A Baby for the Boss(27)

Like now, Jenny thought as she sat down in front of Mike’s desk. He was on the phone with one of the bloggers who posted about Celtic Knot, so Jenny had a minute to indulge herself in watching him.

His features were stony—his businessman face, she thought. Cool. No-nonsense. Unforgiving. His voice was clipped as he told the man what he wanted and expected, and Jenny had no doubt the blogger would do whatever Mike said. He had a knack for getting his way.

And for just a second, she wished she was his way.

Then he hung up and she forced her mind out of the lovely little daydreams it preferred and back to the business at hand.

“So, what’ve you got?” he asked, idly flipping a pen over and over between his fingers.

“Jacob says the painters can start next week,” she said, checking her tablet and scrolling down to tick off information she had to give him. Jenny had spoken to the lead contractor so many times that week, she was beginning to think of the older man as family. “He also says the hotel employees you have living on-site have been helping the construction crew—lifting and toting mostly, but Jacob says they’re really doing a lot to keep the work on schedule.”

“Interesting,” Mike admitted. “That wasn’t part of our deal.”

“Apparently, they got bored with just waiting for the new hotel to open.” She shrugged and suggested, “They don’t need to go out and find a new job, so maybe they’re willing to help out, get the hotel open that much quicker. According to Jacob, they’re doing a lot of the scut work, freeing up the crew to do the rehab.”

Nodding, Mike said, “Make a note of the names of the guys who are doing the helping. We’ll make sure they’re paid for the extra work.”

“Already done,” she said.

He smiled and tossed the pen to the desk. “I like self-starters, people who are willing to step in and do what needs doing without being asked. Keep their names handy. We’ll look at promotions when the hotel’s up and running.”

“I’ve got the list for you and the departments they worked in at the old hotel. I figured you’d want to do something like that.”

“Impressive,” he said with a nod of approval. “Are you sure you’re an artist, not an admin?”

Surprised at the compliment, Jenny laughed. “Oh, artist, for sure. I don’t mind helping you with this stuff, but if I had to keep track of everyone in the free world every day, it would drive me crazy.”

“It does,” Mike admitted. “I’ve been riding herd all week on bloggers, beta testers, the marketing guys and the design team working on the game cover. Sean hates the cover, I’m okay with it, but since neither of us is happy with it, they’ve got to go back to square one.”

“What’re they putting on the cover?”

“The forest, hints of a warrior stepping out from the trees, full moon...”

“Sounds a lot like the cover for ‘Forest Run.’”

“Yes! That’s exactly what I said.” He shook his head, jumped up from his chair and paced to the window overlooking the yard and the blue, cloud-studded sky. “We need it different enough that people won’t think they’ve already got it and similar enough that they know they’ll be getting the same kind of fantasy they’ve become accustomed to.”

“Hmm...” Jenny’s gaze tracked him as he shifted impatiently from foot to foot at the tall window. If her gaze also dropped briefly to enjoy the view of his very nice behind, who could blame her? “What if we did something with the Wise Woman and the warrior together on the cover?”

He looked at her over his shoulder. “Go on.”

“Maybe lightning flashing in the sky.” Jenny closed her eyes briefly and could almost see it. “Magic shooting from her fingertips, wind lifting her hair, light gleaming off the warrior’s sword...”

“I like it,” he said, voice softer that it had been.

Jenny opened her eyes and looked into his and for a second or two convinced herself that she saw something...special. Then the moment was gone again because really, she shouldn’t torture herself like that anyway.

“I’ll give your ideas to the design team.”

“Thanks,” she said, pleasure making a warm knot in her chest.

“Hey, it’s nice to talk to someone who doesn’t need constant monitoring. Sometimes all I want to do is skeet shoot my cell phone.”

“Understood. Completely.” Didn’t need to be monitored? Did that mean he was actually starting to trust her? No, she told herself, don’t get crazy.

Going back to her tablet, Jenny continued. “We might as well finish this up. The engineers are on-site, working on the mechanisms for the river ghosts and ghouls. They say it’ll take a couple months to get everything to be perfect, but again, according to Jacob, the engineers are excited.”