Chapter Eighteen
Valerie
Settling down in the office was difficult at best. The feeling of Lucas’ fingers around my wrists continued to make my body tingle. And when he pressed his body against mine as he pinned me to the wall… My knees barely held me up.
A part of me wanted to take him up on his lesson right then and there, but unfortunately, he was right. We were in the office, and I was the one who said we must be professional. Like we were really professional at Rustic? But in my mind, I justified it that we weren’t in the office.
Damn, my own rules. My cell rang, and I looked at it. My mother. Great. She’d already left me over ten messages. The woman just didn’t get the hint. I didn’t need this today but might as well get it over with. “Hi, Mom.”
“You haven’t returned my calls.” Her screechy voice made me flinch.
“I’ve been busy. I do have a job.” Like my family ever remembered that. They still expected me to drop everything for them. Not that I’d done that in a very long time, but it never stopped my mother from berating me for some perceived slight.
“Your little accountant job, yes, I know. Anyway, we’re having a family dinner next weekend, and we want you there.”
I rolled my eyes. “I thought Kendall was accepting some sort of award next weekend.” Talk about forgetting what she told me.
“Change of plans. Family dinner.”
Why wasn’t I surprised. “I’m not available next weekend.” I hated those family dinners and hadn’t attended one in years. Was that why my mother said it was some award to get me there? It didn’t matter. I wasn’t going.
“Make yourself available. We’re celebrating Kendall’s modeling career.”
Ah, it was all about Kendall. Of course, it was. Kendall’s idea of a modeling career was taking some headshots. “Sorry, but I’m not available. Enjoy. I’ve got to go.” I hung up before she could say another word. Reminder to self: Don’t answer her calls.
“What are you doing next weekend that you’d blow off your family?” Lucas asked.
Damn. I closed my eyes, then opened them. “Nothing.” I wouldn’t lie to Lucas. Not if I was going to have a relationship with him.
“What’s going on?” Lucas was right next to me. When had he moved?
“It’s my family. You know we’re not close.” That was the understatement of the year. My parents never saw me, only Kendall. Nothing I did was worthy.
“It’s more than not being close. Will you talk to me, please?”
There was a pleading note in his voice. Had I shut him out that much? When it came to my family, yes. Now… I needed to talk to him about them, but not here. “The office isn’t a place for this.”
“We’re alone.”
“Yes, but…” Why was I so reluctant to tell Lucas? Hadn’t I decided I needed to talk with him? “Let’s just say growing up with an older sister who could do no wrong meant I got blamed for everything. It also made growing up in a home like that very unhappy for me.”
“That’s not right.” He shifted his chair closer to mine.
“No, it’s not, but that’s how my life was as a kid.
When I turned eighteen, I couldn’t get away fast enough.
Luckily, I applied for several scholarships and received them.
” My parents had told me in high school that they wouldn’t pay for college, and if I wanted to go, I had to do it on my own, so I did.
“You did a fantastic job to be hired right out of college.” Lucas paused. “I remember you watching every penny you spent when you first came to work at the accounting firm.”
“I still do.” There were some semesters where I lived off ramen and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. It had been hard, but I’d been determined to get my degree.
“Why? You have a good paying job. I’m not saying you shouldn’t be financially responsible, but quality of life is important too.”
“You always did have a different view of life than I did.” In a way, I envied Lucas’ view on life.
“I had more responsibility than you. I needed balance so I wasn’t a wreck.”
“You took care of your sister. How is she doing?” I turned the conversation away from me.
“Great. She’s in her last semester of medical school.”
The pride in his voice made me smile. I was glad Mindy had such support, and I was a bit jealous too. “That’s wonderful.”
“Back to next weekend. Why don’t the two of us go to your family thing?”
I should have known he wouldn’t let me get away with deflecting the conversation. “What did you say?” He couldn’t be serious.
“The two of us go to your family thing. This way you have some support.”
For a full minute, I forgot to breathe. “You want to meet my family?” I shook my head. “That’s a bad idea.” It was a disaster in the making. Lucas had no idea how my family could be.
“Why? I could understand before when we were working and you were reluctant to take time off, but now I want to meet them and support you at the same time.”
I struggled to tell Lucas why it wasn’t a good idea. Maybe because I worried he might see my family differently than I did. Or even worse, he’d see me as my family does, and that would be the end of us. My gut clenched. “Let me think about it.”
