"Hello, Mol." He brushed a knuckle over the baby's cheek. "How are you this morning, sweetheart?"
The weirdest sensation inched over Julie as Molly wrapped her tiny fingers around his thumb. For a moment-just a moment-she let herself imagine that this was her child and Alex's …
Whoa! No point in weaving fantasies of a nonexistent family, or wishing she had one to come home to. So she'd lost her parents while she was still in high school? Only she knew that was the reason she'd spent so much time out of the country over the years, grabbing every crappy job that came her way. It still hurt too much to go back to the small Oklahoma town that had bred her. It was also why she'd yielded to Dusty's suggestion she throw in with him and Charlie. They were the closest thing to a family she had left.
She brought herself up short when she looked up to find Alex's mother watching her with the intensity of a hawk. Gauging her reaction to the baby, obviously. Looking for a sign, some flicker of the anguish or guilt a mother might exhibit at the sight of the child she'd abandoned.
Frowning, Delilah started to say something. She was interrupted by an audible burp from Molly. The baby followed that with a stream of regurgitated yuk that landed mostly on Alex's shirtfront. Julie's opinion of the Dalton matriarch inched up a reluctant notch when Delilah laughed and preempted the nanny.
"I'll take her. You go clean up, Alex." Still chuckling, Delilah dabbed at the baby's chin with a corner of her blanket. "Big Jake-my husband-used to say all babies did was eat, sleep and emit noxious substances from both ends."
Julie's grudging admiration for this display of grandmotherly devotion didn't last long. Only until Alex returned with a wet splotch on his shirt and the butler following on his heels.
"Brunch is served, Madam."
"All right."
"Here," the nanny said, holding out her arms for the now sleepy infant. "I'll take her upstairs."
Delilah dropped a kiss on the baby's head before relinquishing her, then led the way into a dining table decked in creamy linen, fresh flowers and Baccarat crystal. As soon as they were all seated, she resumed her attack with no holds barred.
"I understand your mother died of ovarian cancer," she said to Julie as she handed the son seated to her left a platter of delicately fluted quiches.
"Back off," Alex warned while Julie's hands fisted in her lap.
"I don't see any reason to beat around the bush," Delilah returned in response to his growled warning. "Julie may claim she's not Molly's mother but until we know for sure I see no reason to … "
"Back off, I said."
The sapphires flashed blue fire as Delilah faced down her son. Or tried to. You could almost hear the thunderbolts booming through the air as two iron wills clashed.
"You'll have to excuse us," Blake said in a quiet, steady voice that suggested he'd spent a good part of his life defusing situations like this one. "Molly's unexpected arrival has thrown us all off stride."
Julie's shrug fell into the "if you say so" category. Why hadn't Alex made it clear she played no role in this Dalton family drama? Why didn't she? Feeling more uncomfortable by the moment, she worked her way through a generous wedge of mushroom and goat cheese quiche, baby asparagus drizzled with hollandaise sauce and a fresh fruit compote.
Thankfully, Alex insisted on departing right after brunch. His mother protested but he stood firm in his intent to provide Julie some insight into Dalton International's operations. Delilah yielded, although the look she gave her son suggested she wasn't done with him-or Julie-yet.
Blake opted to stay and discuss some legal issue with his parent. Molly, they discovered during a quick trip to the nursery, had fallen asleep. She lay on her stomach with her bottom poking up. When Alex stroked the baby's back with a gentle hand, Julie got that funny ache again but couldn't hold back a sigh of relief after the mansion's massive front door closed behind them.
"Well," she murmured, sinking into the Jag's passenger seat, "that was interesting."
Alex grimaced and slid behind the wheel. "That's one way to describe my mother."
She angled to face him. "All right, Dalton, clue me in. Why didn't you tell Madam that I provided proof Molly isn't my baby? Why leave things hanging?"
