Chapter 6

 

Clint Holbrook suppressed his elation as he scrawled his signature on the bottom line of the document in front of him. It was the single largest business deal of his life, the one that put his construction company truly on the global map. A five-hundred-million dollar deal—who’d have thought it? Little old Holbrook Plumbing had come a long way from its fledgling days in Apache Junction, Arizona. He reluctantly credited part of that rise in success to his ex-wife’s suggestion that they move the business to Scottsdale. If you wanted to bring in wealthier clients you needed to be nearby. But Mary hadn’t been involved for more than two years now; his own brilliance had led him to get his contractor’s license and to cultivate the contacts needed to put this mega deal together.

His lawyer pushed another sheaf of papers toward him, indicating two more places to sign.

Clint rarely thought of Mary these days, other than to make unfavorable comparisons with his new love. Sad, really. Mary used to be a knockout—trim and fit, she played softball on a team when he met her. She played well on the golf course, and her suggestion that they join a club had paid off big when he got his first contracts with some of the more prestigious Scottsdale builders. Of course, that’s when they handled only the plumbing aspects of jobs, installing bathrooms elegant enough to put Buckingham Palace to shame, and then with the trend toward all-out gourmet kitchens, well, his reputation only spread.

He penned his signature, his eyes focusing on the dollar figures on those pages, which made him think of the bunch of bills arriving soon and reminded him—the deposit money for today’s deal had better reach his bank account soon.

Derek Woo gathered the signed pages, took one final look through the stack of documents and seemed satisfied. He nudged Clint; contractor and lawyer stood. Across the table, attorneys for Clint’s customer chattered in their own language, so speedily Clint couldn’t catch a word. Finally, the lead attorney gave a slight head-bow toward Clint.

“Gentlemen, thank you very much.”

Clint returned the little motion.

“Your engineers will be at the job site first thing on Monday?”

“You bet,” Clint said, realizing his speech pattern made him sound like a hick compared to the formality of those across the table. “I mean, yes. I am personally flying to Shanghai the day after tomorrow.”

Handshakes, bows, a quiet exit as the foreign men left.

“Well,” said Derek Woo. “That went smoothly.”

“I didn’t doubt it would,” Clint said. “Hey, can I get you drink? I think this calls for a celebration.”

“Thank you, but no. I’ve another meeting across town. I’m certain your wife will be in the mood to celebrate with you.” He gave a grin as he picked up a thick briefcase and walked out.

For a nano-second, a picture of himself and Mary clicking champagne glasses flashed through Clint’s head. He shook it off. Mary had turned into a sour old frump, and once she’d left him and the business so she could stay with her ailing parents, everything between them went downhill. Dammit, when you were married almost twenty years, Alzheimer’s was no excuse to duck out on all the important things in life.

Kaycie was his wife now and he liked it that way. Young, gorgeous, locally well-known as the main draw on the Channel 3 evening news. If contacts in business were important, Kaycie could certainly bring him a ton more of them than Mary ever did. And, she was the ultimate arm-candy. He was a lucky guy. He picked up his phone and instructed it to call her.

“Well, Babycakes, it’s time to put on your best dress and those high heels that always get me fired up—we’re celebrating tonight with dinner and dancing.”

“You signed the deal!”

He pictured those sexy dimples framing her perfect, brilliant-white teeth.

“I did. And I’ve got a big surprise for you. Tell that boss of yours you need some time off.”

Her perkiness went down about six notches. “Oh, Honey Bear, I gotta work tonight. I’ve got the six o’clock show and the ten, and Johnson wants a staff meeting in between. I think we’re all supposed to grab some kind of quick dinner at our desks.”

“Tell him something’s come up. Tell him you got a headache or some female thing. I don’t care—this is important to me.”

“My career is important to me, honey. The staff meeting is about the new fall lineup and there could be network people here. My chance to hint around at a promotion—”

“Is some network promotion more valuable than the half-billion I’m making on this overseas project? More important than hobnobbing internationally?”

He could practically hear her wheels turning. Kaycie was a climber, for sure. “Do your first gig then figure a way to skip the rest. I’ll pick you up outside the studio at seven o’clock.”

“O-kayyy …” She sounded reluctant but he could hear the excitement in her voice. It was a good thing he’d not told her the surprise was a pair of first-class tickets. He couldn’t wait to see the look on her face. Collecting his thank-you gift later in bed would just be the bonus for her gratitude.