Page 60 of Her Honorable Hero

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“Miranda,you look like you got lucky. You’re wearing a shit-eating grin, but you have bags under your eyes. So was it a late night?” Susan asked as she sat down in front of her desk.

“It was a late night. And it turns out I scored big time in the husband lottery.”

“Hell, we both did,” Susan grinned. “So, do we have to work double time today on the project because you were indulging in sexy-time instead of working?”

“Nope, I got a lot done on that front, too.” Miranda beamed. “And…there’s good news. Everything I reviewed looked good. There was only one thing of any significance that the QC department found, and it correlated with Riya’s mathematician. Evan, the CTO from Lartronics, should be calling any time now.”

“That’s why I’m here. He’s not going to call. He should be here in three hours. He took the red-eye.”

Miranda’s eyes shot over to her computer screen. She perused her e-mail and didn’t see any notices that the CTO was planning on coming to San Diego.

What the hell?

“How’d you find out?”

Susan’s smile got wide. “I have an in with his assistant. She keeps me abreast of his schedule when it pertains to TAID.”

“How’d you manage that?” Miranda asked.

“I told her I always wanted to have the kind of snacks he likes on hand whenever he visits.”

“Oh, you’re sneaky,” Miranda beamed. “In that case, do me a favor and arrange to have everybody here for a meeting this afternoon. I want to do a debrief after I talk to Evan.”

“Sounds good. Anything else?”

“Nope. I want to start working on my summary,” she said as she pulled out her laptop from her computer bag.

“I’ll leave you to it.”

Miranda was soon writing up bullet points.

Her phone sounded with an incoming text. When she looked down, she realized an hour and a half had gone by.

Shit! She’d forgotten all about the text she’d received last night from the blocked number. What an idiot! She should have told Griff.

When she saw the new one was from Scarlett Hale, she figured Daddy Dearest could wait five more minutes. She deserved something sweet.

“Miranda, I didn’t expect you to call me during your busy work day.” Miranda loved listening to the older woman’s enthusiastic voice.

“You mentioned brunch in your text. That required an immediate response. What did you have in mind?”

“I was talking to your mother-in-law, she needs a baby fix. Claudia was thinking she could come down this way and all of us could go to brunch on Sunday. What do you think?”

Miranda sighed. “Is there any way we could postpone for one week? This Friday is a deliverable from hell. All I want to do this weekend is crawl into bed and sleep.”

“That would actually be even better because Gianna will be in town.”

Miranda perked up. She’d never met Scarlett’s daughter. She’d heard about her, but never met her. “Maybe some of Griff’s sisters could be talked into coming, too. We could make it a real event.”

“Claudia would love that.” Miranda heard the excitement in Scarlett’s voice. “If you’re neck deep in work, how about if I arrange it all?”

“I would love that, are you sure you don’t mind?”

“Positive. I’ll just tell you where you have to be the day before.”

It was great dealing with organized women. “Thanks. That’ll be a great way to celebrate the project milestone.”