Unraveled (9 page)

Kelly recalled how pleased Warner had been to entice Dave Germaine to join his company and had bragged about Germaine’s commitment to service. Apparently Germaine had gone for his architect degree after he returned from his military service. That was a definite plus with Warner, whose own son was serving overseas in the armed forces.

“Thank you, Bill,” Warner’s voice came loud in the quiet room. “What do you say we take a coffee break right about now, okay?”

Kelly eagerly rose from her chair and stealthily stretched muscles that were tired of sitting for two and a half hours. Meanwhile, she made a mental note to drink two cups so she wouldn’t be tempted to yawn again.

Dave Germaine approached Kelly as she joined the flow of eager meeting goers escaping from the conference room. “Coffee isn’t coming a minute too soon, right, Kelly?”

“Oh, yeah. I hope you were the only one who spotted my yawn. I couldn’t help it.”

“I’d already swallowed mine down. I learned how to do that when I was on night watch in the military. You fall asleep, you’re in the brig.” he said with a laugh.

“Whoa, don’t tell Warner,” she joked as the person in front of her finished with the coffee machine. Kelly turned the nozzle and watched a dark stream pour into her ceramic Warner Development coffee mug. “Sometimes those charts make my eyes cross, and I’m an accountant.” She stepped away and took a long, deep drink, felt the familiar harsh burn on her throat. Caffeine.
Yessss
. Brain cells lulled to sleep were coming back online.

Dave chuckled as Kelly drank nearly the entire mug of coffee standing there. “You remind me of the army sergeant who led my platoon. He could drink coffee straight from the pot like that. Didn’t even bother to blow on it.”

“Sounds like a man after my own heart,” Kelly joked as they walked into the main room where several architects were working on computers and drafting tables, drawing up building plans. That sparked Kelly’s curiosity. “Did you start out like this?” She indicated the men and women busily designing. “Designing projects for Overby Associates?”

Dave nodded and sipped his coffee as he looked out over the heads bent in concentration. “Yeah, at first. But it wasn’t Overby. I started with a smaller firm that Overby took over right after I signed on. That was a stroke of luck, because old man Overby liked to develop talent. And I was hungry and a hard worker. So, I grabbed every chance he threw my way. Worked my head off, and it paid off.”

“I should say. Weren’t you in charge of Overby’s Lakewood mall renovation? That was quite a coup.” Kelly lifted her mug in salute.

Dave smiled. “Yeah, that did turn out pretty well. I was proud of that.”

He had a nice smile, and Kelly could tell Dave wanted to say something else, but Warner was headed their way.

“Glad I found you two together,” Warner said with his trademark wide grin. Silver edged the black hair at Don Warner’s temples, his face suntanned even in winter. “Dave, I’d like you to go over those estimates you showed me on the Thornton project with Kelly. She needs to be up to speed with the latest numbers.”

“Absolutely,” Dave said. “When are we breaking for lunch? We could go over it then. Or, at least start.”

Warner scanned the rest of his staff and associates, who were milling about, talking on cell phones or checking e-mail on their smartphones. “You know, the rest of this meeting isn’t essential for either of you. Joe and Bruce will be talking about finishing some long-running project in Brighton. Why don’t you two take a long lunch on me and go over this information. How’s that?” His sharp brown eyes darted from Germaine to Kelly.

“Works for me,” Kelly offered. “I’ve been anxious to see some figures anyway. So, this sounds like a great time. And, it means I won’t have to work late.” She gave Warner her own signature grin.

“That’s my girl,” Warner said with a laugh, patting Kelly’s shoulder. “I depend on you for those numbers, Kelly. You keep me on track.”

“I do my best.”

“That’s a great suggestion,” Dave added. “Otherwise we’d be grabbing burgers and fries from the fast food down the street.”

“Excellent, excellent. Pick up the card for my club at the front desk. Martha keeps it,” Warner said, clapping his hands together. He started to turn away then stopped, his smile faded. “By the way, Kelly, I saw a notice in yesterday’s
Denver Post
about Fred Turner dying in Fort Connor over the weekend. The newspaper hinted it might have been a suicide. Did you hear anything about that?”

Kelly paused, choosing her words carefully. “Yes, I did. One of my friends was the real estate agent who listed Turner’s land for sale in the Poudre Canyon. Apparently, that’s where he was found.” She sipped her coffee and didn’t say more.

Warner looked shocked. “Damn! I can’t picture Fred Turner killing himself. He was hell-bent on amassing a real estate fortune and was well on the way, the last I heard it.”

