Читать книгу Sultry Nights - Donna Hill - Страница 12

Chapter 4

Dominique spent the rest of the morning with her leg propped up on a short step stool beneath her desk with a plastic bag of ice on her knee, while she read over the latest inventory reports. Although her family, her father and oldest sister, Lee Ann, in particular, used to ride her relentlessly for her insatiable desire to shop, it was an obsession that was paying off with style in her business. All those days of racking up the charges in boutiques across Louisiana, and as far away as Milan and Paris, and cooing the sales reps, shop owners and up-and-coming designers, Dominique had, unbeknown to her, been building a foundation. Now it was all paying off in major ways. Her contacts were more than happy to accommodate her with their overstock, sample items and huge discounts for her non-profit organization.

The women who came to First Impressions with their heads down walked out turning heads. And now she was ready to take her business to the next level and offer an education component that would include GED classes, financial management courses and interview preparation.

She turned to her computer screen and brought up the spreadsheet that included the staffing that she would need, along with the list of vendors that would supply the materials for the courses. If Trevor Jackson was on target with his completion date she would have to begin interviewing for instructors sooner rather than later.

Trevor Jackson. She leaned back in her seat. For the past hour she’d done well in casting him to the back of her thoughts. But much like a thunderstorm that was on the horizon, as much as you wanted to, you couldn’t ignore it. You knew it was coming.

“How’s your knee feeling?”

Dominique glanced up at her assistant, Phyllis. She smiled wanly. “Better thanks.” She lifted the ice pack off of her knee and noticed that the swelling was all gone. Gingerly she lowered her leg from the step stool. “How’s everything up front?”

“Good. The five new referrals will be here shortly.”

Dominique checked her watch. It was nearly one. “Great. Let’s order lunch and we can set up in the conference room.”

“Anything in particular?”

“How about some wraps and salad?”

“I’ll put in the order.” Phyllis paused for a moment. “So, how did the meeting go?”

Dominique glanced up for a moment then looked away. “Pretty good. I plan on giving him the contract. Mr. Jackson is going to work on some designs and get them to me next week.”

Phyllis nodded slowly, noting that the very direct Dominique barely looked her in the eye. “So, you think he’s the one?”

Dominique’s head snapped up as if she’d been caught stealing. “Huh?”

“I mean do you feel he’s the right person for the job?”

Dominique swallowed. “Yes. Why? Is there something that you know that I don’t?”

“Hmm, nope.” She tugged lightly on the hem of her suit jacket. “I’ll go put in the lunch order.” She turned away to hide her smile.

“Phyllis, wait.”

Phyllis stopped at the door. “Hmm.”

“You’re always so good at first impressions—no pun intended—what…do you think of him?”

Phyllis folded her arms beneath her ample breasts. “I think if his work is half as good as his looks, the addition will be a real showstopper.”

Dominique chuckled. “That’s the best answer you could come up with?”

“First impressions, right? Well, that honey was my first impression. The rest is up to you.” She gave Dominique a wink and walked out.

Dominique leaned back in her seat, tugging on her bottom lip with her teeth. Phyllis had been straight with her from the day they first met when she’d come to First Impressions needing a dress to attend her daughter’s graduation. Even though she was in need, there was an assurance and a dignity about her that made Dominique feel that Phyllis was the one doing something for her and not the other way around. She reminded Dominique of her mother with her directness, warmth, plain words of wisdom and her ability to make everyone feel special.

They’d hit it off that very first day and while they talked and searched for the perfect dress, Phyllis subtly organized shelves and lined up the clothes on the racks as she moved through the space, answered the phone when Dominique was with another client and even showed a few around the establishment while Dominique was discussing inventory with one of her vendors.

“Seems like you could use a little help around here when it gets busy,” Phyllis had said while Dominique wrapped up her purchase.

Dominique tilted her head to the side. “Are you busy?”

“As a matter of fact I have nothing but free time on my hands. I’d be more than happy to come in a couple of hours a day—just to help out,” she’d added.

The couple of hours had turned into full days in no time, and quicker than that Phyllis had become Dominique’s right-hand assistant. She came to depend on her for more than help with running the business. Phyllis had begun to halfway fill the shoes that the loss of her mother had left empty.

Which was why Dominique was perplexed by Phyllis’s vague response to her question. Phyllis may be a lot of things, but ambiguous was not one of them.

As much as she wanted to dwell on Trevor Jackson, she didn’t have time. The women would be arriving shortly and she needed to be focused so that she could provide each lady with the attention that she deserved. But no matter how hard she tried to stay on point during the next two hours, images of Trevor kept popping up in front of her.

* * *

Trevor loaded the images from his camera onto the twenty-seven-inch iMac. He pointed out the major problems to Max and they both took notes. Trevor explained what it was that Dominique wanted and for the next few hours they worked on a series of sketches for the revised layout of the two floors.

“I want to give her at least two options for each floor,” Trevor said. He raised his arms over his head, stretching out the tight muscles in his back.

“By the looks of the walls and the plumbing issues that you mentioned, the problem isn’t going to be in the design but what we find behind the walls,” Max said.

Trevor nodded. “Exactly.” He closed the screen that showed the design plans and pulled up the file with their subcontractors. “We’re going to need a lot of hands on this one.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem. The guys like working with us. At least they know when they come to T. Jackson Contracting its not going to be a one-day job.”

“And this will definitely last a few months. I think we should get Ray for the plumbing and Joshua for the electric. They’ve done good work for us before and have solid teams.”

“As soon as the plans are approved I’ll start looking into supplies and getting the permits in order.”

“Cool.” Trevor pushed back from his seat.

“Don’t think I forgot about your comment, my brother.”

Trevor’s thick right brow rose. “What comment?”

“You know damn well what comment… Edible. You really think I’m going to let that one slide?”

Trevor half smiled. “Just an observation, that’s all.”

“Man, I know you better than you know yourself. When was the last time some woman had you at a loss for words? You could barely put a sentence together when you got back.”

It had been a while since a woman had lit a match inside of him. Five years to be exact and her name was Vallyn Williams. To this day, simply thinking about her knotted his stomach. Vallyn had burst into his life and took him on a roller-coaster ride that he’d never wanted to end. He should have known better. They came from two different worlds. She was the daughter of a judge and her mother sat on every board in the state of Louisiana. She grew up vacationing at Martha’s Vineyard and the Hamptons. Her college graduation gift was a six-month trip across Europe.

“Trust me, it’s nothing but an observation. End of story.”

“Hmm, yeah, okay.” He gathered up his notes. “Got any plans for later? I feel like hitting a club, listening to some music, checking out some ladies. You game?”

“I’m down. Say around nine?”

“Yeah, I have some stuff to take care of at the house. I’ll give you a call around nine and we can figure out where we wanna hang.” He tucked his drawings under his arm and checked his watch. “I’m heading out. I want to check up on the crew over at the Jennings job.”

“We should be ready to turn the house over to the family pretty soon.”

“If everything is up to par, I figure by next week.”

The Jennings family had been victims of Hurricane Katrina. For the past five years they’d been living in a trailer with their three kids. Those were the projects that Trevor was most proud of. Seeing the faces of the families whose homes he’d restored or built was worth every ounce of sweat.

“That’s what I like to hear. Okay, you take care of that and I’m going to put some finishing touches on these design proposals then head out.”

“See you later.”

Trevor opened the design program and reviewed the tentative layout. He could almost see Dominique walking through the renovated space and the expression on her face when she saw the transformation. He shook his head. Thinking about a woman like Dominique Lawson in a role other than employer would bring him nothing but trouble. That was the one thing he was sure about.