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“You can’t be the assistant manager here,” Barnaby proclaimed.
She was staring at him over his desk. She’d been called in for an interview, but the person calling hadn’t been Barnaby. It was some other manager at the hotel. She hadn’t recognized the name. But he had told her she’d be interviewing with Barney, so she jumped at the chance. It had been almost four weeks since she saw him last, and as soon as she’d walked in the door, his face had flit through so many emotions she couldn’t name them all.
And his first proclamation after she closed the door and sat across from him was that she couldn’t have the job. Not that she could truly blame him, but she had expected a hello at the very least.
“Why the hell not? Because we slept together and you’re incapable of being a big boy and extending me the professional courtesy of at least interviewing me for it? You seemed to think I was more than qualified in Vegas.” Shit. She was supposed to be here to apologize to him, and thank him, even ask him for a favor, not berate him. God, old habits died hard, didn’t they? That’s what everyone said. She was already in defense mode, trying to protect herself by being a bitch. She was desperate for the job, but she had come here for more than that. She’d said they would never see each other again, but she’d been lying. Not only to him, but herself as well.
“No, because I intend to promote someone in-house for this position. It wasn’t even supposed to be listed as available, but someone screwed up. I’d like to find them and wring their damned neck, to be honest. I’ve had half a dozen interviews this week for a job that isn’t open. The position is spoken for, love, I’m sorry.”
Fuck. The news was like a punch to the gut. Maybe she’d been convinced that despite everything Barnaby would have a soft spot for her, and she’d be able to at least get her foot in the door.
Her shoulders slumped.
“Oh, love, please don’t look at me like that.”
She blinked and realized her eyes had welled with tears. Shit. She tried to blink them away, but they slid down her cheeks.
He rushed around the desk and kneeled beside her. “What is it, love? It’s just a job, don’t cry.”
“It’s not just a job. It’s...” She didn’t want to sit here and sob into his shoulder, but she couldn’t stop herself from reaching for him. He wrapped his arms around her and she buried her face into his chest. The past few weeks had weighed on her so heavily, and she’d fought hard against breaking down. She’d focused on taking care of the staff, on making sure they found work. She was writing letters of recommendation left and right, and calling in any favors she had left in order to ensure everyone would find a new home. She’d always been on her own before, and that had never bothered her. Until now. Until she didn’t have Barnaby’s sweet smile and strong arms to help her trudge through the trenches. She hadn’t spent all that much time with him, to be honest, but in those couple days she had allowed herself to need him, and try as she might to rebuild those defenses, he seemed to be able to knock them down with one disarming smile.
“What’s going on, love? Come on, tell me. I’ll help any way I can outside of giving you this job. Eddie deserves this position. He’s worked for years for it, and I’ve already told him he could have it. I can’t go back on that now. Not even for you. Not even if I... well, I just can’t.”
What had he been about to say? Not even if I love you? She pushed the thought away. He couldn’t love her. She wasn’t available to be loved.
She took a deep breath and pulled herself together. She hated that he’d seen her like this. It bordered on pathetic. It’s not pathetic to need someone else, Faith’s voice whispered in her head.
She raised her face and swiped at the tears. “He’s selling the hotel. That snake waited until I was out of town, and brought in a slew of investors to sell off the hotel to them while there wasn’t anyone there to stand up to him. And they’re going to re-staff everything. Top to bottom. We’re all out as soon as the transaction is complete. I’ve worked too hard to start over completely somewhere else.”
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Barnaby’s heart broke as he watched the devastation on Dawn’s face. “Oh, love, it’s okay. You can figure this out. You are one of the most capable people I have ever met. Do you remember what you were like taking charge and kicking ass in Vegas? You gave up your room for that family, but you also helped encourage others to inconvenience themselves for strangers. You helped reorganize an entire hotel’s guest occupancy in one night. You rescheduled and moved around three workshops to accommodate the overflow. Your mind works in amazing ways, and you have a capacity for compassion that most people never reach.”
“Well, I’m out of ideas. I have none left. It’s taken me so long to get here, I can’t quit now; I won’t. But I can’t go backward either. Everywhere I’ve looked, every place I’ve interviewed, it would be backsliding. A cut in pay, an increase in hours. I worked at that shit hotel for years clawing my way to the manager’s chair just for it to be snatched away. The new owners, they want nothing to do with me. They can’t even be bothered to offer me the curtesy of reviewing my résumé.”
“So I was your last shot, huh?”
She nodded. “I wouldn’t have come, otherwise.”
Ouch. That hurt almost as much as her leaving in the middle of the night, leaving him nothing but a few-sentence note.
“Oh, Barnaby, I didn’t mean it like that...” she said, focusing on his face.
He was sure he was wearing all of his emotions on his face. He wasn’t able to hide them from her. “It must have been really hard for you to come here, expecting a favor, even after how we left things.” The words were harsh. Accusatory. Damn it. He had to reign it in. She was here. She wasn’t exactly here for him, but maybe it was a start. Maybe it meant she had changed her mind, after all. Could he dare hope for that?
Luckily, she didn’t snipe back at him in turn. Instead, she simply said, “It was.” Her voice was quiet. “I’m not used to letting myself need anything from anyone. For what it’s worth, I am really sorry for just leaving in the middle of the night. That was a dick thing to do.”
“It was,” he said carefully.
“In my defense, you weren’t exactly gallant on our last night. Accusing me of lying to you, when I didn’t really owe you my entire life’s story. Calling me by another woman’s name.”
“At least it was in the heat of an argument and not passion. If that tells you anything about my last relationship.”
“I’m sure you’ve been hurt before, but you should stop punishing people for mistakes they haven’t made.”
