He's Got Her Goat (15 page)

Sterling neared but tried to stay out of either woman’s line of vision by putting his back against the wall next to the entrance of Elaine’s office area.

Silence.

Sterling hesitated in his hiding place then decided to proceed and nearly ran into Dotty. Streaks of mascara were streaming down her cheeks as she rounded the corner. She didn’t even look surprised, just shook her finger and said, “If you know what’s good for you, you’ll stay away from that witch. Stay away!” Then she ran off.

With how upset she was, Sterling decided not to follow her yet. He also didn’t plan on heeding her advice.

Elaine was almost to her door when Sterling caught her. “We’ve got to talk.”

“In here.” She opened her door and locked it. “That conversation should never have happened.”

Sterling stared at her. Elaine was shaking and poured herself a drink. In all the years he’d worked for her, he had never seen Elaine so much as break a sweat, even in the most intense of negotiations. To see her so frazzled left him worried. “What can I do?”

“There you go again.” She sat in her large leather chair and leaned back. “Why does being a Boy Scout come so naturally to you?”

He didn’t answer and knew Elaine didn’t expect him to. She finished her drink while he ironically remembered his father’s anger at his refusal to go to scout camp in favor of football camp.

Elaine put her empty glass on her desk. “You might as well know that Dotty and Paige’s uncle used to be intimate.”

Sterling waited. “Then why is she so upset?”

“She thinks I broke them up,” Elaine said, “but I was only helping him.”

“How?” he asked.

Elaine ran her hand across the edge of her desk as she spoke. “I already told you how I began my career by flipping houses. Bill was my roofing supplier, and Dotty was his assistant of sorts.”

“How’d she come to work for you?” Now he was interested. He knew Dotty had been with the firm longer than he had, but she’d never filled him in on the details.

Elaine sat up straight in her chair. “When Bill’s brother died in a car accident, he wanted to spend more time with his little niece. That’s when he agreed to sell me his company. Dotty came with it. It was my first corporate acquisition.” He could hear the pride in her voice during that last bit.

“How old was Paige then?”

“Five or six. I never met her before today.” Elaine got to her feet. “And I can’t imagine why Dotty is so upset. You try to do a favor for an old friend, and this is the thanks you get.”

Sterling wanted to hear Dotty’s side of things. “Don’t judge her too harshly.”

Elaine let out a dry laugh. “I won’t if you take whatever she says with a grain of salt.”

“Deal.” He shook Elaine’s hands and headed around the corner, feeling more unsettled than when he had arrived.

His pace quickened with each stride until by the time he was near his own office, he was at a jog. He stopped short as his brain registered Dotty talking to Paige. He blinked. Paige was hugging Dotty who had wiped some of her dripping makeup off but still had the telltale red nose and bloodshot eyes. Paige looked up to Sterling and called to him. “Apparently, your secretary had a real scare. Her grandson was left behind on a fieldtrip. They found him, but she’s got to go pick him up. Can you imagine?”

A soft cough at his elbow told him that Elaine had followed.

With her purse slung over her shoulder, Dotty marched by the two of them. As she passed between Sterling and Elaine, she said under her breath, “This is not over.” Then she kept on going to the elevators.

Innocent of anything out of the ordinary, Paige approached them. “Don’t we need to get ready for our flight? I’ve got to at least go home and pack.”

Elaine was first to answer. “Not enough time. You’ve got to be at the airport in two hours.”

Although Sterling was excited to get on his way, Elaine seemed over anxious. There it was again, that hitch that made him know something was up. They could travel later that afternoon or even take the red eye and still get to Texas in plenty of time.

Touching his arm as if to inform him, Elaine continued, “I’ll include a wardrobe budget in your expense accounts, Sterling. Your hotel’s right next to the Galleria, and you can help Paige find appropriate attire. You might as well enjoy the largest shopping mall in the Texas while you’re there.” She quickly changed the subject. “Paige, do you think Austin here is set?”

Hanging back behind the open door, Austin stepped into the hallway at the sound of his name. “Everything is under control, ma’am.” He bowed stiffly, and Sterling understood why his first impression of the boy was that he wasn’t very bright.

“Well done.” Elaine seemed in her element. “Now, Paige and Austin, if you’ll come with me, I’ve got the milkers and vet ready downstairs. They’ll need to get your input, and then we’ll just have time to train the two chemists who will mix the soap. Of course, we may need to contact you later, but I’d really prefer we take care of all of the details now.”

Gesturing for Paige to proceed ahead of them, Elaine met Sterling’s eyes one last time. She smiled and whispered. “I’m hoping this takes the full week. Don’t feel you have to hurry back. There’s lots to keep you busy in Dallas.” Though he’d seen her manipulate people dozens of times, this was different. He felt like one of the victims, not one of the players.

WITHIN THE HOUR,
Paige and Sterling were being driven by limo to the airport. Paige kept up a running monologue about how much confidence she had in the professionals that would take care of her goats and in Austin who had seemed to anticipate her every concern. Sterling’s mind barely followed along. He tried to piece together what was going on. Elaine had already told Paige her uncle was an old acquaintance. After Sterling had accosted her, Elaine hadn’t really told him much more than that. Her bait and switch routine was flawless. He was more focused on Dotty than Paige the entire conversation. No, it was quite clear something didn’t smell right, but all he had were suspicions.

Paige laid her hand on his, and he again felt her velvet skin. “Sterling,
Earth Tech
really does seem amazing, almost too good to be true.”

