Chapter 1: Hello, Rance

The first time I laid eyes on him, I knew I was in trouble. I mean, this man was it. He was every woman's wet dream. Just looking at him was enough to dampen my panties.

"Who is that?" I asked Doreen Jamieson, my guide on the indoctrination tour.

I didn't have to explain what I was referring to. She knew instantly.

"That's Rance Cameron, head of security. Don't get your hopes up. He's not available."

"Married?"

"Nope. Just unavailable by choice," she said.

That would take some explaining. "What's the story?"

"Seems like he was burned by a Dear John letter when he was in Afghanistan. Kind of soured him on women. No more than twenty or thirty fair young maidens have thrown themselves at his feet, but came away empty-handed. Damn shame, I say."

"You can say that again."

I spent the rest of the day with Doreen, getting my orientation package and tour. I was the latest computer whiz hired by Kleinhauser Industries in Spokane. It was a rapidly growing company specializing in GPS technology. Two years ago, there were one hundred and eleven employees. According to my security pass, I was employee number three hundred and forty-one.

When the tour was done, Doreen and I adjourned to the cafeteria and had a coffee. I would begin my regular work day tomorrow morning at eight o'clock.

"How long have you worked here, Doreen?"

"Four years. I was one of the early hires, number 66. Twenty-one and fresh out of Eastern Washington University. It seems like a long time ago," she chuckled. "What school are you from?"

"Stanford."

"Oh ... wow! Big bucks to go there," she said in awe.

"I had a scholarship. My folks could never afford to send me there without that."

"It must have been a hell of a scholarship, girl."

"Yes. I had an athletic scholarship in swimming and an academic one in computer sciences."

"Now I'm really impressed," Doreen said. "I didn't know there was any such thing as a double scholarship."

"Well, not that way. I applied for the academic scholarship at several universities. I was offered a full ride at Stanford on the athletic scholarship, so I combined them. I still had to have a job to pay for the incidentals."

"Just the same ... that's really something," she said in admiration. "What did you do between the time you graduated and now?"

"I had a job with a family business, implementing a computer system for them. They had a couple of old off-the-shelf programs, but nothing compared to what they needed. I worked there for two years, putting in a whole system, then administering it.

"But, family businesses are no place to plan a future. I wasn't family, so I could see I wasn't going anywhere. I started looking around ... and here I am."

"Still, that would be good experience," she said.

"Yes, it was." We sat in silence for a few moments before I asked her a personal question.

"No wedding rings, so still single?"

"For now. I have a boyfriend, but time will tell if he's the one. What about you?"

"No. No one. Haven't had the time. Between school and swimming and looking for a job, I didn't date very much."

"Well," said Doreen with a grin, "you've got some catching up to do, and this isn't too bad a place to start."

For the first three months at Kleinhauser I was given fairly mundane and non-challenging tasks. On the one hand, it gave me a chance to get familiar with the company and some of the employees. On the other, I was getting bored and needed something to stimulate my brain.

"Very well, Miss Sanchez, I'll look into something a bit more suitable to your skills. I'll let you know in a day or so," Mr. Weiser said. He was my immediate supervisor and seemed like a good guy.

Friday afternoon that same week I was summoned to Milton Weiser's office.

"If you're interested, I have an opening in the security department under Mr. Cameron. It's a different type of project, so you have the option to turn it down if you're not comfortable."

"No! I mean ... no ... I'm fine with it," I said, my heart beating a mile-a-minute. Working with Rance Cameron was a dream assignment. There was no way in hell I was going to turn that down, even if I didn't know what the project was.

Monday morning, I headed for the security section and looked for Rance, my body tingling in anticipation.

"Mr. Cameron, I'm Julie Sanchez and I've been assigned to your project."

He smiled one of those incredible smiles and again I almost lost it. Did this guy have any idea the effect he had on women?

