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“Okay, you know what?” I said, standing up. “I’ve had just about enough of this. I didn’t come down here to be insulted, Mr. Slade.”
As I spoke, I saw a look of disdain cross his face. His lip curled. Eric Slade might be gorgeous, but he was also a jerk. I could see that now. He’d brought me here to give me a wake-up call, I could see that. Probably told Dad he was doing me a favor. I could just imagine them now, sitting in the country club and planning the whole thing.
“I thought so,” he said. “Well, I wish you luck in your future endeavors.”
“It’s you who’s going to need luck, Mr. Slade,” I said as I turned and began to cross the room, making for the door. “After all, you’re never going to get your idea for lab-grown diamonds off the ground if you can’t market yourself effectively.”
“WAIT!” called Slade. His voice was dark and metallic, consonants clipped.
I turned around and tossed my hair over my shoulder.
“What?” I hissed.
“Tell me what you mean,” he said. Eric’s face was still a mask of contempt.
But now I could see curiosity building in his expression.
I’d piqued his interest.
“All right,” I said. “But just make sure to mind your manners.”
Chapter Two
Eric
“Thisisincredible,”Isaid, pushing my Martini to one side.
“It’s pretty amazing what you could do with your resources. But this is only the start. The next four quarters could be even better.”
Jamie Reed was many things. An upstart. Headstrong. She took after her dad, Tom, in that respect. For a moment I wondered what it must be like at the dinner table in their house and quickly controlled an urge to chuckle.Like father, like daughter,I guess.
When I’d asked Jamie to tell me what she meant, I expected her to brown-nose me, to tell me everything she liked about the company’s social media presence and marketing. But instead, she’d quickly rattled off a list of our flaws and imperfections. How we were active on some platforms but not others. How we marketed ourselves to tradespeople and vendors but never to ordinary people. And she was right about the diamonds. I knew that for sure.
For the last six months, I’d been working on a project to manufacture and sell lab-grown diamonds. It had been a passion of mine ever since I’d visited diamond mines in South Africa, seeing the dirty, dangerous work being carried out. Seen the corruption and crime that accompanied the world of industrial mining. I knew from that moment I wanted to change things. And, with the company doing better than ever, I was almost ready to build my facilities.
Jamie showed me immediately how social media could help. She had a keen eye for detail, and I watched as her slim wrists and delicate, long fingers worked with her pen as she sketched an action plan on the table opposite me. The interview lasted almost two hours. And by the time we were done, I still wasn’t finished talking.
So, I’d asked her to accompany me to a sky bar in downtown Boston. It was a favorite haunt of mine, a quiet, exclusive place where you could really get to know someone. And despite the twinge of uneasiness I felt at asking my best friend’s daughter to come for a drink with me, I’d been keen to hear what she had to say. There was something about Jamie that had captured my attention. She didn’t mince her words. And I admired that.
“I can’t believe no one’s told me this before. I ought to fire my whole PR team,” I muttered under my breath.
Jamie shook her head. “It’s not their fault. They haven’t had the organizational structure that would allow them to expand. But it’s an easy fix. You need to redirect more resources to social media, for one. And you need a full-time strategist onboard.”
I grinned. I was pretty sure I’d found the ‘strategist’ in question. Jamie was smart, but more importantly, she wasn’t afraid of telling me things I didn’t want to hear. I couldn’t believe I’d almost iced her out of the room during our interview. I guess I was getting cantankerous in middle age.
“This has been an excellent use of an afternoon, Miss Reed,” I said, leaning back in my chair and loosening my tie a little. “I can see Tom wasn’t lying when he told me how impressive you were.”
Jamie smiled. Was that a little blush I detected, turning her cheeks pink?
I couldn’t deny that it wasn’t just Jamie’s incredible business knowledge that pleased me. She was intelligent, sure, but she was also beautiful. My eyes couldn’t help but stray to take in her slim waist and long legs. I couldn’t help but linger on the way she tossed her hair over her shoulders.
Something about her reminded me of Marla. I knew that for sure. But I tried not to think about that too much. When I saw Jamie looking at the clock, I realized that I should see about getting her home. So, I raised my eyes to the waiter and pointed at our table for the bill. Jamie took another sip of the enormous, fruity cocktail she’d ordered when we arrived. She smirked, and I couldn’t help but crack a huge smile.
“Do you even like that thing?” I questioned. “You’ve had hardly two sips since they brought it over.”
“I saw one when I came in,” she admitted sheepishly. “I thought it would make for a good Instagram post.”
“You ordered a drink just so you could post it on Instagram?” I said incredulously.
