TamingTara

Chapter Fifteen

Having lunch together wouldn’t look odd to anyone.

They walked to a restaurant nearby and sat on the patio under the shade of a colorful umbrella. After ordering coffee and sandwiches, they faced each other across the table. “My plan…” Tara began.

Joe shook his head. “Uh-uh. No work talk. It’s lunch time.”

She frowned. “But…”

He smiled, looking around the busy patio. There was nobody there they knew. None of the office staff, nobody from the store. He reached across the small table and took her hand. “If you want to talk about work, tell me more about your ideas for the ranch. The tours, the tastings.”

He half expected her to withdraw her hand from his, given the public location, but her fingers curled around his almost instinctively. He liked that. She smiled at him.

“Okay,” she said, apparently only too happy to do so. She talked about all the ideas she had and how they could use the property, the way she’d like the tasting area to look, the feel of it, how they could do tours. To his surprise, some of the ideas she had about what to do with the house were things that had floated through his own head when he’d been out there.

He could actually envision himself living in that ranch house. He’d love to have a swimming pool there; just beyond the patio was the perfect location. He could see himself in an updated version of the kitchen, whipping up pasta dishes or moving between the kitchen and the patio to an outdoor cooking area, grilling steaks, sitting beside the pool with a bunch of people talking and laughing.

Jesus Christ. He had to give his head a shake, a hard shake. What the fuck was he thinking of? This was not his life, here in Santa Barbara. This was a temporary thing, short term, a stepping stone back to his real life.

He listened to Tara talk, resisting the impulse to jump in with questions about costs and feasibility. This was her vision, her dream, and he didn’t want to shut her down. There’d be time for that later, some day when they were making her dream a reality.

Fuck. Once again, what was he thinking? Like he’d be around then. By the time Santa Ynez Olives got to that point, he’d be long gone, back in San Francisco working for some other big manufacturing company, achieving his own dreams.

The thought cast a shadow over their lunch and he forced it to the back of his mind, focusing again on Tara and the lively energy and enthusiasm on her beautiful face as she talked.

Sasha found herself looking forward to the next planning meeting at the center. Again she stayed after, lingering with the kids. She had no idea why they appealed to her so much. Maybe because they were so accepting of her, so honest. She made more jewelry with some of the girls.

“Yo, Sasha.”

She turned and smiled at Caleb and Isaiah. “Hey, guys. What’s up? Or should I say, whassup?” She grinned.

“We was just wondering if you would give us some advice.”

The two teenage brothers, age thirteen and fifteen, shuffled their feet in front of her. She wasn’t sure how their pants stayed up, they were so huge and baggy, but they were nice kids. Polite.

“Sure.”

“It’s our mom’s birthday next week,” Isaiah said. “We want to get her something nice.”

“Yeah,” Caleb said. “We’ve saved up twenty bucks. We saw a real nice necklace at Dollar World we think she’d like, but we’re not sure. You know what a fine lady would like.”

She smiled, groaning inwardly. Dollar World? “What’s it like?”

“It’s…” They looked at each other and shrugged. “It’s got beads and stuff, silver and black.”

“Oh.” She thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t know your mom, but I’m sure she’d like anything you get for her.”

“We want it to be special,” said Caleb.

“Well, what kinds of things does she like? Does she go out much?”

“Nah. She works a lot. But she bought a new dress last week because she’s goin’ to a wedding for my cousin. It’s a black dress. We thought some bling would look nice with her new dress.”

“Okay.” Sasha tapped her bottom lip. “You know, you could make her something. Last week I was helping some of the others make jewelry and there’s some nice stuff upstairs. If you make it yourself, it means so much more.”

They looked at each other doubtfully. “Make it? Us? Fo’ reals?”

“Um. Yeah. Fo’ reals.” She held back her smile. “I’ll help you. I’m pretty good at that. You can pick the beads and I’ll help you.”

“Well…okay.”

