Saved by the Salsa Read online

  Where was his cell phone? Of course. He’d stuck it in his slacks pocket just before sailing out into the soggy field. “On second thought, I do have my cell on me,” he told her abdomen.

  “Great! Can you reach it?”

  “Depends. Can you roll to the side so I can get to my back pants pocket?”

  “I thought I wasn’t to move.”

  “That was before I remembered about my phone.”

  No immediate reply. Finally, “Worth a try.”

  The next thing he knew, she was rocking her pelvis in an attempt to dismount. “Not what I meant!” he screeched.

  “Doesn’t feel like I made much progress.”

  You made progress, all right. But not with the task at hand. She’d succeeded in finding yet a new way to torment him. “No luck,” he gasped in between the deep breaths he forced himself to take.

  Think of other things. Like this project, whatever it was. But he had zilch to go on since he’d accomplished exactly nothing since they’d arrived. Had she been more productive? She didn’t have him worried. She was barely beyond neophyte status. But Cam’s inviting her along today had him a tad concerned. Was he off his game, and this was Cam’s way of propping him up? Was this why he hadn’t been named principal yet?

  What a ridiculous notion. He was the firm’s superstar. Coated in mud and debris at the moment, but still Numero Uno.

  “What on earth?” Cam’s voice. Finally.

  “Watch your step, Mr. Mackenzie,” Lacey warned. “Slippery hillside. Did us in.”

  “Both of you?” He sounded incredulous. But Jack preferred incredulous to incensed or mocking.

  “Crazy, huh?” Lacey said.

  Bless her naïveté. She didn’t have the slightest idea by speaking first she was deflecting Cam’s wrath.

  “Had to see it to believe it,” Cam said. “How’d you both land there? There’s hardly any space beneath the trunk.”

  None anymore.

  Jack took a stab at explaining the two-phase catastrophe. Finished, he prepared for the laughing and guffaws. He could picture Cam describing their predicament at the next meeting of the senior staff.

  “Whew! Almost fell down myself.” Cam’s voice grew nearer, apparently he’d made it down the hill without incident. “Besides bringing in a crane, any ideas how I get you out?” The man barely cleared five-eight and was twenty pounds overweight.

  Yet again, Lacey beat him to the punch. “Do you see anything you can anchor yourself to so you can pull us out without slipping?”

  Cam didn’t respond immediately. Probably looking around the site.

  “If I had a crowbar, I might be able to pry the tree away from you, let gravity send it farther down the hill.”

  More silence.

  “Mr. Mackenzie, are you still there?” Lacey called out.

  “Yeah. Trying to dislodge a limb.”

  Jack expected a tree part to jab him any minute, but instead, Lacey’s body was dragged out and over him. Though relieved to have her freed up, getting her there cost him. He was sweating profusely by the time Cam returned to him.

  “Easier than I thought,” Cam related breathlessly. “All it took…was getting a grip under her arms…and heaving.”

  “She’s okay?”

  “Yeah, she’s fine. Forgot what a little thing she is. Though a hernia may still be in my future.”

  “Can you give me a hand now?”

  “You hurt?”

  “Just my dignity.”

  “Then grab hold of this limb. Use it to worm your way up until I can get a better grip on you.”

  “I’m in enough dirt and organic matter down here to feel like the worm itself.”

  After several frustrating minutes and gouging of hands on the rough bark, Jack finally dragged himself free. He collapsed on the side of the hill, panting, trying to catch his breath. Five feet away, Lacey also stretched out. Other than her muddy and grass-stained jeans, she didn’t look worse for wear, thank God. Foolish woman, thinking she could rescue him.

  He hadn’t fared as well. What he could see of the back of his slacks was dark brown with drying mud and other yuck, but bloodstains colored both sleeves of his previously white shirt.

  Cam knelt next to him. “Better?”

  “I can breathe again. Nothing appears to be broken, although my ego took a bruising.”