He raised his brows to see if she would see the irony in her own words. There was a reason she was intent on keeping him at arm’s length. A reason why she’d felt she had to hide the fact that she had a daughter. Someone somewhere along the line had taught her that she couldn’t rely on other people, that she had to be wholly and completely independent. Yet, here she was, asking him for help. And he was being an ass about it.
She tipped her head to the side. “Touché.”
“So, here we are, two people with some baggage, punishing each other for others’ mistakes. What do you say we stop doing that, huh?”
She took a deep breath. “I’d like that. I can’t promise it’ll be quick or easy, but I can promise to try.”
Hope swelled in his chest. Had she just agreed to give them a shot, a real shot?
“I really missed you the past few weeks,” he said quietly.
“Me too,” her voice was thick with emotion.
He wrapped his arms around her again, but this time instead of collapsing into a pile of tears, she held him to her tightly and tucked her head just at the crook of his shoulder and sighed.
He wanted to believe they could work things out. No matter how complicated it was. No matter that they’d started as a fling. She wasn’t Diane. She was Dawn. The smartest most sexual woman he’d ever had the utmost pleasure of knowing.
She lifted her face to his, and he was kissing her before he knew it. She tightened her grasp on him, and he deepened the kiss. She leaned back, her ass touching the edge of his desk and his hands were sliding up the sides of her skirt. Knock knock.
He leapt back from her, but not quickly enough. Eddie was already into the doorway, glancing from one to the other of them. There was a wicked gleam in his eyes. “Hi, Dawn. Nice to meet you. I guess this means I’m out of a job. Shucks.” Only he didn’t sound even remotely upset. In fact, he sounded delighted.
Barnaby stared at Eddie’s impish grin for a beat and then the pieces fell together in his head. “You? This was you?”
Eddie shrugged. “Well, when I saw the letter of recommendation from Ms. Jansen for our new hire, Kelly, I wondered if she was the woman you’d met in Vegas. I may have possibly posted my job as available on a site or two in the hopes she would find it and find her way back here. To you.”
Dawn laughed so hard she snorted. Barnaby turned to look at her and she shrugged, sliding off the edge of the desk and adjusting her skirt. “Well, then. I guess that’s that.”
Eddie grinned at her. “Sorry, I was just giving fate a little nudge, that’s all. If I left it up to this lunkhead he’d still be sitting here pining after you, waiting for you to magically show up.”
“I think I should be offended by that,” Barnaby said. He was gobsmacked. Eddie not only noticed everything, but he meddled, too.
“I can’t believe it worked,” Dawn said.
Barnaby shook his head and cleared his throat. So, Eddie’s master plan had been for Dawn to stumble upon the job posting, and be brave enough to apply, and then to apply. He must have squirreled away her application so Barnaby didn’t see it. Barnaby had wanted to just not respond to any of the applicants, but once the job posting went up, he was afraid if he didn’t take a single interview questions over why Eddie got the position would arise. He wasn’t going to let Eddie start as assistant manager under any cloud of suspicion.
“Well, I am kind of an evil queen genius,” Eddie said, cocking his hip to the side and brushing back imaginary hair from his shoulder. “I mean, can I get a Yass, Queen?”
Dawn laughed again. “Yass, Queen. Also, remind me never to piss you off,” Dawn said.
Barnaby felt the same. He was glad Dawn was amused at the subterfuge and not upset at being called here under false pretenses. If he were honest with himself, he didn’t really care what brought her here, just so long as she was here. And he was glad he hadn’t needed to wait forever. “So, did you come in here just to watch us make out, or...?” He gazed at Eddie.
Eddie sighed. “Unfortunately, no. And I wouldn’t have interrupted for anything in the world... except a phone call that Ms. Morgan is on her way.”
“Oh, God. Not again.” He straightened his tie. What the hell was the Dragon Lady doing back in town? That was twice in as many months.
“Dragon Lady?” Dawn asked.
Eddie’s eyes went wide and he burst into laughter. “Oh, Barney, I do hope you intend to keep her.”
Dawn pressed her lips together.
“We were just discussing that actually. Once I told her that she couldn’t have your job.” He looked at Dawn, then at Eddie, then back again, an idea forming in the back of his head. An idea so crazy, it might just work. He was going to really, really hate proposing it. But if he couldn’t be brave for the woman he was in love with, then who the hell could he be brave for?
“Would you like to meet the Dragon Lady?” he asked Dawn.
“You just told me I wasn’t going to be working here, so I don’t really know why it is you’d like me to meet with Dragon Lady?”
“Eddie, ETA?”
“She just landed, so maybe two hours with rush-hour. What do you have in mind boss?”
“I’m going to convince the Dragon Lady to buy out a Hauteman location.” He eyed Dawn as he said it.
“Oooh, now this I have got to see,” Eddie said.
“Good, cause we’re going to need your help. Or rather, help from a very good friend of yours, a certain Ms. Morgan, Jr.? I hope you’re as good at meddling professionally as you are playing Cupid.” Barnaby should not be bringing the CFO’s daughter in on their underhanded plan. But it was time to pull out all the stops.
“Oh, I am. I’m great at meddling of all kinds, in fact. I’ll give Layla a call right now,” Eddie said. “She’s sure to know just what Estelle is looking for in an area hotel. She may be intent on staying out of this business, but she is technically still a board member.”
“Even if you get her to want to buy it, it’ll never work,” Dawn said. “Harry’s all but signed the final paperwork with Wachuku, Inc. I love that you want to help, even if it’s not exactly what I was looking for. But I don’t see how this can work.”
“Easy, love. We’ll just make him an offer he can’t refuse,” he said in the most New York gangster voice he could muster.
“Oh, this is going to be such fun!” Eddie announced.