The two boys were indecisive when it came to choosing what they wanted and she spent some time helping them design the necklace, bracelet and earrings they wanted to make. Then she showed them how to get started.

“The guys gon’ think we got suga in tha tank,” Caleb muttered as he threaded beads onto the cord.

Sasha didn’t know what that meant and wasn’t sure she wanted to. “You’re doing great,” she said. “A few more beads and you’ll be done. I’ll show you how to use these little crimpers.”

They finished up and she helped crimp the end beads. She fastened the finished necklace around her neck, the bracelet on her wrist and held the dangling earrings to her ears to model for the boys.

“Sweet,” Caleb said.

“That is off da heazy,” Isaiah added. They both flashed wide grins at her.

“Now, use your twenty dollars to buy her a nice card and some pretty paper to wrap these in and she’s going to love it,” Sasha said. She had to admire their work; it really looked professional and glamorous.

“Sasha?”

She turned and saw Nick scowling at her. Shit.

“Can I talk to you? In my office.”

She followed him downstairs. “Go on in,” Nick said with a gesture.

She preceded him into his office and her body brushed his as she edged by him. A little electric frisson shimmered over her and she felt him jerk back. A little befuddled by that, she sat down on a chair.

Nick took a seat behind his desk and the look on his face made her insides tighten up.

“Nick,” she said, standing and sauntering behind his desk. He rolled his chair back from the desk and away from her. His hands gripped the arm rests. “Why wouldn’t you go out to dinner with me the other day?”

“I think that’s pretty obvious,” he said in a choked voice. “It’s never a good idea to get involved in a relationship that’s business.”

“It’s not like I work here. Or work for you. I’m just a committee member.”

She perched on the edge of his desk. He couldn’t get much farther away from her unless he wheeled himself right out the window.

“Look, you’re a nice girl, Sasha,” he said. “But you’re just not my type.”

She blinked at that. She had never in her life heard those words from a man. “What type am I?” she asked slowly.

Nick heaved a slightly desperate-sounding sigh. “You’re rich,” he said. “That’s enough for me.”

“You have some kind of prejudice against rich girls?”

“Look, I was married to a woman who was, um…very ambitious. All she wanted was to be rich, associate with other rich people, shop and travel.”

Sasha’s eyes widened. He was describing her life.

“Yeah,” he nodded. “When I took this job here, she thought it was a step down for us. She didn’t want me to do this. The money wasn’t good and it wasn’t a prestigious job like my old job.”

She knew he used to be a lawyer at one of the biggest firms in Santa Barbara.

“I see,” she said slowly. “Is that why she left you?”

“Yes. Although she didn’t exactly leave. We mutually agreed to end the marriage. We wanted different things from life.”

She studied him. “What do you want from life, Nick?”

“Really…this isn’t…”

“I’m interested.”

He sighed. “I want to do work that means something. I get to use my skills here to do big things, but I also get to see the impact of what we do right at the street level, when a kid who’s at risk comes here and ends up making something of his or her life.”

“Don’t you want to get married again? Have a family of your own?”

He met her eyes. “Sure. Maybe some day.”

She nodded. But she could see why he wasn’t interested in her. Hell, it was pretty clear she wasn’t good enough for him, with his lofty goals and desire to serve, to do good things.

Disappointment flooded her again, along with a familiar sense of self-loathing. Disappointment because she was so used to getting whatever she wanted. If she wanted a guy, she got him. She wanted a new car, she got it. But she couldn’t deny this particular man was out of her reach. She was nowhere near good enough for someone like him, someone so…worthy.

She flashed a high-wattage smile at him and slid off his desk. “I understand completely. I’m glad we had this talk.”

He gaped at her momentarily, then recovered. “Sure,” he said.

More than anything she wanted to fling herself into his arms, wanted to feel those strong arms around her, wanted to kiss his handsome face. She wanted him to want her just as much as she wanted him. But that wasn’t going to happen. He was way too good for her.

