Meredith had been quietly preparing for the first Lakeside status meeting since she’d started, but never thought she would present for Acacia on her own. But Dad had left for Atlanta, and she needed to be the top-notch project manager he knew she was.
At least that’s what his text said.
“You ready?” Connor asked as he closed his laptop and scooped up some files they might need.
She looked up at him with a smug smile and flipped to a random page in her notated, color-coded, alphabetically tabbed Phase One binder. “Does this look like I’m ready?”
“That looks…” His brows flicked. “Somewhere between unhinged and awesome.”
The compliment gave her a shiver of pleasure and an added jolt of confidence she needed. Grabbing her linen blazer from the back of her chair, she slid into it, completing a totally professional look from clipped-back hair to no-nonsense flats.
“Let us slay,” she murmured on their way out, cracking up Connor.
The whole team gathered around the conference table at the Design Center—a room full of men. Vance Brennan was there, ofcourse, face in his phone. Two senior sales associates she’d met briefly chatted quietly on one side of the table. Doug Fenton, Lakeside’s lead builder and main site coordinator, sat at one end of the long table, sipping coffee and glancing at some notes.
Only her father was missing, and Greg Hollister, the big boss, who surely couldn’t be bothered with a status meeting.
Meredith knew her father, had he been here, would take the other head of the table, so she did. Sadly, the seat put her kitty-corner from Vance—who couldn’t be bothered to even look up.
Connor sat across from him, opening his laptop to her PowerPoint presentation, easily linking to the screen on the side wall. He’d stayed late with her last night so they could practice the connection and make sure there were no issues with the casting.
As they’d discussed, he kept her slides dark until it was time for Acacia to present their report.
Finally, Vance tore himself from Instagram and put his phone face down, looking around like he just realized there was anyone else in the room.
“Where’s Eli?” he asked.
“He had to make a quick trip to the Acacia headquarters in Atlanta,” she said.
His brow flicked up and he threw a look to Doug. “You knew this?”
The other man, a short, stocky bodybuilder type with a thoughtful demeanor and a can-do attitude, nodded. “It’s fine,” he said.
But Vance shifted in his seat as if to telegraph it was so not fine.
Meredith just took a deep breath, steady and grounded. She had twice his IQ, three times his class, and several impressive degrees to her name. Vance Brennan did not scare her.
She opened her mouth to speak, but Vance flipped a notebook to a blank page. “Then let’s get started,” he said. “Acacia, you’re up.”
Really? Shouldn’t Doug go first with a building report? Apparently, Vance wanted her off balance. No such luck.
“Good morning, everyone.” She stood and Connor clicked to her first slide—the Phase One overview listing all sixty-four lots, arranged by sales status and elevation selection. “We’ve sold twenty-one lots to date, with the Alastair leading at nine. We’ve been working with the site team to stagger elevation placements so we avoid identical facades on the same street, and we’ve completed custom revisions for six buyers so far—everything from bonus room conversions to expanded master suites.”
She spoke directly to Doug, moving through the presentation with the confidence of a woman who knew every number on every slide because she’d built them herself. Change orders for the Alastair model. The Sanibel revision. Progress on the clubhouse design, including the pool house and gym she’d finished and submitted for approval.
Doug Fenton nodded along, occasionally jotting a note. He’d been working with Meredith all week and had the quiet respect of a builder who recognized competence. The sales guys—one was Andrew, the other William, but she didn’t remember which was which—followed on their tablets, chiming in occasionally in with some questions.
Vance checked his phone twice.
“I’d like to focus on the clubhouse,” Doug said. “We’re forging ahead because getting it completed will get buyers excited to go to contract.”
“Amen to that,” Andrew or William said.
“The design revisions are complete,” Meredith said, clicking to the floor plan. “Sign off on this and you can take the blueprints and lay the foundation.”
Vance looked up, and she sensed he’d just started paying attention.
“The event space is finalized at twenty-two hundred square feet,” she said, “with an additional eight hundred square feet of outdoor space on a covered terrace, that extends the usable?—”
