Chapter 15

Rob tried to get in early to work, thinking he might need to head Bob off at the pass. He was surprised to find Jake was already there and plugging away at the data, amassing a huge pile of printouts in the process. Rob let him be and went to his office. On the way by, he saw Bob was already at his desk, reading something on his computer monitor.

He hurried through getting set for the day and went back to Bob's office. He figured he needed to take the bull by the horns or today was going to be a repeat of yesterday. He knocked on the door frame and waited for Bob to acknowledge him.

"Come in, Rob," Bob said without looking up. "Close the door behind you. Sit down." He typed one last thing then hit a key decisively. He turned to face Rob.

"That was headquarters," he said without preamble. "Somehow they found out about the Zeller case and want to know what we're doing about it." He sighed. "Rob, I owe you an apology. I was acting just like one of those ivory tower assholes, and I am ashamed of the way I acted."

Rob looked to the floor and then back up. "I wouldn't put it quite like that, sir..."

"You should," Bob retorted. "If I had ever caught one of my managers acting like that, I'd've torn a great bloody strip off of him right then and there." Bob scrubbed his face. "I got seven emails on my Blackberry before breakfast, and two more here when I got in. Do they really think it's gonna happen faster if they nag about it? Don't answer that, I know better. That's the way I was acting yesterday."

"Bob, you're worried, we can all see that," Rob soothed. "Take it easy, okay? We have our best man on the job. As a matter of fact, that's what I came here to tell you: he's on the trail, and it's only a matter of compiling the necessary data. And you know how that goes; it could be weeks before we have everything we need."

"All right," Bob replied. "You do what you need to, use all the resources you need. I'll keep headquarters off your back."

"Thanks, boss," Rob said as he stood to go. "I appreciate that. Oh, and by the way, I accept." He left the room.

It took a moment for Bob to realize that Rob had accepted his apology. He laughed once and shook his head, then he turned to his monitor to answer the next email from some obscure schmuck at headquarters.

Rob headed over to Jake's office to let him know that they now had Bob's full support and access to all resources without prior approval. Jake grinned at that and asked if he could put in another request for commission data, going back five years this time.

"It's beginning to look as if this has been going on for longer than they knew," Jake said. "It's only in recent years that it got big enough to notice. Between that and the recent market fluctuations, commissions would have swamped the projections, making it harder to see."

"Good work," Rob said. "Keep digging. We need to get this down to where the money is now."

"Yes, boss," Jake said with a jaunty salute. Rob left, shaking his head at Jake's antics, proud that his people trusted him enough to play when the mood called for it.

Rob was sitting at his desk, contemplating getting in touch with the client when the receptionist buzzed to tell him there was a gentleman from Zeller's on the line. He took the call and found it was Jeff from the original meeting. They spent a few minutes exchanging pleasantries.

When they got down to the reason for the call, Rob was told that the branch managers wanted a meeting. He scheduled them for Friday morning and confirmed that it would be good for the client too. Jeff said that would be perfect and expressed surprise that they had something already. He'd been told by other firms they'd interviewed that it could be months before they found something. Rob explained that they'd had an intuitive breakthrough and were exploring that line as they spoke.

Jeff thanked him for his time and said he was looking forward to seeing Rob again. Rob thanked him and they ended the call.

Rob sat back and thought how the meeting should go. He decided they needed a conference room and placed a booking for the shared conference room on the floor above. Then he decided that Bob and Jake needed to be there too, so he fired off a memo to both. They acknowledged the memo in minutes.

He had just sat back to think of anything else that might be needed, when his cell phone chimed with an incoming text. It was Dawn. He looked at his clock and wondered where the day had gone. He texted back and secured his office for lunch.

Tony greeted him at the door, heading out on some errand. Deidra called a hello to him from across the room, then she pointedly looked at the booth in the back corner. Rob hung his cloak and walked to the back to find Dawn waiting for him there.

"Hey there, sweeting," Rob said as he approached. She looked up and the sun rose in her smile. He leaned down for a quick kiss, but she was having none of that. She grabbed his lapels and held him down for a barn-burner.

"Hey, Rob," she cooed when she finally let him up. Out of the corner of his eyes, he saw Deidra laughing behind her hand. He stuck his tongue at her; she laughed harder. He took the bench across from Dawn.

