Chapter 5

 

Jason

 

“How you feeling?” Kevin asked as we ran into each other in the parking lot.

“Oh, you mean after my weekend on the water or how am I feeling about the devastatingly hot neighbor girl coming to torture me today?” I asked.

Kevin laughed. “I was thinking about your weekend sailing, but maybe we should talk about Anna starting today.”

“Seriously, I’m not going to talk to her or interact with her at all. I’m going to keep my head down and get a shit ton of work done. That’s my only option.”

“Hell, if the side effect of having this hot girl around is that you’ll do more work… I’m game,” he said with a laugh.

“I know you think this is funny because you’re married, and there’s no temptation for you, but it’s not funny. Young girls like her get obsessive, and then work is going to be terrible, and things with her father will be even worse. This has disaster written all over it.”

“I’m sure you’re just exaggerating. It will be fine.”

“Wait and see. I don’t think you understand what we are dealing with.”

“Come on,” Kevin said as we made our way up to the office. “She is barely an adult. How hard could it be to say no to… shit is that her?”

We had just made it into the building as a red convertible drove past and into the parking lot. Anna had on a black suit, and her blonde hair was expertly pulled up into some sort of elaborate hairstyle.

“That’s her,” I managed to say as we both watched her climb out of her car and adjust her skirt.

“Damn dude, you’re screwed.” Kevin laughed and hit me on the back. “She looks dangerous.”

“Shit is exactly what I was telling you.”

“I thought you were talking about some young teenager, not a full—grown woman. That girl is going to be trouble.”

We stayed in the lobby, and both stared at Anna as she smoothed out her skirt and buttoned up her blazer. She looked professional and perfectly dressed for an office setting, yet every curve of her body was teasing me as she started her walk into the building.

“Let’s get upstairs before she sees us ogling her like a piece of meat,” I suggested and hurried to the elevator.

“Dude, you are so screwed.” Kevin laughed as he slugged me in the arm. “You aren’t going to last a week with that girl around. Maybe I should start doing all the work with Edward, you know, just in case he ends up hating you.”

“No, stop it. I’m going to be just fine. I’m staying away from her, and that’s the end of it.”

“Okay, if you say so.”

I didn’t believe a word that was coming out of my mouth, but I sure was going to do my best to keep things professional in the office. I hurried into my office and shut the door while I waited for the secretary to buzz me and let me know that Anna had arrived.

I grabbed some water out of my small fridge and tried to calm my racing heart. She looked good. Damn good. The Anna I was used to seeing was always wearing club gear, workout gear, or a swimsuit. I’d never really seen her wearing normal clothing and certainly not business clothes. She looked all grown up.

My phone buzzed. “Ms. Anna Cook is here to see you.”

“Okay, I’ll be right out.”

“I already sent her your direction,” Zelda said and then hung up.

I didn’t want to be alone in my office with Anna, especially after our last encounter on the trampoline. Anna had a way of getting what she wanted, and if she wanted me, I doubted I’d be able to resist.

I threw open my door in an effort to catch her in the sitting area outside my office, but instead, I was face to face with Anna. Her aqua blue eyes dazzled as she smiled at me, and I couldn’t help smiling back.

“Well, hello there, stranger,” she said and stuck her hand out to shake mine. “I’m Anna Cook, your new personal assistant.”

“Hi Anna, it’s nice to see you again.”

“Thank you for giving me this opportunity. I really appreciate it, and I won’t let you down.”

“Okay, great. I’m glad I could help.”

“I’m going to be applying to college soon, and I’d like to get some business experience under my belt.”

“Ah, okay, that makes sense. Do you know what you’ll be majoring in?”

“Right now, I like the idea of getting an MBA, but who knows, maybe I’ll really hate it here and decide against the whole college thing.” She laughed. Her laugh was soft, and yet it radiated through my body. Her head tilted up slightly, and I took a quick glance at how her silk pink blouse fit her body like perfection. I only looked for a moment before her eyes caught me, and I quickly looked away.

“That sounds like a good plan,” I mumbled. “Okay, well you can sit at this desk here, and I’ll have Zelda show you around the office. She’s the secretary for the floor and does most of the office work, but I’ll have some specific projects I’ll need you to do. Are you familiar with Microsoft Office?”

“Yes.”

“This is how you reach me, and then this button calls Zelda,” I pressed the button to ring Zelda even though she was only on the other side of the hallway. “Zelda, can you take Anna around the office and give her a quick tour?”

