Then Julian heard Danny whimper, and turned to see him standing in the doorway of his office. To put his mind at ease, Julian plastered a reassuring smile on his face.
"I'll be right there," Julian told him, but Danny still looked very unhappy.
Out of the corner of his eye, Julian saw Thayer leering at him with an amused look in his eyes. He was enjoying the fact that Julian couldn't shove him away or tell him off in front of his little brother. Julian was furious, but helpless to do anything. All he could do was put up with Thayer until he got bored with this game.
That's what Julian thought, but then a booming voice from behind him made all of them jump. "Don't worry, little guy. Mr. Thayer is done here."
It was Rob and his words were only partly meant for Danny. They were really an order meant for Thayer. To make that clear, he forced his way between Julian and Pete Thayer. With barely veiled aggression, Rob placed one hand on the desk and leaned toward Thayer threateningly. He kept his voice even as he continued to address himself to Danny.
"Mr. Thayer is a busy guy. He doesn't have time to hang around here." Rob advanced on him until Thayer was forced to back up. He glared evilly at Rob but didn't dare to challenge him.
"Have a nice trip," Thayer said venomously to Julian and went off at a deliberately slow pace like he wanted to pretend he hadn't been chased away.
Julian immediately went over to Danny. Worried that the unpleasant scene had upset him, Julian took his hand, but Danny was doing OK.
At first Danny stared after Thayer like he wanted to make sure he was really gone then he looked up at Rob approvingly. Danny got scared again when the vacuum got louder as it came back their way.
"There goes that red vacuum again," Rob said and gave Danny a reassuring smile. "Don't worry. A vacuum only eats dirt."
Danny definitely didn't like the loud noise, but it seemed to make him forget about Thayer. And the way Rob spoke about it put him at ease somewhat.
After being so intense a moment ago, Rob was so cheerful now. When Danny looked up at him again, he introduced himself. "My name is Rob."
Surprising Julian, Danny did the same. "My name is Danny," he whispered and Rob had to lean down to hear him.
That was new. Julian had never heard Danny introduce himself to anyone. Maybe he was making progress.
"He's my little brother," Julian said feeling so proud of him.
"Nice to meet you," Rob told Danny.
"It's too noisy out here. You want to sit and draw again?" Julian said and took Danny's hand.
As Julian started to take Danny inside the office again, the little boy stopped just inside the doorway and looked back at Rob as if he thought he was supposed to come with them. Maybe he thought Rob needed to run away from the vacuum too.
"I'm OK out here," Rob assured him.
But just then Julian had an idea. "Actually, if you have a minute, I'd like to have a word with you," he said to Rob.
"Mrs. Lewis doesn't need me for a little while. I was just going to dump these in the recycling," he said and picked up a stack of papers from the edge of Ms Dover's desk. He pulled out a green paper and handed it to Danny. "You can have this one. It's green. You can make a nice paper airplane out of it."
Danny took the paper, but Julian was pretty sure he didn't know how to make a paper airplane. "I'll show you," Julian said and put his hand out for the paper.
Instead of giving it to him, Danny looked up at Rob as if he needed his permission to hand over the precious, green paper.
"It's good to know how to make an airplane. You never know when you might need to fly somewhere," Rob told him. At a nod from him, Danny let Julian have the paper.
While Julian folded the paper, Danny watched closely. He then took the plane and looked it over. Next Julian showed him how to throw it.
Rob left some more colorful papers with him, but Danny spent most of his time trying to make the green paper plane fly. They left him to it and stepped just outside Julian's office.
Now that they had a moment away from Danny, Rob didn't hesitate to bring up what just happened with Thayer. "That was a real creepy move Thayer pulled on you. Are you OK?"
"You don't need to worry about me, but thank you for what you did. And Danny appreciated it too," Julian said and looked through the office door. Inside, Danny was playing and occasionally checking to make sure Julian was still there and that everything was all right.
"I think your little brother was coming out here to rescue you. But I'm surprised Thayer didn't threaten to sic security on me since I'm just a lowly temp and he's the top executive around here," Rob said. "He still might, I guess."
Julian doubted it. "I don't think Thayer wants to have to explain what just happened here. But what about your job? Thayer is in charge while Mr. Upton is away. That's going to make things very uncomfortable for you."
