Sometimes It Is Rocket Science (7 page)

“Georgiana.” 

At the sound of her name on his lips, she blinked and stared dumbly at Robert.  For a moment she entertained the thought of bashing him across the smug face with her tablet.  “It’s fine,” she said, grateful her voice was steady.

“What is fine, Ms. Collier?”  Pat Mayhan, head of the contracts division at Collier Analytics, fidgeted with his tie when she turned her attention to him.  She felt a pang of guilt.  He was one of the employees who hadn’t completely adjusted to having her as his boss.  She wasn’t as versed in legalities as her father, and let him have a great deal of leeway when he preferred precise direction.

“The contract.”  Georgiana waved her hand at the stack of papers in front of every attendee.  “It’s the same contract we always sign with Norwood.  We give them what they want when they want it, and they give us money.  We don’t tell anyone the specifics of what they’re building, and they don’t tell anyone about our software.  It’s the same contract.”

An awkward silence fell on the room.  Yvonne sighed softly.  She should have warned Pat that Georgiana was distracted and rescheduled the meeting.  Westin clicked the end of his pen, face mottled with irritation.

Robert’s chair squeaked.  He slapped his hands on the table, stood.  “Ms. Collier is correct.  This is the standard contract and there are no issues that I see.  I believe we can all agree that it has worked for us in the past.”

Before Westin or Mayhan could launch protests, he signed his copy of the contract and turned it around for Georgiana’s signature.  In contrast to his neat, square-ish handwriting, his signature was a looping scrawl of Rs and Ns.  She hastily scribbled her signature, the G and C of her initials the only visible letters, and handed the contract to Mayhan.  The autopen would take care of the other signature requirements.

“I believe that’s twice now you’ve saved me,” she said once they were out of the conference room.  She could hear the start of Mayhan’s complaint to Yvonne.  She owed her assistant two sessions with the masseuse to make up for the day.

Robert’s hand hovered near the small of her back as they made their way to the R&D department.  “Perhaps I like having you in my debt.  I do have a way you can make a partial payment.”

“Oh?”  Georgiana forced herself to remain cool.  His wicked smile should have been illegal. “How’s that, Bobby?”

He gestured towards the thick, double doors barring the way to the brains of Collier Analytics.  “Show me what you’ve got.”

“I think if we let him, Bobby would move in to our R&D department.  You should have seen the way he was eyeing Luke Duvall’s work station.”  Georgiana stretched her legs and crossed her ankles.  She’d talked a nurse into bringing an extra bed into the spacious private room.  With Robert in town, they needed more than the one visitor’s chair.

Dan glanced at the door.  Robert had gone for a snack run and was due back any second.  “I’m surprised you got him to leave.”

“His assistant finally called Yvonne.  She threatened to get security involved.”  Georgiana grinned at Dan.  Her assistant was a Cat-5 hurricane.  She wouldn’t have had a problem making good on her threat had Robert resisted.

Having butted heads with Yvonne a time or two, Dan chuckled. “How’d he get along with the boys?”

“Great.  Except for Paul, of course.  He made a rookie mistake.”  Georgiana tilted her head back and watched the helium balloons she’d picked up in the gift shop bounce against the ceiling. 

“Ooh.”  Dan shook his head knowingly.  “Screwed up the name, didn’t he?”

“Yep.  Called him Her-bert.”  She drew out the syllables for emphasis, purposely made the ‘t’ harder than necessary in an exaggeration of Robert’s precise enunciation.  Paul Herbert had been head of the R&D department for years.  He’d grown up on the border between Texas and Louisiana and proudly pronounced his last name A
y-bear
.

The door swung open.  Arms overflowing with snack food and bottles of juice, Robert shuffled into the room.  He dumped the cellophane wrapped cookies and nuts on the bed beside Georgiana’s knees.  He handed a bottle of apple juice to his father, one of orange juice to Georgiana, and twisted the cap off a bottle of cranberry juice.  Bottle halfway to his mouth, he glanced back and forth between his father and Georgiana.

“What?”  His eyes narrowed when Georgiana’s lips twitched.  He pointed at her with the bottle; juice sloshed over the rim and on to his fingers.  “You told him about Mr.
Ay-Bear
, didn’t you?”

“It’s okay, son.  A case of brandy will get you back in Paul’s good graces.”

“He’s right.”  Georgiana sipped her juice.  After twisting the lid back on, she propped the bottle against her thigh and snatched up a bag of salted peanuts.  “Paul loves his brandy.  Of course, if you could get him a case of honest-to-goodness moonshine he’d be your friend for life.  I don’t recommend it, though.  I’ll never get any work out of him if that happens.”

Robert dragged the chair between the two beds.   “Cedric flies in tomorrow.  I’ll have him buy Paul Herbert’s forgiveness.  Pass the Choco-Bites, please?”

Georgiana tossed the package of bite-size, double chocolate chip cookies in his lap.   “Tab used to fill a bowl with those things and eat them like cereal on Saturday mornings.  Even though he knew how hyper Tab could get, Dad let him.  I made sure to get out of the house early on Saturdays.”