  Cam’s mouth twitched, fighting back a smile. “I’m sure you’ll heal.” He turned to Lacey. “How are you doing, young lady? Probably not what you had in mind for this little outing.”

  Lacey came to her knees cautiously. “A little wobbly.” As she ran her fingers through an errant strand of hair covering her face, she managed to smear more mud across it.

  Both men exchanged looks. “Your cue,” Jack told Cam. “My handkerchief’s in my jacket back in the car.”

  Cam obliged, wiping away the smudge covering one of Lacey’s cheeks.

  “Huh, oh, thanks, Mr. Mackenzie.”

  “Considering the circumstances, how about you start calling me Cam?”

  She offered a shy smile. “Okay, thanks…Cam.”

  Cam sat back on his haunches and looked from one to the other. “Okay, heroics over. You both survived. Send your cleaning bills to the firm for reimbursement.” Pregnant pause. Then, like a teenage boy showing off his first car, he said, “So, what do you think of the place?”

  Chapter Two

  Did Cam really want to know what he thought of this property? Jack wasn’t sure. Was his role today Yes Man or did his boss want his honest, professional opinion?

  Before he could formulate a response, Lacey cut in. “It’s charming.” She surveyed the area around them, eyes gleaming. “Great possibilities.”

  Great possibilities? What possibilities had she identified from her position under the infamous tree trunk?

  Cam warmed to the subject. Offered her an expectant smile. “Tell me more.” Despite the mushy conditions, he settled himself on the ground next to Lacey, ankles crossed over his knees.

  Jack held his tongue. Not particularly crazy about the attention Cam was paying her.

  Lacey hesitated, appearing to gather her thoughts. “Well, like I said, it has great possibilities—”

  Cam leaned closer. “Yes? Like?”

  “Uh, for one thing, the lay of the land. Gently rolling, with maybe a few exceptions.” She patted the ground. “But not flat and boring either.”

  “Uh-huh. You agree, Jack?” Cam asked without looking at him.

  Jack examined his fingernails, seeking the appropriate response. He wasn’t one to hedge when bad news had to be delivered, but with Cam’s enthusiasm for the place becoming more obvious, it would have to be dispensed in small doses. “One thing’s for sure. This is a lot of land, Cam. Enough for a small town.”

  Cam slapped his hip. “Brilliant thought.” He held up his hands as if framing a sign. “Mackenzie Junction or Cameron City or—”

  “Whoa, hold on. That town-building part was an idle comment. A little Dalton humor.”

  “Don’t sell yourself short, man,” Cam replied. “I like how you think. A few urban elements couldn’t hurt.”

  “We’re architects, not developers, Cam. Naming this place is your client’s task.” Jack swatted away a clump of matted grass stuck to his pants leg. “Which brings us to the question of the hour: who is our client anyhow? And what are we building?”

  Lacey apparently was just as curious. She’d been fingering her hair, flicking out pieces of grass and dirt, but stilled at his question.

  Instead of responding, Cam turned his attention to a clod of loose dirt in front of him, appearing not to have heard Jack’s question.

  “Cam? Who is our client? What’s the scoop?” Jack asked again.

  Cam rose. “I have some other business to attend to once we’re back in town. Let’s reconvene first thing tomorrow morning and talk over where we go from here.”

  Jack rolled his eyes. This was not going well. Not well at all. He wa
nted to be named principal by the time he was thirty, now a mere six months away. His next assignment had to clinch the deal. But there was no way he was going to compete for it with Miss Great Possibilities. The very thought was insulting, although a tiny doubt digging its way into his brain since they’d arrived refused to go away. Had he lost his spark and didn’t know it?

  His cohort prattled on, while his blood pressure continued to rise. “For our meeting tomorrow morning? It would help if we knew a little about what the client has in mind.”

  Jack wanted to know too.

  Cam returned to kicking the dirt in front of him, avoiding eye contact with both. “Thought I’d give you a chance to sleep on your impressions before going into more detail. But since you both seem so anxious to hear about it now—”

  “Tell us what you have in mind,” Jack said. A boom was about to be lowered, and the sooner he knew which way to duck, the better.

