She knew how to prove she was still in control of herself. Today, she would work. They had no festival-event obligations, so she’d go back to the beach house and flesh out the Ledger Lite marketing plan, then invite Matt over to see it. Work, then play. Perfect. Sensible. Proof that the new, more mature Candy was still the boss.
She wiggled out from under Matt without waking him, leaving him a note that promised a call when she was ready for him to see what she’d done.
At the beach house, she tiptoed onto the porch only to find Sara carefully sliding her key in the lock, hair tousled, shoes in hand, wearing an oversize T-shirt, clearly trying to sneak in soundlessly.
Candy motioned her away from the door. “Looks like you had an interesting night,” she whispered, nodding at Sara’s clothes. At the scavenger hunt, Sara had had on the red halter dress Candy had loaned her. “Wasn’t Drew wearing that last night?”
“Yes. It’s his.” Sara blushed, then fumbled in her bag for Candy’s dress, which she held out. “Thanks so much. I’ll have it cleaned for you.”
“No, you won’t. If it helped you end up like that-” she nodded at the shirt, which hit Sara mid-thigh “-it’s worth every crease.” Candy shoved the dress into her bag.
“So what happened?” she whispered.
“It’s a long story.”
“I’ve got time.”
“And I’ve got coffee.”
They whirled to find Ellie in the open doorway holding out two steaming mugs of coffee. “It’s my blend, girls. Come inside and tell me everything. I’ve got warm ruglah, too.”
Candy and Sara took the coffee and followed Ellie into the kitchen, where the cinnamon smell of the pastry mingled with the rich Guatemalan-Columbian blend Ellie favored.
They wiggled onto bar stools and began talking, practically at once. First, they discussed the outcome of the Hot Shot contest. They’d been beaten by a team that Sara had caught faking a birthmark. They agreed to watch out for those guys.
They moved on to how the wet T-shirt photo had resulted in Sara’s putting on Drew’s shirt and wading into the ocean. Sara turned three shades of peach explaining how they got distracted in the water. At length.
Afterward, Candy hugged her. “I’m so proud of you, girl.”
“This isn’t like me at all,” Sara said.
“That’s the point of being here-to be different,” Candy said.
“Speaking of being different,” Ellie said. “It’s your turn. Tell us again about how you and Matt will never be a notch on my matchmaker’s belt.”
“It’s actually quite sensible,” Candy started, breaking out in a sweat, hoping her friends would see the sense of the plan. “We just added sex to our, um, work deal. It’s a vacation affair that won’t change anything. In fact, right now I’m going to work up a marketing plan I promised to show him later.”
“Hold it.” Ellie stared at her. “You and my brother made mad hot love last night and this morning you’re working?” She looked at Sara. “Is she channeling you now?”
“It fits, don’t you see?” Candy continued. “What better way to prove to Matt that I can work as hard as I play?”
Ellie and Sara looked at each other, not buying it one bit.
She had to change the subject. “We told you our stories, El. What about you and Bill? How did you two make out?”
“Exactly,” she said. “We did make out. On the Ferris wheel. It was so…sexy and…romantic…and…I don’t know…”
“That’s all you did? Make out?”
Ellie blushed, something Candy had never seen before-maybe Ellie’s goth makeup hid the color. “Uh-huh…that’s all.” She picked up a spoon and stirred her coffee for a moment. “And who knows what will happen tonight, after the shoot? We’re getting together.”
Candy had never seen Ellie so breathless.
“We want the full scoop later, don’t we, Sara?”
“You’d better hurry up, El. You’re lagging the team,” Sara said. “We’ve both, um, gotten laid.” That expression was so not the ever-polite Sara that Candy laughed out loud. She looked from the sex-fresh Sara to the beaming Ellie. “I love seeing you two like this.” Despite whatever mess she’d gotten into with Matt, being here when her friends spread their sexual wings made the trip worth everything.
Ellie went to get dressed for Sin on the Beach, Sara readied for her surf lesson with Drew-distracted momentarily by a call from her uncle-and Candy got busy on Matt’s computer.
She sketched a draft plan, then called the office to fill in the blanks. She got the research department to send her the data showing that Ledger Lite’s market had maxed out, got verification that their payroll software customers would be a prime market, and found a programmer who thought he could adapt the interface from a math-education product to Ledger Lite Personal.
She even had Freeda e-mail her a copy of the strategic plan so she could see where her product would fit. She found the document endless, complex and dull. Who wrote this shit?
The managers, she realized. As a team leader, she’d be part of creating this damn thing every year. That would not be her favorite part of the job, for sure.
Who could enjoy it? She’d get used to it, though. The managers probably sucked it up and did it. She’d just figure out a way to make it fun.
That was what she brought to the table.
A few minor irritations were nothing compared with the rewards of the promotion. She couldn’t wait to announce it at the family Thanksgiving dinner-when they went around the table and said what they were most grateful for.
After that, no more paternal glances over her head or brotherly sighs behind her back. They’d see she was making progress, sticking with something, not floating aimlessly from job to job. For that moment of glory, she could handle a few meetings and some boring reports.
When she logged into e-mail, she got a reminder beep from her calendar and saw that the women’s business association’s luncheon was tomorrow. It was their awards celebration. Now that was a crowd that would love Ledger Lite Personal.
Which gave her a perfect idea-she’d go to the luncheon and bring Matt for a networking lesson. That would impress him with her networking savvy and her devotion to SyncUp. She stretched her arms up and rubbed her neck and back, tired from sitting so long.
A woof made her look toward the screen door. Matt stood with Radar. “Enough work,” Matt said, coming inside, leaving Radar on the porch.
“Not quite,” she said. “I have a great idea. There’s a business luncheon tomorrow and I want you to come with me and do some networking.”
“We’re on vacation, Candy.” He came to stand behind her and nuzzle her neck. Goose bumps shot down her arm. The dog whined outside. “I had ten messages on my cell from work. Guess what I’m doing about that?”
She turned to him for his answer.
“Not a thing.”
“Do you think that’s wise?”
“I don’t care.” He leaned down to kiss her. “Forget work. Forget luncheons. I want you in bed.”
His urgency sent hot fire zooming through her. “First, promise you’ll come to the lunch tomorrow.”
“You drive a hard bargain.” He ran his thumbs across her nipples through her top, making her shiver.
“Do you want to see what I’ve got so far?”
“Oh, yeah,” he said, but he wasn’t talking about Ledger Lite’s marketing plan. He kissed down her neck, running his tongue across a tendon in a way that melted her to butter. “Show me what you’ve got.” He lifted her out of her chair.
She loved it and wanted to dissolve into his arms, but she had to stick to her plan. Somehow. “I had a thought about building Paycheck Plus sales, too,” she said, knowing she’d never get him to look at the computer.
“Hmmm?” He seemed to struggle to focus.
“We need to boost word-of-mouth with a wow moment.”
“Okay…” He stopped kissing her, but his mouth was dangerously close.
“The software is so great, so easy to use, that users take it for granted,” she said, gaining enthusiasm as she spoke. “It needs a whiz-bang hook for users to buzz about.”