Page 19 of Screwed
“Why are you even going?”
“It’s for a good cause.” She sighed. “Also, Manon is heavily involved in it, as a breast cancer survivor and as a fashion businesswoman, so I bought tickets and I have to show up. Plus I’ve spent the last week in my kitchen baking. I need to get out.”
Jesus. She was going crazy with the baked goods. “Okay, yeah, too much time in your kitchen bonding with that KitchenAid appliance is probably not healthy.”
Her laugh was soft and sexy. “Probably not. I’ll pay you back in cookies for going to the charity event with me. I made these freakin’ awesome salted caramel shortbread ones.”
“Oh man.” His mouth watered. “I’m down with that. What time should I pick you up?”
“Cocktails are at six. It’s at the Garden Oaks Country Club.”
Of course it was. Cash was still on the waiting list for a membership but golfed there with Beau, whose family had been members of the club for years. With its pricy membership fee and long waiting list to join, it was one of the most prestigious country clubs in Houston. He didn’t give two fucks about prestige, but he had to admit that knowing the right people was important in business.
“You sure you don’t already have plans for tonight?” Callie asked.
“Nah. I’ll pick you up.”
These swanky galas weren’t his favorite thing to do, but he’d gotten used to them, thanks largely to Beau. Cash hadn’t grown up in the same kind of affluence Beau and Callie had, but since he and Beau had become friends as freshmen at UT, he’d been introduced to that world. Now, as partners in a company that was successful in no small part due to all those connections in the business world, Cash had accepted that schmoozing was a necessary evil.
He ended the call and dropped his cell phone to the desk in his office, gazing out the window overlooking the busy West Loop. Traffic flowed by this sunny Friday morning, and he knew it was already hotter than Hell’s basement on the day of reckoning outside the cool air conditioning of the office building.
Talmadge Hale Consulting specialized in electric transmission and distribution, which was Cash’s area, and oil and gas processing plants, which was Beau’s. They’d recently been awarded a project to design the replacement of about a mile and a half of 26.4 kilovolts overhead conductor alongKirby Drive. The project also included the design for a lighting system to meet Texas Department of Transportation standards.
This was another in a string of huge projects they’d successfully bid for over the last couple of years. They’d worked their asses off, both of them driven and competitive, and their company had grown rapidly. They’d increased their staff to keep up with the workload but still put in a lot of late nights working hard to meet deadlines.
Lately, though, business had slowed due to the depressed oil price, and he and Beau had been increasingly concerned that they might have to actually lay off staff. Their business would survive, but their rapid growth had slowed.
Cash knew Beau was stressed about that. Hell, he was, too. He had his own reasons for wanting the business to succeed. He’d come into this partnership with so much less than his friend—no money, no connections, and without Beau’s easy charm and charisma. From the start, he’d worked hard to bring in new contracts to prove he was Beau’s equal. He wasn’t sure anymore what Beau’s reasons were; he didn’t have to work for money, given his parents’ wealth, and he had the Sutherland family connections behind him due to his marriage to Callie. At times he wondered if Beau was more interested in status and the appearance of success than in actually building something that mattered. But despite their separate reasons, they each wanted Talmadge Hale Consulting to succeed.
They were also working on a bid for the big project he’d been telling his mom about, to build a new substation at one of the Sutherland Industries oil refineries. This was the largest project they’d ever bid on, and Cash was painfully aware that it was Callie’s family they’d be dealing with. He was also painfully aware that they really needed this job.
He still had two meetings and a shit-ton of work to do. Hence the plan to be working on a Friday night.
Now he was escorting Callie to the gala and then taking her tomorrow to get her tattoo. Christ. He rubbed his tight forehead. He was supposed to be staying away from her. What the hell had he been thinking, offering to go to this event with her?
They were just friends. Nothing more.
So maybe it was a little weird that they were still friends, since he was Callie’s ex-husband’s friend. But it wasn’t weird that he felt protective of her and believed that someone should be looking out for her after Beau screwed her over.
He focused his attention on work, attending the meetings, grabbing a sandwich to eat at his desk at noon, spending the afternoon at his computer working on the Sutherland Industries refinery bid—goals, deliverables, time frames, and budgets. A couple of engineers stopped by his office late afternoon and interrupted his concentration.
“Hey, Cash. It’s nearly five o’clock and it’s Friday. We’re heading over to Bar None for happy hour. Come on, man.”
“Jesus, it’s five already?” Cash straightened. Damn. He had to get his ass home and into his tux. “Sorry, guys. Got a date tonight. I have to head home and change.”
“Who’s the date?” Brent asked. “Is she hot?”
Jose grinned. “That last chick you dated was hotter than a freshly fucked fox in a forest fire.”
Jesus. He rolled his lips in to keep from laughing at his employee’s inappropriate comment. Damned if he could even remember who his last date was.
“Okay, it’s not really a date. I’m going to some charity thing with Callie.”
They both stared at him. “Callie Talmadge?”
“Callie Sutherland.” She’d gone back to her maiden name. “But yeah.” He shrugged as he ejected the USB drive and popped it into his briefcase with a bunch of files. “She needed an escort so I offered to go with her.”
“Oh. Uh. Okay.”
