Forbidden Kiss (Carson Cove Scandals 1)

I wonder if I have that same kind of glow when Bryant looks at me…

Chapter Twelve

Bryant

The next day

It was a normal Friday at Benson Enterprises—except that all of the people in the office were extremely excited that they were going to get lunch from Moretti’s. Cassie spent the morning gathering everyone’s orders while I met with some potential new clients. I was surprised to see that Danny Fontenot’s name was on my list for the afternoon. I knew his financial situation had changed based on the conversation we had at Chateau Prime, but if he wanted to discuss investment opportunities, then he must have been doing better than I realized. Benson Enterprises catered to clients that had a lot of money to invest.

“Mr. Benson, do you have a moment?” One of my account managers, a woman named Kara James, knocked on my door shortly before lunch.

“Uh…” I looked at my calendar. “Yes, it looks like I’m free until after lunch.”

“Thank you.” She walked into my office and closed the door. “I hope I’m not out of line here…”

That’s what people say right before they forget lines exist and step over them, so…

“Please, have a seat.” I motioned to the chair in front of my desk.

“I just wanted to bring something to your attention.” She walked over and sat down—I could tell she was nervous. “We’ve got some worried people in the office, and I thought it would be best if it was brought to your attention.”

“Worried?” I blinked in surprise. “About Moretti’s?”

“No sir. This isn’t about lunch—we’re really happy about that.” She shook her head quickly and swallowed like she was suppressing a gulp. “The meeting—the one you had with Alexis Devereaux.”

“It was nothing.” I waved off her concern.

“I believe you, and I suspected as much. I’ve worked here too long to think that you would do business with someone like her—but people need to hear that.” She looked down and sighed.

“You’re right.” I nodded. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I’ll talk to everyone right after lunch.”

“Thank you.” She smiled and leaned forward to stand.

I appreciated Kara’s visit. I always tried to keep an open-door policy at Benson Enterprises, just like my father did, and it existed because of situations like the one I was in. It was best to deal with the concerns immediately—my employees were too loyal to be kept in suspense or worry about trivial shit like Alexis’s visit. I decided to at least let them enjoy lunch, but I knew that would also give Kara time to tell a few people what I said. That would set the atmosphere and ease some tensions before I made my speech.

“Here’s your order, Mr. Benson.” Cassie walked into my office with a smile on her face and placed my lunch special from Moretti’s on my desk.

“Thanks.” I nodded and pulled it over. “Fork?”

“Oh, right—be right back.” Cassie disappeared through the door and returned with a set of plastic utensils. “Anything else?”

“Nah, I’m good. Let everyone know that I will be holding a quick meeting after lunch.” I looked up at her and nodded.

“Yes sir.” She turned back towards the door.

The lunch from Moretti’s wasn’t quite as good as dining in, but it was certainly better than most of the other options we could have gone with. I felt bad that I didn’t cancel my reservations when Taylor and I decided to skip out on dinner, but I didn’t feel bad about what we did with that time. I just had to make it through the rest of the day, and then the weekend would be ours. I had no intention of planning a date for us—I was just going to wait and see how the day went. There was a damn good chance we wouldn’t even make it out of bed. I certainly wasn’t going to complain if we didn’t.

Okay, time to meet with the team, and then I only have a couple more meetings before I can call it a night.

“Can I have everyone’s attention?” I walked out of my office and found most of the team already gathered in anticipation of the meeting.

“Kara, will you round up everyone that isn’t here?” Cassie walked over and started assessing the attendance—making sure we didn’t have any stragglers for our meetings was one of her jobs.

“Right way.” Kara looked around the room a

nd headed out to the floor where a few people were still finishing their lunch.

“Thank you for lunch, Mr. Benson.” One of my newer employees, Paul, stepped forward and gave me a nod.