“No, sorry, I’m helping Kevin with a project right now.”

“Oh, okay. I can do it,” I said reluctantly. “I’ll just give you a quick run through for now.”

“Sounds good,” Anna said. “Can I leave my bag here?”

She had a small pink bag in her hand, much smaller than the bags of other women who came into the office. All the other women carried huge satchels that seemed to have everything in them from tennis shoes to curling irons.

“Yes, it should be safe under your desk.”

I stepped toward the middle of the hallway to give Anna some room to put her bag down. I wasn’t at all prepared for the jolt of excitement that shot through my body as she leaned over and her ass pressed toward me. Even fully clothed, I could still see the perfection of her body and instantly longed to have my hands wrapped around her and grabbing that incredible ass of hers.

As she stood back up, I quickly looked away and then started walking down the hallway for her to catch up with me. I was going to have to stay a step ahead just to ensure I could focus and wouldn’t be distracted watching the sway of her hips as she walked.

“So, tell me a little more about what you’ll be needing from me? Am I your secretary or assistant or what will you call me?” Anna asked as we approached the small meeting room at the west end of the floor.

“I consider you my assistant, but if you prefer to be called something else, I’m open.”

“Hmm, I’m fine with assistant,” she said as she smiled, and her eyes moved down my body and quickly away.

“This is our small conference room. I meet with Kevin and some of our other staff in here. Sometimes we meet in the big conference room even when there aren’t many of us, though.”

“Okay, this is a nice table,” she said and pressed her full body weight on it.

I couldn’t help it, my body got hard as she leaned slightly over the table. She could have innocently been commenting on the table, but all I could think about was how delightful her body would look bent over that wood table as I took her from behind.

We quickly moved out of that room and toured the rest of the offices and break room on that side of the floor. I introduced her to the other employees that worked with us and made sure I stayed at least one step ahead of her to prevent my bodily reactions to her ass.

“Kevin, this is Anna, my new assistant,” I said as I opened the door to his office and found him sitting at his desk with glasses on.

Kevin didn’t even wear glasses, but he had them on, and his hair was all messed up. He barely looked up at us and waved while mumbling something and then putting his head back down to work.

“It’s nice to meet you,” Anna said as she strolled right into his office and put her hand out to shake his.”

Anna had done something similar with each of the people I’d introduced her to, but as she approached Kevin, I saw panic wash over his face. His eyes latched onto her breasts, and he stared at her blankly as she held her hand out. Finally, he shook her hand and then went back to work without saying another word.

“Sorry, he’s not all that friendly,” I said as Anna came out of the room, and I shrugged my shoulder at Kevin. He clearly had been trying to avoid having to talk with Anna, and it was really funny to watch.

As we approached the final room on the far end of the floor, I almost didn’t take her in there. I knew she was going to love the conference room just as much as I did. The long wooden table was amazing, and something to admire. “That’s the large conference room, nothing too exciting in there,” I said as I opened the door and then tried to quickly close it.

“Oh, my gosh that table is amazing,” Anna said as she pushed past me and touched the table. “Hmmm, this wood, it’s so smooth. Have you ever felt this wood?”

“Yeah, it’s really nice. I love it,” I said. I stood in the doorway and did my best not to look at Anna as she admired the wood, but it was utterly impossible. She leaned over the table and let her hands glide outward and then back toward her as they caressed the shiny, hard table. She was letting out soft moans of delight as her fingers moved down the table, and I could hardly stand it another second.

My primal instincts took over, and I took a few steps toward Anna, leaned next to her and let my hands glide up and back on the table. “Yeah, it’s amazing wood.”

“It’s so smooth. I love that feeling under my fingers, don’t you?” she said as she turned around and we were face to face.

The conference room door had closed behind me, and every part of my body wanted to throw Anna onto the table and just take her right then and there. That was what she wanted. That was why she had asked to be my assistant. I could give her exactly what she wanted at that moment even though that was a bad idea. “Anna,” I said softly as I moved a few inches closer.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said and took a step back. “I’m going to be professional here. I understand you went out on a limb to hire me, and I appreciate it. I promise I’ll behave.”

I laughed out loud at the notion that Anna could behave herself. It wasn’t as if she had ever been a bad person; she was a wonderful girl, and her naughtiness was endearing and seemed more like part of her personality than something she was doing maliciously. “Well, since you brought it up,” I said as I smiled at her. “We do need to keep things professional while we are working together. And maybe no more wet trampoline time?”

