“Hey, narcissist is your word, not mine.”
Her gaze snapped back to his and she saw that his smile hadn’t changed at all. But perhaps his eyes were crinkling just a tad around the edges.
“All I’m saying—” her voice took on a defensive edge, but she didn’t try to hide it. It wasn’t her fault he was that good at hiding his true nature “—is that you can’t spend all that time and energy creating a persona to fool everyone and then be annoyed when you actually do fool everyone.”
*
Griffin knew Sydney was right. He also knew her annoyance with him was totally justified. He’d kept a lot of things from her. There were sides of himself he shared with almost no one. Things he hadn’t ever meant to share, even with her.
When he’d first started working for Cain Enterprises, he’d been pegged as the slacker in the family. At first, he hadn’t courted that image on purpose. He simply hadn’t wanted the job. But he had wanted the inheritance that would one day be his, and his father had made it clear that he’d never have one if he didn’t accept the other. As it turned out, being a piss-poor executive left him plenty of time to work for Hope2O. Being known as the lazy one had made his life easier. Everyone he knew thought him either incapable or unwilling to work, so no one ever expected jack from him. No one within Cain Enterprises, anyway.
Generally speaking, he was okay with people thinking he was an ass and a playboy. So why was he annoyed that Sydney believed that, too?
Did he honestly think she somehow looked past the image he’d carefully cultivated to the man beneath? Would he want her to if she could?
It was hardly a fair question.
And Sydney was still standing before him, waiting for his response. And also looking rather nervous. She kept rubbing the pad of her thumb across the edge of her iPad cover as she frowned down at it as if she couldn’t quite figure out where it had come from.
Finally, she straightened her shoulders and said, “If that’s all?”
He pushed himself to his feet and sighed. “You’re right. And I’m not annoyed.” Maybe if he said it often enough, he’d believe it. “I have no reason to be. If I act like a jerk, I have no one to blame but myself if that’s how people see me.”
Her expression was guarded, so he couldn’t tell whether or not he’d placated her when she said, “Fine. I’ll make that appointment for you with Merkins and have a draft of the letter to the officers.”
“And let’s see if we can get the board up here for a meeting by this evening. They’ve all seen that email from Dalton this morning. I don’t want to give them too much time to think about things.”
She had her iPad out again, making notes. After a second, she glanced up. “You might not realize this, but Dalton usually gives at least one week’s notice because several of the board members—”
“Are out of town? Yes, I know. We’ll video conference them in. Before we do anything else, we need to get me confirmed as interim CEO. Promise them it’ll be a short meeting. I don’t want to give them time to debate the alternatives.”
“Very good.”
“Also, I’ll need to meet with Marion this afternoon and let her know I’ve changed positions.”
“Will she expect to move up with you?”
“Probably not. She’s used to coasting by without doing too much work. Besides, we’ll need her to hold down the fort in the office of the VP of International Marketing until we can find someone else to fill that job.”
She nodded, then closed the iPad again.
“Sydney—” he coaxed before she could vanish for good.
But she ignored the tone he’d used.
“Shall I schedule the meeting with Merkins for first thing in the morning? Say, eight o’clock?”
He did a quick mental review of his personal schedule. “Make it nine-thirty.”
“Nine-thirty?” Sydney asked, frowning. “By then, everyone will have been at work for several hours. Gossip will already be spreading. You need to get her on your side straightaway.”
She was right, of course. Except he had a virtual meeting with a bank in Nairobi set up for eight in the morning. It had taken him two weeks to get the financial officer of the bank to even agree to the meeting. Rescheduling it would be a nightmare.
“I have another obligation at eight,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t argue with the note of finality in his voice.
He should have known better. Sydney set her jaw at a stubborn angle and flipped open her iPad again. “You don’t. I took the liberty of having your assistant, Marion, forward your schedule to me earlier. Your morning is free.”
“Marion doesn’t have my complete schedule. I have a phone call to make at eight.”
Sydney blew out a breath as though she was trying to muster her restraint. “Can you push it back?”
“No.” It would be four in that part of Africa as it was. This was the best he’d been able to do.
