The Design(17)

“I promise that I’ll watch out for your son as much as he lets me.”

She smiled. “Good.”





Chapter Six


Later that afternoon Grayson announced a company-wide meeting. With mild groans, everyone stopped their work and filtered toward the conference room. By the time I walked through the door, there was standing room only. I pressed against the far wall, with Hannah wedged in front of me. Her hair smelled like garlic from her lunch and my stomach grumbled with the reminder that Cheez-Its were not enough to tide me over until dinner.

“Listen up,” Grayson’s voice boomed from the front of the conference room. Everyone paused their conversations and the noise level slowly trickled down to nothing. I shifted in between Hannah and the person beside her so that I could get a clear view of Grayson. Yup, hot as ever.

When all eyes were on him, he continued, “We’re here to announce the mentor-mentee assignments that will be in effect for the next month or two. Each senior team leader will take on an associate architect. New staff will shadow the team leader, follow them to job sites, and learn how we run our business here at Cole Designs.”

The groans from the front of the room indicated that the senior designers were less than enthused about taking on a bunch of newbies. I just crossed my fingers that I didn’t end up with Alan. I highly doubted he’d be willing to teach me the lay of the land. In fact, he’d probably leave me at the job site and call it a “learning experience”.

Grayson stepped to the side so that Beatrice could have the floor. I watched him as Beatrice started calling out names, pairing up the mentors with mentees. He kept his eyes on Beatrice, never wavering even though I practically begged him to glance in my direction. His hair was still perfect, and his suit looked just as pristine as it had that morning. So maybe his lunch date hadn’t included a happy ending?

When Beatrice called Alan’s name, I held my breath and crossed my fingers behind my back. Please don’t be me. Please don’t be me.

“Hannah Montgomery,” Beatrice said. I cringed for her. I wouldn’t wish Alan on my worst enemy, least of all my new roommate.

“Cammie Heart,” Beatrice spoke, glancing up to try to find me in the crowd. I raised my hand behind Hannah and her eyes flew in my direction. “You’ll be paired with Eli.”

Eli stood up near the front of the room and I shifted out from behind Hannah to get a good look. OH, HELL YES. Eli looked to be one of the youngest senior associates. He was handsome, with a bright smile and cropped blonde hair that made him look angelic. He’d forgone a suit jacket in favor of rolling his shirt sleeves up to his elbows. The effect made him far less intimidating than Grayson, who was standing a few feet away with his arms crossed, a deadly look permeating his features.

“Actually, Cammie will be with me,” Grayson spoke up, cutting Beatrice off as she continued reading from the list.

Whispers broke out immediately and my face flamed. What the hell was he doing?

“Um, but you don’t usually…” Beatrice began to dispute his outburst, but Grayson held up his hand.

“It’s done. Eli is working on the Whitaker Street project and I can’t afford any more delays.”

My bullshit meter was reading red hot.

Grayson, you dirty dog.

After all of the names were called, there was another twenty minutes of humdrum information, which I completely ignored in favor of breaking down Grayson’s motives for taking over Eli’s role as my mentor. (I couldn’t come up with a single one that wasn’t part of a freaky fantasy.)

Finally, Grayson announced the end of the meeting. Everyone trailed out, begrudgingly heading back to their work stations. A few pairs of mentor-mentee pairs stopped for a moment to meet formally. Alan didn’t even blink in Hannah’s direction as he stomped back over to his desk.

“Wow. How did I get lucky enough to land that *?” Hannah whispered as we headed out of the conference room.

“Yeah, I was crossing my fingers that neither one of us would get him.”

She peered over at me from beneath her lashes. “Well it must’ve worked, because you ended up with the best option of them all.”

We both turned to watch Grayson head back into his office. As I watched him move in his suit, I decided that every man over the age of twenty-one should have to wear tailored pants. The fabric worked wonders for his already rockin’ physique.

“Seriously, I can’t believe he’s your mentor,” she said.

“Yeah, I’m not sure how that happened,” I admitted, still staring at his closed door.

“Who cares? Figure out if he’s single for me. I saw him eating lunch with some girl, but that could have been anything,” Hannah said, tilting her head to get a better look at him. “I think he dates around a lot, and he’s really only a few years older than me.”

I bit down hard on the inside of my mouth to keep from telling her to back off. I wanted to hate her for taking an interest in him, but it’s not like I could blame her. Any woman with eyes would do the same.

“That probably won’t come up during our training,” I pointed out, just as Hannah’s table-mates called out for her to join them.

“Whatever. Just ask him. You can mention that you’re asking for a friend or something if you’re too nervous.”