She walked around back to the chair in front of his desk. “So what did you want to talk to me about? Plans for the fundraiser are going well.”

He lowered his gaze to his desk. “It’s not about the fundraiser. The thing is, you can’t just show up here and do things with the kids.”

“Why not?”

“Our leaders all have to go through security checks. We need a criminal records check, we need to make sure anyone who works with the kids hasn’t got any record of child abuse…things like that. It’s for the safety of the kids.”

“I don’t have a criminal record!”

“I know you don’t, but there are rules and policies we have to follow. If anything happened, I’m responsible.”

“So.” She blinked at him. “You’re telling me I can’t come help here anymore.”

He pressed his lips together. “Yes. That’s what I’m saying.”

Tara was actually waiting in Joe’s office after his lunch with Cole Sotello, impatient for him to return to find out what Joe wanted to meet with him about. She sat there and chewed on her index fingernail. Why hadn’t Joe called her? She hated that Joe was out schmoozing with one of their competitors and she had no idea what they were talking about. She could not believe that in the short time Joe had been there, word was out he was in charge.

He wasn’t in charge. They worked together. Dammit.

In the time he’d been there, he’d developed an interest in the business that seemed genuine. He’d connected with the staff, apparently had a photographic memory because he remembered every little thing she’d told him, no matter how fast she threw it at him, not to mention all the things he’d learned at the ranch and the mill. And he did have impressive knowledge of supply chain management and lean manufacturing methods. He’d taken on work that had lightened her own load, and truthfully, there were some things he’d taken on she didn’t miss. That included pretty much anything to do with finance, although she was still inclined to try to keep everything for herself. But since he was a numbers man, he seemed happy to handle those things and she had to admit, he hadn’t screwed up anything yet.

She sighed as she waited and forced herself to keep her fingers out of her mouth.

“Waiting for me?” Joe walked into his office with his cell phone in his hand.

“Yes,” she said. “Tell me what happened.”

He sat behind his desk. “Hang on,” he said mildly. “I’ve got to check my voice mail.”

He did so, jotted down a couple of messages, then hung up while nerves twisted in her tummy. She suspected he was deliberately making her wait just to drive her crazy. He did know how to get to her. She forced down her impatience.

“So.” He sat back in his chair. “What do you know about Molina Distributors?”

She frowned. “Molina? They’re a big olive oil importer in Los Angeles. Huge, in fact.” She waved a hand dismissively. “The oil they import is mediocre.”

He nodded. “Apparently, Cole Sotello and Johnson Brothers are joining together to sue Molina.”

“Whaaat!” Her mouth dropped open. “Sue them for what?”

“They claim Molina is importing olive oil, then cutting it with cheap canola oil, passing it off as pure extra virgin olive oil and, of course, selling it at a very attractive price.”

Tara nodded. That wasn’t really a surprise. She’d heard rumors, stories, whatever, about unscrupulous producers who did that. But Molina was big. “Wow,” she said. “How’d they come to that conclusion?”

“Apparently they’ve had some independent testing done at a lab to confirm it. Joe wants us to join the lawsuit.”

Her eyes widened. “Whoa.”

Joe leaned back in his chair and nodded. She looked at him. He was serious for once, looking thoughtful. There was a confidence-inspiring and reassuring aura of solid reliability about him, and despite her annoyance and pique at being excluded from the meeting, she knew he’d probably handled it well. Dammit. There went her resolve to take back everything from him.

“What did you tell him?” she asked.

He smiled. “I said we’d consider it.”

Her eyes widened. “But we wouldn’t.”

“Why not?”

She sank her teeth into her bottom lip. Of course, she’d gone with her gut instinct first response, which was “no freakin’ way”, and naturally Joe was taking a different approach. “Why would we do that?” she asked. “Think of the publicity.”

He nodded. “Why wouldn’t we do it? Give me your rational reasons why we shouldn’t.”