“Good.” He glanced at his watch. “Another hour then we can go to Whistle Stop.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” Last Friday night was fun, and I’d enjoyed having lunch with Cassie and Emma this week. Plus, I wanted to unwind and not worry about my family or anything else.
* * *
Walking to the Whistle Stop helped me relax. Maybe because I could breathe a little easier outside where Lucas’ scent was muted, and I could push the family drama out of my head for a bit. We made our way to the table. Everyone was there but Cassie and Marcus. I looked at Emma.
“Cassie got stuck in the office, so Marcus is with her. They should be here soon.”
“Does Cassie get stuck often?” I noticed all the men stood, waited until Lucas held my chair out and sat down once I was seated. It was right then I realized my father had never done that for my mother. Neither had any of the men I dated outside of Lucas.
“Not often,” Emma commented, reminding me I’d asked about Cassie working late.
“Valerie.” Josh caught my attention. “We might have a set of contracts to you on Monday afternoon.”
“Oh?” Surprise went through me. In the meeting, Dean figured it would take longer.
“Yes, thanks to Emma’s brilliance.” Dean grinned. “She built us a quick database that’s going to allow us to filter the contracts easier.”
“That’s my Emma,” Asher said, putting an arm around Emma’s shoulders.
A pang of envy went through me, and I shook it away. Emma and Asher were perfect together, but there was nothing for me to be jealous of.
“Right.” Emma half shrugged off Asher’s arm. “I believe your words were: I don’t have time. You do it.”
Everyone laughed. “It was the truth. I was working on part of R&D’s app that crashed, and I needed your help.” Asher pouted.
“It only crashed because I told you not to add that new code until we’d finished testing. But did you listen to me? Of course you didn’t.”
“Children,” Miles said, clapping his hands.
I giggled. This group had the ability to tease each other, yet still work very well together. I was honored to be included.
“Anyway,” Josh said. “We’ll run the first dates on Monday, and we should be able to have some to you by the afternoon.”
“That’s fine. I’ll starting to index everything from a year ago to give us a good place to start to see if the problem has been going on for longer than a year or if it’s more recent.
” Remembering what I’d seen, I suspected the issues had been happening longer than a year, but that was a good place to start.
“Do you think it has?” Miles asked.
“I’m not sure, but I suspect so,” I replied.
“I’m thinking it’s been happening for a couple of years at least,” Lucas chimed in.
“Why?” What had he seen that caused him to think the issues were older than a year?
“I looked at the company we were using before Rustic. We never had any chargebacks or returns that I could see.”
“They were a pretty small company,” Dean said.
“It was a two-person shop,” Lucas said.
“So why did you leave the other place?” Talking about Rustic might give me better insight into finding patterns and information to solve this puzzle.
“We didn’t. Rustic bought them out for a significant amount of money if I remember right.” Lucas rubbed his forehead. “It’s not easy to find the equipment we need without it costing us a fortune. Many of the companies are overseas and importing is costly.”
If Rustic bought this other company and then started doing shoddy work…there should be records. Maybe not records we could access, but the internet was forever. “There should be a public record of the sale,” I said.
“I’m sure there is. I’ll have to go find the other name,” Lucas commented.
“What name?” Cassie asked as she and Marcus came up to the table. The men all pushed back their chairs and stood. Cassie shook her head. “I’ve told you guys you don’t need to do that.”
“Our mamas would beat our asses if we didn’t. We were raised with manners,” Miles said, and all the other men nodded.
“So, what name?” Cassie asked again.
“The company used before Rustic,” I said.
“Oh, that’s easy. It was the Winter Brothers,” Cassie said.
Jaws dropped open.
“What?” Cassie waved her hand in the air.
“I think everyone is amazed you remember that, honey.”
“Why wouldn’t I? I had to deal with the complaints after the change.”
“There were complaints?” I stared at her.
“A few. I had to explain that Rustic bought them out.”
“Can I see those complaints?” I couldn’t wait to dig into them to see what I could find.
“Sure, but what good will that do?” Tilting her head, she stared at me.
“Because it might give me some insight as to how the Winter Brothers ran their business compared to Rustic.” Over the years, I’d seen a lot of companies bought out or a merger that went downhill very fast.
“Rustic has been around for over seven years now,” Marcus said.
“Yeah, they pre-date you,” Valerie offered.
“How do you know that?” Lucas asked.
“I’ve read up on FI, as well as Rustic, over the last two weeks, and FI is impressive.”