Single Sashimi (32 page)

“A m e n.”

“What do you mean, wisdom for her decision?” Lex shoved some food in her mouth, but then started panting. “Hot! Hot!” She flapped her hand in front of her open mouth.

“I could have told you that.” Venus blew on the rice and stew perched on her chopsticks.

“I have to agree with Lex, for once.” Trish eyed her thoughtfully. “Why is there even a question about what you’ll do?”

Venus chewed slowly, then swallowed. “I don’t know. I don’t feel ecstatic. I feel numb.”

“Why would you feel numb?”

“Granted”—Lex swallowed—“it’s not your own company developing the Spiderweb. Would you have made more by licensing it out?”

“Not really. They offered a very fair amount for it. I was surprised.”

Trish gnawed on an oxtail bone. “Is it because it’s CTO instead of CEO of your own company?”

“N…no.” Venus stared at her food. “I don’t think it is, anyway. I mean, I still could work toward CEO in a few years, and besides, Oomvid is bigger now than my company would be, even in ten years.”

“So what’s your problem?” Jenn demanded.

Lex, Venus, and Trish stared at Jenn in amazement.

Jenn colored. “Er…that might have been a little harsh.”

“No, it wasn’t.” Lex stabbed her chopsticks at Venus. “What is your problem?”

Venus eyed the points in front of her nose. “Stop it, that’s rude.”

Lex lowered her chopsticks. “Is it Oomvid’s work environment? But you’d be CTO, and Yardley’s gone. Wouldn’t that guarantee a little more power and respect?”

“I don’t know. It would be hard to be a female executive, whether in Oomvid or my own company, but I already know that. Maybe I just like working for my team at Bananaville.” That was an understatement. She’d even come to appreciate Darla—who’d toned down her wardrobe and now actually worked at the receptionist’s station. And as for Drake…

“So you like working for Drake over the CEO of Oomv—” Lex suddenly smacked Venus’s arm with her chopsticks. “You like Drake!”

“I do not. That hurt.” But a prickling sunburn feeling spread from her ears across her cheekbones.

“Look! She’s blushing!” Trish chortled.

Lex guffawed. “You like Drake!”

“You haven’t liked anybody since…” Jenn raised her shoulders and held out her hands, unable to remember.

“Since forever!” Trish laughed at her. “Oh, my gosh, this is great.”

“I don’t have time for a relationship.” Venus burrowed into her food.

“You would if you didn’t take that CTO position.”

The three cousins all fell silent.

“You’re thinking about it, aren’t you?” Jenn said. “You’re thinking of giving up Oomvid in order to
maybe
have a chance at Drake?”

“No! Well, yes.” Venus sighed and dropped her chopsticks onto the table. “I don’t know. This position is huge. It’s even further up the ladder than I expected to be at this point in my life.”

“You can’t give this up. This is what you’ve always worked for.” Trish gestured to Lex and Jenn. “We know because we’ve watched you sweat and toil to get to this place.”

“Something about the job feels wrong.”

“It is a lot of hours…” Jenn said.

Lex shook her head. “But you’ve always worked long hours.”

“And are you going to give up the Spiderweb too?” Trish asked.

“No, dummy.” Lex rapped her chopsticks on her arm. “She’ll still sell the Spiderweb, maybe negotiate for more money.”

“But not take the job?” Jenn sounded incredulous, as if Venus had said she was going to become a park ranger.

Venus sighed. “It’s something beyond logic. Something deeper than my feelings is telling me not to take this job.”

Trish blew out a long breath. “That’s pretty major. Are you sure?”

“I don’t know.” Venus dropped her head in her hands. “But I promised to submit to God, no matter what. To trust Him, no matter what.”

“Maybe this is a test.”

No one spoke. Venus could hear her blood pulsing in her eardrums. Was He really asking her to give up Oomvid? She’d be giving up her reputation and position in the game development industry that she’d worked on for years.

But had she really been happy developing games like the last one she worked on? Like the all-female multi-shooter game she would have developed for her own company—which she might still develop at Oomvid if she took the position—but which she was too ashamed to give to the teen boys she worked with at church? What kind of a job was that? All money, no morals.
That’s lovely, Venus
.

So she’d give up Oomvid to do what—work at Bananaville? Was that where God wanted her?

With Drake?

Just the thought of him heated her chest like an electric stove burner.

It was nuts. This defied all logic. This was the ultimate risk of her career—but maybe this was God seeing if she’d really do what she said she’d do, and trust Him.

She didn’t want to fail God.

“I have to call my lawyer.” She scooted off her chair.

“Wait.” Lex rummaged in her pocket.

“I don’t need your cell, I’ve got my own.”

“Er…It’s not my phone.”

“Huh? I don’t understand.”

