Betting on You Read Free

voluntarily admit it to her coworkers, but she suspected that Hank knew she might be familiar with the resort. “They are replacing their entire system with ours and the Myrtle Beach location is to be the first install. If things go well, the other nine locations will be next. The catch is they want to start on Monday, which means that the preliminary work needs to be laid out this week. Since you’d normally send Nikki on a local job, that only leaves you, kid. This needs to go off without a hitch so we can’t send some wet-behind-the-ears newbie and besides, those are your people, aren’t they?”
    Indeed they had been at one time. You didn’t grow up as the only child of Jefferson and Madeline Gentry without rubbing elbows with some of the privileged elite. Her parents were what you would call “old money.” If there had ever been a poor Gentry in the family tree, it was too far back to be found. She had bowed to parental pressure and attended an Ivy League college, which was probably why Hank suspected that she was from money. After she graduated, she had started to pull away from the crowd she had grown up with. The pressure to fit in had long ago gotten old and she was eager to experience life without a constant safety net under her.
    Of course, her parents had been less than thrilled with her choices. She would have thought her computer science degree would have tipped them off, but apparently they just assumed she had spent four years in college to study a hobby. When she moved out of her gated childhood home in a posh oceanfront section of Garden City Beach, they had been quite vocal in their disapproval. She had struck a compromise with them and had moved into a condominium that her father owned in nearby Surfside Beach. She wanted to hate it, but truthfully she loved her two-bedroom home right on the ocean. It was a small twelve-unit building and even though she was well paid at Danvers, it would have been out of her price range.
    She rarely saw any of her childhood friends now. Most of them just didn’t understand her anymore. As was often the case, they had all moved on. She had new friends now such as her good friend and coworker, Nikki, who was currently on maternity leave and had named Mia the godmother of her first child. Indeed, life was different, but better now. Her parents might never understand her, but she hoped in some tiny way, they respected her need to make it on her own.
    Hank snapped his fingers, jerking her from her trip down memory lane and back to the present. Damn, what was his question again? Oh, yeah, her people, hmmm, how to answer that. “I don’t know about that. I’m not familiar with the owner or owners.”
    He grinned, obviously amused with her efforts to sidestep his question. “Have you ever been inside the Oceanix Resort?”
    Well shit, he had her there and he knew it. “Er . . . a few times. They have a good Sunday brunch.”
    “Whew, I can only imagine how much a meal in that place would set you back.” Without waiting for an answer, he continued on. “So, at least you’re familiar with it. Bullshit aside, Merimon asked that we send you.”
    Mia’s heart stuttered. Oh my God, Gray Merimon knew she existed? Maybe that threesome idea wasn’t all in her head. “Wow, okay. If Gray asked for me.” Before she could start mentally picking out lingerie, Hank busted her bubble.
    “Gray? No, the other one, Nick. He handled the contract and requested the team leader. He even mentioned you by name.”
    Talk about having the rug pulled out from under you. It wasn’t that she didn’t find Nick attractive; he was delish. His fiancée, Beth, was hot as well, but she was pregnant. It seemed wrong to have a fantasy about someone knocked up. Oh, well, it was probably for the best. She would just continue to admire her idol from afar. “Yeah, I’ll head on over there this morning and get everything started. Who do I need to ask for?”
    Hank pulled some paperwork that he