“But had you followed my instructions as I intended them, this whole situation would have been avoided.”
She said something that I couldn’t quite catch.
Vincent responded, “I’ve been reading through your old performance reviews. Every area is strong except one. You don’t accept help. If you want to be in management, you have to learn how to delegate and work with other people.”
“I understand,” she said.
“I hope you do, because this can’t happen again.”
“It won’t,” she said firmly.
“Roxy, I fully expect you to succeed in any position you’re in, but there is an inherent trust you’re missing. People will sense that. They won’t want to work with us. Neither of us wants that.”
“No.”
“It’s imperative to me that you learn how to share the reins. I can’t be everywhere at once and neither can you. The Lodge is changing fast and I need you to keep up.” I glanced up to see him quickly squeeze her shoulder.
Roxy shot a look my way and I buried my face back in my phone hoping she hadn’t noticed me eavesdropping.
If she responded after that, I didn’t hear it. I fought the urge to stand up for her honor. I wanted to go to this Vincent and tell him that she was only trying to maintain a professional relationship. That I’d been distracted and put myself at risk. Skip could have been hurt too. My actions were self-absorbed. This was my fault, not hers. She didn’t deserve to be scolded for wanting to do her job well. I vowed to be better.
They exchanged a few more words before Roxy came back. I continued to play on my phone. Nothing to see here. I definitely wasn’t eavesdropping.
“I know you heard that,” Roxy said.
She stood in front of me with arms crossed. All the heat between us while holding hands earlier iced over in an instant.
“No, I didn’t,” I said.
She raised an eyebrow.
“Not all of it,” I said, standing up.
She crossed her arms and chewed her lip. Anybody else might think she was scowling but my gut told me she was ashamed.
“Do you want to talk about it?” I asked.
“No,” she said instantly. Then deepening her frown, she added, “I just got reamed.”
“That was a reaming? He didn’t even seem mad.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s mad for him. He’s hard to read,” she said without anger.
I yearned to scoop her up in my arms. To be fair, if this was Skip, I’d definitely hug him if he was upset. But I was lying to myself again trying to justify getting what I want at the cost of her. No. I was trying to be better than that.
“He told me that I need to be better at accepting help. Apparently I don’t play well with others.”
“Well, that’s true.”
Her gaze went icy.
“What?” I asked. “You did send me away the second we were supposed to work together.”
“And you didn’t read the signs,” she snapped. Confusion at her words must have registered on my face. “For the river. You didn’t read the flash flood signs,” she added.
Her frustration grew as a flush spread across her neck. This wasn’t what I intended. I certainly hadn’t meant to offend her. I thought it was obvious that she was the independent type. I didn’t know that was an insult or up for debate.
“What can I do?” I asked.
