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Could she say that every time he touched her? Not if she wanted to keep her employee content and striving for that next big promotion.
“Sorry. I was just distracted.” She put his hand back on the spot herself.
“Because Asher Colton’s wasting all that beautiful money on the town babysitter?”
If he said, “and not on you,” he would be singing soprano for a month. She would never get that lucky, to be able to snuggle up with one of the Colton boys in a duvet filled with cash. She was smart enough to know some prizes were out of reach. The guy sitting next to her would find that out soon enough, too.
For now, though, she still needed him. She wouldn’t even have known for sure the identity of the gentleman caller if not for his special skills in accessing the Arizona Department of Transportation’s database.
“How’d he get past those security guards anyway?”
For a few seconds, she stared at his ugly profile, wondering how he could be that stupid.
“You saw him talking to them, didn’t you? They either knew him or were working for him.”
He chuckled at that. “Oops. Guess I missed that. I must have been watching someone else when he walked by the car. You pointed him out when he climbed the steps to her place.”
“Right. I forgot.”
She couldn’t blame him for that anyway. At least he recognized a good thing when he had it, unlike some other people she knew.
“Is there anything you can do to revive the app campaign?”
He shook his head. “You saw it. Most of the new reviews have already been taken down. And there’s too much focus on the one account for me to try to put them up again right now.”
“That’s disappointing.”
She applied her best mom’s tone, and, like she’d predicted, her discouraged assistant perked right up next to her.
“The campaign wasn’t working anyway,” she said. “There hasn’t been any drop-off in the number of cars lined up here in the mornings and afternoons.”
“I told you that competition is low here. Besides, the reviews weren’t up long enough to have a good impact.”
“Then what about the complaint filed with the state?”
He shrugged, his hand pulling away from her thigh. “I’ve been looking, but I haven’t seen any more about it. Like it’s been squashed or something.”
“So, what you’re telling me is we’re at a big fat nowhere now.”
“Not nowhere, exactly. The place is under more scrutiny. And parents who were paying attention are questioning their decisions to send their kids to Tender Years.”
She smacked her palm on the steering wheel and faced him, hating his wide eyes behind those glasses. “You say it like it’s some great feat. Kind of sounds like a failure to me.”
“I’ll think of something. You know I have mad skills. You told me so yourself. Just give me a couple of days.”
She grinned into the darkness. If only all men were as easy to guide as this one. “You’re right. I do know that I can count on you. But in the meanwhile, I have another idea. I’m going to need a little help from you to pull it off.”
She filled him in on the new plan, one that would require even more care and discretion. Was he up for it? She doubted it, but she had few choices, and none as pliable as this one. Besides, her time appeared to be running out if Willow Merrill was hooking up with one of the Coltons.
“Do you think the security guards will be a problem?”
“We’ve been sitting here monitoring them for hours, and they haven’t noticed. What do you think?”
“Guess it should be a cakewalk.”
Something like that. Either way, it was time for them to turn up the heat or forfeit the plan. And she wasn’t about to back off from anything until that woman felt some of the burn she deserved. If her friend there couldn’t handle it, she would take care of it herself.
* * *
