Nothing Personal Read Free Page B

anything?”
    “Not a thing. I’m good.”
    “All right, then. Just let me know if that changes. Love you.”
    “Love you too, honey. Congratulations again. Oh, can I talk about it to Alec’s folks on Sunday? And tell the girls, tomorrow night at pinochle? And say the name?”
    “You can talk about it. The name’s not a secret, and I’m officially on board, so you can talk about me too. I’ll let you go. Lots to do. Talk soon.”
    She hung up, put the phone back in her purse, and headed north to catch the light across Market Street. She’d take a detour on the way home, she decided. Walk through Union Square, look in the Scheuer Linens windows, maybe even buy a sheet set after all. It wasn’t quite Target, but it would do.
     

Alec Stays Out of Trouble
    “I’m not excited.”
    That was Joe. The words were flat, Joe’s light blue eyes cold, his mouth unsmiling. The least animated person in the crowded, noisy wine bar. The place to be on Friday night, and the last place Alec felt like being right now.
    “Want to go up to my place to talk about this?” Alec asked.
    “What?” Brandon asked, his shorter frame perched one stool over, thighs splayed aggressively, eyes roving. “And miss out on the window displays? Dude, what happened to you up in Iowa?”
    “Idaho,” Alec corrected.
    Brandon waved a dismissive hand, sent an appraising glance toward a young Asian woman standing with a couple friends next to a window, where they could be seen by the passing pedestrian traffic. Short skirt, long glossy hair, high heels. “Whatever.”
    He shoved a cuff up on the close-fitting dress shirt he wore over his perfectly distressed jeans and nudged the floor with an Italian-loafered toe, edged back on the stool and hit Alec with an elbow. “Nine o’clock,” he muttered.
    Alec glanced at the woman, smiled as she reached a hand up to touch her hair. Bingo.
    He turned back to Joe. “I know you’re not happy. Hell, I’m not happy either. But face it, we’re stuck with her.”
    “You’re telling me you couldn’t work your mojo on the board,” Joe challenged. “Did you even try, yesterday? Or today, for that matter?”
    Alec shook his head. “Move on. It’s a done deal. And she’s good. I checked her out.”
    “I checked her out too,” Brandon said. “Major ice queen. Give me a few weeks, though, bet I could melt that.”
    “On the team,” Alec reminded both of them. “Get used to it. Get behind it. We have no choice.”
    “There’s always a choice,” Joe said. “She could quit.”
    “Don’t even think about it,” Alec ordered. “She’s already looking for office space, lining up staff. It’s been one day, and she’s on it.”
    “She’s not hiring programmers,” Joe said with alarm. “You and I are doing that.”
    “Relax,” Alec told him. “I worked out the reporting lines with her today. Look at it this way. She’s going to take care of the scut work none of us wants to do, and she’ll do it better than we would too. Win-win.”
    “Sounds to me like she’ll be bird-dogging us,” Joe growled. “Watching. Handing out employee manuals and making us sign sexual-harassment policies. All the crap we started working together to get away from.”
    “So you watch a video, sign a piece of paper,” Alec said impatiently. He was more than done discussing this. “You don’t have to worry your pretty head about the lease, that’s the main point.”
    “My pretty head never did worry about that,” Joe said, a reluctant grin finally breaking the frost in the craggy lines of his bearded face. He ran a hand over his smooth expanse of scalp. “That was your pretty head.”
    “Exactly,” Alec pounced. “That’s exactly it.” Although he could already tell that she was going to frustrate the hell out of him, in more ways than one.
     
    He’d met her at a café that afternoon, as arranged. She’d already been there when he’d arrived, seated at a table with her coffee and laptop in front