“The employees will love it, so it’ll help out both the service for the day, and boost morale at the same time.”
He stared at her, then shook his head.
“What?”
“You’re nothing like your father.”
And you’re just like him, she thought.
He took one last look around. “This office is too small for you.”
“It’s fine-”
“Serena’s is twice the size of this one.”
“Yes, well, size means a lot to Serena.”
“I would have thought it meant a lot to you, too.”
His gaze was daring, and she’d never been good at resisting a baiting. “Well, now,” she drawled and lifted a shoulder. “That depends on what we’re sizing.”
He undoubtedly would have responded to that if his pager hadn’t gone off. He looked down at the thing hooked on his hip, then looked at her. “They’re here. The union reps.”
“Okay.” Calming images. She could do this. She picked up the correct files. “Should I speed-read here or are you going to give me the Cliff Notes version?”
He let out a grudging smile.
Oh man, she’d nearly forgotten how attractive he could be when he did that, grudging or otherwise. “You think this is amusing?”
“No, actually,” he said. “I’m quite intrigued by your coolness under pressure. You’ve got the blond bombshell look down, and yet…”
“And yet?”
“You’re the one of the toughest woman I’ve met.”
She opened her mouth, ready to leap down his throat, but she was certain that there’d been a compliment in there somewhere. “Thanks. I think.”
“You’re welcome. I think.”
8
WES BRIEFED her on the way to the union meeting in short, concise sentences that were actually quite helpful. Not once was his tone condescending or critical, though she imagined behind his glasses simmered resentment at having to help her out in the first place.
The man was clearly conflicted on this sharing-the-job thing.
That made two of them.
The actual meeting went well, until she realized she sided with the union and not the hotel. At one point, she turned to Wes to help explain what it was the union wanted and why it was such a good thing, but the look on his face stopped her cold.
Oops. Wrong side.
Afterward, she avoided Wes and the fallout that was coming, instead making her way through the hotel and stepping outside for some fresh air. She sat on a marble bench in a fabulously lush garden overlooking the ocean and wished she could take a nap on the beach.
“How do you think it went?”
She looked up at Wes, who looked just as at home outside in the California sun as he did in the board room. “Is that a trick question?”
“Of course not,” he said.
“And you’d like the truth?”
“Yes.”
“I think you did exceptionally well for the hotel.”
He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means good for you, you saved my father tons of money.”
“But…? I’m quite positive I heard a
“But…” She looked at the glorious summer sky. “I think you did a crappy job for your employees. You didn’t back down on the two percent difference in salary increase they wanted, nor the onsite day care…not even on the issue of sick days needing to be increased. All in all, the union accepted a sucky package, because you wined and dined their rep into thinking he got a great deal.”
“Well, don’t hold back,” he said wryly. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I always will, Wes.”
He looked at her for a long moment and sighed. “Somehow, I’m sure that’s going to be more a curse than a blessing.”
THE NEXT MORNING Kenna had just arrived in her office-at eight o’clock sharp, amazingly enough-when Wes appeared in her doorway.
“Next round?” she guessed.
“I read your report on the renovations, regarding the progress we’ve made-or not, in this case-staying on budget.”
It shouldn’t have given her a little thrill, that he’d read her work. “Did you?”
“And the thing is, a lot of the plans changed in progress. Your father upped the amount of art he wanted purchased, for example, as well as increasing the number of antiques in each room. Those two things alone added considerable cost, and he didn’t seem to mind.”
“It seems frivolous, given our other policies.”
“Such as?”
“Such as no price breaks for locals. No specials in the restaurants. No package deals-”
“How does that relate to the art purchasing?”
“I’m just saying, we’re overcharging our local residents simply because someone wanted an extra picture on the wall, a picture that cost more than a small fortune. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“We’re not catering to the locals.”
“That’s awfully snobbish.”
“Kenna.” He laughed. Shook his head. “Have you looked at this place? By its very nature, it’s snobbish.”
Before she could answer, a woman came to the door. Kenna recognized her as Carrie, one of the security managers.
“Our new equipment has arrived,” she said.
“New equipment?” Kenna asked.
“We ordered all new security cameras, radios and such. The latest in hotel technology,” Wes explained. “It’s been back-ordered for months. The employees have all been to classes and training, and they can’t wait to dig in.”
“Thought you’d want to look over the inventory first,” Carrie said. “Before I alert the rest of security.”
“I do, thanks.”
“I do, too.” Kenna smiled into Wes’s face, which had a priceless expression of bewilderment and vexation. He’d have liked to do this alone.
Too bad. He moved to the door and so did Kenna, meaning there was a lot of full-body contact as they squeezed through the narrow opening.
“Kenna-”