"Well," Rob said, "That was better than I'd hoped for."

"Oh!" Dawn replied. "Why would you think that?"

"Well, we did hit you with an awful lot on Sunday," he answered gently. "I had no way to be sure where your head was at, if you'd settled anything for yourself about that. My head was not in a good place for a while after I found out."

"You said you would tell me about that," Dawn reminded him.

"And I will, just not here," he answered, seeing Deidra approaching.

"How about tonight?" she asked smiling.

He leaned back to smile at her. "Tonight will be fine," he replied.

"You gonna let Elaina know?" Dawn teased.

"Do you honestly think she'll mind?" he teased back. Dawn giggled.

Deidra finally reached them after waiting for them to finish whatever conversation had them whispering. She hadn't forgotten the time Rob had "proposed" to Dawn and didn't want to interrupt anything. She took their order, dropping off the coffee she knew Rob would want and the iced tea Dawn had ordered earlier.

After looking around to be sure no one could hear them, Rob asked the one question he had to ask, "How do you feel about Elaina?" He waited breathlessly for her answer.

"I love her," Dawn replied, as if she'd told him that the sun rises in the morning.

Rob was flabbergasted. It had taken a week of hard thinking for him to reach that point. "But, what about..." Dawn put a finger on his lips.

"I. Love. Her," she repeated slowly. "That's all that matters. You told me yourself how she is. The rest we can all work out together.

"I mean, look at you," she continued, tugging at a forelock. "You look much healthier than when I first met you, younger, even. If that's a downside, I'll take some of that, please."

"Yeah, well..." Rob replied bashfully, rubbing his hair. When he couldn't find his old nemesis, the bald spot at the back of his head, he dug around with his fingertips, then realized that it was the way his hair was pulled back that was covering it. That was another vote in favor of the tail. He smiled happily.

"So, tell me," he said, changing the topic when he saw Deidra approaching with their meals, "How'd the meeting go yesterday?"

"Not good," she said shaking her head. "You would have thought old man Zeller himself was going to rise from the grave to rain death and destruction on our heads if we didn't figure this out."

Rob felt ice rush through his veins when she said "Zeller." He shook his head, uncertain if he'd heard her right.

"Wait," Rob said, "Who do you work for?"

"Zeller Realty," she replied. "What, you didn't know that? I gave you my card, for crying out loud." She thought he looked a little pale all of a sudden.

"Yeah, but there was only one name on that card I needed to know." He frowned. "That reminds me..." He turned to look around the room, and waved to Deidra when he saw her.

"What's up, Rob?" she asked when she arrived.

"You still got that card I gave you the day you picked up Dawn?" he asked. He didn't really think she'd still have it, he just needed a distraction.

"Why?" Deidra grinned slyly. "Something special about that card?" She started fiddling with the top button of her uniform, popping it open to reveal her chocolate cleavage.

"Uh, well," Rob stammered, not understanding her reaction. "It has a certain sentimental value," he said, looking to Dawn helplessly. She shrugged and looked at Deidra. When he looked back, she was reaching into that magnificent cleavage with two fingers, and she pulled out ... a business card.

"I've been carrying it around since that day," she said playfully, "Wondering if you were going to ask for it." She handed it over. It was still warm from where it had being lying tucked in against her breast. It even smelled of her now. He flipped it over to see the familiar message: Call me. D. He smiled fondly, gazing off into the distance and looking back on how that had turned out.

"Geez, I guess that really did mean a lot to him," Deidra said enviously.

"It was the bait on a hook," Dawn replied. "I think it worked brilliantly, don't you?"

Deidra looked at Dawn, really looked at her.

"You're happy, aren't you?" she asked Dawn.

"Right now?" she asked in turn. Deidra nodded. "I think I may be the happiest woman on the planet, with one possible exception, and that one I can't name."

"It's Elaina, isn't it?" Deidra said smugly. "Oh, don't look so shocked. It's not like you guys hide it, if you know to look for it. I think it's neat, but it's not for me. I don't think I could share a man."

She looked off into the distance with a thousand-yard stare. "But when Elaina first came around, I wondered..." She shook her head and came out of it, then she smiled at Dawn.

"I wish you three the best of luck," she finished. "You're gonna need it."

"Thank you, Deidra," Dawn said. "That's very sweet of you."