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Cassie was juggling two grocery sacks, her messenger bag and purse when the front door opened. Bracing herself for the coming tornado, she saw it was the twins. Beatriz and Brigitte at five were a force to be reckoned with and she prepared herself for the onslaught.
“Hey you two, careful. I have lots of fragile items in the bags. Can you help me carry something?”
“I can help,” Beatriz said and Cassie handed over her purse. She had to get more creative, as she looked at what else she had. Everything was too big or not age appropriate for Bridgette’s unsteady grasp. Suddenly she remembered the one bag held a huge box of cereal. As soon as she handed it over, Brigitte was running after Beatriz. Cassie picked up her pace, knowing that the others would not be far behind. As if on cue Harper stuck her head out the front door.
“Mom, Will and Alex have been hogging the computer all afternoon.”
Cassie shook her head, and drew in a tight breath. “Sweetie, you haven’t even been here all afternoon. And I doubt Mrs. Tokarski would let them hog the computer. Does she have the timer out?”
“Yeah,” said Harper rolling her eyes.
“So did you lose your turn this afternoon for some reason?” Cassie asked, entering the door held open by the pouting nine year old.
“I called Alex stupid,” she gave the truth up.
Cassie sighed and walking into the dining room area, “Harper you know what I think about that word.”
“It’s not a nice word...and I shouldn’t use it,” the little girl said sticking a lip out and bowing her head.
“And when you call someone names, you lose your turn for the rest of the day so you can think about your behavior. Right?” she crouched down in front of the precocious nine-year-old.
“I guess.”
“I still love you,” Cassie opened her arms and couldn’t help but smile when Harper stepped into them and wrapped her arms around her. The twins quickly joined in and a hug sandwich ensued. This she thought is the best part of my day.
After a few moments, she disentangled herself and stood. Mrs. Tokarski was at the sink rinsing a mound of vegetables and humming to herself. She was a godsend, and for once, didn’t seem the least bit frazzled by the commotion. That was not always the case.
“How was everything today?”
“Goot,” she said briefly in her heavy Polish accent.
“Where’s Sachie?”
“She no nap. Is taking...umm...rest. On sofa,” she said pointing to a den off the main living room.
Cassie shook her head, and headed to the den to check on the toddler. As she passed, she dropped kisses on the heads of Alex and Will. “Both have a good day at school?”
She got two shrugs for her effort.
"There is paperwork on the kitchen counter for you to fill out," Alex finally volunteered.
“Will do,” she took off again.
“She’s grumpy...like when she had those front teeth coming in and chewed on everything,” Harper interjected following Cassie. As the oldest child, she had cast herself in the roll of a little mother.
“Hi sassy girl,” Cassie said grinning at the toddler who was curled on the couch watching a Disney channel show. Her plump arms immediately went into the air, “Momma...I no feel good.”
Cassie let the child absorb the love she needed, and then moved her back a few inches so she could feel her forehead. She was bit warm, but not enough to be worrisome. Cassie looked at her big syrupy brown eyes and dark brown curls. She looked more like Megan every passing day. It made Cassie’s heart miss a beat from grief. Taking her hand from the toddler’s head, she pulled her in for another round of snuggling. As she took in the sweet smell, she let the pain go and remembered that Megan and Bruce were still with her. She tried every day to be the parent they would want her to be in their absence, giving all the love and attention they had. She squeezed the tiny body, and gently laid her back on the couch.
Harper had already planted herself on one cushion, and been sucked in by the show. Sachie scooted over, until her head was on Harper’s lap. As Cassie started for the door, she couldn’t help but take one more glance back. Now that is what made it all worthwhile, she thought, watching Harper gently rub her sister’s head as they both silently watched the television.
***
Trent was reviewing the blueprints laid out in front of him. The strip mall was just a couple weeks from being done, and he wanted to ensure there were no surprises in the latest filed prints. He reviewed the timeline and punch lists, so engrossed he didn’t notice that Wyatt had entered the office until his voice was right behind him.
“Find anything amiss?”
