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The phone continued to ring and Abby found herself falling behind.
She still had to prepare for the meeting and at nine-thirty, went in to set up the conference room.
Setting up for a morning conference meant making coffee. Though she didn’t drink the stuff herself, Abby had watched Valerie.
Parker Laird didn’t settle for the prepackaged stuff, oh no. Valerie had rattled off the names of the beans in his custom mix, along with the fact that he liked them roasted a precise number of seconds and freshly ground.
To Abby, a coffee bean was a coffee bean. She poured them into the grinder, then dumped the grounds into a metallic-filtered basket, added tap water and hoped for the best.
The rest of the tray would be just as complicated as Parker Laird, himself. No powdered packets of coffee creamer and no plastic cups. That would be too easy, Abby grumbled to herself. There must be skim milk, cream and regular milk. Parker served both natural sugar and white sugar, along with two kinds of artificial sweetener. The coffee would be poured into heavy royal-blue mugs with the Laird Drilling and Exploration logo in white.
By the time Abby had made a pot of decaf and had carried in the tray, it was only ten minutes until the meeting should start. Feeling rushed and flustered, she bent down and yanked open the credenza doors to look for the napkins bearing the Laird logo. These were white, with the logo in royal blue.
“Hellooo, Valerie, my love. Have you decided to leave your husband and come away with me yet?”
Eyes wide, Abby jerked upright. Leaning against the conference room doorway was a younger version of Parker. This was the wickedly charming black sheep, Jay Laird, himself. Abby had only seen the back of his head before in person, since he was rarely here.
He was as handsome as everyone said he was with the gray Laird eyes and black hair. His skin was attractively tanned and his features weren’t as sharply defined as Parker’s.
“You’re not Valerie.”
Abby shook her head.
He advanced into the room, interest in his gray eyes, a winsome smile on his lips. “Come away with me anyway.”
“I—I can’t do that.” She closed the cabinet doors. “I haven’t finished setting up for the meeting.”
He looked around the room. “Chairs, table... what more do we need?”
“Water,” Abby said.
“Ah.” Shoving his hands into the pockets of his khaki trousers, he cocked his head sideways. “If I fetch the water, can we sneak away?”
Abby smiled in spite of herself. “Mr. Laird, you’re supposed to be at this meeting.”
He winced. “Jay, please.”
“Jay,” she repeated easily.
He regarded her, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “You know who I am.”
“Everyone knows who you are.”
“But I, alas, do not know who everyone is.”
Abby abandoned the microscopic hope that he might have noticed her sometime during the past four years. “I’m Abby Monroe. Ms. Chippin is on a cruise and I’m filling in for her.”
“A cruise.” He looked skyward. “She left without me.” He met her eyes with a soulful gaze. “I’m devastated.”
Abby laughed, feeling the tension of the morning melt away for the first time.
“So, you’ve drawn the short straw.” He tucked her hand through his arm. “Come tell Uncle Jay all about it.”
“About what?” With a smile, Abby disengaged her arm and picked up two empty water pitchers.
“About slaving for my brother. Do you have a life left?” Jay followed her into the tiny coffee bar.
There was hardly room for one person, let alone two, and Abby was aware that he was standing close behind her as she filled the pitchers with ice and water. “This is only my first day.”
“Quick!” He grasped her shoulders. “Run! Flee! Get out while you still can.”
Chuckling, Abby handed him a pitcher. “I’m not afraid of hard work.”
“There’s work and there’s the rest of your life.” Jay carried the pitcher into the conference area. “My brother and I differ on how much time one should devote to each. You see, I work to live. Parker lives to work.”
It wasn’t her place to comment, though Abby thought fleetingly of the pictures of a smiling Jay that regularly appeared in the society news section of the paper. Parker always appeared in the business news section.
She followed Jay out of the coffee bar, positioned the pitchers on a tray and stepped back to examine the arrangement she’d made on top of the credenza.
“Looks like you’ve been doing this for years. Valerie couldn’t have done better.”
Jay had said exactly what Abby thirsted to hear. She exhaled and turned a brilliant smile toward him.
“Jay, I’ve been looking for you.”
Her smile vanishing instantly, Abby’s gaze flew to the doorway where Parker stood.
Something unidentifiable flashed in his eyes and she wondered if she should have announced his brother’s arrival.
“And now you’ve found me,” Jay said lightly.
“Pestering my assistant, I see.” Parker walked forward with uncharacteristic slowness and tossed file folders onto the oval conference table.
“Just giving her a hand with the meeting preps.”
Parker glanced at the credenza. “All appears to be in order.”
Though on the surface, both men were speaking in nonconfrontational tones, Abby sensed an underlying tension between them. Time to leave. “Do you need anything else, Mr. Laird?”
“Would you bring me the map I left on my worktable?”
Abby hurried into Parker’s office, uncertain whether he was angry or not. Surely she didn’t have to announce his own brother.
Abby rolled the map and headed back to the conference room. The two men were visible through the doorway. Parker had opened the files and was speaking to Jay, who wore a resigned look as he flipped through the papers in them.
“I would rather hire my own team,” he was saying as Abby quietly placed the map at Parker’s elbow.