“Yeah, I can’t picture it, either,” Dave added. “When I first met him eight years ago, Turner was gobbling up properties right and left. And he’d use whatever tactics he could on an unsuspecting client. He was a crook if you ask me.” Dave gave a disgusted look.

Warner gave a wry smile. “Well, Fred was never known for his honesty, I’ll say that.”

“Got that right,” Dave said, taking a long drink of coffee.

Kelly debated adding anything and decided to register a moderate comment. “You know, my friend did mention Turner had a rather unsavory reputation. Now, I know what she meant.”

Warner let out a hooting laugh. “Unsavory?
Ha!
That’s putting it mildly. Fred’s deals smelled so bad, nobody I know wanted to work with him. On anything.”

“The only good skunk is a dead skunk,” Dave said grimly and drained his coffee.

“Hey
, Kelly, we saved some pizza for you,” Greg said as he opened the front door for Kelly later that evening.

“No, thanks, I grabbed some chicken salad and soup after I worked out at the gym.” She smiled at her friends who were scattered about Lisa and Greg’s living room. “Hey, guys. How’s it going?”

“Better now that you’re here,” Lisa said. “We need an impartial third party to help Megan and Marty decide on the caterers for the wedding. They’ve got it narrowed down to two. We’ve all voted, and it’s a tie. Three for the Downtown Grill and three of us voted for the Sunflower Café. So, you can break the tie.” Lisa tipped back her brown bottle of ale.

Kelly sank into the free spot on the sofa beside Jennifer and Pete. “Ohhhh, pressure, pressure. I’ve got enough of that on the job,” she teased. “Let’s see . . . the Sunflower has great salads and desserts, and the Downtown has great barbequed chicken and beef. But, you don’t need their meat because Curt’s donating all those steaks. Hmmmm.” She pretended to ponder.

“Here, this will help,” Greg said, handing Kelly a Fat Tire ale before he rejoined Lisa on the love seat.

“You can’t go wrong with either one,” Pete said. “And if you can’t decide, why don’t you order the salads from Sunflower and have the Downtown bring their barbequed chicken. You’re already hiring someone to grill the steaks.”

Everyone turned to Pete and stared for one brief second. Then exploded in affirmations.

“Fantastic idea!”

“Why didn’t we think of that?”

“Love it!”

“Perfect, just perfect. Thanks, Pete.”

“See, you didn’t need me,” Kelly teased and took a long, cool drink of ale.

“He’s the man,” Jennifer said with a sly grin, tipping her cola can to Pete, who was taking mock bows.

Lisa asked. “So, how was the workout?”

“Good. I’d been ramping up my entire weight routine with the machines and free weights, and it feels really good. I’ve gotten a lot stronger, too. I can even heft around Carl’s forty-pound bags of dog food with one arm now.” She reached for a stray tomato on the side of the salad plate.

“That reminds me, I’ve gotta get back to that,” Greg said, making a weight-lifting motion with his right arm. “I think I pulled a muscle when Marty and Steve and I were shooting hoops last weekend.”

Kelly decided to deflect that conversational direction before it even started. She didn’t doubt that Jennifer had already told the gang about Kelly’s reaction to news about Steve. She wasn’t in the mood to listen to everyone rag on her. It had been a long day in Denver. She just wanted to relax.

“You know, Warner asked me about Fred Turner’s death,” she said to Jennifer. “I acted like I didn’t know much but it looked to be suicide. Warner said no one in Denver wanted to work with Turner because he was such a crook. Looks like Turner cheated people all over northern Colorado. Even Dave had a run-in with him. Called him a crook and a skunk.” She took another drink.

“Who’s Dave?” Jennifer asked.

“Dave Germaine. Warner’s hired him to head up Warner’s part of the Thornton joint project.”

Jennifer’s brow lifted. “Dave Germaine? I remember him. He gave a presentation for Overby Associates at last year’s state real estate convention. Smart guy.”

Kelly snagged half a chocolate chip cookie and settled back into the sofa. “Yeah. He’s one of the few who can actually make sense when he’s talking to a whole group.”

“Good looking, too,” Jennifer added, then sipped from her cola can.

Kelly couldn’t help smiling. She knew where Jennifer was headed with this, but Kelly wasn’t about to fall into Jennifer’s trap. “Yeah, that, too.”

Jennifer took another sip from her cola can, while Kelly watched the rest of her friends focus on the two of them. “Has he asked you out yet? If not, he will.” Jennifer said nonchalantly.

