Treading Water (5 page)

His longtime assistant, Quinn Jeffries,
greeted him with a fierce hug. Hired as his secretary more than
twelve years earlier, she’d long since become his right hand and
close friend.

“
So good to see you here,”
she said as she released him from her warm embrace.

“
It’s good to be back.” His
corner office boasted two full glass walls with an exquisite view
of the beach and rocky shore. Jamie’s office occupied the other
corner on the same side with a shared bathroom in the
middle.

“
Come in,” Jack said to
Quinn.

He dropped his leather bag on his desktop
where the lack of clutter was a stark reminder of how long he’d
been gone. “So bring me up to speed,” he said when he’d recovered
his bearings. “What’s going on?”

“
Jamie said you’ll be
heading up the next phase of the Infinity project.”

“
That’s right.”

“
You’ve got a conference
call with their team at eleven to get acquainted and set the
schedule for the next few months.” She rattled off the list of HBA
staff members Jamie had assigned to work with Jack on the
hotel.

“
What’s everyone else got
going?”

“
Four houses, a shopping
center, a new auto dealership, and the sailing museum
renovations.”

“
Wow.”

“
Yeah, everyone’s pretty
stretched. You and Jamie may need to talk about hiring a few more
people.”

Jack loved that Quinn didn’t hold back
opinions that were usually astute and right on the mark.

“
Did Jamie tell you he’s
been asked to consult on a job in Tokyo?” she asked.

“
No, but I’m sure he’ll
tell me about it when he gets a chance.”

“
Here are the preliminary
files on the hotel. You can look them over before the call. Oh, and
Jamie called a staff meeting at ten.”

“
Sounds good. I have a
standing dinner date at six with the girls every night from now on.
I’ll probably need your help getting out of here on time.
”

“
You got it.”

“
Thanks for everything,
Quinn. I know you managed a lot more than your own job over the
last year. I appreciate everything you did to help
Jamie.”

“
We’re just glad to have
you back.” She left him with a smile and closed the
door.

He turned in his chair to inspect the shore
as it emerged from morning fog to the kind of glorious early summer
day Clare had loved. The beach was alive with joggers, dogs on
leashes, and lifeguards meandering out to their posts. It was all
so normal, a scene he’d witnessed many times before, and yet
nothing was normal anymore because Clare wouldn’t be waiting for
him at the end of the day.

Since the day on the bluffs with the girls,
emotions that had lain dormant for so many months of numbness were
once again raw. Thinking of Clare and all they’d lost brought tears
to his eyes. He’d been a regular waterworks lately, as if all the
feelings he’d fought so hard to suppress during the long year since
the accident were suddenly trying to get out. But then he
remembered promising the girls he would get their lives back on
track. He wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his shirt and turned to
the files Quinn had left.

“
I can do this,” he
whispered. “I
will
do this.”

By ten o’clock, he’d caught up on the
project that would take over his life for the next year and a half.
Stopping to grab a fresh cup of coffee, he headed into the
conference room for the meeting.

“
Surprise!” The entire
staff greeted him, and a huge banner hung on the back wall that
said
Welcome Home, Jack
. They offered hugs as he absorbed the emotional outpouring
from his coworkers.

“
Wow,” he said once the
uproar had died down. “You really surprised me. Thanks for the warm
welcome. It’s great to be back.”

“
Speech!” someone
called.

Cornered, Jack had no idea what to say.
“I…ah… Thank you for the overwhelming support this past year and
for all you did to help Jamie.” He paused to collect himself. “It
was comforting to know you were taking care of HBA so I could take
care of my family. I guess today is the first day of the rest of my
life. I’m glad to be spending it here.”

His coworkers’ applause embarrassed him.

“
Welcome back, bud.” Jamie
grinned and clapped Jack on the back.

“
Thanks.” The animated
group dug into the coffee and bagels on the conference room table.
“I’d forgotten how much fun it is to be here.”

“
I need to remind you
of
all
the fun you
used to have.”

Jack raised an eyebrow. “Speaking of fun,
what’s this I hear about you and Tokyo?”

“
Word travels fast. It’s an
office being modeled after one of my dad’s buildings in New York.
They asked him to consult, but since he’d rather be playing golf,
he sent them to me.”

“
Are you
interested?”

“
Sort of. I’ve never been
to Japan, so that part intrigues me. But I wasn’t sure the time was
right to take on something overseas.”

“
Quinn thinks we need to
hire some more hands. Then maybe you could do it.”

“
Even with the
hotel?”

“
I don’t see why not. What
if we made Quinn our very first vice president and gave her
responsibility for managing the office? She’s more or less doing it
now. We could make it official and get it off my plate.”

“
That would allow me to be
gone for a week or two every now and then if I need to be in
Tokyo.” Jamie rubbed his chin and mulled it over. “How much more
should we pay her?”

“
Twenty-five
thousand?”

“
Done.”

“
Great, I’ll tell her
today. Let’s hit up the Crimson for a couple of new grads,” Jack
said, referring to their alma mater.

“
I’ll take care of that,”
Jamie said as they wandered over to join the party. “I’ll let you
know what unfolds with Tokyo. I was waiting until you came back to
decide.”

The rest of the day flew by as Jack
consulted on a variety of ongoing projects, participated in the
conference call with the Infinity Group’s Chicago headquarters
team, and began preliminary planning for the next phase of the
hotel project.