“You arrive next week.” Parker’s voice was clipped. “You have no on-site support personnel and you have no experience.”
“I have experience,” Jay snapped. “It’s different than yours, so you discount it.”
The brothers locked gazes. Without blinking, Parker opened another file folder and pushed it toward Jay. “Ian Douglass is a good man with twenty-three years’ experience in remote drilling locations.”
“I’ll consider him. Thanks for the tip.”
“It’s not a tip. I hired him this morning.”
“Then you can un-hire him this afternoon.”
Abby held her breath and as discreetly as possible, tried to evaporate from the room.
“Abby, show everyone in here when they arrive.”
“Yes, Mr. Laird.”
He regarded her without expression, but Jay winked and Abby quickly turned away before Parker could see her smile.
CHAPTER THREE
AS THE men and women arrived for the meeting, Abby showed them in.
Both Laird brothers greeted them. Jay was a flirt and a backslapper with a contagious laugh and none of the intensity that surrounded his brother.
Jay made her smile.
Parker made her nervous.
He expected perfection and she was determined to give it to him. The pressure of wondering when she was going to make a mistake, as she surely would, was wearing on her.
“Here you go, Mr. Danvers.” She handed coffee to a man wearing a bolo string tie held by a clip with a diamond cut in the shape of Texas.
“Thank you, sweetheart,” he boomed. “How’s school?”
“I took my final exam last Thursday.”
“Got your grade yet?”
She shook her head.
“You let me know, now, y’hear?”
Abby smiled. Diamond Don Danvers was a character. He loved playing the quintessential Texas oilman where all the younger women were his “sweethearts” and all the younger men his “boys.” A wildcatter from way back, he’d earned the right to his showmanship. Everybody knew Diamond Don—he made sure of it. Abby had a soft spot for him because he’d stopped and introduced himself the first time he’d noticed her sitting at her desk by the elevator. It didn’t matter to him that she was just a secretary, and it didn’t matter to him that Parker and his entourage had hiked down the hall. Diamond Don took the extra minute to learn who she was and ever after asked her about school.
Carrying his coffee, Diamond Don approached Parker and Abby shook her head, thinking that there couldn’t be two individuals more different in temperament.
Except maybe Parker and his brother.
She hovered around the credenza waiting to see if she should refresh the coffee before the meeting got under way.
“Shall we get started?” Parker asked, though the way he spoke, no one interpreted it as a question.
Recognizing her signal to leave, Abby started for the door. Since Parker taped the meeting, he didn’t need her to take notes, but she would remain in Valerie’s office in case he buzzed her for anything.
“Good God Almighty, Parker.” Diamond Don’s voice cut through the murmurs of people getting settled around the table. “What have you done to your coffee, son?”
Abby froze.
Diamond Don took another swallow and grimaced.
It was then that Abby noticed the full mugs sitting in front of everyone.
“Tastes fine to me,” Jay announced, and swallowed, though he blinked rapidly and avoided her eyes.
Abby’s palms iced as she looked toward Parker.
Staring into his mug, he twirled the liquid around the edges.
“It’s a new bean I’m trying.” Parker addressed the group. “Indonesian Green Volcano. I’m thinking of investing in the farm where it’s grown.”
“Green Volcano.” Diamond Don shook his head. “Tastes like volcanic ash, all right.” He set his cup aside. “I’d give this one a pass, son.”
Fervent murmurs accompanied Diamond Don’s pronouncement.
“Make a note not to order that brand anymore, would you, Abby?” Parker glanced at her before turning his attention to the agenda. “And have Barbara or Nancy make us some more coffee.”
Abby nodded and escaped.
Back in her office, she shut the door and leaned against it, her eyes closed while she unwound for a few moments. Inhaling, she noticed that she could smell Valerie’s perfume. The scent had permeated the office reminding Abby as nothing else that she was only a temporary Executive Assistant.
Abby didn’t want to be reminded that she was only temporary. Someday she wouldn’t be temporary. Crossing to her desk, she made a note about the coffee, asked Nancy to make more, then made another note to spray Valerie’s office with nice refreshing pine scent.
Slipping off her pumps, Abby buried her toes in the carpet pile. During the next hour and a half, her telephone was blessedly silent. Either Nancy or Barbara handled all the calls that came in. Abby sorted through all of one box and was making headway on the second when her intercom buzzed.
“Yes, Mr. Laird?”
“Abby, it looks like we’ll be eating lunch here.” Parker’s voice was as composed as ever, though this development just shot his schedule all to pieces.
“I’ll order sandwiches,” she said.
“That’ll be fine.”
Abby stood and stretched her arms over her head. It had been a long morning and she knew she was in for a lengthy afternoon.
Picking up the telephone, she reached for Valerie’s Rolodex. The huge round card file wasn’t in its customary spot. No wonder there had been so much room on the desk. Abby looked on the window ledge, then by the computer, behind the monitor, on the file cabinets, in the file cabinets and in the desk drawer before giving up.
“Do either of you have Valerie’s Rolodex?” Abby asked Barbara and Nancy from the doorway.
Both women looked up from their computers and shook their heads.