“I just did!”

He smiled again, put his hands behind his head and regarded her thoughtfully. “Look, I’m not saying we should. I just think before we make a decision, we’d better give it some careful thought and have a plan.”

She slowly sucked in a long breath between her teeth. He was right, damn it. “Fine,” she said shortly. “I’ll get right on it.” Shit. A feeling of being overwhelmed started to swell up inside her, choking her. She stood up, smoothing her skirt down over her thighs.

“Sit down.” Joe waved a hand. “You don’t have to do this by yourself. In fact, I’ll handle it.”

She sat down slowly on the edge of the chair. She did not want him to handle it. Then again…it would be almost a relief to have something like that taken off her plate. That heavy weight, that swamped, drowning feeling wasn’t so much fun.

“But that’s a big decision.”

“I’m not suggesting I’m going to make the decision myself,” he said mildly. “What I plan to do is have a look at the situation, do some checking into it, talk to Johnson Brothers, maybe even Molina. Then we’ll have a meeting here. I definitely plan to include Tyrone and I think our legal counsel should be involved. And Marina.” Marina was their public relations manager.

“And me.”

He smiled slowly. “Yes, Tara, and you. Most definitely you.”

Tara nodded. What he said made sense. Letting him take on the leg work for something so unpleasant was actually…okay with her. Feeling a little lighter, a little brighter, she stood up again.

“Okay,” she said. “Go for it.”

He smiled at her and she couldn’t help it, she smiled back. His smile was so sexy and infectious, almost irresistible. Those long dimples that appeared in his cheeks just made her want to lick them. She shivered at the thought. She tried to be tough and businesslike, but it was getting very hard to fight him all the time. With a gulp, she fled his office for the safety of her own.

When Baxter called to see if Sasha wanted to go to a big party that night, she didn’t hesitate.

“Absolutely,” she said. She could drown her humiliation at Nick’s rejection with massive amounts of tequila, obliterate her disappointment with whatever other controlled substances were available that evening, soothe her ego with sex with Baxter.

“Haven’t seen you around much,” he said.

“I’ve been busy.” She’d been busy showing up at the center, where she apparently wasn’t wanted.

“You’re turning into a big bore like your sister.”

“Hey.” She took offense on behalf of Tara. She could call Tara a bore, but nobody else could.

“Sorry,” he apologized insincerely. “I’ll pick you up at ten.”

“Okay.”

But the party was a big let-down. It wasn’t really that different than any other party she went to, but she just wasn’t into it. She knocked back shot after shot until her head was spinning and her body was buzzing. But tonight she could still feel the emptiness. Her friends were all laughing hysterically about stuff that wasn’t even funny and Baxter was just irritating. When he started making out with some blonde bimbo, she couldn’t bring herself to even care. He was just an idiot.

She called a taxi from her cell phone and was home in her bed before midnight.

Over the next few days, Tara and Joe were busy with their own work, popping into each other’s office to consult on various things. At one point, Tara had questions about a piece of equipment at the mill Blair wanted to purchase. The new piece of equipment would change some of their processes and Joe had such a good knowledge of manufacturing processes. So she went to see him.

When she presented the problem to him, he thought about it, then asked if it could wait a couple of weeks. He had some other ideas on changes they could make to business processes at the mill that might make things more efficient and, of course, reduce costs. She agreed to wait, curious about what he was going to propose.

They met with Tyrone, Marina Coutts, their PR manager, and Derek Atwood, their legal counsel, about the Molina lawsuit on Friday afternoon.

Tara entered the meeting room at the end of the hall a few minutes early. Paige had prepared coffee for the meeting and Tara poured herself a cup of the richly fragrant brew and gazed out the windows overlooking State Street. Oh, good coffee from Karma Coffee. Paige did know she liked good coffee. Taking a sip from the steaming cup, she turned just as Joe walked in. He was dressed more formally today, in black dress pants, a pale blue shirt and a striped blue tie, but his sleeves were rolled back.

