you.” The compliment warmed Ellie. “I hope I can live up to his example.”
“I’m sure you will.”
The conversation stalled between them. Finn turned his attention to his coffee, but didn’t drink, just held the mug. Ellie nursed her tea, then added more sugar to the slightly bitter brew.
She watched Finn, wondering why he had invited her out. If he wanted to talk business, he was taking his time getting to it. What other reason could he have? For all the joking between them earlier, she had a feeling he wasn’t here for a date.
Finn McKenna was younger than she’d expected. Surely a man with his reputation had to be ten feet tall, and ten years older than the early thirties she guessed him to be? Heck, he seemed hardly older than her, but his resume stretched a mile longer. What surprised her most was that he had sought her out—her—out of all the other people in that room. Why?
He had opted for coffee, black, but didn’t drink from the cup. He crossed his hands on the table before him, in precise, measured moments. He held himself straight—uptight, she would have called it—and kept his features as unreadable as a blank sheet of paper. He wasn’t cold, exactly, more…
Impassive. Like the concrete used to construct his buildings. The teasing man she’d met in the lobby had been replaced by someone far more serious. Had that Finn been a fluke? Which was the real Finn McKenna?
And more, why did she care so much?
“I heard WW got the contract on the Piedmont hospital project,” he said.
“We haven’t even announced that hospital deal yet,” she replied, halting her tea halfway to her lips. “How did you know about it?”
“It’s my business to know.” He smiled. “Congratulations.”
“Thank you.” She wanted to tell him the thought of such a big project daunted her, particularly without her father’s valuable advice. She wanted to tell Finn that she worried the hospital design would be too big, too detailed for her to oversee successfully, and most of all, she wanted to ask him how he had done it for so long single-handedly, but she didn’t.
She already knew the answer. She’d read it in the interview in Architect magazine. Finn McKenna wasted little time. He had no hobbies, he told the reporter, and organized his workdays in the most efficient way possible, in order to cram twenty hours of work into twelve.
And, she knew better than to trust him. He hadn’t earned the nickname Hawk by being nice to his competitors. No matter how they sliced this, she was one of his competitors and needed to be on her guard. For all she knew, Finn was working right this second—and working an angle with her that would benefit his business.
At that moment, as if making her thoughts a reality, Finn’s cell phone rang. He let out a sigh, then shot her an apologetic smile. “Sorry. I have to take this. It’s a client who’s in California right now, while we build his new offices here. I think he forgot about the time change. This should only take a second.”
“No problem. I understand.” She watched him deal with the call and realized that Finn McKenna had made himself a success by sacrificing a life. That wasn’t what Ellie had wanted when she had gone into architectural design, but the more time she spent behind her father’s desk, the more it became clear that was where she was heading.
That was the one thing her father didn’t want to see. She thought back to the conversation they’d had this morning. Don’t end up like me, Ellie Girl. Get married. Settle down. Have a life instead of just a business, and don’t neglect your family to protect the bottom line. Do it before…
He hadn’t had to finish the sentence. She knew the unspoken words—before he was gone. The heart attack had set off a ticking clock inside Henry and nearly every visit he encouraged Ellie to stop putting her life on hold.
The trouble was, she had quickly found that running WW Architectural Design and having a life were mutually exclusive. Now things were more complicated, her time more precious. And having it all seemed to be an impossible idea.
She thought of the picture in her purse, the dozens more on her phone, and the paperwork waiting on her desk. Waiting not for her signature, but for a miracle. One that would keep the promise she had made in China last year.
Nearly three years ago, Ellie had been on the fast track at an architectural firm in North Carolina. Then she’d gone to a conference in China, gotten lost on the way to the hotel and ended up meeting a woman who changed her life.
Ellie never made it to the hotel or the conference. She spent five days helping Sun Yuchin dig a well and repair a neighbor’s house in a tiny, cramped town, and fallen in love with the simple village, and bonded with the woman who lived there. Every few months since, Ellie had returned. She’d been there to meet Sun’s daughter, Jiao, after she was born, even helped feed the baby, and the following year, helped build an extra room for the child. In the process, Ellie had formed a deep friendship with Sun, a hardworking, single mother who had suffered more tragedies than any person should in a lifetime—her parents dead, then her husband two years later, and near the end of one of Ellie’s trips to Sun’s town, the woman finally confided the worst news of all.
Sun had cancer. Stage four. After she told Ellie, she asked her an incredible question.
Will you raise Jiao after I’m gone? Take her to America, and be her mother?
Finn ended the call, then put his cell back into his pocket. “The Piedmont hospital will be quite an undertaking for WW,” he said, drawing her attention back to the topic.
Was he curious, or jealous? His firm had been one of the few invited to submit a bid. She remembered her father being so sure that McKenna Designs, clearly the leader in experience, would land the job. But in the end, either her father’s schmoozing on the golf course or his more competitive bid had won out and McKenna Designs had been left in the dust.
Was this true congratulations or sour grapes?
Ellie gave Finn a nod, then crossed her hands on the table. “I’m sure we’re up to the challenge.” Did her voice betray the doubts she felt?
“I know a project of that size can seem intimidating,” he added, as if he’d read her mind. “Even for someone with your experience.”
The dig didn’t go unnoticed. She was sure a methodical man like Finn McKenna would already know she’d built her career in residential, not commercial properties. He was expressing his doubts in her ability without coming right out and saying it.
He wasn’t the only one with concerns. She’d gone into architecture because she loved the field, and chosen residential work because she loved creating that happy home for her clients, and had been rewarded well for that job. She’d never wanted to be a part of the more impersonal, commercial industry.
But now she was. And that meant she had to deal with everything that came her way, no matter what. And handle it, one way or another, because her father’s company needed her to. She couldn’t go to her father and risk raising his blood pressure. She’d muddle through this project on her own. No matter what, Ellie would hold on to what Henry had built.
“We have a strong, dedicated team,” she said.
“Had.”
“Excuse
