Running the Numbers (25 page)

Her hair, despite its similarity to Kira’s, seemed playful instead of severe, because of the strands she perpetually tucked behind her ears. She had a fullness to her face and a mean, lean body from her interesting and varied activities outside work. How would he ever keep up with her? Last week, she’d mentioned ice skating and rock climbing. His first thought had been to finagle himself an invitation to join her. He wanted to do it all. He didn’t want to miss a thing.

Catalina adjusted her blazer, and Blake focused on the matter at hand.

“This’ll only take a moment,” he assured her.

She smiled politely. “Shoot.”

Ten minutes later, Blake settled back into his chair and chewed on the end of his pen. Finally, a picture had begun to form. He hadn’t been looking in the right direction. All he could do now was hope he was wrong as he redirected his efforts toward a most unlikely suspect.

* * * *

The bookkeeping parlor pulsed with the frantic energy of every employee in the office crammed into the space. Most stood, while others, like Opal and Pearl, sat comfortably at their own desks.

Kennedy’s desk had been commandeered by Mrs. Avery, who leaned against one side, and Duncan, who stood in front of it to address them all. Mr. Thorp was a thin, looming figure in the back. He had a gaunt face stuck in an expression of distaste. Kennedy had gone over to stand by Sadie, who watched the proceedings from the doorway of her office with something between a scowl and a smirk.

Mrs. Avery studied them all openly, including Blake, while they pretended they didn’t notice her scrutiny.

Blake had offered her a friendly handshake when she first arrived. It had shifted the power somewhat. Mrs. Avery must’ve imagined he’d be nervous after what had transpired with Amanda. But the more time Blake had to think on it, the more he resented the involvement in his personal affairs.

Duncan didn’t need to clear his throat and smile disarmingly to get everyone’s attention; he had it in spades, as most were too afraid to stare at Mrs. Avery or dare look too long at the imposing visage of Mr. Thorp.

“Hello, everyone,” Duncan said. “Thank you for arriving a few minutes early for our announcement. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you all. I couldn’t have asked for a better team of people to work with day in and day out. You made my job a joy and a challenge.” He nodded and laughed at someone’s sarcastic remark. “The best kind of challenge, I assure you. Mrs. Avery is going to announce who’ll be stepping up to take on the position as chief accountant for the Jackson office, whom we’ve informed beforehand. As you all know, my last day is a few short weeks away.”

Blake quickly glanced at Wes, whose eyebrows had furrowed in confusion, and had to smile. Blake had guessed correctly, after all.

The third name on the list.

“We’ll also be announcing a few other staffing changes you can expect in the weeks ahead,” Duncan added, before thanking them all again and stepping off to the side.

Everyone clapped politely, even Sadie. She winked at Blake, and he turned back to catch Mrs. Avery glaring at him. He refused to let his smile fade.

Mrs. Avery’s inherent power seemed to freeze the whole room, as though no one dared breathe until she offered them a jaunty little wave and a smile meant to put them at ease. It worked. Blake caught a few relieved smiles. Wes still seemed deep in puzzled thought.

“Many thanks,” Mrs. Avery began in her clear, concise voice, “for making this such a difficult decision.”

A sprinkling of hesitant laughter.

“It’s the mark of an outstanding staff when there’s no easy answer to filling such a critical role in our company. It’s wonderful to have so many excellent, trustworthy candidates, and a pleasure to get to know some of you better throughout the course of the process. I hope you’ll all join me in welcoming Catalina Trujillo into the upper folds. Darling?”

She held out a hand, and Catalina, beaming and blinding in her happiness, stepped forward to shake it with fervor. The office broke out in pleasantly surprised applause.

Blake spied Sadie grinning, the delight at not having to work for Wes beating out envy or shock at having a junior accountant swoop in and steal the promotion. Wes cursed.

Just wait, pal. It gets better.

Faces were more open, less strained. It wasn’t a stretch to imagine the tension between Sadie and Wes had imprinted itself on to the atmosphere of the office the past several months, and now it was over.

Mrs. Avery cleared her throat, and the room grew silent once more. “I have one more announcement to make. A few other changes are coming to Avery & Thorp. Wesley Black and Amanda Avery will both transfer to Alpine, trading with staff members in that office whom we believe will make a stronger team here at our Jackson branch. The two of you may find me in Duncan’s office for details.”