“Hi,” he said and they shared a smile.

“Coffee?” she asked. At his nod, she poured another cup and handed it to him, black, just how he liked it.

“Thank you.”

Their eyes met and held and she knew he would have kissed her if he could have. The fact that she’d pleased him with the simple act of pouring him a cup of coffee spread warmth in her heart and made her absurdly glad she’d done something for him, even such a little thing.

Tyrone came into the room at the same time as Marina and they chatted as they waited for Derek to arrive, taking seats at the long oak table in the middle of the room. Paige showed Derek in a few moments later.

Joe brought everyone up to speed on the issue, providing much more detail than he had when he and Tara had last spoken, and she was reassured and impressed by the amount of information he’d acquired since his lunch with Cole Sotello.

“Do we know for sure Molina is doing this?” Derek asked.

Joe shook his head. “Cole tells me they’ve had testing done at an independent lab but hasn’t shared that with me. We either take his word for it or we do testing ourselves. That’s one of my points.”

“Testing in a lab is expensive,” Tara said. “We’ve done it in the past, on our own oils, to ensure quality and compliance with COOC standards.”

Joe nodded. “Yes. It would cost a substantial amount. We need to make a decision about that, because we could spend a whole lot of money to learn there isn’t really any basis for a lawsuit. On the other hand, we have to think about what we would do if the testing did show some unethical practices.”

They all nodded. “That’s the big question,” Tyrone agreed.

Joe had carefully laid out all the pros and cons. He’d already consulted with both Marina and Derek separately and had taken their input into consideration.

“There is that old axiom that bad publicity is better than no publicity,” Marina said. “However, I don’t always subscribe to that.”

“But it wouldn’t necessarily be bad publicity about us,” Tara put in, earning a startled glance from Joe. Amusement ticked inside her. She’d been the one who’d instantly declared this was something they shouldn’t do and now she was considering the other side. Did he think she was so rigid she couldn’t see both sides of an argument? Well, actually…there might have been a time when, yeah, she had been that stubborn. God, what was happening to her?

“True,” Marina said. “It is, after all, Molina who is being accused of wrongdoing. However, we’d need to be prepared for the damage control their PR people would launch. Some of that could be an attack against us.”

“Oh.” Tara sat back in her chair.

“Even so,” Marina continued, “we can spin lots of things lots of ways. If our reasons for participating in the lawsuit are really about ethics, honesty and credibility, we can play up those things. This is a family business, with a long tradition of quality, blah blah blah.”

They continued to debate the issue for some time, Derek putting in his opinions and estimates about potential legal costs and issues, Marina focusing on the publicity, and Tara started to feel like they were spinning their wheels.

“We need to make a decision and come up with a plan,” Joe finally said.

“You’re the one who’s done the research,” Tara said. “What’s your recommendation?”

He met her gaze and she could see the warmth there for her. Again, softness expanded in her chest.

“I recommend we not participate in the lawsuit,” he finally said. “Here’s why.” He explained his reasons, why he felt the risks outweighed potential benefits. “And,” he finished, “Sotello is going ahead with or without us. If Molina is doing something wrong and they get caught, we reap the benefits anyway.”

“That almost sounds a bit unethical itself, to me,” Tara commented with a frown.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Sotello too is a competitor. We’re not their best friends. This is business.”

“Again, it comes down to spin,” Marina said. “If we handle it right with Sotello, we don’t necessarily piss them off.”

“I agree with Joe’s recommendation,” Tyrone said. “What’s our plan going forward?”

“I’ll talk to Sotello,” Joe said. “It was me he contacted and I said I’d get back to him. I’ll take him for lunch again or something. Marina, you and I can meet before then to talk about some strategy.” Marina nodded.

Joe followed Tara back to her office after the meeting, closing the door behind him.

“You okay with that?” he asked.