“Okay, those numbers aren’t awful, but they aren’t good either,” he said, a bit louder this time. “Yeah, I know it would be easier just to close it up, but I need hard, factual evidence before we make any definitive decision.”
Was he talking about closing the plant? Her stomach turned and she hoped he was talking about something completely different. She poked her head around the corner, studying him for a moment as he stared at the screen of the computer.
His light brown hair wasn’t perfectly in place like it had been every other time she’d seen him. And those crazy blueish-greenish eyes seemed to change with what he wore. When he smiled, which was rare, it lit up his whole face, making him look ten times more attractive than when he was studying something.
She ducked behind the wall again when he glanced her way, embarrassed that she’d been caught checking him out.
What was her problem? She’d been one of the toughest competitors at the rodeo just a year ago, and now she was turning into a puddle over a guy who probably looked at her as though she’d just come out of the horse stall with manure on her boots.
Sure, he’d been polite, but there was a formality that blocked him off from her. And rightly so. He was her boss now, for the next couple of months at least.And how could she forget how her last relationship with her boss had gone?
Focus on the work.
By the time she’d finished getting all the pictures and measurements, she ducked out of the house, not wanting to disturb him as his voice rose in a heated discussion about the number of employees at the plant. Her insides twisted as she thought of how real getting closed down could be. One factory closed would send ripple effects for years to come.
It would be hard to run a company as big as Wakefield Fabrication, and Kassidy was glad all she had to do was the more glamorous part of putting on a party.
From what she’d learned about Dustin Wakefield so far, he definitely didn’t fit the complete version of a recluse, just a work-driven man who probably didn’t get out much because of his job.
There were some things the gossipers tended to get right, but when it came to the guy who hadn’t lived here in over a decade, she’d just have to wait and see.
Chapter 10
By the time he got off the call, Dustin was wound up and ready for a fight. There were so many moving parts to the fabrication business, and he needed all of them moving in sync to make an impact on the bottom line of the company.
One of the locations in Utah had run out of materials because their supplies director had left to have a baby the month before and the head manager hadn’t replaced her since then. Poor management affected more than just that one area, and with all the time off the company allowed for the holiday toward the end of December, Dustin didn’t need employees standing around bored because they didn’t have the materials to create the products they were assigned.
He stood and stretched, walking around to see if Kassidy was still there. He’d wanted to talk to her more, to make up something to talk to her about, but the call had gone much longer than he’d planned.
As he rounded a corner, he caught a light whiff of her perfume, a floral scent he couldn’t place.To be honest, he hadn’t been around a woman younger than his grandmother in a handful of years, and this wasn’t a heavy scent.
What was it about this woman that felt like it exposed his reclusiveness? There were women who worked at the offices in California, but they reminded him of bunnies, stating the things that needed to be said and hopping away quickly as if he were some kind of wolf.
He spotted a paper on the ground and walked over to pick it up. It looked like the measurements she’d taken for several of the rooms. She’d probably be needing it if she were to begin ordering decorations. He could keep it for the next time she came by, but then again, he wasn’t sure when that would be.
The clock chimed one in the afternoon. He could use a distraction before the managers of the Coldwater Creek plant got back to him. It would’ve been easier to drive the twenty minutes to the plant to demand the paperwork, but he would be there in a few days anyway, and he hoped to keep out of the spotlight until a final decision had been made.
Dustin headed upstairs to grab the pile of dirty suits and then back down to jump in the Maserati. Getting them to the dry cleaner was a must, and then he could go for a burger down at the diner.
As he shifted the car into reverse, he glanced over at the slightly crumpled paper with Kassidy’s neat penmanship on the passenger seat. On his way home, if he could think of a good reason as to why he didn’t leave it at the house, he’d drop by Kassidy’s house with the paper.
He’d just need to think that one through while he filled his stomach.
Dustin spentlunch trying to focus on the hamburger he hadn’t tasted in years. The small drive-in diner had burgers that beat all the ones he’d ever tried in California.
Several people turned in his direction as he focused on dunking the fries into the fry sauce the people of this town made in buckets. He could hear them whispering, “Isn’t that the Wakefield boy?” and, “The Wakefield grandson.” A few minutes ticked by, and he’d just finished the dregs of his strawberry shake when someone whispered, “Is he here to close the plant?”
Scrunching the napkin in his hand, he stood, dropping his garbage into the designated bins and walking out the door.
He wished he was used to this, that being the head of a major corporation for four years had given him thicker skin to insulate from what people were saying about him. Instead, the self-doubt came rushing in.
He’d worked for years to overcome those lingering thoughts of inadequacy brought on by the expectations of so many people in this valley, and by his grandfather’s expectations until he’d passed on. And again as his limited experience was questioned over and over by the employees underneath him.
Winding the car around some of the curves, he tried to think through the problems at the local plant. He’d only closed one other plant since he’d taken over, and that he hadn’t taken lightly. People and their families were always affected by those kinds of big decisions, and that kind of news this close to Christmas would be devastating on the valley.
It took nearly a minute to figure out where he’d driven while focused on work, the surroundings throwing him a bit. He had a sense of déjà vu, but searching his memories, he couldn’t remember driving in this area. The sky grew dark, the white clouds from earlier now a dark gray.
That’s just what he didn’t need, a snowstorm to hit the valley. He’d all but forgotten how to drive in the snow.