with my coffee
and my phone. Knowing he was in trouble did change the perspective I had and my curiosity was overtaking my dislike.

He answered on the first ring, almost like he had been waiting for
my call which maybe he was. After a lengthy conversation, we got off the phone and I just looked at Katy and Jared with a dazed expression on my face. Having a hard time comprehending what I had just heard and not even knowing how to explain it.

“What did he say? I couldn’t tell by
your side of the conversation, but the look on your face tells me it must be something big.”

“He wants to give me Silk,” I said slowly, still not sure that I had heard him correctly
. And if I had, I was having a hard time believing him. There had to be something about what James said to me that I was missing or he was plotting some scheme that I wasn’t fully comprehending. There could be no good reason, a genuine one anyway, that he would want to give me his dead ex-wife’s business. I really needed that Baileys now. Who cared what time it was.

“Shut the front door! Give you Silk? What do you mean? He wants to sell it?”
Jared said.

“That’s what I thought, that’s what would make sense,
but no. He said give.  Believe me, I asked him more than once because I thought I was hearing him wrong. He said it’s operating in the red, he doesn’t have time for it, and doesn’t really care, never did. He said he doesn’t want to see it close, for Solange’s sake, so who better than me to take it over. He said it’s what Solange would have wanted. He wanted to honor her memory or something like that. I was having a hard time paying attention after he said the part about wanting to give it to me. He and Solange had been in the middle of a nasty divorce when she was murdered, so I didn’t completely buy the ‘honor her memory’ crap. He has to have some other reason besides that.  I’m just not sure what it is. Maybe he’s losing his mind.

“Don’t get too excited guys. This probably has something to do with his recent legal troubles and that’s not something I want to get involved in. The last thing I want is to be sucked into his issues. I have enough of my own. I don’t really trust him enough to think this might be genuine. Think about it. People don’t go around giving away businesses. Even ones that are not profitable.”

“But still
, maybe it’s not. Would you want it, if it’s all above board? If he really means what he says?” Katy said, ever the optimist. “I mean this could be a fantastic opportunity.”

“I’d really have to think about it. Owning a business.
Especially retail in this economy. One that is already floundering. It would be a huge risk. Plus, I know nothing about running a business.”

“But would you want to do it?
Pretending there are no other obstacles for a minute, live in your fantasy land where anything can happen.”

I thought for a minute and realized that yes, I would. I smiled. “Yeah, I would. I loved working there. So own the place … yeah. I would like that.
I might even be good at it.”

“I think you should go for it,” Jared said. “It’s totally up your alley and you’d be good at it. I could really see you doing this. I could work on weekends, hell maybe full time, if we don’t figure out what’s going on with my company
.”

“What did you tell him
?” Katy said.

M
y head was whirling. “That I would have to think about it. He wants me to call him tomorrow. As if I only need one day to make this kind of decision. But James is nothing, if not persistent.”

“I can’t wait to see what Willie says about this,” Katy said.
“I bet this isn’t what he was expecting James to want to talk to you about.”

“Yeah, what happened with Willie last night?”  Jared asked.
“I feel totally out of the loop.”

“I think Willie has a
crush on our girl Presley here,” Katy said.

“Oh
, stop.”

“Really?” Jared said, looking interested.

“He doesn’t. And even if he did, it wouldn’t matter. I need to figure out what’s going on with Cooper first.”

“
Well do it and quit putting it off,” Jared said, and I just gave him a look. “OK then for now, we can talk about my problems. Last night I made a list of all the people I work with and put stars by the names to rank how likely I felt they would be to engage in activity that would be harmful to Sleeping Bear Designs,” he said and handed me a piece of paper that did, indeed, have names and stars on it. “Besides, of course, who we have already talked to.”

I looked it over and saw one name, Todd Billings, had four stars by it.

“Who’s this Todd guy? I don’t think I’ve ever heard you mention him?”

“He’s a new intern.”

“And you think he might have something to do with this?” I said. “Why?”

“He’s just an odd guy. He wears polo shirts with the collars turned up
and he kind of gives me the creeps.”

“You don’t like the way he dresses, so you think he might be involved in trying to take the company down?” Katy said.

“Or do you think he’s capable of murder, because of his poor fashion sense? “ I said. 

“
OK, maybe not, but there’s something weird about that guy, so I thought he was worth giving a closer look.”

I sat the paper down on the table and took another swig out of my coffee cup.

“It probably wouldn’t hurt to talk to all of these people,” I said. “Will this be it then? If we talk to everyone on this list, will we have talked to everyone?”

“Yep.”

“Then let’s do it! When can we meet these people?”

“I’ve already been working on it,” Jared said and picked up another piece of paper and handed it to me. This one had names and times.

“I took the liberty of setting appointments up for you today to talk to everyone. Here is your schedule.”

“You’d make a good secretary,” I said, impressed at this thoroughness.

“I guess this could be my back up plan.  Be someone’s assistant if Sleeping Bear goes under.”

“Stop being such a negative Nelly,” I scolded. “I’m getting offended you don’t have faith that I can solve this.”

“It’s not you,” he said quickly, and I laughed.

“I know. I’m teasing about that part but you do really need to relax. This will get figured out and Sleeping Bear will survive! Now, I’d better get ready.”

Chapter 8

“Has Cooper called back
?” Katy asked. We were walking down the street to meet the last group of Jared’s co-workers for a mid-morning coffee.