Infinity had chosen HBA’s design over seven
other New England firms. In designing the
one-hundred-and-fifty-room resort, the challenge had been to create
an old-fashioned New England beach “cottage” with all the modern
amenities. As part of the first phase of building the hotel, Jack
would work with the interior design team to ensure their décor
choices brought HBA’s design to life.

He stood, stretched, and checked the beach,
which was almost deserted. Fog hung off the coast, waiting for the
sun to give up for the day and reminding him of the dinner date
with the girls. He buzzed Quinn and asked her to come in.

She came through the door a minute later and
laughed at the scene on his desk. “I love what you’ve done with the
place.” His messiness and her obsessive neatness was a running joke
between them. “How’s it going?”

“
I got more done today than
I thought I would. I made a list of ideas for the interior
designers’ research trip for the last week in August. Do you mind
taking it from here and setting up accommodations?”

“
No problem.”

“
None of them have ever
been here before, so we’ll send them to Cape Cod, Martha’s
Vineyard, Nantucket, and Boston the first week, plus they’ll do a
second full week in Newport. Let’s go the bed-and-breakfast route,
since we’re aiming for an inn feel with the Newport hotel. Get
tickets for a Red Sox game, too. They can’t be in Boston and not go
to Fenway.”

“
Them or you?”

“
Them, of course,” he said,
smiling.

“
I’ll get on it in the
morning.” She scanned his list. “You’re not taking them to Block
Island?”

“
Not this time. Nantucket
will take care of the ‘resort island’ theme.” After the emotional
trip with the girls, he wasn’t ready to go back to Block Island
just yet.

She checked her watch. “You’d better think
about wrapping it up. You don’t want to keep your ladies
waiting.”

“
There’s one other thing
before I go.”

“
What’s that?”

“
Jamie and I would like to
offer you a promotion.”

Her brows knitted with confusion. “What kind
of promotion?”

“
How about vice president,
in charge of running the office. Are you interested?”

“
That’s always been your
thing.”

“
I need to focus on the
hotel, and Jamie’s got the Tokyo job brewing.”

“
I’d love to do it, and I
appreciate the new title.”

“
Great. Thank
you.”

“
I should probably mention
that I’m getting married.”

Startled, Jack said, “Is that so?”

Her warm, green eyes danced
with amusement. “You
have
been gone a while, Jack. Things have
happened.”

“
Who’s the lucky
guy?”

“
Brian. You met him a long
time ago.”

“
Ah, our friend from Down
Under?”

She smiled. “That’s him. We’re planning a
small wedding this fall.”

He stood to give her a congratulatory hug.
“I’m very happy for you. And I’m sure you’ll both be glad to hear
your promotion comes with a twenty-five-thousand-dollar raise.”

She gasped.
“
Are you serious?
”

Laughing at her reaction, he said, “You’re
extremely valuable to us, and you’ve shown us again how much you’re
capable of during this past year. We appreciate it, and we want to
reward you for it.”

She flung her arms around him. “Thank you,
Jack! I love working for you guys, and I appreciate your vote of
confidence.”

“
We couldn’t run this place
without you,” he said as another thought occurred to him. “If you
want Haven Hill for the wedding, it’s all yours.”

“
Oh my God! That’d be
fantastic!”

“
It’s nothing.” Jack
shrugged. “Just let me know the date, and I’ll tell the family it’s
yours that weekend.”

“
I can’t wait to tell Brian
about all of this. I’m so glad you’re back. It just wasn’t the same
without you.”

“
Get out of here. I’ll see
you in the morning.”

She hurried away as Jamie came in through
the door that connected their offices.

“
Who lit a fire under
her?”

Jack dropped files into his briefcase and
turned off his computer. “I told her about the promotion and the
raise. Did you know she’s getting married?”

“
I’ve heard some talk about
that. Brian’s a nice guy. They’ve been out on the boat a few
times.”

“
It’s funny how life went
on without me. I feel like everything stopped fourteen months ago.”
He paused and shook it off, not wanting the negative thoughts to
intrude on the best day he’d had in longer than he could remember.
“I offered her Haven Hill for the wedding.”

“
That’s really nice of
you.”

“
So I had a really
interesting chat with Infinity’s chief designer today. Andrea
Walsh?”

“
She goes by Andi,” Jamie
said. “Wait ’til you meet her. Amazingly talented.”

“
She seemed really sharp on
the phone. She’s got some great ideas. They’re looking forward to
the visit.”

“
You’re sure you’re up to
handling so much right out of the gate?”

“
It’ll be good to think
about something other than my own problems for a
change.”

“
How’re things going with
the girls?”

“
Much better. They seem to
have accepted that their old man is in charge and paying attention.
I’ll tell you, though. Their social lives exhaust me. I need a
color-coded spreadsheet to track their comings and goings. I have
no idea how Clare managed to make it look so easy.”

“
She was one hell of a
mother,” Jamie said.

“
That she was, and now they
have me. The sorry substitute.”

“
When they’re all grown up
with kids of their own, they’ll remember what you did for them, and
they’ll appreciate it.”

Jack eyed him skeptically as they walked to
the parking lot together. “You sure about that, oh wise one?”

“
Positive.”

“
Day one went better than I
thought it would. Thanks again for the party.”

“
We’re glad to have you
back. Say hi to the girls for me.”

“
Will do. See
ya.”

Jack unlocked his silver
BMW convertible, got in, and sat for a long time before he could
make himself move.
Clare won’t be
there
. “But the girls will be,” he said as
he started the car and drove home to them.

Part II

Freestyle: Using a swimming stroke of one’s
choice instead of a specified style.

Chapter
4