“It does matter. We need to clear this up, or my plan is never going to work.”
“I’ll still help you find him a wife, I promise. After all, I have to protect my reputation as the world’s best matchmaker. This one will be my crowning achievement.”
Gram’s chin jutted out. “I’m afraid you’ll never win that title away from me, dear.”
Katie came in the conference room that afternoon carrying coffee from the downstairs shop.
“Coffee! Is that a latté? I love you, Katie!”
“I haven’t seen you for days. Aren’t you going stir-crazy in here? Is there something I can help you with?”
Anne stretched her arms, arching her back. “Ugh! I am getting a little stiff. But I think I’m almost finished.”
“The president of the company from Bern just called. Gherring’s on the line with him now. There’s some kind of scheduling problem, and they may cancel the whole thing.”
Anne groaned. “Noooo! After all this work?”
“I’m sure they’d reschedule on a later date. But Mr. Gherring wanted to get this thing done before the end of the year. Postponing would get us into Thanksgiving, and December is really tough, with all the end-of-year business to wrap up. We’ll see soon enough. Here he comes.”
His hair was mussed as if his hand had been pushing it in all directions, but he still looked like he could be on the cover of a magazine.
“Are we canceling the trip?” Anne asked.
“I don’t know what we’re going to do,” said Steven. “One of the companies involved has a conflict on Friday. We can’t move it up to Thursday because we aren’t even finished with the presentation.”
Anne said, “I’ll stay tonight and work late. We can finish everything. I’m almost done with Jeff’s part, even the last stuff you interpreted for me. By the way, thanks for clarifying that mumbo-jumbo.”
Gherring shook his head. “I’ve done this a lot. I’d rather postpone the presentation than show up for a meeting with jetlag.”
“I’ll call the pilots, and maybe you can fly out tonight. Just check with Jared and see if he can leave a day early,” said Katie.
“And you can give me the additions you and Jeff have. I’ll keep working tonight and email the PowerPoint,” said Anne.
“Absolutely not. I want that PowerPoint on a flash drive, and I prefer to have it on my computer already. I’ve had that backfire on me before,” Gherring frowned. “I think I’ll reschedule. It may have to be January.”
He strode to the door, but froze in his tracks. “Or… you could just go with us.”
“Me?” Anne’s heart turned over in her chest.
“That’d work,” said Katie. “I’d volunteer to go in a heartbeat, but I
have a meeting with the caterer on Thursday and a shower on Friday.”
“And you already have a passport, right? I heard you tell Johanna you have one,” said Gherring.
“You were listening?”
“I just happened to overhear. So you do have one, right?”
Anne nodded, numbly. “I guess I’d better get to work, then.”
“No,” said Gherring. “Ms. Carson, you call and set everything up with the jet, the pilots and the hotel. I’ll talk to Jared and call the company in Bern. Ms. Best, you need to gather everything here in some organized fashion and be sure we have everything else we need for the presentation. Then we’ll get home and pack. We’ll leave as soon as possible.”
Anne felt dizzy. Things were happening too fast.
“Are you okay with this Ms. Best? Is there some problem I don’t know about?” Gherring studied her with concern.
“No…”