“I’ll find someone,” she repeated again. “By the end of the day. I promise.”
Ellie gave her team a smile, and waited until everyone had left the room before she let the stress and worry consume her. She doodled across the pad in front of her. It was a good thirty seconds before she realized she hadn’t sketched a flower or a box or a stick figure. She’d written a name.
And maybe … an answer. The only problem was right now, this was more of a win for Finn, who would reap the benefits of a partnership, the prestige of the project and a cut of the profits, than for Ellie, who risked looking like a company that couldn’t do the job and had to call in outsiders.
She tapped her pencil on the pad. There had to be something Finn could give her that would make a partnership worth the risk of an alliance with the predatory Hawk. It would have to be something big, she mused.
Very big.
Finn sat at his massive mahogany desk, the same one he had bought ten years ago at a garage sale, refinished by hand then installed on his first day at McKenna Designs. Back then, he’d had an office not much bigger than the desk, but as he’d moved up, the desk had moved with him. Now it sat in the center of his office, his headquarters for watching the world go by eleven stories below him. Friday morning had dawned bright and beautiful, with a spring sun determined to coax the flowers from their leaf cocoons. It was the kind of spring day that tempted people to call in sick and spend the day by the Charles River, picnicking and boating and jogging on the Esplanade. The kind of day that drew everyone out of their winter huddles, spilling into the parks and onto the sidewalks, like newly released prisoners.
But not Finn. He had called an early meeting this morning, and had been snowed under with work every second since then. Sometimes he felt like he was just plugging holes in a leaky water bucket. They’d lost another client today, a corporation that said they’d “lost confidence” in McKenna Designs after hearing of the defection of two other major clients. Apparently Lucy’s betrayal was still hitting his bottom line, even more than a year later. He sighed.
He’d turn this company around, one way or another. He’d hoped that Ellie Winston would hear his offer and jump at the opportunity for some help. She was out of her league on the Piedmont project, and definitely didn’t have anyone on her staff who could handle something of that magnitude. When he’d considered his offer, he’d seen it only as a win-win for her. Yet still she’d said no.
It was a rare defeat to a man who had won nearly everything he put his mind to. The refusal had left him surprised, but not for long. He would regroup, and find another way to convince Ellie that his proposal was in her best interests.
Could she be thinking of hiring someone else? He hadn’t heard rumors of anyone considering a job at WW, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a prospective candidate. Finn had always prided himself on having an ear to the ground in Boston’s busy and competitive architecture world, but that didn’t mean he knew everything.
“Knock, knock. Time for lunch.”
Finn glanced up and saw his brother standing in the doorway, grinning like a fool. Every time he saw Riley, his brother looked as happy as a loon. Probably because he didn’t have a care in the world. Or maybe because things had gone better for Riley with women last night than they had for Finn. “Sorry. Maybe another time. I have a ton of work to do.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Riley waved that off. “And last I checked you were human …”
Finn dropped his gaze to his hands, his feet, then back up to Riley. “It appears so.”
“And that means you need to eat on a regular basis. So come on.” Riley waved at him. “Hey, I’ll even treat.”
Finn chuckled. “Considering that’s almost a miracle in the making—”
“Hey.” Riley grinned. “I resemble that remark.”
“You’re the poster child for it.” Finn shook his head. Then his stomach rumbled and overruled his work resolve. “All right. You win. But let’s make it a quick lunch.”
“You know me. I’m always ready to get my nose back to the grindstone. Or rather, ready to get your nose back to your grindstone, and mine back to lazy living.” Riley laughed at his joke, then walked with Finn down the hall to the elevator. “You know it wouldn’t hurt you to take a day off once in a while. Maybe even enough time off to have a date or ten.”
The doors opened with a soft ding sound and Finn stepped inside, followed by Riley. “We’ve had this argument before. Last night if I remember right.”
“Yep. And we’re going to keep having it until you admit I’m right and you’re lonely.”
“I’m fine.” Finn punched the button for the lobby.
“You tell yourself that enough and you might even start to believe it someday, big brother.”
Finn ignored the jab. “So how’s the waitress?”
“I don’t know.” Riley shrugged. “I ended up leaving with the brunette.”
Finn rolled his eyes.
Riley grinned. “What can I say? The world is filled with beautiful women. Like the one you were supposed to talk to last night. How’d that go?”
“It didn’t go quite the way I expected.” Had he come on too strong? Too weak? He found himself wondering what she was doing right now. Was Ellie having lunch at her desk? With a friend? Or alone in a restaurant?
She’d been on his mind almost every minute since she’d walked out of the diner. That alone was a clear sign he needed to work more and think less. He wasn’t interested in Ellie Winston on a personal basis, even if his hormones were mounting a vocal disagreement.
“What, you struck out? Didn’t get her phone number?” Riley asked.
“Her office number is in the yellow pages. I didn’t need to ask for that.”
Riley shook his head. “And the Hawk strikes again. Always business with you.”
The elevator doors shimmied open. Finn and Riley crossed the lobby and exited onto Beacon Street. In the distance, rowers skimmed their sculls down the rippling blue river.
The Hawk strikes again.
Maybe it was the too sunny weather or maybe it was the rejection last night, but Finn found himself bothered by that phrase. He’d never much liked the moniker, but he’d always thought that he, of all people, combined humanity with business. He had never seen himself as quite the cold fish the media depicted.
His brother didn’t understand what drove Finn. What kept him at that desk every day. What monumental weights sat on his shoulder, even as he tried to shed them. The one time he’d tried to live a “normal” life, he’d been burned. Badly. More than enough reason not to make that mistake again.
A slight breeze danced across the Charles River, tempering the heat of the day with a touch of cool. They walked for a while, navigating the rush of lunchgoers, heading for the same place they always went, in unspoken agreement. That was one good thing about lunch with Riley—the kind of common mind that came from being siblings. Even though he and Riley were as different as apples and oranges, Finn had always had a closer relationship with him than with Brody. Maybe because Riley was easy to talk to, easy to listen to, and the one who—though he kidded often—understood Finn the best. Even if their minds often moved on opposite tracks.
They reached the shadowed entrance to McGill’s. Finn paused before tugging on the door. “Do you ever wonder …”
Riley glanced at his brother. “Wonder what?”
“Nothing.” Finn opened the door and stepped into the air-conditioned interior. The last person he needed to ask for personal—and definitely business—advice was his brother. Riley’s standard answer—get a girl,