I agree,” Arnie said quickly. “I think it’s great. So do most of the guys in my department. But, you know, not everyone will agree.”
Jack didn’t like the sound of that. “Like who?”
Arnie instantly looked trapped. “Oh, it’s—”
“We’re a team here,” Jack said. “We’re only as strong as our weakest member.” Hopefully that would be the hokiest thing he had to say this week, he thought grimly. But if it worked …
Arnie squirmed some more, ducked his head, sighed, then said, “Roger, my boss. He’s not real big on change.”
“Interesting,” Jack said, wondering how someone like that rose to the level of running the IT department. Or maybe Jack’s father had wanted it that way, considering his disinterest in all things high tech. “I appreciate you telling me that. I won’t mention this conversation with Roger. You have my word.”
Arnie sighed. “Thanks. I really like my job. I wouldn’t want to get, you know, fired.” He winced as he spoke, then shook his head. “Your dad was a great man.”
“Thank you,” Jack said.
“He was patient and kind and really interested in all his employees. We all liked working for him and felt really bad when he died.”
Jack nodded. He wasn’t sure what to say when people talked about his father this way. They were describing someone he’d never met.
“Knock, knock.”
He looked up and saw Samantha walking into his office. She looked from him to Arnie.
“Am I early or late?” she asked with a smile.
“Neither,” he said. “Right on time. You’re joining our meeting in progress.”
Now that she had the job, she’d obviously decided there was no need to dress conservatively anymore—at least her definition of it. Gone were the black slacks and black-and-white jacket. In their place she wore a long skirt in a swirl of reds, greens and purples. A dark green sweater hung loosely past her hips. She had a patterned scarf draped over one shoulder, a half-dozen bracelets on each wrist and earrings that tinkled and swayed as she walked.
“This is Arnie,” Jack said, pointing to the man sitting across from him at the conference table. “He’s from IT. He’ll be working with you on the Internet expansion. You tell him what you want and he’ll tell you if it’s possible. Arnie, this is Samantha.”
The other man rose and wiped his palms on his jeans, then held out his hand. His mouth opened, closed, then opened again.
“Ah, hi,” Arnie said, his eyes wide, his cheeks bright with color.
“Good morning.” Samantha beamed at him. “So you’re going to be my new best friend, right? And you won’t ever want to tell me no.”
Arnie stammered, then sank back in his seat. Jack did his best not to smile. Samantha had made another conquest.
He wasn’t surprised. She walked into a room and men were instantly attracted to her. He was no exception. She was a weakness for which he’d found no antidote. Even now he found himself wanting to pull her close and run his hands through her curly hair. He wanted to stare into her eyes and feel her tremble in his embrace.
Not on this planet, he reminded himself. She hadn’t been interested ten years ago and he doubted that had changed.
Okay, she’d been interested once. Apparently once was enough where he was concerned. She’d made it more than clear she didn’t want a repeat performance.
“Don’t let Samantha push you around,” he told Arnie. “She has a tendency to do that.”
Samantha looked at him and raised her eyebrows. “Me? Are you kidding? I’m the picture of complete cooperation.”
“Uh-huh. Right until someone gets in your way. Then you’re a steamroller.”
Samantha sat next to Arnie and patted his hand. “Ignore him. Jack and I went to grad school together and he seems to remember things very differently. I’ve never steamrolled anyone.” She paused, then smiled. “Well, at least not often. I can get tenacious about what I want, though. And I’ve read different reports from your department, Arnie. People have been pushing for this expansion for a while.”
That surprised Jack. “I hadn’t heard that.”
Samantha looked at him. “His boss is the reason why. I also read memos from Roger explaining why it was all a bad idea. Apparently he had some backing on that.”
She didn’t specifically say by who, but Jack could guess. He doubted his father had been a fan of growing technology.
“That was the past,” he said. “Let’s focus on the future. You two need to get together and talk about specifics.”
Samantha jotted down a note on her pad of paper. “I’ll e-mail you, Arnie. You can let me know what works for you. I tend to put in long hours. I hope that’s okay.”
Arnie’s pale eyes practically glowed. “It’s fine. Sure. I’ll be there.” He stood and nodded. “Anytime. Just e-mail me.”
“Thanks for your help,” Jack said.
“Oh, yeah. No problem.”
The other man left. Jack waited until the door closed, then turned to Samantha.
“You’ve made a friend.”
“Arnie? He’s very sweet, or so I’ve been told. I think we’ll do fine together.”
Jack told himself that she would never be interested in the other man and even if she was, it wasn’t his business. He didn’t care who Samantha wanted in her life as long as she did her job. He very nearly believed himself, too.
“What have you got?” he asked.
“Lots and lots of great ideas,” she said with a smile. “I had an extremely productive weekend. I went over the existing Web site. It’s pretty basic. There’s so much room to improve and that’s what I want. I want to start with kids twelve and under as our first target audience and I want to dazzle them.”
She set a folder on the conference table and opened it. “We’ll deal with the teens later, but first, let’s get some buzz going. I want us to be the Web site the kids are dying to go to the second they get home from school. I want to do more than help them with their homework. I want us to be the coolest place on the Web. We can talk about sports and clothes and music. Movies, TV, trends. I was thinking we’d have an ‘Ask Annie’ kind of column.”
He stared at her. “Who’s Annie?”
She laughed. “I mean an advice column. Ask the resident expert. Annie, Mark, the name isn’t important. But here’s the cool part—it will be real-time and interactive. Like a chat room. I have a lot of ideas for developing all this. But our biggest concern is security. We’re going to have to go state-of-the-art so the kids are totally safe on the Web site.”
“I
