Switched, Bothered and Bewildered (11 page)

"
Dawson, the top-selling toys from our 2004 line last holiday season were the Wiggles. Cute, heartwarming."

"With due respect, Mr. Hawks, the top-selling action figure for Dec. 04 overall was the Fusion Monster based on the Fi-Bu-Mo cartoon, and it sold triple what our heartwarming line did. And in case I didn't mention it, that was produced by Harcourt Toys, not Pitman."

"Dude, you've got to reach into your inner child, and get what Pitman is all about. Don't quit, think of it as a challenge."
Jackson put his hand on
Dawson's shoulder. "Besides, the job market out there sucks."

Dawson
leaned in to his cohorts, and they buzzed together like deranged bees. He popped out of the hive and addressed
Jackson. "Considering the job market, we will give you another

month, but each of us officially gives notice. Is that right, Fletcher?
Downs? Parson?" They each gave
Jackson a dead-on nod.

Could this be happening? The creative team on the bread line in thirty days? Sounded like a pretty darn good idea to Jana Lee.

"I'm sorry to hear that,
Dawson, but grateful for the extra month. Maybe you'll change your mind. But if you don't, to make sure you get unemployment, I'll lay you off instead."
Jackson strode past the four stunned people and headed toward Jana Lee. The creative team made tracks out of the boardroom, leaving just Jana Lee, Oliver and Jackson.

Akk. Jana Lee shrunk down in her chair, fiddled with her scarf and tried to look invisible. Even though it sounded reasonable to realign a crew that wasn't in tune with the company, the reality of four people out of work was harsh when it was said flat out. She had the feeling people came and went from Pitman pretty easily. And here she was pretending to be her sister. Hopefully it wouldn't cost Jillian her job.

Jackson
pulled a chair out next to her and sat very close.

"Miss Tompkins, I'm sorry to hear about your throat. I hope I didn't keep you out in the night air too late last night."
Jackson smiled a very sexy smile.

It made her face feel hot looking at him. Parts of

her body that had been in an ice age state of dormancy came alive as he put his hand on top of hers. She pulled it away in an attempt to maintain sanity.

"Miss Tompkins's malady will no doubt lift by lunchtime. It's a purely temporary condition/' Oliver presented.

"Oh, really?"
Jackson looked straight in her eyes. "In that case, if you'd be so kind as to join me for lunch in my office, we'll have Chez Paris cater in. How does a chicken Caesar salad sound? Iced tea? Or perhaps a soothing soup?"

Jana Lee smiled and tried not to talk. She just nodded amiably in agreement. She had to make nice to the boss for Jillian's sake. She could tell him off later. If ever. Her sister's job was at stake here. She stared into his unblinking chocolate brown eyes and tried to remember what she was going to yell at him about.

No wonder women fell at his feet. Jackson Hawks was the most powerful, sexy, intelligent man she'd met in a long, long time.

⁷

Twin Streate

Jillian had nervously waited a decent amount of time to call her sister back at Pitman to find out about the meeting, and the time had come. So even though she was in the middle of a giant home improvement store, she flipped her cell phone open and dialed her own direct office line.

"Hello?" She heard her sister's voice on the other end.

"I believe that's
'Jillian Tompkins here/
sis."

"Oops. Hi, Jillian."

Jillian balanced the phone on her chin as she grabbed a box of nails off the shelf. "Hi, Jana, how's the Pit, as we like to call it? Get it? Pitman Toys?" she tried to sound casual.

"Oh, that's funny. The Pit is fine."

"I called to find out about the meeting." Jillian wanted to hear what solutions had been brought to the holiday lineup. She couldn't believe they'd been such idiots as to think the Byker Chikz line would fly in the first place, except to a very select and rather weird market.

"The meeting was very interesting.
Jackson pretty much fired the creative department. Is that normal?"

"He
what?"
The cement block walls of Mega Home Base weren't conducive to cell phone signals. Jillian thought her sister just said
Jackson fired the creative department.

"Well, really it was more like they quit. They gave a thirty-day notice."

Jillian heard that just fine. Her stomach twisted into a knot. An old, familiar knot. The work stress knot.
"Oh, Yny God,"
she blurted out. What was he thinking letting them go this time of year? And here their holiday lineup was short-numbered.

"Honestly, Jillian, I can see why. They're on a different planet. Remember all the cool stuff Pitman used to put out? We loved their toys as kids," Jana Lee said. "And he did suggest they try again, and maybe they'd consider it a challenge and not quit after all."

"You're defending Jackson Hawks? Yesterday you said he was an arrogant bastard. What's going on?" Jillian parked her big flatbed cart next to the MDF molding stacks.

"I didn't say bastard, just arrogant. He still is, but I sort of understand where he was coming from."

Jillian thought her sister sounded more lively than she had in years, and it made her smile to hear that. Maybe this deal was working after all. Maybe Jana Lee would be ready for a cute repair guy-sculptor when she got back.

As far as the work disaster, there wasn't much Jillian could do from here about the whole mess without tipping off everyone that she wasn't there. Besides, she'd call Oliver later and get the level-two dirt. She decided to change the subject before she let her mind unravel to the scream-out-loud point.

"There's a new Mega Home Base in Silver-burgh. I'll have you know I'm actually rolling down the aisle right now with a big home improvement cart," Jillian bragged. "Carly and I are having so much fun."

"What the hell are you doing to my house?"

"Oh, it's all minor stuff. Just a tweak here and there. The place could use a few repairs, you know," Jillian lied.

They'd decided to gut the place in the remaining days before Jana Lee flew home. Dean had hired on a crew just today. He said he got lucky and found some old friends of his. They'd go into high gear as soon as the rugrats left for good. Thank God she'd only had three days with them.

