Sisters by Choice (Blackberry Island #4)(50)

Five-year growth plan? Sophie tried not to wince. She’d never been big on plans like that. She trusted her gut, which, to date, had not let her down.

“As I said, I want to take care of the details,” Tina told her. “I have a lot of project management experience. I’ll put that to good use here.” She paused. “Did you want an assistant?”

Sophie hesitated. “I’m not sure. I’ve had them before and they never work out.”

“I thought as much.”

Sophie waited, but Tina didn’t seem inclined to say anything else. Which meant what? Had she and Bear been talking about her? And if so, what had they said?

“You do need someone to be in charge of your calendar and handle the small details.” Tina nodded as she spoke. “Why don’t I hire someone but instead of reporting to you, he or she will report to me? I’ll take care of assigning the tasks and you can run any problems you have through me.” Tina smiled. “I’ll be the bad guy.”

“For both of us?”

“Very possibly.”

“It seems we have a plan.” Sophie wasn’t sure she liked the plan, but she didn’t have a better one. She couldn’t help thinking she was being handled—a sensation she did not enjoy in the least.

She left Tina to get settled and walked out to the warehouse. Maybe she could spend a couple of hours filling orders. That always made her feel better.

She’d barely stepped foot into the shipping area when Bear appeared at her side.

“Did you talk to Tina?” he asked. “I like her. She knows her stuff. Try not to micromanage her, at least not the first week.”

“I don’t micromanage anyone.”

“Uh-huh. Let’s just let her get settled and start hiring the rest of the staff. That would be a good thing for all of us.” Bear pointed back to the offices. “Don’t you belong over there?”

“I thought I’d help with shipping for a little while.”

Bear physically stepped in front of her. “No.”

She looked at him and narrowed her gaze. “Excuse me?”

“I said no. My department, my rules. I let you do what you wanted the first couple of weeks because I knew you were still dealing with the fire and everything else, but I’m done with that. It’s my department. Either leave me alone to run it or fire me. There’s no middle ground.”

But I need this. Words she didn’t say aloud. How on earth was she supposed to say that the repetitive task of placing merchandise into boxes was soothing to her? That she loved touching all the wonderful CK items, knowing they were going to be delivered to a happy cat in Minnesota or Florida.

Bear turned her around and gave her a little push. “You have a nice office. Use it.”

“You’re not the boss of me,” she grumbled even as she headed back to the other end of the warehouse.

“That’s the rumor.”

She’d barely made it to the hallway when Elliot caught up with her.

“We have to talk.”

Ugh. It was turning out to be one of those days.

“Sure. Let’s go into my office.”

It was closer and in case Bear checked on her, she would look busy.

She waited until Elliot was across from her to say, “So what’s up?”

“It’s Heather.” Elliot scowled at her. “What were you thinking? She can’t do the job you’ve given her. She has no training, no education. She takes days to complete a task that should take a couple of hours. She works hard, I’ll give you that. She’s determined and smart and one day she’s going to take the world by storm, but she does not belong in marketing.”

“But she had such great ideas about our products.”

“My aunt Ida has lots of great ideas about everything. That doesn’t mean I’m going to hire her. Sophie, I have no idea what’s going on with you, but this is no way to run a company. You were impulsive, giving Heather the job. You dumped her on me without talking to me first and now there’s a problem. The part I don’t understand is I think you care about Heather.”

“What? Of course I do. I’ve known her all my life. She’s family. I love her.”

“Then why did you do this to her?”

“I was helping. I wanted something better for her.” She didn’t like how the conversation was going. “I did a good thing. This job pays more than the one in shipping and you said she’s capable. Can’t you teach her what she needs to know?”

“This isn’t a continuing education center. I am trying to get a handle on the marketing plan you had for CK.”

Elliot leaned back in his chair and studied her. “You’re a mess, aren’t you? You spend your day doing every job but your own and God help us if you see something shiny because you’ll be racing after it with no thought to whether or not it makes sense for the business.”

His words were a hard slap across the face. Humiliation burned hot inside and out and she had no idea what to say to him.

“I’m not going to fire Heather,” he told her, apparently unaware that she was seconds away from an emotional meltdown. “The mistake is yours, not hers. I’ll find work for her that she can do. In the meantime, don’t hire anyone else for me. I’m working the problem.”