“Oh, of course. I’ve actually moved out and into my own place, so I won’t even be around the house much anymore.”

“You moved out?”

“Yeah, I’ve got a place with a friend. You know, it’s time to move on with life.”

“That’s got to be exciting.”

“It is, and terrifying.” She laughed. “But there’s a lot of change going on all at once.”

“I hope you will like it here; I think now that we have some ground rules, things will be great. I already know we get along,” I said as we made our way back toward my office. “And you know me and my family well, so I’d feel comfortable with you helping with Clyde if there was an emergency.”

“Oh, yes, please let me help with that cutie. I can’t even handle his smile. You know he’s going to be a lot of trouble when he gets older. Like when he becomes a teenager, girls are going to be after him like crazy.”

I couldn’t imagine Clyde as a teenager. My sweet little five—year—old was still so innocent and adorable. But the truth was, the next ten years were going to fly by, and he’d be a full—fledged teenager, and I wouldn’t be that cool dad anymore. Instead, I’d be the guy he makes fun of with his friends when I can’t figure out some new technology gadget. “That will be wild. I can’t even imagine it.”

“Okay, so what would you like me to take care of today? Do you have dry cleaning? Word processing? I’m ready, so give me what you’ve got.”

“Actually, this is going to sound like a totally horrible task, but I desperately need it done,” I said as I winced at the idea of asking her to do it.

“What is it? Anything, I’m game.”

“So, you know we are working with your father’s company, and I have this huge file that shows all their previous projects, the budgets, and the final costs. I really need them organized so we can analyze everything better.”

“I’m on it. Do I have an official email? Send it to me, and I’ll get started.”

“I’ll get an email going for you today, but for now, I can give you the disc with the files on it. Actually, there are ten disks total.”

“Wow, okay, so do you want me to make you a spreadsheet?”

“That would be great. The files came over as scanned copies of their bids. I’d love to have that information transferred into a working spreadsheet. That would be amazing.”

“Then consider it done,” Anna said as she walked with me into my office, and I grabbed her the stack of disks.

“It might take you a few weeks, and that’s fine. I’ll probably have other jobs I’ll need help with, and you can just work on this in the background.”

“I’ll get to it,” she said and quickly turned toward the door. “Thanks again for the job. I appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome.”

As she took a seat at her new desk, I felt relief that we had straightened things out between us. She was on the same page as me about keeping things professional. It was such a huge weight off my shoulders. I was still going to be thinking about her and that day on her trampoline, but I was pretty sure I could behave myself if she behaved herself.

 

 

***

 

Our first week together had gone off amazingly well. Anna was working diligently on the file I’d asked her to put together, and I was avoiding looking at her ass as much as humanly possible. I was extremely grateful that she was dressing modestly and hadn’t been flirting with me too much, but I still went home at night with dirty thoughts of Anna filling my mind.

As Friday rolled around, I had to meet with Anna’s father, Edward about a pretty delicate topic, and I knew he wasn’t going to be happy about it. Kevin and I had gone through the preliminary numbers, and we were going to have to let about a half dozen people go from Cook, Sparser, and Conner Buildings. They were redundant midlevel employees and really served no purpose that the higher-level managers couldn’t take care of.

In general, Kevin and I weren’t a fan of midlevel management anyways, and in this case, we also weren’t a fan of the million dollars in salary these employees were eating up from the bottom line. A million dollars a year, plus health benefits and retirement was a hell of a lot of money for a company to be throwing away when they were already sinking fast.

Logic was where Kevin and I came from, but Edward and his team weren’t going to see this logically at all. It was going to be emotional for them. Highly emotional, and we might not even get them to agree to our plan. Since our relationship was so new, I’d probably have to suck it up and not fire the employees for the time being, but I had to give Edward a try and see if he’d agree.

“You look nervous,” Anna said to me as I was pacing back and forth in my office.

“I’ve got to suggest to your father that he fire six people that work for his company. I’m not looking forward to it. Your father scares me.”

“He scares me too.”

“Oh, come on. I know you’ve got him wrapped around your little finger.”

Anna laughed because she knew it was the truth. Her father would do absolutely anything for her. He adored her. Perhaps he even adored her so much that he wouldn’t flip out if she were in the room when I had to tell him the news about the people we needed to let go?