Lex slammed her hand on the table with a faint clink and faced them all with a defiant look. “Now, don’t freak out, okay? I didn’t want a lot of hassle and fussing and this was the only way.”

“What?” Trish paused with a fork halfway to her mouth.

“What are you talking about?” Unperturbed, Jenn reached for more stew.

Lex withdrew her hand. Sitting on the table was a gold wedding band.

Jenn choked on her food and Venus whacked her between the shoulder blades. Trish dropped her fork with a clatter into her bowl.

“Aiden and I went to Las Vegas last weekend and got married.”

D
arla’s eyes bugged out of her head when she saw Venus. “I didn’t think you even owned a real dress.”

“Like it?” She sashayed in the front doors of Bananaville, enjoying the caressing swish of silk around her calves.

“I love the sash”—she pointed to the scarlet chiffon trails—“but isn’t it a bit romantic for work?”

She actually felt romantic for one of the first times in her life. Maybe because she’d made a decision about what to do, maybe romance was in the air because of Lex—rather,
Mrs. Young
. It was so like Lex to elope. “I’m only in for a few minutes. I’m taking the day off.”

Darla gave her a mock scowl. “Slacker.”

Venus laughed.

“Well, that’s both you and Drake, then.”

Venus paused as she headed around the corner. “What?”

“He’s out today too.”

Oh, no! After all her careful planning. She tried to school her face in something halfway nonchalant. “Where is he?” Out with some other girl? On a business trip across the country? Or maybe he finally checked himself into a psych ward?

Darla shrugged. “Gerry didn’t say.”

Venus almost barged into Gerry’s office, and last-minute remembered to knock first. “Come in.”

“Gerry—” She entered, but Gerry’s uplifted finger stopped her while Gerry spoke rapidly into the phone.

“So anyway, thank you for the cupcakes. I’m sure the kids will…Oh, and your grandson likes chocolate that much? Yes, my daughter…” Gerry gave a rather weak laugh. “Oh, Mrs. Howard, you’re just so funny. Well, thank you for…Your nephew’s son eats too much chocolate too? How nice. Er, I mean, how unfortunate…. Oh, well, I’m glad he was okay. Anyway, thank you… Oh, and he gave some to the dog too.”

Venus and Gerry both sighed and rolled their eyes at the same time. Venus leaned against the doorjamb.

“Oh! I’m sorry, Mrs. Howard, I have to go… No, really, I have to go. I’m at
work…
. Yes, it was nice chatting with you too… I’m late for a meeting, have to run, bye!” Gerry slammed the phone down and smacked her head in her hands. “The woman drives me insane!”

“How’d she get your direct line?”

“Drake called her from my phone one time, and she collects phone numbers like normal people collect stamps or coins.” Her voice was muffled as she burrowed deeper in her hands.

“Speaking of, where is Drake?”

Gerry lifted her head and saw the dress.

Venus’s throat tightened as the silence stretched. She suddenly realized she didn’t know how Gerry would feel about her decision. Well, it wasn’t her business.

Gerry leaned back in her chair. “It’s about time.”

Venus straightened. “What?”

Gerry gave her a
look
. “Don’t be stupid.” She started writing on a piece of notepaper. “Here’s directions to his house.” She ripped off the sheet and handed it to Venus.

“You’re…okay with this?”

“Oh for goodness’ sake, you have to ask?”

Gerry looked more irritated than thrilled to have Venus blatantly going after her brother, but Venus would take what she could get. She scanned the paper. “Where in the world does he live?”

Gerry sighed and raised her eyes to the ceiling. “Booneyville.”

Gerry was wrong. Booneyville was the more populated suburb of where Drake’s house actually lay.

As she wound down Arastradero Road—were those horses on the side of the road???—she called Gerry “Are you sure he’s home? He’s not answering his cell phone.”

“He just called me from his home phone.”

“I think that’s Stirrup Road…It’s a dirt track!” She’d almost missed it. She swerved onto the road, then realized it climbed at a steep angle up the hill. Oh my gosh, she was going almost vertical! She gunned the engine until she shot over the summit and almost hit a property hedge.

“Gerry, I am in the middle of nowhere.”

Gerry laughed like Venus was the star of a comic standup night.

“What?” Venus wove down the curving road. At least it was paved, probably paid for by the multi-million-dollar homes on each side. Drake lived
here?

“You think that’s the middle of nowhere? Venus, you’re still in Palo Alto.”

“But…that’s a hawk flying there!”

“Have you ever driven south of San Jose?”

“Er… I think I went to Gilroy once.”

Gerry made a disgusted noise. “Venus, you’re such a city girl.”

“Don’t any of these houses have numbers?” She squinted at a curb, but there were no sloppy red and white numbers painted on
these
curbs.

“It’s the one with the red, circular front door. You can’t miss it. I have to get to work, Venus. Bye.”

