30. Chapter 30
Chapter 30
Magnolia looked up at the half knock on her office door, managed a tired smile for Charles. Mari had picked up her, Lucas and Emma and taken them home while Ezra had asked someone to drop off Emma’s car. So all that was settled.
Unfortunately nothing else was settled inside her, even with the knowledge that Perry was currently in jail. So she’d come to work to give Lucas and Emma some space, and truthfully, to get her own emotions in check.
“Hey.” She managed a small smile. “I didn’t realize you were still here.” It was six and everyone had left an hour ago.
“Had a few emails to catch up on.” He gave a half smile. “I’m about to head out though, wanted to check on you.”
“I’m good and about to get out of here myself.” She wanted to go home, get in her pajamas and have a pity party.
He nodded, cleared his throat. “Listen, I did want to talk to you about something and wanted to wait until it was just the two of us.”
“Sure.” She nodded to one of the seats in front of her desk. “What’s up?”
“If we get the Gray job, I want to take lead. I’ve got the most experience and I picked up all the slack on the West End project.”
Oooh, she really didn’t want to have this conversation. But she was the boss so she had to. “I actually want you as PM on the Sinclair job. You’ve already got a working relationship with the owner and he loves working with you. It makes more sense for you to take on that job, especially since it’s going to start right after Christmas. The Gray job might not start until February and that’s even if we get it.”
He gritted his teeth. “We’re going to get it.”
“Maybe.” And the truth was, in no part because of him. He’d dropped the ball with Tremblay and even though it had worked out, he hadn’t been pulling his weight. Not where it was needed.
“Is this because of Tremblay?” he finally asked.
“No.”
He raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, partially. But it’s definitely not the only reason. You’re really great with the custom jobs.”
“The small ones,” he practically spat.
“Smaller, yes, but still important to our company. We’re diversified for a reason. And you’ve been killing it the last year.”
She’d almost let him go a year ago but he’d turned things around. But he still wasn’t ready for a huge job because she couldn’t micromanage. Hell, she didn’t want to, but she had to trust her employees a hundred percent. And she didn’t with him.
“You should have been able to land Tremblay,” she continued when he didn’t say anything. “And I’m not going to harp on it, mainly because we’re going in a better direction. We’re lucky to have landed someone so talented. But if we hadn’t landed someone new, you should have been able to get Tremblay to sign with us. I think Davids is better suited for the Gray project—if we even get it.” Though at this point, she and everyone else were feeling really good about their odds.
“She’s only got a bachelor’s degree.” He said it with a certain amount of disdain that got her hackles up.
But Magnolia kept her expression neutral. “Yeah, but she’s also got eight years’ experience and…she’s got incredible soft skills. The kind that can’t be taught. She’s great with people, handles stress better than anyone here. And for a job this size, I need someone cool under pressure. ”
Sighing, he stood. “I’ve been offered a job at the Lawson firm. As a senior project manager.”
Magnolia nodded, stood and plucked up her bag. She’d actually heard he’d been putting out feelers, but hadn’t been certain he was seriously job searching. “Are you going to take it?”
He blinked in surprise. “You’re not…”
“Angry? No. I’d never stand in the way, and I think you’ll do a great job for them.” They were a smaller firm and worked with a certain type of clientele (ahem, good ole boys, of which her cousin was a part). And that was part of the problem with him—he worked well with people from the same tax bracket as him, people who looked like him, but he could be classist. And she didn’t want that in her employees. He was giving her a great out right now and she was going to take it.
He shoved out a sigh. “Wow, I thought you’d, I don’t know—”
“Look, this is a business. I understand that you have to make the right decision for yourself. If you want to put your official notice in, let’s do it now. You can simply enjoy the holidays and take the time to reset before you start your new job. And we’ll pay you out for your accrued PTO. You can get your personal stuff later. It’s getting late so just check back in tomorrow if you want.”
Looking a little shell-shocked, he nodded and headed out. She waited until he was gone before she ducked back into her office and pulled up the list of keycards and deactivated his.
Then she deactivated all his logins and sent off a message to their IT person to let them know what she’d done. She didn’t think he’d do anything shady, but she’d been burned during her first year as owner so it was second nature to do it now.
Ugh, this might make Christmas dinner awkward, but it was what it was. After closing down, she headed out for the second time, and froze when she saw her SUV.
All four tires were flat. As she stepped closer, ice chilled her veins. They’d been slashed .
Cold snaked down her spine as she looked around, but of course the gated parking lot was empty. Even though she didn’t want to, she called Ezra.
To her surprise, he answered on the first ring. “Hey. Everything okay?”
“Ah…my tires have been slashed.” And now she was wondering what the hell was going on. Because Perry couldn’t have done it.
“Stay where you are. I’m just down the street.” He disconnected before she could respond.
Even as she wondered why he was so close, she let herself out of the parking lot and headed to the curb, her heart rate kicking up as she saw him in the distance. He hadn’t been kidding, he was close.
As he pulled up in front of her, a truck across the street squealed away and she saw Austin Jameson tearing down the street.
What the heck was going on?