Eyes popped out of heads all around. Sadie gasped, hand over mouth, and her gaze darted to Wes, who appeared more puzzled than ever, and perhaps slightly panicky. Amanda’s head hung and her shoulders drooped. Blake guessed she’d known about the surprise announcement. He grinned. So had he.

As the crowd broke apart at the meeting’s conclusion, Blake silently followed Sadie as she attempted to escape into the sanctuary of her office. Kennedy winked as he passed by, and he caught up in time to catch the door with his foot. He peeked inside as Sadie lowered herself behind her desk.

“Don’t just stand there,” she told him shortly. “Come in and shut the door. The babbling out there is giving me a headache.”

He did so and stayed standing as she shuffled distractedly through a colorful few files on her desk. “I thought you’d be happier about Wes’s transfer.”

“I am,” she agreed tiredly. “But I’m bummed I lost out to Catalina. A
junior
accountant, of all things.”

Should he explain? He decided Sadie could handle it. “You and Wes, your little rivalry… It’s been noticed. To the point, in fact, that both Duncan and Mrs. Avery felt you were both too preoccupied by one another. You have to admit, you’ve been somewhat caught up in your personal life lately. We all have, actually. All but for Catalina. Duncan gave her the Castley account you and Wes wanted so badly as an audition of sorts. She’s been taking classes, working late, and actively pursuing new clients in her time off instead of fishing and collecting firewood.” He smiled at Sadie. “Not that I’d wish it any other way.”

She smiled back. A little sadly but accepting. “Yeah, I can’t really regret that stuff, either.” She paused, reached into one of the deep drawers of her desk, and retrieved a bottle of red wine. “The funny thing is, I bought this cabernet sauvignon for our new chief accountant, knowing Wes only drinks white wine. Coincidentally, it’s Catalina’s favorite, a useless tidbit of information I gleaned over years of office small talk. In a story, they’d call that foreshadowing.” She plunked the bottle onto her desk. “How does Wes feel about his transfer?”

“Unhappy, I’m sure,” Blake answered with a frown. “But there’s a pretty hefty penalty for bullying. It was transfer or step down to Catalina’s now-vacant position of junior accountant.”

Her nebulous gaze slammed into his. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about Wes’s sudden knowledge of your comings and goings. As well as his threat to tell everyone I’d been visiting you.”

Her fine eyebrows formed a smooth, black V. “How could you possibly know about that?”

“When I interviewed Reba last week, I may have insinuated I knew more than I did about her relationship with Wes. Out of fear she’d been fingered as our thief, she spilled her guts. I learned Wes threatened you with some vicious rumors recently. I might’ve ignored it, because my concern is the missing money, but then she went on, quite disgustedly I’ll add, to say he’d actually attempted to use the leverage to score a date with you. He’ll be attending a sexual harassment seminar in the spring.”

Sadie scratched her head. “I still don’t know what he really wants from me.”

Blake had an idea. “Same thing I wanted from Quinn, probably. Another chance to get it right. The only difference between Wes and myself is I took no for an answer. It’s looking like it was probably the right thing to do, after all.”

“Oh, there’s much more than that setting you and Wes apart,” she assured him with feeling.

“I appreciate you saying so.” He headed for the door. “We’ll catch up more later, Sadie. I have to go arrange a meeting with Mrs. Avery for the three of us.” He grabbed the doorknob and turned back to catch her mouth drop open from surprise. “Oh, and to tell Duncan who our thief is.”

“I don’t know if I should do this.” Sadie wrung her hands and peered out the passenger window of Kennedy’s old Subaru.

Her friend groaned. “You dragged me out of bed for moral support, which you’ve never needed in all the years I’ve known you. Just go in there, say whatever the hell it is you need to say so you can look at yourself in the mirror tomorrow, and let’s go get a breakfast burrito already. I’m starving.”

“You’re always starving. And anyway, it’s ten to nine. They’ll quit making breakfast burritos before we’re done here.”

“You’re short because you didn’t eat enough as a child,” Kennedy sniffed. “Also, you’re wrong. They make breakfast burritos until ten.”

“I’m short because my mother liked little men.”

“I don’t know what I’m supposed to say to that. But if you don’t go inside, we’re leaving.”