Who the heck had a circular front door? What was he, a Hobbit?

She slowed to a crawl. Some houses had their front doors obscured by trees and hedges—because obviously, in a community like this, privacy ranked higher than curb appeal. A Hummer roared up behind her and latched onto her bumper.

For a second, the sight of it reminded her of Yardley’s Hummer, and she wondered if it really were him and that he’d run her off the road… No, it was someone else, a man with dark hair and expensive sunglasses. After a few yards, he pulled around her, jammed the accelerator, and shot off down the winding road like a NASCAR driver.

She turned the corner of the road.

Oh. My.

The view spread out before her. Okay, that’s why he lived here. The land sloped downward to a lush valley, where a house or two stood regally isolated. Then the ground rose up in a forested area to the southwest, with houses dotting the ridge.

There! She almost missed it because she was ogling the view. The landscaped front lawn area looked welcoming as it sloped downward, and large windows broke up the stucco walls of the house where it rose three stories. Drake’s car was no where to be seen, but maybe he’d parked it, oh, in the three-car garage. Imagine that.

She coasted down the driveway, wondering if she’d set off any security alarms. Nope.

Vigorous knocking on the very red, very round front door got her
nada
. Was he home? She peered through the round windows flanking the door, and had to angle herself in order to see through the spacious living room area to a back patio. Was that a thin plume of smoke? Barbeque grill?

She crossed the driveway to the side of the house. Oh, man. The landscaping ended with the front lawn. He hadn’t yet done anything to the side, which had a dirt track. And she’d worn her strappy sandals with narrow heels.

She tiptoed down the dirt to the backyard, trying not to touch her heels into the mud—otherwise, it would probably stick like a golf tee and she’d go tumbling. Ugh! She got mud in her toes.

Apparently he had started landscaping the backyard, because green lawn rose up on her right. The road sloped below the back patio level, so she looked for stairs or a rising path to get her up there.

Suddenly, Cujo in the flesh came running at her, foaming at the mouth, eyes red like blood. She screamed and stepped back. Her heels sank into the mud up to the sole. Kicking out of them, she started backtracking. Mud sprayed up her calves.

“Brutus!”

The demon dog caught up with her. Jumped at her, saliva arcing through the air. Lethal claws landed on her shoulders.

Ewwwww. Big slobbery tongue licked all the makeup off her face.

She landed hard on her butt. In the mud. With Brutus on top of her. Apparently her makeup and her hairspray tasted good.

“Drake!”

At that point, she became aware of somebody laughing. Not just laughing—heaving and snorting and gasping for breath.

Good, because it was going to be his last.

Venus inhaled to loose another piercing shriek, but he forestalled her. “Brutus! Come.”

Brutus hesitated, gave a last lick to her ear—ewewewew!—and trotted away, up a short path to the patio, just as she heard footsteps crunching through the gravel on the way down.

She flipped a slobber-saturated lock of hair out of her eyes and squinted up at him. The sun was behind him, so she couldn’t be sure, but it looked like he was wiping away tears. “You are so dead.”

He held out a hand, pulled her up and into his arms, and then kissed her.

It would have been more romantic if she hadn’t still smelled Brutus’s halitosis slobber. She broke away reluctantly. “Oomvid offered me—”

“I know.”

He suddenly didn’t look so dashing and romantic. “How did you know?”

“I called my father, who’s good friends with Dean, and he encouraged the board of directors to go ahead with what they were already considering.”

“They were going to buy the Spiderweb and hire me anyway?”

“They might have.” He released her but kept hold of her hand and led her up the path to the patio.

Yuck, the backside of her dress stuck to her like a bathing suit.

The spacious patio had a 180-degree uninhibited view, due in part to a narrow infinity pool that would be heaven to soak in while watching the sunset. She caught her breath as she reached the top, but she was quick to grab the bar towel Drake handed to her.

“I knew you’d refused them when Gerry told me you were on the way here.”

A perverse part of her didn’t like being so easy to get. “I could have been coming to tell you that I quit.”

A smile quirked his mouth. “Gerry mentioned you wore a dress.”

Drat.

She scrubbed her face and tried to surreptitiously tug at her dress to remove it from her backside. She ignored Drake’s laughing look. “If you wanted me to stay, why did you call your father?”

He sobered and looked away from her, scanned the trees on the horizon, the millionaires who lived there. “I wanted to give you a choice.”

She stared at him. Actually, stared more at the mud streaks across his polo shirt and slacks, poor guy. “That’s the nicest thing you’ve ever done for me.”

“You’re hard to please, Venus.”

She smiled archly. “I know.”

He reached out, grabbed her hand and held it, twining his fingers in hers, rubbing at dried flakes of mud with his thumb. “I’m glad you’re staying.”

“I am too.” She slid her eyes to his and smiled. “Even though you don’t pay me enough.”