Sisters by Choice (Blackberry Island #4)(40)

He stared at her. “You’re really upset.”

“You’re just getting that now?”

“You’re also acting crazy. Do you have your period or something?”

“This isn’t hormones. This is me finding out that you lied to me.”

“Would you stop staying that?” he roared.

“What would you prefer I say instead?”

He glared at her for a long time, then turned. “Nothing,” he muttered as he left. “Don’t say anything at all.”

  The morning started with someone opening a pallet of kitty litter using a sharp knife and slicing through a half dozen bags in the process. The litter spilled onto the warehouse floor, creating a mess that shouldn’t have been a problem, only the new shop vacs hadn’t arrived yet and there were only two push brooms. Sophie had spent nearly thirty minutes trying to clean up the mess, stopping only when Bear shooed her out of the area.

“Don’t you have real work to be doing?” he’d asked, sounding exasperated. “Stop trying to handle every detail yourself. I’ve got this.”

“And the moron who created the problem in the first place?”

Bear shook his head. “Not talking about that with you, Sophie. This is my department. I’ll manage it.”

She handed him the broom and made her way to the restroom where she washed her hands before heading to her office. She nearly turned around when she saw three well-dressed women waiting there.

Who were they and, more important, who had let them in? She was not in the mood to be friendly. Despite Kristine’s reassurances that they were fine, Sophie still felt awful about what she’d said.

“Can I help you?” she asked, standing in the hall.

They turned toward her. The shortest of the three—a brunette in her midthirties—smiled. “Good morning. I’m Cathy from the Marysville Women’s Shelter. We were hoping to talk to you about what we do and maybe interest you in a sponsorship.”

Money. They wanted money. She had no doubt the cause was excellent, but this was not something she wanted to be dealing with today. Or any day.

“If we could just have a few minutes of your time,” Cathy said.

Sophie held in a groan. “I’m busy right now. If you’d made an appointment, it would have been easier for me.”

The women looked confused. “We did make an appointment.”

“With who? I don’t have a secretary.” She heard a phone ring and waited for someone to answer it.

“I’m not sure,” Cathy said. “But I did call ahead.”

The phone continued ringing.

“Excuse me,” Sophie said, hurrying toward the front office where Amber was playing solitaire on her work computer.

“The phone,” Sophie said pointedly.

Amber looked at her. “I’m on my break. It’s not my fault that you don’t have backup for when I’m on break. Or did you want me to just keep working, no matter what? That’s illegal, by the way. I know my rights.”

The phone went silent as the caller gave up.

Amber smiled. “See. Problem solved.”

Sophie swallowed the scream she felt building inside, then stalked back to the women waiting in her office.

“This isn’t a good time,” she said between clenched teeth. “I’m sorry you came all this way, but I can’t deal with this right now.”

“Then we’ll be in touch,” Cathy assured her as the women left.

Sophie watched them go before circling back by Amber’s desk. “Please tell someone when you go on break so the phone is answered.”

“Sure.”

The easy answer did nothing to reassure her, she thought grimly, walking back to the warehouse. As she entered the open area, she saw the shipping tables had been moved into a new configuration.

“What are you doing?” she asked Bear. “You’re changing things?”

“It will be more efficient and we’ve talked about this.” He guided her into his office. “Sophie, you have to get off me. I mean it.”

“But the shipping area? It’s my favorite.”

“Everything is your favorite. You’re not involved, you’re obsessed. You’re letting the big things slide so you can count paper clips.”

Before she could tell him that wasn’t true, Amber appeared. “Some lady is here to interview for the office manager job. I put her in your office.”

“I don’t have time for that. Reschedule the interview.”

“You’ve already rescheduled it twice,” Amber told her. “She seemed annoyed by that when she told me.”

Bear’s look was pointed. “You need an office manager. And an assistant. And a bookkeeper and God knows what else. Focus, Sophie.”

“I am focused.”

She was—every second of every day. There was simply too much to do. She was trying to go from zero to sixty all on her own and just when everything seemed to be moving in the right direction, some idiot cut through a dozen litter bags with a knife.

“You need to handle the interview. I’ll take care of everything else in the warehouse.”

She looked at Bear and nodded slowly. He was a good guy. She was beginning to trust him—not an easy thing for her. She knew he was just doing his job.