"Nice to meet you, Ms. Sanchez. We're pretty informal around here. If you don't mind, I'll call you Julie and you can call me Rance."

His voice! God, that voice was something out of a western movie. It was like a deep rumble coming from way down in his body. If it wasn't West Texas, it was somewhere nearby. In my head, I could see him on a horse, Stetson pulled down over his eyes, a sunset in the desert as a backdrop. Dream on, girl.

"Yes, sir ... I mean, Rance," I stammered.

He was incredibly handsome in a rough-cut sort of way. At least six-foot-two, lean, but big shoulders and hands. He showed a couple of scars on his face, but they just added character. His nose had been broken at least once, but again, it was just something that made him even sexier, at least to me. His hair was sandy blonde, cut short, but looked like it never needed a comb. The eyes were blue, just as I would have expected, and they were penetrating when he fixed his gaze on me.

I sat in a chair facing his desk, but he sat on the edge of the big mahogany piece barely three feet from me.

"You probably know who I am and what I do," he began, "but just to be clear, I'm Chief of Security, responsible for makin' sure we hold on to our assets, both physical and intellectual. Also, I'm in charge of doin' security checks on all our employees and our suppliers. You'll remember you signed a release when you applied here so I could check you out.

"So ... what does that have to do with this project?" he continued. Well, despite the fact that this is a high-tech corporation, not everythin' we do here is in keepin' with that. Right now, I'm saddled with a paper-based set of files in the security department and no interface with the HR department. We need to develop a database that will do both and get us caught up. Does that sound like somethin' you might be interested in?"

I thought about it for a moment before answering.

"Yes, I've had some experience in that area. But, it would require more than one person, I think. If nothing already exists, and the company has over three hundred employees, there's a lot of work to be done."

Rance smiled and leaned back in his chair.

"You're absolutely right. Naturally, you will have someone to lead the project who is experienced. I'll let them decide what resources they need besides you. I've already talked to Sandra Pullman, and she's agreed to take on the project leader role, but isn't interested in continuin' on after it's up and runnin'. She's a very experienced lady and you'll learn a lot workin' with her."

I nodded, feeling excited that I would be involved in an important project.

"Sandra is already approachin' other people to assist you and her, but she'll want to talk to you to make sure you're both happy with the assignment."

"I understand." It sounded like this was a much bigger project than I had originally envisioned. I was surprised that a company this large didn't have any computerized system for either Human Resources or Security.

"I'd like you to make an appointment with Sandra to get with her and discuss what she needs. She'll decide if you're right for the project, but I'd be surprised if you weren't," he smiled.

"Thank you," I replied, somewhat nervously. I wasn't sure what to expect from Sandra Pullman. I had never met her, nor did I know anything about her. I would have to think about this project and what I could contribute.

The next morning, I knocked on Sandra's office open door.

"Come in and sit down and make yourself comfortable, Julie," she smiled as I approached her desk. "This won't be the Spanish Inquisition, in case you're wondering. You come highly recommended."

"I do?"

"Your supervisor says you're very quick to learn and have met or exceeded all his expectations. He's not an easy man to please."

She was an attractive forty-something woman, well dressed and displaying a friendly manner.

"I haven't been here very long," I admitted. "I'm surprised I'm getting this opportunity."

"Rance and I have gone over your background and experience. I understand you took a small business and computerized it on your own. That's quite an achievement for someone so young."

"I have to confess," I said, "I did have some help from a couple of the employees. Luckily, I didn't have a lot of resistance from the staff. Most of them really wanted the system to work."

"Just the same, a very good start to your career. Now you are here and we have a much bigger project in mind. Neither the personnel files nor the security files have been computerized and there is no interface between them. Both of them are conventional paper files.

"All the money for computers has been spent on design and development, accounting, and peripheral needs. Rance has really been handicapped, and we need to get both him and HR up to date as a priority."

"Yes, I'm sure. I'm surprised. We do government work here. I would have thought security was a priority."