Sterling thought the same thing about her. Joe’s kiss didn’t matter anymore. She was in his world now, and he hoped she’d never go back. This time he wouldn’t blow it. He could clean up any mess Elaine got Paige into later.

“I don’t think anything is too good for either of us,” he said with confidence. All he needed was time to win her over, and this week in Texas should be just long enough.

Chapter Seventeen

T
HE LATE SPRING TEXAS AIR
was already so humid it clung around Paige’s armpits and in the skin beneath her nose. Though in the low eighties, it felt at least ten degrees warmer. After deboarding, they were met by a chauffeur holding a handwritten sign which read, “Lindon and Keller.” Once they pulled away from the airport, her nose was glued to the window.

Unlike the Northwest where every view was punctuated and obstructed by green forests, Dallas was wide and flat. Buildings were everywhere, but the streets were wide enough that it didn’t feel crowded in. While the landscape was somewhat bland, the skyscape captured her. Each large cloud seemed to be molded by some divine modern artist, begging for an interpretation to his masterpiece. She couldn’t help but comment on it. “Sterling doesn’t that one look like an elephant on a unicycle.”

He laughed for the first time since they had left. “I guess it does.”

In all the excitement of the flight and the flurry of speed reading hundreds of papers in preparation for her first assignment, Paige hadn’t considered how oddly Sterling was behaving. Did he still felt guilty for lying to her? She might as well deal with the elephant in the car instead of the one in the sky. She turned to him. “Okay, Sterling, spill it. What’s wrong?”

He peered out the window. “Nothing, really.”

She took his hand in both of hers. “Okay, so I might have been really upset when this first all happened, but I think it’s all worked out for the best. Our first encounter may have been bumpy, but I get that Elaine probably told you to check me out and not tell me who you were. I’m not mad anymore.”

He stared at her hands and wouldn’t meet her eyes.

She could tell he was struggling deeply with something and wracked her brain for what it might be. “And I’m sorry about that whole feet washing thing. It only started because you made me a little jealous.”

That brought a smile to his lips. “Jealous, of whom?”

“Who do you think?” She was happy to finally see light in his pale eyes. “Of Julie and her friend. They just seem to be more in your league.”

He gave her half a smile. “Uh, you thought I was homeless and jobless then.”

“Who you are has nothing to do with what you do for a living. You know that, right?”

He never answered her question. Instead, they were coming up on the Galleria Mall, and he pointed to her window. “We’re here.”

The driver maneuvered into the porte-cochere of the Westin, and a uniformed valet opened her car door. While the driver retrieved Sterling’s bag from the trunk, Paige entered the opulent lobby and couldn’t help but gasp. In the center of the room, a glass vase, the size of a water tower for a small town, sat on a marble table. It was at least twice her height and filled with wax flowers that looked so authentic she wanted to touch them to make certain they weren’t real. Huge paintings covered the walls. One was an oil of a simple pear that followed the contours of a woman’s bare buttocks and another of a wilted rose that seemed to reflect not just the flower but a missed opportunity at love. There were dozens of other paintings she would have loved to enjoy, but she noticed Sterling was at the desk and strolled over to him to see if he needed her for anything.

He turned to meet her. “Everything’s set. Do you want to go to the room first and freshen up or hit the mall?”

Paige put her hands on her hips. “You’d really ask that? How much luggage do I have? Think about it.”

Sliding the room keys into his wallet, he motioned to the back end of the lobby which opened to a wide hallway. “The mall it is.”

Proceeding down the corridor at the back of the hotel, they came to a massive ice skating rink, three stories high at the center of the mall. Each floor was exposed, and she could see scores of unique stores selling clothes, imports and jewelry.

The chill was refreshing and reminded Paige of early mornings back home. She leaned against the glass partition dividing the skaters from the shoppers. “I wonder how the goats are doing.”

“You could call Austin.” Sterling held out his cell.

Paige considered it for a moment before she wagged her head. “Nope. It will only stress him out. I know he’s doing an awesome job.”

“From what I know of Austin, you’re right on both counts.” He stuck the phone in his shirt pocket. “Nordstrom’s first?”

The side of the rink near the hotel was almost empty, but she wasn’t ready to leave and become part of the bustling crowd quite yet. “Do you ever get tired of the fast lane and want a quieter, smaller life?”

Sterling quick answer hardly resembled the humble cowboy she’d gotten to know. “Compared to your life, mine is quieter and much less hectic.”

“Maybe.” She nodded deeply. “But, I don’t know, it seems a little cold.”

He took her arm. “That’s only because your standing next to the skating rink.”

THEY SPENT THE REST OF THE AFTERNOON
skimming over the nicer department stores. Paige had assumed all men hated shopping, but Sterling thrived on it. He had a great eye when it came to classic styling, and within a relatively short amount of time, they had picked out three pant suits that looked exquisite on her. He even found accessories, a chunky necklace and earrings of the same copper hue as a silk blouse and a chignon pin that tamed her curls unlike anything she had ever tried.

By seven o’clock, their arms were overflowing with tissue-lined shopping bags, but they weren’t done. At least one of them wasn’t. Paige turned to him. “I’ve got a suggestion to make. Why don’t you head back to the hotel with all of this and decide where you want to meet for dinner while I get a few things by myself?”

His arms were loaded with bags, but he had one hand open. “Let me go with you. I can carry more.”