“You’ve actually found someone who can replace the stained glass?” the VP of Resorts asked.
“Absolutely,” Kyle answered. “Samantha sourced a man in Maine whose great uncle did the original work. He actually has the original drawings.”
“That’s incredible, Miss Brooks,” one of the firm’s principals said. She was beaming.
There were another forty minutes of questions and answers before Mr. Billingham was satisfied. “You’ve knocked it out of the park, Samantha. I knew you were the right one to handle this Virginia project.”
Mr. Lawton, the head of the design firm, cleared his throat. “We couldn’t be happier to have her on board. Thanks for the suggestion, Ned.”
“Just so you know, there is no way I could have pulled this off without Kyle, Pam, and Fabiola. They have been my three right hands.”
“Keep it up, Kiddo,” Mr. Billingham smiled. “We’ll be out here again to view the first part of the installation. Can’t wait.”
Sam watched as Kyle put another lemon donut in a napkin for Mr. Billingham and slip it to him as he walked out of the conference room. Yep, she had an outstanding team.
Mr. Lawton was the last one out of the room. “We’re going to take Mr. Billingham and his team out to an early lunch. Why don’t you four take the rest of the day off, take tomorrow off too, then come back on Wednesday and we’ll get back started.”
“Thanks, Mr. Lawton,” they all said as they watched him leave.
“You guys were spectacular. Now, is there anything I can do to help you before you take off?”
“Hell no, just let me get my stuff and I’m out of here,” Kyle said as he started to clean the room.
“Me, too. I’m ready for a day off.” Fabiola said as she started to unplug the equipment.
“How about you, Pam?” Samantha asked the woman who was packing up samples. “Is there anything you need from me?”
“Nope, you nailed the presentation. You knew exactly what questions they would ask, and you had the answers. It went perfectly. I’m with them, I’m looking forward to a couple of days off.”
Samantha bent down and picked up one of the boxes that Pam had filled up. “Let’s take these into my office. “We’re going to need them to match what the vendors send to us.”
“Ah, the joys of sourcing,” Kyle sang out as he filled another box.
Fabiola already had a tech guy from IT in helping her with the equipment.
By the time everything was stashed in her office, her crew had left. They’d asked her if she wanted to go out for an early lunch and drinks, but she said she just had a quick hour of things to do.
She gave Eden a call and told her how well the presentation went.
“That’s fabulous. Do you want to come over to A.J.’s for dinner tonight?”
“Can’t. I’ve got to finish some things up here at the office. Do you have free time tomorrow?”
“Absolutely. Morning? We can have crepes at that new place.”
“Eden, you read my mind. See if anyone else wants to come along.”
“You got it. I’ll see about A.J., Carys, Toni and Marcia. Congrats again. I’ll call you in the morning with the details.” Samantha smiled as she hung up.
The next time she looked up was when Zsa Zsa was knocking at her door.
“Hey there, thanks for the help this morning.”
“Yeah, I heard things went really well. I wish I had better news.”
“What?” Sam asked the young girl.
“Well two things actually. You know that guy who’s been calling here?”
“Kevin? My ex-fiancé?”
“Yeah, that’s the one. He actually showed up last week when you were working from home. Toni said not to tell you. She went and talked to him, and threatened him with David. We all thought that would be enough, but he showed up again this morning right before your presentation. I didn’t want you bothered before your big meeting.”
“Ah, shoot,” Samantha moaned. “Wait, how’d you get rid of him when I was in the meeting?”
“I called my boyfriend Brody, he’s an MMA fighter. He came and had a little talk with him. Kevin said he’d be back, but I haven’t seen him since, so it must have worked.” Zsa Zsa giggled.
Samantha got up from around her desk and gave the young girl a hug. “Thank you and thank Brody for me. But this has gone on enough. Ignoring his calls should have been a clear message. Obviously, he hasn’t gotten the point. I’ll take care of this.”
“Toni says you should have your new guy talk to him.” Zsa Zsa raised her perfectly defined brows. “Who’s your guy? Is he hot?”
Samantha couldn’t help it. She whispered with a big smile, “He is hot. He’s a Navy SEAL.”
“Shut up! Yeah, he could totally smack down this Kevin dweeb. I can’t wait to tell Brody. He’s twenty-one, he’s been thinking about joining the military, he’s not much into school.”
“It’s not a cakewalk. He’d have to work hard both mentally and physically,” Samantha warned.
“He’s really smart. He just doesn’t like the classroom. This is so cool.”
“So, what was the other bad thing?” Samantha asked.
“One of the parking attendants downstairs said that some guy hit your car. You’re going to have to fill out a report.”
Chills ran down her spine. The
