Page 61 of Need You
She was just about to disconnect when he said, “I’ll be home in about an hour. You want me to stop by?”
“You don’t have to. I can just leave them on your doorstep and when you get a chance you can let me know what you think.”
“Okay. Delaney, why are you doing this?”
She wondered if he meant why was she bothering him. “Doing what?”
“Trying to perfect a pair of pants you don’t want to make in the first place.”
She let out a breath and shut her eyes. “Because right now it seems to be the only thing I’m good at.”
There was quiet on the other end of the line, then he said, “All right. Talk to you later.”
She gave the pants another good pressing, wrapped them in tissue, stuck them in a bag, crossed the driveway to Colt’s, and left the package where she said she would. When she returned home her answering machine was blinking. Delaney wondered if it was Liz with bad news. Her lawyer often called at odd hours because she was in court most of the day. She pressed the button, holding her breath.
“Hi, Delaney, it’s Karen. Call me as soon as you can. I’ll be up until eleven.”
She rang Karen’s number, wondering what was up. It wasn’t like her ex-office manager to call this late.
Karen picked up almost immediately, as if she were waiting for Delaney. “She’s driving us crazy.”
“Who is?”
“Olivia, the wicked bitch of the West. She’s demanding, moody, and mean. I almost quit today.”
“Oh no.” As much as Delaney felt competitive with Olivia, she didn’t want her former employees to be unhappy. “Don’t do that.”
“Why? She’s impossible to work with.”
“Because it’s a good job and Robert will talk to her.” Delaney was angry with him but Robert was a good employer. He wouldn’t want discord in the ranks.
“Robert bends to her every wish. It’s pathetic, Delaney. This thing with him wanting you to take your name off the existing shoes and handbags—that’s Olivia. She’s threatening to leave over it.”
Delaney wasn’t surprised. She’d suspected Olivia of pulling Robert’s strings. Olivia wanted to be the face of the new Delaney Scott and couldn’t do that if Delaney’s merchandise still carried the name.
“Give her a chance to assimilate. It’s got to be tough walking into a new house and filling the shoes of the designer who founded it.”
“I understand that, Delaney, I really do. But I’m done giving her more chances. I’ve given her too many already. I want to come work for you.”
There was nothing Delaney would like better. Bringing in Karen would solve her staffing problem. Karen had been with Delaney Scott for years and had the skill sets to oversee the entire operation from manufacturing to sales. While Delaney’s warehouse supervisor had been a saint to take on the extra responsibilities, the job called for someone like Karen.
“I would love to have you, Karen, but for all intents and purposes I’m starting from scratch. There’s no guarantee that my new company will thrive the way Delaney Scott does. After all these years, you deserve job security.”
“I’ll risk it.”
Delaney admired Karen’s loyalty. Still, it wouldn’t be fair to take her on if Karen didn’t know what she was getting herself into.
“Karen, do you know what I’ve been spending my days doing?” When Karen didn’t answer, she said, “I’ve been perfecting a design for cargo pants.”
Karen laughed as if it were a joke.
“My neighbor and his family own an adventure tour company. They want to sell my cargo pants. The reason I’m even entertaining the idea is because I can’t design anything else. I’m stuck, completely blocked. For all I know I’ll never be able to design again.”
“I thought your neighbor was the police chief of that little town and you couldn’t stand him.”
“He is, but we’ve buried the hatchet.” If Karen only knew. “Are you listening to me? I haven’t been able to put anything on paper since the divorce. A full year.”
“You’ll get it back,” Karen said, sounding so confident that Delaney almost believed her. “You’ve been under enormous stress. Not just with you and Robert breaking up, but with the settlement hearing. Losing a big chunk of everything you built has to be devastating, Delaney. Cut yourself some slack. Make cargo pants for a while. It can’t hurt.”