Sydney pinched her mouth shut but then seemed unable to contain her ire. “You really don’t want to blow this. DeValera will be looking for a way to shut you down. If he gets too much time with Merkins first—”
“Okay, eight-thirty. I’ll try to move my other meeting forward.” And he’d talk really fast.
She must have realized she’d gotten as much as she was going to because she gave a tight little nod. Then she added, “If you want to send me your personal schedule also, then I can put everything on a master schedule. Might make things easier for you.”
“No. Marion never had access to my personal schedule. You don’t need it, either.”
“How can I function as your assistant if I don’t know when or where you’ll be?” she asked, frowning.
“Just run everything by me before you firm things up. That’s how I did it with Marion.”
Her frown deepened and her jaw clenched even tighter. “But I can’t—”
“Marion made it work. So will you. It’s just how I like to do things.”
“Fine.” But he could tell from the narrowing of her eyes that it wasn’t fine at all. She spun on her foot to leave and he was pretty sure he heard her mutter, “If your personal life has to be that mysterious…”
He nearly called her back and explained the truth about his work for Hope2O but instead he kept his mouth shut.
Marion had been hired for him by his father’s assistant. He’d liked Marion without ever really trusting her. And to be honest, as wily and cunning as Hollister was, Griffin wouldn’t be surprised if the whole CEO office suite wasn’t bugged.
Still he didn’t want Sydney to think he was purposefully shutting her out—even if that was what he was doing.
“Wait a second.” Instead of letting her leave, he stood and crossed to where she hovered near the door. He held out the folder he’d gotten from Dalton. “Here are all the notes from Dalton about his search for the heiress. Make copies for yourself and take an hour or so to look it over, then we’ll talk more.”
She looked from him to the folder and then back, finally meeting his gaze as she took the folder. Her expression was cautious but less openly distrustful than it had been just moments ago. “Okay.”
“Look, I know I’m difficult to work with. And I know the company’s in trouble. I’m going to do my damnedest not to screw it up any more than it already is. Let’s just get through this. Together. Okay?”
“Okay.” She tucked the folder on top of her iPad and left the office.
Alone in the room, Griffin was all too aware of the overbearing décor, the heavy French furniture and massive mahogany desk that had been in the office since Griffin’s own childhood. The very walls seemed to close in on him.
Juggling the disparate elements of his life was typically something he excelled at. He kept his work for Cain separate from his work with Hope2O and his love life separate from both. He functioned best with everything compartmentalized.
He hadn’t been lying to Sydney when he’d told her was going to try his damnedest not to screw anything up. That was true for the company and for his relationship with her.
*
Sydney worked furiously for the next couple of hours setting up the board meeting. The fact that every single member of the board was willing to rearrange his or her own schedule to be there—either in person or virtually—was either a good sign or a very bad one.
A half hour before the meeting she went across to the big conference room on the other side of the building to verify the folks in the IT department had gotten everything working for the board members who couldn’t be physically present. She double-checked that catering had done their job, and she even removed one limp lily from the floral arrangement on the sideboard. Now everything was perfect.
This meeting had to go well. If the board didn’t approve Griffin as interim CEO, she’d probably be out of a job. Yes, she’d find another one, but this was a good job, especially for someone as young as she was. She’d lucked into it. She’d first been hired as a temp when Dalton’s previous assistant had knee surgery, but he’d kept her on when Janine had decided not to come back.
If she lost this job, her next position wouldn’t pay nearly this well. Which meant making her mortgage payment would be a strain. It was already steep, but when she’d first bought her house, it had seemed like such a good investment. It had represented all the security she’d desperately wanted. Now, it just represented all that she’d lose if this didn’t go well.
She left the conference room and hurried down the hall to her office. Griffin was leaving his as she walked in.
“I was just checking on the conference room. Everything looks good there.”
“Thanks.” He smiled that same breezy smile she was used to, the flash of white teeth and deep dimples. Suddenly the nerves she felt for the meeting morphed into a pleasant fluttery sort of anticipation that had nothing to do with efficient IT and catering departments.