Love in a Nutshell - Janet Evanovich [38]
Matt pulled around a corner and then into a city parking lot behind a three-story redbrick building. Kate grabbed her bag and tried to find a graceful way to exit his ginormous, but apparently noncompensating, truck.
“I’m going to leave you with Ginger, my office manager, while I finish up business with Chet,” he said as they headed toward the building.
“You have an office manager? How many people work for you up here?”
“Just Ginger, and I let her choose her title. So long as people do their work, I’m happy to call them Galactic Emperor or Most Royal of Personages or whatever they want.”
Matt led her up to the building’s metal security door and opened it. “I’m leasing the space from the yoga studio below. It’s cheap rent, since it doesn’t put out a fancy public face, but I don’t need one of those.”
They reached the third floor and Matt opened the door to a suite marked only with its number and ushered her in. Behind a desk in the moderately sized reception area sat a movie star–looking, twenty-something redhead. She wore a red wrap dress with a plunging neckline, red lipstick that matched the dress, and just the right amount of mascara to show off thick black eyelashes over her green eyes.
“Kate, this is Ginger Monroe,” Matt said. “And Ginger, this is Kate Appleton.”
Ginger gave Kate a blatantly inquisitive look. “Hi.”
Kate returned the greeting, but tried to keep her curiosity under control.
“Is Chet here?” Matt asked Ginger.
“I sent him into your office. You might want to consider a bulletproof vest before you go in.”
“That bad?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Matt shot a dubious look at the closed door. “Then he knows why he’s here. I’ll be out in a couple of minutes.” He paused. “Or maybe even sooner.”
Kate settled into a guest chair and Ginger pulled open a desk drawer and brought out a semi-full bag of salt-and-vinegar potato chips. “Want some? They’ve got a good bite.”
“I love them, too, but I’m all about coffee at this hour,” Kate said.
Ginger nodded. “Okay.” Without pausing a beat, she added, “So, are you Matt’s new girlfriend?”
“No, I just started working for him last week.”
Kate suddenly realized how much longer it felt, and not in a bad way. No, this was more a What did I do with myself before all this craziness? feeling.
“Interesting,” Ginger said.
The conversation was starting to feel a little interesting to Kate, too. “So, Ginger, have you two ever dated?”
Ginger raised her eyebrows. “No! My dad would kill him. Dad was Matt’s high school football coach down in Keene’s Harbor. Matt was a big star, but that was ages ago. I was just a kid. And then Dad changed jobs and we moved up here.”
“Matt was a football star? Figures.”
Ginger grinned. “Doesn’t it? He was hot stuff. I guess he had a full ride to Michigan State, but then messed up his knee during baseball season his senior year of high school. He lost the scholarship and ended up working around town before he took off for a couple of years. Everything turned out fine, though.”
Just then the younger woman’s eyes widened, giving Kate an instant of forewarning before Matt’s office door slammed into the wall, and a short, heavy man whose skin color had risen to a shiny puce marched out of the office.
The purple man was sputtering so much he could barely choke out his words. “You’ll pay, Culhane,” he said.
Matt followed him out and remained admirably impassive. Kate wanted to learn how to do that, though she suspected she lacked the talent.
“I agree this is tough, Chet, but you know I’ve been more than fair,” Matt said.
The older man’s breathing was ragged, and he opened and closed his hands into fists. “Another six months wouldn’t have killed you. Instead, you’re killing me.”
“You have four