“I do a little bit,” she said laughing.

“How would you like to sit in on our meeting?”

“With my father? No way!” she exclaimed. “I don’t want any part of that.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know… it would be weird. I’ll help you with anything you need, but please don’t make me sit in on a meeting with him.” There was genuine fear in her voice as she begged me not to make her sit in on the meeting.

No matter how much I thought it might help me out, I couldn’t bring myself to ask it of her. “Okay, if you really don’t want to. That’s perfectly fine. It’s going to be an uncomfortable meeting anyways.”

“Yeah, it is.” She laughed and shook her head. “I’ve seen him angry like twice in my life. I’m not about to purposely put myself in that situation again.”

“I got it. Well, how about you head out early tonight then? I’m going to meet with Edward, and then I’ll be done here.”

“Thanks. I am going out with my friends later, it would be nice to take a shower and freshen up first,” she said as she looked at her computer and then back toward me. “But I should stay the whole day and work on the spreadsheet. It took me awhile to figure it all out, and I’m just getting going.”

I’d walked past her desk a few times throughout the week and seen her working on the spreadsheet. I had zero doubts that she’d be able to finish it in a timely manner. Taking off a few hours early on a Friday night wasn’t going to be a very big deal. “Go ahead and take off for the night. You did great this week. I’ll see you next week,” I said firmly.

“Really?” Anna said as she started to get excited. “Are you sure?”

“Yep, I’m sure. It might be best if you got going now before your father arrived.”

“Okay, I’m going then. Call me if you need anything, and I’ll come back. Thank you so much for letting me off, though. I’m so tired. You don’t know how hard it is to wake up at seven o’clock every…” she trailed off and then giggled a little. “Well, I guess you do know. Okay, thank you. And have a good weekend.”

“You too.”

Anna grabbed her small purse and hurried to the elevator. She was clearly very excited to be taking off early. It was cute to see her nearly jumping up and down with excitement as she got on the elevator and made her way downstairs.

About twenty minutes later, Edward arrived to talk about the staffing issues. I’d asked Kevin to do the talk originally, but one of his children were sick, and his wife couldn’t get them to the doctor. So, I was left alone to have this difficult conversation. Deep down, I held out hope that everything would go smoothly, and Edward would understand where we were coming from. I secretly thought he might understand the financials of the situation and agree with me about letting these six people go.

“Edward, it’s so nice to see you,” I said with a huge fake smile as I leaned in to shake his hand.

“Man, I’ve got to thank you a million times over. This has been the best week of my life.” Edward pulled me toward him and hugged me. His big arms held onto me for at least three seconds, and I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. The standoff guy I’d dealt with at the signing of the papers was totally gone, and instead, there was this uber-friendly man who I hadn’t seen in months. He reminded me of what Edward had been like before he knew the business I was in, and we were just friendly neighbors.

“Really?”

“Yes, I have a huge load of anxiety lifted because you guys are in on the company. Plus, my daughter who normally spends all my money is actually out of the house and thinking about her future. This has been one epic week.”

“That’s good to hear,” I said cautiously. “I really hope the news I have today doesn’t ruin your weekend, though.”

I’d never been the sort of businessman to beat around the bush. I couldn’t pretend like everything was fine when I knew Edward was going to be upset by the news I needed to discuss with him. Honesty was still the best way of doing business.

“Shit, don’t ruin my weekend.” Edward laughed as we sat down in my small office.

“Well, we could talk about it on Monday if you’d like.”

“No, let’s get it over with. Let me guess, we do need to get rid of some staff?”

“Did Anna talk to you?” I asked totally shocked at how blunt he was and the pure fact that he knew what needed to happen.

“No, I’ve been hearing it from my own HR department for a while. Who do you want to let go?”

I slid the list of names over to Edward and waited for a minute as he looked them over. He certainly didn’t seem happy about what had to happen, but he didn’t seem enraged either, and that was a huge relief.

“Hey guys, sorry I’m late,” Kevin said as he burst into the office. “How are things going?”

“Well, your man here wants to fire six of my best employees, but other than that we are fine.” Edward had a stern tone to his voice, and he wasn’t making much eye contact with either of us. The only good thing I could think of was that at least he wasn’t yelling at us.

“Sir, I know it will be difficult to let these people go, but we did crunch the numbers and even with a sizable severance package, you’ll still save tons. It’s necessary no matter how much is saved, but you will save their salary at the very least.”