"I didn't intend to," he admitted with a rueful grin. "Then it hit me. She's far more likely to keep her claws sheathed if she thinks there's a chance, however slim, that you are, in fact, Molly's mother. And that, Ms. Bartlett, gives us the rest of the week to pursue our own agendas."
An agenda that included an inside look at the mega-corporation that might fold Agro-Air into many layers of operations. Julie was still trying to convince herself that was her main reason for staying the rest of the week when Alex put the car in gear and swept down the curved drive.
Six
Dalton International's scope of operations left Julie swinging between awe, excitement and doubt. The corporation was so humongous and so diversified she worried that a small-time outfit like Agro-Air would get lost in the shuffle.
Still, she couldn't help but be impressed by Alex's detailed knowledge of every facet of DI's operations. Even more by his hands-on management style. She saw that up close and personal when the chiefs of DI's major divisions convened at a high-tech nerve center and gave her an overview of their areas of responsibility. Manufacturing, subsidiary operations, marketing, sales, distribution … each director presented their latest stats and initiatives. She noted with interest how frequently they turned to Alex for confirmation, validation or encouragement.
But it wasn't until he drove Julie out to DI's sprawling manufacturing plant on the outskirts of the city that she understood how close he was to the grass-roots of the business his parents had launched almost forty years ago.
The plant foreman met them at the entrance to the facility. He was dressed in sharply pressed coveralls and stood at least six-five. "I'm Hector Alvarez, Ms. Bartlett. Glad to hear you and Agro-Air may be joining the DI family."
"Thanks, and please, call me Julie."
"I understand you just had a bucketful of marketing and sales stats thrown at you. Now I'll show you what generates a good portion of them. Here, you need to put these on."
She took a set of ear protectors and one of the yellow hard hats he carried with him. He gave similar gear to Alex. Then the three of them entered what looked like a mile-long building and stood for a moment on a platform overlooking a vast assembly floor.
The noise hit like a sledgehammer. Even with ear protectors, it seemed to come at her from all directions. Computer-aided precision saws screeched through metal, fitters riveted joints, welders in protective suits sent sparks hissing into the air. Her nostrils twitched with the sting of acetylene and the distinctive tang of acid etching steel.
Gesturing, Alvarez nudged her toward an enclosed balcony overhanging the assembly floor. Inside the noise level dropped from a roar to a rumble. Following the example of Alex and the foreman, Julie removed her ear protectors and looked around with wide-eyed interest. Although the rows of cubicles were populated by individuals in jeans and tank tops or work shirts with sleeves rolled up, the equipment they worked on was clearly the best money could buy. Just the 26-inch high definition monitors on the workstations were enough to make Julie drool. The computers feeding them were all state-of-the-art.
"I'm going to walk you through our design, test, production scheduling and quality control units," Hector advised. "Then we'll go down on the floor and follow a product from initial cut to final assembly. Sound okay to you?"
Julie nodded, although Hector glanced from her to Alex for the real go-ahead. He gave it, and they began the tour.
Despite the carefully scripted agenda, they almost didn't make it past the first stop. To Julie's surprise and delight, Alex had already detailed a team of two engineers to look at Agro-Air's aerial spray system. One of the engineers was a lean, ropy Oklahoma native. The other, a recent UCLA grad with a double major in mechanical and polymer engineering, introduced herself as Lisa Wu and was clearly thrilled to have the lead on this, her first project for Dalton International.
"Alex said to take your spray system apart piece by piece and look for possible design improvements that might increase spread ratios. Dean and I are just getting started, but I think you might be interested in what we've done so far regarding nozzles."
A click of a mouse filled the monitor on her work station with a dazzling color array.
"Since the system has to deliver a variety of products from pest control to fertilizers, we looked at several variations. These … " she said, aiming the pointer at the top row of gleaming, stainless steel nozzles, " … incorporate the latest USDA Agricultural Research Service's spray drift reduction technology. The ARS used their High Speed Wind Tunnel Facility to measure droplet size at different airspeeds, spray pressures and orientation with a Sympatec Helos laser diffraction instrument."