  Cam appeared to consider Jack’s demand, then exhaled at length. “Okay, why not?” He pulled at the collar of his sport shirt, then eyed them both. “Our client wants to build a retirement compound for baby boomers. Hasn’t specified anything else, other than it be green and environmentally sustainable. Our job is to come up with a world-class design concept prior to getting master planners involved. Since he’s reasonably well known—and I use the pronoun to mean either a man or a woman, because I’m not to reveal even the client’s gender—and has ties to the community, he wants to remain anonymous. Probably a bit over the top, but I want this project for the firm. In return for catering to our client’s eccentricity, we’re receiving a hefty deposit.”

  Jack couldn’t restrain himself. “Eccentricity? Cam, this simply isn’t done. There’s too much at stake with a project this size not to know more about who we’re dealing with.”

  “Point taken, Jack. But I’ve done my due diligence. Everything’s legit. Since this is my call, you’ll just have to go along with me.”

  Jack shook his head. Sounded suspicious, but once Cam dug in his heels, Jack knew better than to challenge his boss until Cam admitted his own folly. “Okay, I’ve said my piece. But keep an open eye, Cam.”

  “Always do. I’ve tentatively named our work Project Veronica.”

  “Project Veronica?” Jack had once dated a woman named Veronica. Ended poorly, which didn’t bode well for this new assignment.

  “It needed an innocuous title. So I picked my late mother’s name. It’s gonna be so big, we don’t want anyone to pick up on it too soon, or suppliers and sub-contractors will immediately jack up their prices. Which is why I remained behind in the car.”

  How big of you.

  “Lacey, you’re fast making a name for yourself designing single-family residences,” Cam continued. “And Jack, you could charm the flute player into the cobra’s nest. We need your people skills. I thought I’d double our chances of gaining his business by bringing you both in on the deal.”

  “Double our chances?” Jack smelled a rat. “Since when do we put so many resources into one project?”

  “Since the fees to be realized from it are way beyond anything we’ve done to date.”

  “We’re going to give him two choices?” Lacey’s naiveté appeared to know no bounds.

  Jack was pretty sure he knew the answer to her question but wanted Cam to confirm his suspicion.

  Cam cleared his throat. “Uh, not exactly.”

  “Not exactly?” Jack pursued, knowing what was coming, like he couldn’t tear his eyes from an impending disaster.

  “The client may be a bit eccentric, but he’s still expecting us to pitch our best shot, not a shopping list of ideas.”

  Jack pounced. “So, it is a competition!”

  “Sort of.”

  Jack’s vision blurred. Better judgment told him to cool it, wait for an opportunity when they were alone to talk his boss out of this insane idea, but the anger roiling inside him like a disturbed rattler couldn’t leave it alone. “Dammit! I shouldn’t have to prove myself at this point in my career. Especially when the contest involves a relative newcomer.”

  Cam reached over and touched Jack’s sleeve. “Calm down, Jack. What’s gotten into you?”

  “Clue in this relative newcomer too,” Lacey added.

  Now she was demanding equal footing? The last shred of Jack’s good sense evaporated. “Stay out of this, Lacey. For a beginner, you should be grateful just to be here.”

  Her eyes narrowed, her expression hardened. Jumping to her feet, she planted herself less than a foot from Jack and fisted her hands. “Beginner! I’ve got some pretty great projects on my resume, you…you…prima donna!”

  He once again inhaled the faint scent of lilacs before his male ego took over. “Prima donna? You’re just jealous because I get the high profile jobs and you have to settle for—”

  Cam edged between them. “Jack, Lacey, let’s not get carried away. The idea was to have the best from both of you to choose from, not to have you at each other’s throats.”

  Jack glared back at his boss. “Competitions are not collaborations. When the prize is this big, they’re outright warfare.”

  Cam offered a fatuous smile. “Not my intent. C’mon you two, get your egos in check. Act like grownups and shake hands. I’ve got to get back to town.”