Edward was silent for nearly thirty seconds as he looked over the list one more time. I watched his chest as his breathing increased, and he appeared to get more and more agitated. His fingers twisted around the corner of the paper, and his jaw clenched as he held his mouth shut tightly. “Fine, but you guys fire them. I’m not doing it,” he said firmly.

Kevin and I looked at each other a little in disbelief. We hadn’t imagined that Edward or anyone from their company would actually want us to do the firing of their employees. It actually seemed a little disrespectful to the employees and their time with the company.

“If that’s what you want,” Kevin offered. “But we’d like to do it as soon as possible.”

“Hell, it’s only one in the afternoon. Why not get it done today?” Edward said as his face started to turn red.

“I think we could do it next…” I started to say.

“Yes, today would work well,” Kevin said. “Let me get the severance packages printed up. You two call the employees over here. Set up the meetings every half of an hour starting at two o’clock,” he added as he got up and left the room.

“Shit,” I mumbled under my breath.

“There you go. You get to fire six of my longest employees. Enjoy your Friday,” Edward said as he stood up. “This better be the last of the firings. You promised we’d keep these employees and their jobs. I won’t take kindly to another meeting like this,” Edward said firmly and then left the office.

What had started out pretty pleasant had ended on a sour note. Even though he knew we were going to have to let some people go, seeing the list with the six people’s names on it was where Edward’s mood changed drastically. These were people he knew very well. He probably even knew their spouses and children. I didn’t fault him at all for making us fire their employees. It would be easier on us than it would have been on him.

“Okay, so we are doing this,” Kevin said as he came in with a stack of papers. “Edward left?”

“Yep, he’s not interested in being the bad guy. I guess that’s us today.”

“Shit, okay. Well, take a look at these offers. They are pretty much the same. Most are voluntary retirement offers since four of the six have been with the company twenty years. For the other two, I added a full six months of severance.”

“Wow, that’s really generous.”

“These guys are just getting the raw end of this deal. I bet a lot of them were thinking of retiring anyway, and these packages will help. I put them in at full vested amounts and gave them their yearly bonuses too.”

“Geeze, can I retire too?” I laughed as I looked at the deals. “How are we saving money here? It looks like we are still doling out a million dollars?”

“Actually, the accounting group said this money can be amortized or something weird. Plus, we won’t be paying the money out beyond this year, so that’s helpful.”

“Whatever works, I’m fine with it. Are you going to stay for the firing?” I asked as I winced at the idea of having to do it alone.

“Yeah, let’s do it together and in the big conference room. Where’s your assistant, we could have her bring them into the room one at a time.”

“I let her go home so she didn’t have to be here when her father came in.”

“How are you doing? It seems like she’s a really hard worker and getting a lot of stuff done. She’s making me think that I want a personal assistant for myself. But then again, I’ve got my wife,” he joked.

“Oh, better not let Amy hear you saying that.”

“I know. Don’t you dare tell her either.”

We took a few minutes and called each of the employees with a time to show up. It would take us at least three hours to make our way through the list of people, and I couldn’t imagine things would go very smoothly. These people hardly knew who we were, yet we were going to be the ones changing their lives with one short meeting.

“Someone’s here,” Kevin said as he looked out the conference room window. “Shit, I’m nervous.”

“Me too,” I said as I moved to the other side of the table to force Kevin to stand at the doorway and motion for Alfred to come this way.

“Alfred?” Kevin said. “This way, we can meet with you in here.”

“Hi,” he said.

“Hi, I’m Kevin, and this is Jason. We are with Industrial Management Brothers and recently bought part of your company.

“I know who you guys are. So, I’m here to be fired? Is that what this is?”

“Well, I’d rather use the term retirement,” Kevin said through a shaky voice.

“I’m sure you would rather use that term. But you’re basically canning me. Right? Because I’d like to hear the truth instead of some caked-over bullshit. After twenty-two years with my company, you’re laying me off? Is that it?”

The tension in the room was so thick I felt like I was breathing it in. Alfred wouldn’t sit down and instead insisted on standing behind one of the chairs as Kevin went over the details of our offer.

“It’s more like an early retirement offer,” Kevin said without any confidence in what he was saying at all. “You’ll get fully vested in your retirement and severance pay. Plus, you get to keep your health insurance as long as you want to keep paying your monthly premiums.”

