in New Orleans, it wasn’t impossible. But this seemed more than casual.
Tess ignored his question and closed the door before advancing toward his desk, looking confused. “What are you doing in my father’s office?”
Graham stood. “You’re Therese?”
“I prefer Tess.” She crossed her arms uncertainly and shot a look from her father to Graham. “Yeah. So back to the original question—what are you doing here? I assumed you didn’t—”
And then her mouth snapped shut as something altogether different flitted through her gaze. In that moment, Frank realized however his daughter knew Graham, it hadn’t ended well. Which meant this situation wasn’t going to be slightly uncomfortable. Nope, it was atomic-wedgie uncomfortable.
“I—” Graham made another choked face and shook his head. “You never told me your last name. You put, uh, Two-Legged Tess in my phone.”
“Thought it was cute and memorable. Big fail, huh?” she said, voice like poison darts. Even Frank wanted to duck.
He cleared his throat. “Two-legged Tess? What the hell are you two talking about?”
Graham sat like he’d been hit by bad news. “I met your daughter at the bar you recommended to me after the interview. Two-Legged Pete’s.”
“Wait a sec, you told him about Pete’s?” Tess asked, her eyes narrowing as something in her head started clicking. Her voice faded as she murmured, “At a job interview.”
Her head whipped around “You had a job interview with my dad. A job interview for what?”
Graham sank in the leather chair. Or was it cowered? “Christ, this is crazy. How are you Frank Ullo’s daughter?”
“Why are you interviewing for a position I don’t know about?”
Both of them directed their gaze toward Frank.
“Okay, okay. Tess, have a seat,” he said, gesturing to the chair beside Graham.
“I think I’ll stand.” She crossed her arms, her chin jutting out. “I don’t want to sit for what you’re about to tell me because obviously I’m the last to know about what’s going down at our family company.”
“This is exactly the reason I had to make this decision.”
His daughter’s eyes glittered like icy emeralds that reminded him of his wife Maggie’s when she was pissed. “What decision?”
“If you’d sit, I’d tell you. But as usual you’re acting like your mother,” Frank said, annoyed a simple announcement and introduction could get bogged down in drama before he’d said his piece. But what had he expected from Tess?
Reasonable wasn’t her middle name.
“If it means that much to you, fine.” Tess sat. “So what’s the deal, Dad?”
“The deal is a change that’s been forthcoming here.”
“Really?” she said at a near growl. Graham averted his gaze to the sketches on the wall.
“You know I’ve been talking about retirement in the past several weeks. Now’s the time. I wanna pull back and enjoy life with your mother before I cash in my ticket.”
Tess said nothing… just stared at him. Frank nearly shifted in his chair, but refrained because he was a man, damn it. He didn’t shrink under the disdain of any woman, much less his youngest child who hadn’t even reached age thirty yet.
Hell, she was still a kid.
“And?” she asked.
“I hired a headhunting company to look for someone who could—”
“You hired a headhunting company?” Tess arched one eyebrow.
Frank felt the steam coming off her. She had never been laid-back, but she had a good temperament on most days. Everyone at Ullo liked her. She got what she wanted, but it was because she always leaned on people rather than pushed them. Honeyed words and all that. Still, when crossed, her Irish-Italian temper simmered out of control.
“That’s what I said, Therese. These guys go out and find—”
“I know what they do. You should have inferred my question to mean why not who.”
Frank had to think about that because he hadn’t had a fancy liberal arts education—he’d been raised on the streets and got his business smarts from what had always worked for him. “I hired a headhunter because I can’t leave the company with no one to look after it. You need help and your brothers have their own careers.”
Tess slapped her hands together. “Perfect. I see where this is going now. You want a man to run the company instead of trusting your own flesh and blood. You’re just that egotistical and misogynist.”
“I don’t know those words, but if you think this is because of what you ain’t got between your legs, you’re wrong.” Leave it to Tess to think this was about gender. Okay, maybe ten percent of his reasoning had to do with her being a woman.