  “If she’s so fired up to make her name on this job, let her have it.” Jack regretted the statement immediately, but the words had already escaped.

  Lacey eyed him like she wasn’t sure what he was up to but suspected his motives. “I don’t take hand-me-downs, even if I do want the challenge. I’m out of it too, Cam.”

  “Just a damned minute, you two!” Their boss drew himself up to his full height, his previously placating expression gone. “You don’t make those decisions. I do. Just because I gave you a little inside information on this deal, neither of you is in a position to decide how we’re going to tackle it.”

  Jack rose too. The three of them formed a triangle, each with hands on hips. No one spoke, heavy, irritated breathing the only sound.

  Finally, Cam broke the stand-off. “Okay, kiddies. Here’s what I’m going to do. You don’t want to compete against each other? Fine. You are now a team. Pool your best ideas and come up with one plan between you.”

  Cam kicked a clump of mud out of his way and stomped off to the car. Twenty feet away, he turned, announcing, “Bus is leaving, folks. Who’s going back with me?”

  Jack shook his head at Lacey in frustration. “Great, just great. See what you did?” He was as much to blame, if not more, for this turn of events, but he couldn’t get past his resentment of the woman.

  “Me?” Her blue eyes sizzled like glowing sapphires. “You’re the one who doesn’t play well with others. You backed me into a corner and I came out swinging.”

  Had to hand it to her. She hadn’t capitulated, not even knowing she was standing up to the firm’s wonder boy. He brushed dried mud from his sleeves.”

  “You’re bleeding. Did I do that?” Her tone suddenly morphed from warrior princess to concerned partner.

  Should let her think she was responsible for whatever cuts and abrasions he’d sustained. Maybe she’d be sympathetic enough to back away from this project. Damn. Why did he still have principles? “The tree beat you to it. Just a few scrapes. Sorry. This whole morning has been a bad dream. I took out some of my irritation on you.”

  “Some? Remind me to leave town when you’re really in a bad mood.”

  “Yeah, well, I thought I could talk him out of this ridiculous project.”

  “Good job. Now you’ve made it impossible for him to drop it and roped me into the fray to boot.”

  “You forged into the fray under your own power, lady. What were you thinking when you told him this place had great possibilities?”

  She raised her shoulders and cleared her throat. “It does. Look around. Doesn’t it seem peaceful? Just the place for a retirement home.”

  “Homes! This is to be a development,
not an institution.”

  She blinked, spilling more blueness his direction. “Okay! What’s your problem, Jack? You obviously resent my presence on this project. What have I done to offend you?”

  She’d picked up on his frustration? “I don’t have anything against you personally. I’m not used to working with a partner.”

  She studied him. “Some revelation.”

  “No, really. I served as assistant on the first few projects I was assigned to years ago, but since then, I’ve soloed. You were right. I don’t play well with others. Hasn’t been a job requirement in years.”

  She continued to stare at him, as if looking through him. Made him want to pull at his collar like a witness under cross-examination.

  “Nothing personal?”

  As long as you don’t set your sights on my job, lady. “Yeah, although I disagree about this place. It’s shot through with problems, which I still intend to bring to Cam’s attention. Once he’s calmed down.”

  “Fair enough. What do you—” The honking of the car interrupted her question.

  Jack looked over her shoulder toward the road. “Later. Right now, the driver’s a man possessed.”

  ****

  Lacey kept her own counsel during the ride back to town, deciding it was the better part of discretion. She had a lot to think about. It had been quite a morning. She’d been assigned to the biggest project she’d ever encountered, she was now on a first name basis with her boss, and she’d mixed it up with the firm’s superstar and survived.

  She’d also mixed it up with him in other ways, when they were trapped under the tree. Every so often, she’d remember how her body had detonated while pinned there so near him. Working with him was definitely going to be a challenge.

  Cam apparently couldn’t take the silence. “How ’bout some music?” He pushed a button. The song throbbed with a heady Latin beat. Cam leaned over to change it.