Dan chortled, elbowed his son.  “Robert used to do the same thing.  Would be wired for hours on end.”

She chewed a handful of nuts and washed them down with juice.  Her stomach rumbled loudly.  Both men fixed her with curious stares.  She blushed, ducked her head.  “I’m sorry.  I hate lunch meetings.  I’m always too busy playing referee to eat anything.  Yvonne called dibs on my leftovers.”

Robert tapped the top of his bottle.  He shifted, leaned towards Georgiana.  “I skipped lunch.”

“Of course you did,” she laughed, well aware that she was often guilty of the same crime.  “You were too busy having a geekgasm with the boys to bother with something as trivial as food.”

He flashed a warm, intimate smile.  “There’s no point in starving.  Dad’s half asleep already.”  He jerked his thumb at a yawning Dan.  “I haven’t been in Houston in months, and most of my friends are in New York.  You could show me your favorite restaurant.”

Georgiana arched an eyebrow, determined to remain cool despite the fluttering in her stomach.  Details of Robert’s social life made excellent tabloid fodder, so she knew how he preferred to spend his evenings.  She preferred to be more low-key.  She doubted her favorite restaurant, a hole in the wall Mexican place with amazing enchiladas suizas, would meet his standards.  She’d changed out of her suit, but he was still impeccably dressed in charcoal pinstripes, thousand dollar shoes, and a silk tie.  It would make for an interesting date, at least. 

She didn’t get an opportunity to respond.  Stiletto heels clicked in the hallway seconds before the door burst open.  A cloud of cloyingly sweet floral perfume wafted into the room followed by tall, svelte blonde.  Heavily made up blue eyes flitted over Georgiana and Dan then settled on Robert.

“Robert, darling!”  She skipped into the room, threw bare arms around his neck.  Collagen-plumped lips left traces of red lipstick on his cheek.  “I missed you.  New York’s lonely without you there.”

Georgiana was transfixed by the rock of a diamond twinkling on the blonde’s left hand.  She recognized the blonde as one of Robert’s frequently photographed companions.  Heart lodged in her throat, she fumbled for the strap of her bag.  She was an idiot.  He hadn’t been asking her on a date; he’d just been looking for a dinner companion and tour guide.  He’d warmed up to her because he needed a familiar face and a friend, not because she’d dazzled him with her bloodshot eyes and business ineptitude.

“I-I need to go.”  She gingerly set her feet on the floor and stood.  For a heart-stopping moment, her knees wobbled.  She avoided Dan’s sympathetic, confused face.  “I should check up on Tab.  I’ll call you later, Dan.”

“Georgie,” Dan said, “just wait a minute, dear.  We haven’t had a chance to talk about Hayes or your meeting with the board.”

“No.  I really need to go.  Tab has a physics project he needs my help with.”  She felt disconnected from her body, like one of the balloons floating by the ceiling.  She brushed her lips across Dan’s forehead, squeezed his hand.  “Nothing happened.  They agreed with your suggestions.  You need to visit with Bobby and his… fiancée.”  The word was like broken glass scraping down her throat.

“Tammy Gregan.”  The blonde’s hand curved around Robert’s possessively.  The gleam in her eyes was sharp, protective.  “Soon to be Tammy Norwood.”

Robert jerked, knocked Tammy off his lap.  He reached for Georgiana only to have her bob out of range.  Jaw tense, he took a step forward.  “Georgiana, listen, I’m not…”

“Bye.” 

Georgiana sped out of the room as quickly as she could without sprinting.  It wasn’t until she was in the privacy of her car that she gave in to the urge to scream.  She yelled until she was hoarse and bashed her hand against the steering wheel.  Why had she let his seductive, secretive smiles affect her?  She knew his reputation, knew she wasn’t his
type
.  She’d dodged would-be suitors for years after her last disaster of a relationship; what was so special about Robert that he slipped past her defenses?

Her cell phone trilled.  Heart hammering, she glanced at the display.  If it was Dan or Robert, she was sending it straight to voice mail.  Tab’s name and a picture of her brother, pre-accident, making a goofy face filled the screen. 

“What’s up, little brother?”

“I’m going to go to bed, Georgie,” Tab said, exhaustion stretching his vowels and making his drawl more pronounced.  “I spent an hour-and-a-half on the treadmill, and I’m wiped.”

She was going to verify his claim with ERIC.  It was too early to call it a night, even for him.  “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.”  He snorted.  In the background fabric rustled and bedsprings squeaked.  “I’m too tired to be anything, really.”

“Okay.  I’m going to grab a bite and catch up on paperwork at the office.  I’ll be home in a few hours.”  She paused, chewed the inside of her cheek.  Her first instinct was to run home and check on him, but she had to start trusting him again if they were going to move forward.  “I love you, Tab.”

“Love you too, Gigi.”

ERIC confirmed Tab’s story.  Her brother had jogged just over six miles on the treadmill, and he’d been dispensed a single dose of an over-the-counter painkiller shortly after an early dinner of leftover chicken salad.  She instructed the AI to monitor him and call when it looked like he was waking up.  She refused to let him face his nightmares alone.