“She might not even be home.” It bolstered Sadie’s spirits to think her knock might go unanswered. “The parking is in the rear. For all I know, she’s in Alpine.”

“It’s Thursday.” Kennedy’s voice betrayed her waning patience. “We have the morning off, Sadie, not the whole dang day. Now, quit stalling. Besides, didn’t Duncan tell you she’d be home packing?”

Sadie was torn between laughing and flinching. “He did. But I like to think he’s wrong sometimes.”

Kennedy gripped the wheel and closed her eyes. “Three, two—”

Sadie flung herself from the car. “Fine. I’m going.” She slammed the door shut and flipped Kennedy the bird as she walked up to Amanda’s door.

She didn’t want to be here. Not even a little. But at the same time, a feeling of guilt had settled into her bones. She felt responsible for everything that had changed, including Amanda’s transfer. Since she’d left work early yesterday, before Sadie could pin her down and try to apologize one last time, she had no choice but to ask Duncan for the time off to track her down before she left town.

Sadie bit her lip, pain spurring her into action, and banged her fist on the door. She remembered the doorbell at the last second.

Amanda’s face flushed a light pink when she swung the door open and stared out at Sadie. She frowned.

“Sorry,” Sadie mumbled.

Amanda’s face relaxed but only by a slight degree. “What do you want?”

“One last shot at telling you I’m sorry.” Sadie refused to wring her hands or slouch her shoulders. She stood tall, with a proud lift to her chin. “I know how it must look, with Blake suddenly deciding he’s into me. I just need you to know nothing ever happened between us. Still hasn’t, actually. I can’t explain what clicked in Blake’s brain that made him—”

“A dirty, cheating liar?” Amanda snapped. She had on a pair of white denim leggings and a ribbed gray tank top. The hand not holding open the door fisted on her hip. “What’s more surprising is that he didn’t settle for another affair.”

Sadie borrowed a response from Kennedy and gave Amanda an impassioned eye roll. “I’m getting pretty tired of people saying that with total disregard for my morals. Never mind Blake, what about me? You think I’d do that?”

“No.” Amanda’s cavalier expression became something more compassionate. “I think he understood you weren’t the type, but it’s irrelevant. Understand, Sadie, he made his choice, and I’m glad for it. I don’t believe people change. I dodged a bullet.”

She almost laughed. “Of course people change. We change all the time. Consequences shape us, teach us who we are, who we’re compelled to be. Blake’s past is…” Unsettling? Unfortunate? Disparaging? Confusing? “Well, it’s his past.”

“You’re not worried?” Amanda’s gaze narrowed. “I believe once a cheater, always a cheater. What if he worked for another firm and met someone else who makes him think of the other woman he loves so much?”

Sadie’s stomach turned over, but she quelled the unease with the thought of Blake’s long-suffering remorse. “I don’t know, Amanda,” she admitted. She had hopes for Blake. More importantly, she believed in him. “I can’t compare to Quinn, but I don’t want to. Either Blake will figure out I’m immeasurable, or he’ll continue to measure me using the wrong tool, and it won’t work out.”

That about summed up the bud of their relationship at this point. With the right care, it would blossom. Or it would get eaten by something big and hungry, like his ex-wife’s ghost.

Shrewdly, Amanda studied her. “I hope you’re right, Sadie. You were a good friend to me. I suppose I can’t hold you at fault for Blake’s issues. Besides, it’s not sour grapes when I say I’m glad it ended before I found out about his past. Had I known from the start, I would’ve never gotten involved. You could’ve had him all along.”

I did, actually. Where it counted.
Wiser thought than said. “Yeah, well, whether we get together or not is yet to be seen. I’m not interested in trying to fill another woman’s shoes. I’ve got my own pair, and they fit just fine.”

“I admire you.” Amanda stated it with an air of finality. “When I get settled into my new apartment in Alpine, I’ll have you down for the weekend. You can help me plant the huckleberries Mother’s letting me transfer from the ranch. They won’t bear fruit until August, but I make a decent jam. Also, I should apologize for suspecting you of stealing from the firm. I knew it wasn’t you, but I wanted it to be.”

Sadie grinned at her candor. Well, well. She and Blake weren’t in the clear—they had a meeting with Duncan and Mrs. Avery tomorrow—but at least she had managed to repair her odd, unforeseen friendship with Amanda, and that counted for quite a bit.