“Jesus you scared me...make some noise when you’re coming up behind me.”
Wyatt chuckled, “What fun would that be? Is everything just about done on that project?”
“Yeah, it’s all checking out. Which is good. Several of the current ones are monsters, and might require more of us to help manage. Also, the Algiereze project notification came through this morning. We got the contract.”
“Okay, we might need to background investigate and get another contractor or two on our payroll. Plumbing and electrical is stalling projects due to the limited options we already have vetted.”
Trent made a note on the open list in front of him. “Since I have some time over the next week I will squeeze it in. Thanks for letting me know.”
“Oh yeah, I heard Quentin was going to oversee the German company turn around, you good with that?”
“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be?”
“With his third kid due in the next couple months, you know how he can be. Besides with all the rattling around you are doing with this one done,” he indicated the project laid out on the conference table, “I thought you might want to be in on that one. That is an entirely new level for us, says a lot that we got awarded the bid.”
“The way I heard it, it never went up for bid. They left it up to the project manager to choose the general contractor. So that says our reputation is pretty solid, considering it was sight unseen. Which is good, because I don’t think she took to me.”
Wyatt laughed, “I’m sorry... a woman that didn’t fall at the great Trenton’s feet? Do tell?” he said with sarcasm dripping from each word.
“Her name is Cassandra Valentine...”
Wyatt cut him off with a whistle. “Don’t take it personally big brother, she has a reputation. I’m surprised you haven’t heard of her before. She worked for Hinton and Greenland downtown for a few years, and was considered a ball buster when she managed accounts for them. Then two years ago, she quit her job and went freelance. She specializes in high risk projects, normally after a key management person is fired or leaves a job. She is a turnaround specialist known to be able to turn around sensitive projects. She doesn’t fail, but I’ve heard she is difficult. Many of the firms around town hate it when she is on a project, because they can’t get away with anything short of perfection.”
“So why did she leave her lucrative day job for freelancing?”
“Rumor at the time was she had a death in the family and they refused to give her the time off. I don’t know anything about her personal life, but apparently there was a big to-do when she walked out. They tried several times to get her back, but she gave up her condo in the city and moved to the country. I ran into her about a year ago on another job, and she was asking some tough questions, the poor construction super looked ready to cry. That’s when I tried to find out about her, just in case she ever approached us for help on a project.”
“Normally people who take those jobs know into what they are getting themselves. In order to make partner at a firm such as that, she would have had to be willing to give her life for the company. You never hear of someone quitting and never looking back.”
“It is very cutthroat. I guess she preferred being in charge of her own destiny. But that was two years ago. Think she’s got a chip on her shoulder? Do you think she will hold a grudge over one bad meeting?”
“No, everything says she is a consummate professional. Whatever happened back then, she’s not known for being unfair. Was she rude to you?”
“No, just...short...to the point. Was upset we hadn’t already been able to review the blueprints even though they had just arrived in the office that morning. I think I rubbed her wrong, and vice versa, but Quentin and she seemed to get along fine.”
“Then it’s probably best that Quentin deal with her. You can always second the project and jump in for him should Emily go into labor. Can you imagine both our wives pregnant at the same time? We probably need to plan that better next time.”
“Yeah,” Trent kept reviewing the file in front of him. He looked up again when he realized Wyatt wasn’t leaving. “Is there something else?”
“Okay, you didn’t hear this from me. But Mom and Monica have been conspiring, and there is this friend of Monica’s from the gym that will be at the house with us all for dinner tonight.”
Trent braced his hand on the table and shook his head. “Monica is your wife, couldn’t you order her not to get involved in my love life?”
Wyatt laughed. “I realize that when women get too needy you just cut them free, but those of us tied to one for life...we learn quickly to not order them to do anything, or we miss out on the perks of marriage and things get mighty uncomfortable for a while.”
“At least you warned me. Why can’t Mom accept the fact that I don’t want to get married, and help add to her football team of grandkids? I know you love marriage and kids but I just don’t see that for me.”