“Nope
,” I said trying to be casual about it. Which was hard because it really bothered me. “I wanted him to call and even if I didn’t like what he had to say, at least I would know something.”

“It’s not even been twenty
-four hours. I wouldn’t read anything in to it. You know firsthand how busy he gets.”

I did know, but even so in the past he had always made time for me.
Even when he didn’t have time.

“I’m not,”
I said, even though I was. A little. OK, a lot. I couldn’t help it. “But that’s why this is a nice distraction to help Jared. It will keep my mind off the men in my life.”

“Men? Plural? Since when was it plural?”

“Willie called earlier.”

“
And you’re just now telling me this?” she exclaimed.

“You were in the shower when
he called.”

“What did
he say?”

“That he had a great time with us and hoped to see us soon. In fact, maybe for New Year’s Eve.”

That stopped Katy in her tracks
and she turned to look at me.

“And you said?”

“I said I would talk to you. I certainly don’t want to be boring and keep you from having fun just because I’m in a funk over Cooper. But I also didn’t want to make plans without talking to you.”

“Good, because sitting around feeling sorry for yourself won’t change anything.
Trust me, I’ve learned that much from my relationship with Chris.”

“We don’t have to go out with Willie if you don’t want though. We can do anything you want. Sit home and celebrate, go out, whatever.
You’re the guest,” I said.

“If I weren’t here and it was just up to you, what would you do?”

I thought about it for a minute and going out on New Years’ would be fun and a good distraction.

“I say we go. He said Jared could come too so we can all go out and have fun.  I’ll call him when we’re done here,” I said and we walked into the same Starbucks
where we had met Sally. I saw someone wave at us and headed to the table in the back where three of the others who worked with Jared were sitting.

An hour later we walked out and I sighed. “That wasn’t he
lpful for anything besides feeding my caffeine addiction. Not a single employee at Sleeping Bear had known anything. Everyone thinks Becky is just great and can’t imagine who would kill her or what she could have argued with Glenda about or who would steal designs. This is hopeless.”

“Now you sound like Jared.”

“I feel like Jared.  I’m not exactly making any progress.”

“Patience and persistence, Pres. I know you’ve got one of those qualities.”

I smiled because she was right on one count. I had persistence but patience was not at the top of my list of good qualities.

“
We just need to think. What is this telling us?”

“That no one at Sleepi
ng Bear knows anything,” I said, not understanding where she was going.

“Exactly!”
she said in such a way that made me think she had the answer.  Whatever it was.

“What do you mean exactly?”

“Think about it.”

I was silent for a minute thinking. Trying to figure out what she was getting at and it finally dawned on me.

“You’re saying since no one from inside Sleeping Bear knows anything, it must be from the outside?”

She nodded.

“But what if one of these people is just a really great liar?”

“That could be but what does your gut say?”

“But that’s my gut saying they have no idea what’s going on. It’s not proof.”

“Where to now?” Katy asked.

“I thought we’d stop and pick up a few things for dinner tonight before heading home. Jared gave me a list. He’s going to make us one of his specialties.”

“What’s on the menu?”

“Enchiladas.”

“Yum. I hope we’re having margaritas with that.”

“Of course. Another reason to stop at the store. Need more tequila. Maybe that will help us figure this out.”

I froze in my tracks mid-sentence and Katy bumped into me. “Oops, sorry but you stopped short.”

I couldn’t trust myself to talk so I just pointed. Ahead of us I could see Cooper.  And he was with a girl. Katy quickly saw what I was pointing at and I could see by the look on her face she didn’t know what to say.

“
Presley, that could be anyone. Don’t jump to conclusions, she’s probably someone he works with,” Katy said and while I appreciated her attempt at being positive even she didn’t sound all that convincing. “You should go talk to him.”

I look at her horrified. “Are you nuts? And witness public humiliation in front of that girl.”

“You’re being silly. They’re probably just friends.”

“I don’t know. They seem pretty familiar,” I said as a taxi pulled up and he put his hand on the small of her back to guide her in
to the car, my stomach clenching as I saw him touch her. “And look at her, she’s gorgeous.” Which she was. Taller than me - she seemed almost as tall as Cooper - with long blond hair, and I could tell she had a nice figure, even underneath the winter coat she had on. She seemed very elegant, classy. In a different league than me. Jealousy welled up inside me.

“Presley, you won’t know until you ask,” Katy said.
“And there are a lot of beautiful girls in the world. It doesn’t mean Cooper wants to date them all.”

“Why would I ask now, Katy? I called, I left him a message
; he hasn’t called me back and now I see him with another woman. I’m not going to call him again. I’m not stupid or a glutton for punishment,” I said with a lump in my throat, willing myself to not break down and cry.

“You think Cooper would just start dating someone else and ignore your calls, not giving you the courtesy of telling you? I know this might look bad, but there could be many explanations, and Cooper isn’t the kind of guy who would be a jerk to you. Even if he did want to end things. Look, they’re coming out of an office building. Techman Industries. It’s not a hotel.”

I looked at the building and maybe she was right
, this was business and he wasn’t a mean guy. Maybe that was why he hadn’t contacted me because he was busy. But busy with beautiful women when we hadn’t talked bothered me. I just desperately wanted him to contact me and tell me things were going to be OK.

“You would think Chicago was a big enough town I wouldn’t just randomly run into him.”

“Maybe it’s a sign that you need to talk to him.”

“Only you, Katy. Looking at the positive.” She might feel that way but I wasn’t so sure. Now I just felt worse than before.