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“You could’ve called a cab!”
“Tessa… Christ, I just thought I’d get her home and take a cab back and… I didn’t mean to—”
“You didn’t mean to? Good God, you are such a dog! Try thinking with your brain sometime, Jamie. Just on special occasions if that’s all you can handle.”
His eyes flashed green hurt, and Tessa immediately felt terrible. He’d been lobbying for more responsibility at the brewery lately, trying to step up to the plate, but Eric had resisted. If he found out about this…
“Okay,” Tessa said, taking a deep breath to calm herself. “Okay, as long as her dad doesn’t find out. Monica won’t say anything, right? Why would she?”
The blank regret on his face to
ld a different story, but before she could get it out of him, the back door of the brewery opened and one of the officers came out. “A detective is on his way over. He’ll want to walk through with you when he arrives, Mr. Donovan.”
“Thanks,” Jamie muttered.
Tessa craned her neck to try to see through the cracked door. “You’re sure the tanks are okay?”
Jamie nodded. “Everything looks fine except for a couple of missing computers and one keg.”
The break-in should have been the most upsetting event of the day. On any other day, she’d be crying and wringing her hands over the violation. But if Eric found out what Jamie had done with Monica Kendall, it would ruin her brothers’ relationship, and her brothers…they were all she had. She had to fix this, somehow.
“Please, Jamie,” she said as the officer paced toward his car. “Tell me there’s no more bad news.”
He sighed as if he’d been holding his breath. “It was stupid. You’re right. Really fucking stupid. But it seemed like it would be no big deal this morning. It was fine. Only I didn’t realize… When we pulled up to her place last night, I thought it was just a house up in the foothills. But it wasn’t. She lives in the guesthouse. Her dad’s guesthouse.”
For a moment, the world actually turned around Tessa’s head. The sky and the clouds and the dark green pine trees—they rotated in a slow, sick spin. Tessa closed her eyes and prayed.
“When she was pulling out of her garage, her dad jogged right past. He saw me.”
“Oh, God.” This was the perfect storm of bad news. Their brother had been working Roland Kendall for months, trying to convince him that Donovan Brothers beer would be the perfect microbrew to serve on the fleet of the brand-new High West Airline. Eric had worked stubbornly toward this moment, intent on getting the brand into new hands, new customers. A few weeks before, he’d finally arranged a private meeting with Roland and his daughter, Monica. They’d made their final pricing offer. The deal had almost been done, the contracts sent over.
And now…disaster in the form of Jamie Donovan. “I’m going to kill you,” she said flatly. “This one woman. Just this one woman you had to avoid touching.”
“That’s not fair,” he snapped. “You two always talk like I’m with a new woman every night. I haven’t dated in months!”
Tessa crossed her arms and paced away from him, trying to think. “Are you sure he saw you?”
“He saw me. Though I suppose it’s possible he didn’t recognize me.”
“Okay. We can handle this,” Tessa said, thinking fast. “First of all, don’t say anything to Eric.”
Jamie shook his head. “I need to tell him.”
“Are you insane?” she snapped. “Eric is going to be furious. With both of us! I took your side on this, damn it. I told him to let you help with the negotiations. You are not telling Eric.”
“He’s going to find out. And I’m not interested in hiding from him like a kid avoiding punishment. This is my company, too. If I screwed up, I’ll face it.”
“This isn’t just about you, Jamie. We’re a family, and I don’t want this to be the wedge that finally drives us apart. So keep your mouth shut until I find out what Roland Kendall is going to do.”
He threw his hands up in frustration, but Tessa ignored him. Sometimes the best defense was a good offense, and Tessa was on the attack today.
“Here’s what you’re going to do,” she said in a rush. “I’m going to leave. You call Eric as if he’s the first one you called. If he asks, you went home with a woman and she dropped you off this morning, but do not mention Monica Kendall. I’ll come back in twenty minutes or so and act like I’ve never been here.”
“God, you’ve gotten devious,” he muttered.
He had no idea.
“I’ll call Roland Kendall later and see if I can read him. You keep your mouth shut.”