“Really?”

“Yes, sir. You can keep your health plan for your entire family at the exact same rate you are paying right now. Plus, the severance package and the retirement money.”

“So basically, I can tell my family I am retiring early? I don’t have to say I was fired.”

“Sir, you are not being fired. You’ve served your company for over twenty years, and we are offering you the opportunity to retire early. That’s all this is,” Kevin said as he started to regain his confidence.

“So, I’m retiring?”

“Yeah, your record will show you have retired. You’ll have all your benefits, plus the sweet bonus severance money.”

“This seems a little too good to be true,” Alfred said skeptically. “I thought you guys were firing me.”

“Here’s the deal, Alfred. The company isn’t doing well, and we will need to release some employees. But you and a few other guys have reached retirement level, and we’d much rather give you the opportunity to take advantage of that. You only live once, so might as well retire early and enjoy life,” I said as I moved in on the conversation.

We ended up spending the rest of the half of an hour talking about Alfred’s family and his plans for retirement. He was only fifty years old, definitely younger than he wanted to retire, but also young enough to decide if he wanted to get another job or not. With the package we had put together for him, Alfred wouldn’t have to make a decision anytime soon, though.

One after another, the employees came in for their meetings with us. We gave them the bad news, and some of them didn’t take it as well as Alfred had. A couple threatened to kill us before we had even had the chance to tell them about their package. A couple were happy, like Alfred, but the last two were definitely not happy. Even offering six months of severance wasn’t enough to soothe their agitation over being one of the people let go. But eventually, we made it through all six firings and finally collapsed into our chairs.

The first two had gone off within the half of an hour range, but the last four had dragged on for well over that time frame. It was nearly eight o’clock when we could finally relax.

“How’s your daughter?” I asked Kevin.

“She’s good. Amy finally got off work and met me at the doctor. It’s just an ear infection, nothing to worry about.”

“Can you grab a drink, or do you need to get home?”

“I can definitely grab a drink. I’m going to need one to calm all this nervous energy. That was definitely not a job I enjoyed doing. I really hope we don’t have to let anyone else go.”

“You and me both. I doubt most people are going to be as accepting as these guys were. How do you feel about that Club Lively place? I’ve heard a few other guys were checking it out the other day and said it was pretty hip.”

“Then I’m there. You know how hip I am,” Kevin joked as he started doing this horrible dance.

“Wow, you should do that dance at the club. I bet the ladies would be all over you. They’d probably assume you were a millionaire or something and that was the only way you were comfortable with being such a horrible dancer.” I laughed as I teased him.

“Can we swing by your house so I can shower? I don’t want to go home; I’m sure I’ll get thrown onto dinner duty.”

“Sure, let’s get cleaned up and go get me a lady for the night,” I joked. “I do need to make sure Rosie can stay late. Sometimes she has plans.”

I totally wasn’t going to pick up some random girl and bring her home, although I was pretty sure that was what Kevin thought I did all the time. With Clyde at home, it just wasn’t practical to bring strangers home with me, even if we’d be in my bedroom, and Clyde would be in his.

“Doesn’t she have a room at your house?”

“Yes, but she doesn’t stay with us all the time. Only when I need to go out of town or something like that. Normally, she heads home as soon as I get there. I’ve actually not had much time with Clyde the last few weeks, so I’m excited to get to have some time over the weekend.”

“Are you two doing anything special?” Kevin asked.

“Yep, going to see the Wiggles in concert.” I laughed.

“Oh, man I’m sorry. I can’t believe they are still around. I still have nightmares about the time I took my kids there. Totally freaked me out.”

“The Wiggles? Aren’t they just a children’s singing group?”

“Yeah, but they are grown men singing children’s songs and dancing around like maniacs. I couldn’t stop thinking about how that would be you and me if we lost our company.”

“Really? You are such a dork. I would only be Barney, never a member of the Wiggles,” I protested, and we both broke into laughter.

“Hope it never comes to that,” Kevin said as he turned serious. “This deal is going to work. I just know it is going to work out great for us. I have a feeling it will be a little rough these first few months, but then things are going to turn around.”

Kevin always had feelings about things, and he was right about half of the time. But I never argued with him. He had his ways of dealing with the pressures we were under, and I had my ways. But in the end, we were both interested in building a brand that others could watch. We wanted integrity to guide us, and that was exactly what we were doing.