She'd had such a great time with Carly last night, staying up late emptying the contents of two generations of stuff into boxes: her mom's stuff and Jana Lee's stuff. They'd found baby spoons, five corkscrews, and were left wondering why Jana Lee kept fourteen plastic lids for containers that no longer existed.

Gee, Jillian hoped her sister liked it. She was trying to stick to that country feeling Jana Lee seemed to like, but it had morphed into more like French country at this point.

Dean had great taste, it turned out. He also seemed to have an abundance of time on his hands. He said something about having avoided booking jobs this summer, so he was happy to give her a hand. He also looked great in a tool belt.

"Just don't get carried away. I don't want a big mess, okay?" Jana Lee sounded wary.

"Oh, it'll all be cleaned up when you get back." That wasn't a lie. Jillian had made Dean swear to it, although he hadn't understood why. She'd said relatives were coming to visit, which was true. Her new game was trying to tell fewer lies to Dean.

"You're supposed to be resting."

"I'm not very good at it. I'm having fun anyhow. Do you like that Martha Stewart bluish-greenish-chicken-egg-color thing? I'm going to paint the kitchen."

"Blue is fine," Jana Lee answered. "Just keep it sane. Muted, you know, like me."

"Dull?"

"Yeah."

"I'm just teasing. You are not dull."

"I love you too, sister dear, now get some rest. That's an order. That's the only reason I agreed to this, you know."

"Yes, dear, I'll curl up with a good book and a cup of tea after the kids leave this afternoon."

"Promise?"

"Yes, I do." Jillian made kissy noises in the phone and said good-bye.

Sure she would. She'd curl up with the manual for the nail gun she'd just bought and maybe a dozen decorating magazines for ideas. That would be keeping her promise.

Jillian resolved not to think about Pitman for the next hour just as an exercise. Besides, this place was fun.

The store was packed for a weekday morning, but it was the grand opening. There were free samples of tons of things, and she'd been careening her cart through rows of tiles, carpeting, bathroom fixtures and wallpaper borders. She'd amassed quite a collection of items and at this point was wishing she'd brought Dean just to push the cart.

Oh well, he was busy supervising the rewiring for lighting in Jana Lee's and Carly's bedrooms. The upstairs was fair game while the kids were still doing their afterschool thing. Carly's room

was next on the pack-up list, although the girl had made a pretty good dent in it. It was amazing what a teenager could do when given a purpose.

Which reminded Jillian, she'd need some plastic bins for packing things up. How the hell was she going to get all this stuff in and out of the van? Maybe she'd have the molding delivered. She should have hit the gym more often than once a month.

Jillian turned the corner with her cart, doing a mini-wheelie trying to keep it in balance.

"Whoa there, you're top-heavy." It was Dean.

"Oh Dean, thank God you're here."

"I had to pick up some electrical. Pretty huge, isn't it?"

Jillian could only assume he was talking about Mega Home Base. "Yes, it sure as heck is. Can you take this cart off my hands?"

Dean grabbed the big deck cart and steadied her load.

"Let's just slow down—you've got plenty of time. The fine art of revamping a house is less complex than it seems. It's all in the planning. That, and the decisions. I see you picked some tile?"

"I thought this would make a great backsplash. What do you think?"

"Nice, very nice. Those insets are pretty pricy Are you wedded to them?"

"I am wedded. Money is no object."

He watched her gaze at the tile sample board and touch the Celtic knot design on the tiny pewter-colored inset piece.

"It's a peach, isn't it?" she said.

Dean rubbed his thumb over the design, their fingers brushing. "It's beautiful." He was continually puzzled by the vast difference in the current space this lady was living in and the tasteful, almost professional-level design she'd been coming up with. Maybe she'd just never figured out what her taste was till lately.

"I thought we'd do a tumbled marble thing, maybe a niche over the stove, and place these in that area. You like?" she asked. Her face was close to his, and he caught himself liking more than the tile.

"I like." He was caught in her excitement. "And with two tile setters, we'll just be finished in time if we start tomorrow morning." He loved turning a sow's ear into a showcase. She was quick as liquid silver with ideas, and her vision was very clear to him. He looked over at her, with her cute work overalls on, with a tank T-shirt underneath, revealing her figure very nicely. Her dark hair was tied back with a blue bandana headband. The ends stuck up like a bow on top of her head. She had a smudge of dirt on her cheek.

"Here," he said as he took his clean white hand-

kerchief from his back jeans pocket and brushed her cheek off.

"Oh, thanks," she murmured.

He felt heat rush through him. It had been a very long time since he'd had a lover. He better behave himself. This lady was a delicate package.

"Come on, I picked out grout." She barreled around the corner, went to the tile supply area with him hot on her heels, and proceeded to heft a large bag of grout off the floor. "Bisque. It matches the tile better."

Twenty pounds of grout. So much for the delicate package. "Nice. Did you look at sinks?" He took the bag out of her hands and packed it on the cart. Dean grabbed his clipboard off the top of a stack of tile and flipped to his supply list.

"Kitchen, bath and bath sinks, plus fixtures. That, and we should pick some lighting. I'm glad they opened this place, or we'd have five stores to go to. Plus it's all in stock, so no delays."

He was also grateful to spend the time with her. He watched her move through items and make decisions quickly and with amazing taste. She was good, very good.

After another hour they'd made significant progress with their checklist. She looked a little fatigued.

"Shall we go grab a cup of coffee at the Starbucks next door?" he suggested.

"There's free stuff in here somewhere." She held up an empty paper cup.