There was no paperwork waiting for her.  Yvonne was far too efficient for that.  She ensured every report was initialed and form signed before she unchained Georgiana from her desk.  Yvonne took advantage of every second Georgiana was in the office.  It was a narrow window of time usually bracketed by days immersed in the project du jour.

Georgiana felt a slight twinge of guilt over lying to her brother.  She couldn’t tell him her real plans, though.  He had no idea that she had his wrecked Mercedes and was piecing it together in Dan’s workshop.  Thinking about the car could undo the modicum of progress he’d made.

After punching in her code at the gate in front of Dan’s house and being scanned, she tapped her phone’s screen to connect to NORA.  “NORA, it’s Georgiana.  Can you open the garage door, please?”

By the time she reached the end of the driveway, the door to Dan’s seven-bay garage had been lifted.  She parked her car between Dan’s 1964 Shelby Cobra and a battered, mud-spattered heavy duty truck.  The garage door descended before she was out of the car.

“Good evening, Georgie dear,” NORA greeted.  The overhead lights slowly brightened.  The door separating the garage from the rest of the house swung open. 

“Hiya, NORA.  Dan’s still at the hospital.  Bobby will be here later, I’m sure.”  Georgiana paused mid-step, patted the smooth, white wall.  “He may have a guest.  Don’t give him a hard time if he forgets the security protocol.  She’s harmless… mostly.”

“Do you wish to be notified when Robert returns?”

Her face blanched.  Did she want to know when Robert and his blonde returned?  Definitely not.  “No, no.  Stop all recordings in the bedroom he is using, please.”  Having a stranger, even one with Robert’s ring on her finger, in Dan’s house rankled.  The house was full of proprietary information.  Hell, the house itself was proprietary information.  “His guest will be female, blonde.  Don’t record her if she’s with Robert, but keep the cameras on her when she’s alone.”

“Please provide security code.”

“Security code G-N-K-5.  Only user Daniel Norwood can override these instructions.”  Robert could hate her for it all he wanted, but it was her duty as Dan’s friend to protect his life’s work and the home he’d built. 

“Code accepted.”

“Thanks, NORA.”  Georgiana’s stomach growled.  She jogged up the remaining steps and stepped into the spacious kitchen.  Two years earlier, Dan had been on a culinary kick.  He’d renovated the kitchen until it was on par with a professional kitchen.  The cooking hobby had only lasted five months; Dan’s sleek, chrome freezer was filled with frozen dinners.

“I’m in the mood for a banana split. Is there any of that strawberry ice cream left?”  She tugged on the freezer door, but it didn’t budge.  Frowning, she yanked so hard her shoulder popped.  “Come on, NORA, this isn’t funny.  I’m starving.”

“Records indicate that you are in need of protein and vegetables.  Shall I quote the guidelines for proper nutrition?” 

“I had an omelet for breakfast.  Eggs are full of protein, aren’t they?  Had spinach and mushrooms in it, too.”  She jerked on the door.

“That information is incorrect.  You consumed a one cup blend of blueberries, strawberries, and cantaloupe.”

Stunned, Georgiana let go of the freezer handle.  “How’d you know that?  I didn’t eat here.”

“Correct, Georgie dear.  The information, however, is easily accessible in the database for your residence.”

“And I linked you and ERIC so you merged the data on me into one file.”  Happy laughter bubbled in her chest.  She lovingly stroked the wall near the freezer.  “Aren’t you a smart girl, my wonderfully clever NORA?”

“Flattery will not induce me to unlock the freezer, Georgiana.”

She rolled her eyes.  “Of course it won’t.  What’s on the menu for tonight, then?”

Dinner was a boneless chicken breast, steamed broccoli, and a cup of strawberry yogurt.  After rinsing her dishes and loading them in the dishwasher, she carried her glass of iced tea down to the garage level workshop.  The main area was open, but there were five rooms enclosed in smart glass.  The glass walls were defaulted to transparent, but with a flick of a switch, they could turn opaque. 

Georgiana entered her code in to the keypad outside the first workroom.  When she’d asked for a space, Dan had graciously moved his abandoned projects into a back room and given the first, and largest, to her.  She flicked on the lights and left the glass opaque.  Eyes fixed on the heap of a car, she stepped into a pair of baggy coveralls and tugged up the zipper.

“I’m going to sort through one of the boxes of parts tonight.  Could you pull up the notes I made last night?”

She settled on the floor with a large, cardboard box filled with small car parts.  NORA loaded the schematics for both the Mercedes and pickup on Georgiana’s tablet.  Fortunately, Tab’s Mercedes was silver and the truck was blue.  It made distinguishing exterior parts a bit easier.

Chatting with NORA about domestic versus foreign car design while sorting parts, Georgiana lost track of time.  The cold, concrete floor leached the heat from her legs and her butt went numb.  She didn’t mind the pins and needles sensation.  It took her mind off the fact that the smashed car inches from her face had almost been her brother’s coffin.