I tear my gaze away from the quiet girl and clear my throat. “As soon as I get the house in order.”
Amelia stiffens and takes a slow, deliberate bite. We have never really talked about it. Everything happened so fast between us. If there is even an “us.” Actually, I’m supposed to be gone in a couple of days, but I want to stay just for a little longer. I’m not one for dropping everything in my life for a girl I just met, but I haven’t felt this way in years.
“In a couple of weeks,” I add untruthfully. Val is going to kill me. She expects me to be back the day after tomorrow.
“So how did you two meet, Fletch?” Here we go. The parental interrogation. It’s no wonder Amelia asked why I brought her here. It feels too much like meeting the parents.
I respond, “I needed some help at the house and my old high school coach, Mr. Mark, recommended her.”
The old couple seems to relax. It’s not every day that I bring a strange girl to lunch with them. Mr. Mark is a beloved figure around town, and they have known him for years. If he vouches for Amelia, she must be alright. Aunt Beattie leans back in her seat and rests her hands on her lap. “That’s nice. Is that what you do, mostly? Clean houses?”
“No…” Amelia shakes her head. “I work at the cafe next to the office park.”
“You’re not in school?” Aunt Beattie asks good-naturedly, but it only makes Amelia feel more embarrassed. “I—I’m saving up money for it. I’d like to be a nurse someday.”
“That’s a fine profession! But, Sweetheart, getting into school can be hard. Did you know that Fletcher actually has donated a lot of money to our local college? Maybe he can put a good word for you at the school? Won’t you, Fletcher?”
Amelia’s face turns blotchy and pink. She looks as if she is about to cry. “No! I’d never ask him for that!”
“Why not?” All three of us ask in unison. I don’t understand why she has declined the offer even though it won’t really cost me a thing. I’m surprised by the force of her denial. It is as if she doesn’t want to have anything more to do with me. She doesn’t want to owe me anything, however little.
“I just can’t!” she exclaims. “I can take care of myself. I work. I make money. I’ll get into school and pay for it. I don’t need his help or money. Even if I don’t have money for rent—”
“You don’t have money for rent?” I immediately seize on that fact.
She covers her mouth with her hand and sputters. “No, no. I mean, if I don’t have money for rent, it’s just hypothetical. But I do. I’m fine.” She buries her head in the bowl of potato soup and avoids talking to me for the rest of the meal.
“Well!” Aunt Beattie concludes with a satisfied smile. “Good for you, Darling. Not many young people are willing to work hard nowadays.”
I slip out of bed quietly, deftly pulling my arm out from under Amelia’s sleeping head. My phone has been buzzing on my parents’ old nightstand, even though there’s barely light out. I know who it’s from and with a sigh, I put the phone to my ears.
“Fletch, where the hell are you?” Val’s angry voice blares through.
I steal a quick glance at the sleeping woman in the bed and sneak out of the room. “I—” I explain.
“I almost had a heart attack when the driver came back without you. I thought something bad had happened to you! Imagine my surprise when I found out that you didn’t even get on the flight! Where are you?” she prods again.
I look down at my bare feet. My toes are sinking into the unattractive shag carpeting that my parents put down when they first bought the house decades ago. “I’m still in California.” I try to keep my voice low.
“What? I thought you were done. I thought this was supposed to be a one-week thing. What is going on? Do I need to go out there and help you?”
“No, no.” I put up my spare hand as if I can keep Valentina in New York with this unseen gesture.
“Then what’s keeping you there? We need you back here. The demonstration is in two weeks and we’re nowhere near where we need to be. Fletch, you need to be here.”
“I—” I scratch my head. This company is important to me. I can’t let it fail. But there is something else at stake, too. “Just give me one more week. I’ll be back way before the demonstrations start.”
“You need to come back.”
“Joe is doing a fine job. I just talked to him last night. Everything is under control.”
“Joe is not you.” She lets the sentence hang in the air for a moment. True, Joe has been very successful, but he has never started his own company. This is different. He can run an existing team, but he doesn’t know how to create something out of nothing. That is my domain.
I shuffle my feet in the long carpet fibers and don’t answer.
“It’s a girl, isn’t it?” Damn it, why does she know me so well? “Damn it, Fletch. Seriously?”
“No, no. I mean, maybe. Yes. But that’s not the only reason. You know I haven’t taken a vacation in three years. I need this.”
I hear huffing and I can see her sitting in her plush office chair and panting. “I didn’t want to tell you this over the phone, but you leave me no choice. Alfred Worth is trying to run a story on us. A big one.”
“What?” There is no one I hate more than the King of Scandals.
“He’s trying to rake up a story about how we’re running out of funding, how we have no product, and how our CEO hasn’t been seen in public