“Mom has five sons, and we will all be happily married after Grayson’s wedding in six weeks—except for you. So it is a hard concept for someone raised with such stable parents, and so many siblings to be so adamantly against marriage and kids. You aren’t getting any younger, and now you are the last project for her, so the focus is all on you. Sorry man,” Wyatt clapped him on the shoulder.
Laughing he left the room.
Trent stood staring after him. It was for exactly the reasons Wyatt had given that he was against marriage. He had never met anyone that he could imagine going the distance with, and divorce was not going to be an option. His mother and father, Charles and Gwen Thomson, were affectionate, open and giving to their relationship, their kids, and their friends. He couldn’t remember even feeling a flicker of what he saw flash between them when they were in the same room.
It was the same adoration Monica and Wyatt, Quentin and Monica, Viviana and Holden, and Grayson and Sharon had when they looked at each other. He had stood up in three of his brothers’ weddings, and the fourth was just around the corner. At each, he had managed to find a woman willing to share the evening with him, but in the light of day, their flaws had piled up past the negotiable stage. Many of the women were selfish in their desires, goals and needs with no compromise to be had. More than one had fled after spending just an hour with his loud, boisterous family. At 32 he was the oldest Thomson brother, and CEO of Thomson Construction. He was considered a prime catch, but most dates he went on lately were his mother’s doing. He liked his job, doting on his nieces and nephews and then going home to his own space.
Looking at his watch, he threw himself back into reality. He could do the physical walk through in the morning. The paperwork was spot-on. He needed to answer a few more emails and then grab a shower before he took on the entire Thomson clan, including the mystery woman at dinner.
When the phone buzzed, he picked it up determined to direct the receptionist he was out for the day.
“Yes, Ellie?”
“Sorry to bother you. A Ms. Valentine stopped in to see Quentin about the AeroMetz project with some paperwork. He is already gone for the day, and I didn’t know if you would want to talk to her as you are second on that project.”
He thought about putting the pushy woman off, and then relented. “Show her in.”
He sat back and inhaled a couple times.
***
“Mr. Thomson will see you now,” Ellie said moving around the desk and inclining her head slightly to indicate the hall to her left.
“Thank you,” Cassie said.
“He is the corner office at the end of the hall,” the cute receptionist added with a smile that lit her face.
Cassie nodded. She checked her watch. She didn’t have the time to spare, but all the permits had been at the courthouse when she had stopped in to finish a couple errands earlier in the afternoon. It would save Quentin a trip, and make it possible for them to proceed immediately on the job site. The five minutes out of her way was worth it to the project she thought.
As she stopped outside the office the receptionist had indicated, her heart thumped in her chest. Wrong Thomson brother, she heard her panicked brain screaming. The plaque on the door indicated it was Trent’s office. That was one man she did not want to see after the day she had survived. Sachie had an ear infection, so she had started the day in the pediatrician’s office. The twins had decided they had to wear purple and match today, even if the one purple shoe could not be located. Her negotiation skills had been tested to the end of her patience but finally the errant shoe had been located and two happy girls deposited at the school only ten minutes late and a hair before the tardy bell. Two project meetings with potential future clients with a stop for medication in between, that she had dropped off with Mrs. Tokarski. And finally a quick trip to the courthouse where she was informed the permits were ready for this job, but not the legal release she had been hoping for on her last project. That piece of paperwork was the last thing she needed to be free to focus on the current project completely. When this was over she promised herself a long hot bubble bath and glass of wine. She was going to need it she thought.
Deciding to give herself a break, she turned to head back toward the friendly receptionist and request she give the envelope to Quentin in the morning. Her escape was cut short by the opening of the door behind her.
“Ms. Valentine?” The shimmer across her nerve endings made her straighten her back a hair.
She pulled in a quick steadying breath and turned. “Sorry. I know it’s late and I just have some paperwork for Quentin.”
“It’s no problem, come in,” he said and stood back to allow her to enter his office.