Kelly wasn’t expecting that. She’d been expecting Jennifer to beat around the “good-looking” bush for a little bit while Kelly danced away. Nope. Jennifer went straight as an arrow to the bull’s-eye. Kelly should have known better. She should have said Dave Germaine was ugly and awful.
When would she learn she couldn’t outwit Jennifer in these matters?

Kelly felt all her friends’ eyes on her. And, a slight color creeping up her face. “How’d you know?” she demanded.

Jennifer raised both hands and smiled. “Hey, I’m an expert in those matters. Or used to be. Ted the bartender used to call me the doctor of love. Plus, I’ve got really good antennae.”

Kelly used that as an escape and chimed in. “That’s right, they called you the Love Doctor at the Empire Bar.”

“Hey, do you have a license?” Marty teased. “If so, there’re a couple of guys in my office who’re in serious need of guidance.”

“Doctor of love, huh?” Greg picked up the thread. “Listen, do you take appointments? Lisa’s doing this thing that really annoys me, and I need to—
ow
!”

Lisa punched Greg in the rib while everyone cackled. Kelly took the reprieve to regain her footing. “In answer to your question, yes, Dave did ask me out to dinner, but I declined.”

She took another drink of the tasty ale and could almost hear the collective sigh of relief from her friends.

All except Jennifer, who turned to Kelly with that relaxed expression. “Why didn’t you say yes? Don’t you like him?”

Kelly wasn’t expecting to be grilled, so she shrugged. “Sure. He’s a great guy. I—I just didn’t want to stay late in Denver again. I’ve had to do that so many times. It gets old.”

“You’ve gotta be kidding,” Jennifer scoffed. “You stay overnight in Denver regularly because of late night meetings. You could do it for a late night date.”

“Yeah, I suppose.” Kelly shrugged again because she didn’t know what else to say. She was uncomfortable with everyone hanging on her every word.

“Plus, you stay at the Cherry Creek Inn. How hard is that? Luxury at your fingertips.”

“Wow, I wouldn’t mind staying there,” Lisa said, reaching for a cookie. “Why don’t you give Dave my number. I’ll drive down for a date. Greg’s gotten
really
annoying lately.”

Kelly joined her friends’ laughter as Greg looked sheepish. She was hoping Jennifer might drop the subject now.

No such luck. Jennifer picked it up again. “You stay in Denver regularly, so that can’t be the reason. Did he do something really annoying like belching really loud in the middle of lunch?”

“I hate it when someone does that,” Greg said, then belched loudly to his friends’ laughter.

“That does it. Give Dave my card, will ya?” Lisa said.

“Please don’t give Marty any ideas,” Megan said, pointing to her fiancé beside her. But it was too late. Marty was already hitting his stomach with his fist and produced an even louder noise.

Kelly laughed loudly at her friends’ schoolyard antics, particularly watching Megan look horrified, then roll her eyes at her fiancé’s behavior. Marty was having too much fun laughing to care.

“Okay, Love Doctor, I need one of those appointments,” Megan said when the laughter died down. “I don’t know if I can live with that forever. We may have to cancel the wedding.”

“Too late. You’ve ordered a cake.”

“I haven’t got a gown yet, so it’s still open.”

“You can cancel but say good-bye to Curt’s steaks.”

“Good point.”

Good-natured teasing went around the circle, making Kelly relax even more. Good friends and shared laughter. Good times. She needed her friends.

Not a minute passed before Jennifer picked up the thread once again. “Well, aside from possibly lacking social skills, is there any other reason you didn’t want to go out with him? Dave Germaine is a nice guy.”

Kelly released a long sigh and surrendered. Jennifer wasn’t going to stop until Kelly told the truth. “Yes, he is. But I’m not sure I want to get involved with anyone.”

“Going out to dinner is not getting involved,” Jennifer countered gently.

“Yeah, well . . .” Kelly demurred.

“Jennifer, if she doesn’t want to go out with him, leave her alone,” Megan protested quietly.

Jennifer turned to Megan and the entire circle with a smile, hand to her chest. “Please, the Love Doctor is in the midst of a consultation. Do not interrupt.”

The slight tension that Kelly felt building was dissipated right away. So, she responded honestly. “I’m just hesitant, that’s all.”

“It’s been six months, Kelly. You’ve gotta get back out there. Or else, you’ll lose your nerve. And you don’t wanta lose that, Kelly. It’s one of the things we love about you.” Jennifer gave her a sympathetic smile. “It’s like when you fall off a horse, you’ve gotta get back on and ride. Or you’ll be scared of horses forever.”