He looped the towel around his neck, holding on to the ends. “Plan, brief, execute.”
“Excuse me?”
“Plan.” He said it with infinite slowness. “Brief.” Another infuriating pause. “Execute.” He gave her that look she was fast growing to hate. “First, I devise a plan how to turn this train wreck around. Second, I brief you on the plan. Third, I direct you on its execution.”
“You are insane.” It was fast becoming her favorite saying around him. She turned to leave. No way was she staying around and listening to any more of this, and no way was she walking out of here without letting him know exactly where his place was around here.
“I cooked,” she told him. “You clean. Dish soap is under the sink.”
“KP isn’t my specialty.”
“Don’t worry. It doesn’t take much skill. You should be able to handle it just fine.” She thought she heard a chuckle, but when she whipped back around, his face was a blank slate.
“Don’t you want to know what my specialty is?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Debriefing.” A wolfish grin appeared that did funny things to her insides. “I’m nothing if not thorough.”
His comment left her frozen in her tracks, blushing clear down to her toes.
He began to walk out of the kitchen but paused when he reached her. “Oh eight hundred. Don’t be late.”
Moments later she heard him heading up the staircase. From the sounds of it, he was taking them two at a time.
Jenny looked at the messy kitchen and wondered what had just happened. She eyed his empty plate, wanting nothing better than to throw it at his gorgeous, arrogant head.
Plan. Brief. Execute.
When pigs fly.
She grabbed her purse, cell phone, and a jacket and was outside and in her car in moments. Before she had cleared the driveway, she was punching in Zeke’s number.
Unfortunately, his wife answered and told Jenny that Zeke was already on his way over to her place. Jenny then called Zeke’s cell, which went right to voice mail. No surprise. He’d told her at least a dozen times how he didn’t like the darn thing. She left a message anyway, explaining that this meeting was not her idea, and Zeke was in no way obligated to be there. He could—and should—take the day off as planned.
Jared could plan, brief, and execute all he wanted, but she and Zeke were not going to be a part of it.
Debriefing. It’s my specialty.
It wasn’t until she was nearly to town that she realized she had nowhere to go and was no closer to getting rid of Jared.
Jared was on his way to the bathroom to take a shower when he heard the Corvette start up. Cotton Tail was on the run. Now why didn’t that surprise him?
Running this business was at the bottom of her list of priorities; the evidence was all around him. Her office was a nightmare, her dedication a joke. She had no set business hours—no set anything, as far as he could see. And when he offered to help formulate a plan (not that he had any intention of carrying that out), she ran away.
If Jared thought for one minute that she was serious and wanted to run the business Steven had started, he might have felt differently. But her actions proved she was not only incapable but unwilling to do what was needed to make this place a success.
As he waited for the hot water to make its way through the antique pipes, he couldn’t help but smile. Somehow he’d known that by insisting on staying here, he would drive her over the edge. Or, more accurately, over to the bank or to her parents.
Stepping under the hot water, Jared almost felt like singing. By the time his shower was over, the money would be as good as his.
Damn, he loved it when things worked out exactly as he planned.
Early Monday morning, Anna strode briskly through the halls of Seattle Trinity Hospital. She nodded and smiled at the nurses she passed and several of her colleagues.
One of her residents jogged up beside her. “Dr. Adams?”
“Yes?” Anna tried not to let her impatience show. On any other day, she would have been fine with the interruption. Making time for the residents was near the top of her list; the only thing ahead of them was her patients. But today was a different story. Still, she gave the resident her full attention.
“I was wondering if you had a moment to discuss the patient in two fourteen.”