Once she walked in, she couldn’t help but smile. This was not the pristine, cold office most executives kept. The homey wood furniture looked handmade, and the conference table was alive with prints and project paperwork. The all glass windows allowed lots of natural sun in. The room was all male and earthy with plants and other small details strategically placed, but not over fussy. It felt comfortable, like an extension of someone’s home.
“I was down at the courthouse for something else, and one of the clerks I know told me the AeroMetz permits were done. Since your office is on my way home I thought I would bring them over. I know we have a meeting on Friday, but this is another couple checks off my list. I thought Quentin would still be here,” she said extending the envelope and chiding herself for rambling.
“We have a family dinner tonight, so he headed out to a job site and then on home to gather the troops. My mother keeps a tight 6 p.m. dinner schedule, and if you aren’t there in time you may not eat,” he said as he pulled the documents out and starting looking through them.
“Are your parents still together then?” she said and immediately regretted it. She always found family dynamics interesting, considering her lack of them for most of her formative years.
“Oh yeah, 35 years. Yours?”
She caught the flush and tried to will it down. He had caught her off guard with the abrupt question. She had few memories of her own mother and father. Megan had been her only real family. But that was information she never intended to share with this man.
“No.”
“Sorry. Do you have siblings?”
“I did. A sister.”
He glanced up at her, and she realized that in less than a minute he had already gotten more information about her than most people did in years. She didn’t talk about her personal life. It was her golden rule of business. Compartmentalize. Work was work. Family was family. And the two never intersected for her.
He didn’t look away though and she found herself working to avoid his eyes.
“When did she...pass away?”
Cassie swallowed the lump. She had started this. She was never rude to a client and had never backed down from anything, no matter how unsettling. “Two years.”
She watched him nod, “I’m truly sorry. I have four brothers, all younger, and I can’t imagine if something happened to one of them.” The sincerity in his voice was not contrived; in fact she would have called it emotional.
“So do you get together often for family meals?”
“At least every other week. It’s quite a big production. With kids, daughters-in-law and grandkids there are normally 14 of us...but tonight my mother is also trying to set me up, so there is one unknown attending, making it fifteen.”
“Wow, I can’t even imagine. Your mother must love to cook...15 people.” She took it in for a minute. He had now spread out the paperwork and was checking it against something on the laptop. “Why can’t you find your own date?”
When his head snapped up and his eyes met hers, she could have bitten her tongue off.
“I have no desire right now to date, get married or have children. I have a huge family that I love dearly, but I also like my quiet time. Is that so hard for all females to believe?”
“I didn’t mean anything. I’m sorry. I need to go,” she glanced down at her watch.
“Big date yourself?”
“No, I’m with you. Shocking but we appear to agree on the dating and marriage front. That is not on my bucket list. I’ve done alright on my own, and can’t imagine ever finding someone with whom to share the rest of my life.”
“Hmmm...just for the record, my mother doesn’t agree with my choices. She has an appalling tendency to try to fix me up with women she finds...well anywhere. The gym, church, grocery store, it’s becoming a problem. I think we may need to do an intervention,” he said with a grin.
This time she laughed out loud, “Are all the rest of your brothers married?”
“Yeah...well Grayson, the youngest is going to be shortly. I’m hoping they will give her enough grandkids that she will just forget about me,” he chuckled.
“Good luck,” she said and realized that the conversation had been both amicable and personal in nature. That was something that never happened for her. She looked at him a moment longer and found she couldn’t stop an errant thought from passing through to her tongue. “Just remember some people aren’t fortunate enough to have parents and a family who love them enough to set them up, or cook them dinner or want them around. You are very lucky.” With that she turned, to leave.
“I’ll let Quentin know you dropped these by. Have a good night.”
“You too,” she said and escaped through the door.
Yes, she was definitely fortunate that it was the other Thompson brother and not Trent working on her project, she thought, pressing a hand to her flushed cheek. She had a number of good reasons not to get involved with any man and one like Trent, one who didn’t want kids, had to be avoided at all costs. He was easy to talk to though, and she had found herself wanting to find out more about him. But that was a slippery slope, and one she would do well to avoid, for her own peace of mind.
