This Changes Everything, page 1
This Changes Everything
Dara Girard
Contents
This Changes Everything
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Also Available
About the Author
Copyright Information
This Changes Everything
Dara Girard
* * *
Published by ILORI PRESS BOOKS LLC
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Author.
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About the book
Karen Palmer hates the thought of firing an employee three weeks before Christmas, but accepts the challenge.
Until Joshua Akibu, an attractive, yet surly chemical engineer walks into their meeting holding an adorable infant.
Shocked and dismayed, Karen decides to defy her superior and give the single father a second chance, although it jeopardizes her job.
Joshua can’t believe his good fortune when the savvy and beautiful Karen decides to let him keep his job. But he has a problem.
The baby isn’t his.
However, one little lie will teach two cautious, wounded hearts a holiday lesson about love that changes them both forever…
Chapter 1
This changed everything.
Karen Palmer held back a gasp and bit her lip, feeling like the unwitting soon-to-be victim in a horror movie. She didn’t like horror movies. She didn’t like being scared, but the moment Joshua Akibu walked into the conference room she felt like screaming.
Her throat closed, her mouth felt dry, her heart started pounding. Not out of terror, although the large, black man with the dark eyes and trim goatee wasn’t the friendliest looking chemical engineer she’d ever worked with. However, the sight of him wouldn’t make her scream (although twice, with just a glance, he’d sent a shiver of fear through her) but she wasn’t the only person he sometimes set on edge. She’d heard others whisper about him—sometimes about his brilliance but mostly about his aloofness and impatience. Behind his back they called him the Glacier, they probably also called him something less kind.
But Karen was used to working with difficult personalities. Part of her thrived on it. Give me your brilliance and I’ll make it shine. She hadn’t worked to grow her company, 3R, a textile recycling development firm, by being a pushover. But today she felt something she hadn’t felt in a long time. Some other equally awful feeling worse than terror. It slithered over her skin, turning her stomach into knots.
It was the feeling of dread. As if the cold grasp of a Delaware winter had seeped into the room chilling her flesh, tapping icy fingers across her neck until goose bumps danced along her arms.
She grabbed the glass of water in front of her and took a swallow, dribbling some on her chin. She quickly set the glass down, annoyed that her hand was shaking. She sent him a glance, relieved that he was moving a chair and hadn’t seen her make a mess. She quickly wiped her chin and glanced down at her light red blouse where two wet spots had fallen and started to spread like ink stains.
She reached for the black jacket she’d hung on the back of the chair and quickly put it on. There, that was better. No one could see the water stains and by the time the meeting finished they should be dried. She took a deep breath, satisfied by her minor victory, then looked at Joshua again, which was a mistake because the sense of dread gripped her once more and she couldn’t get her hands to stop shaking.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. She was supposed to have a cool, civil professional chat with Joshua about his lack of growth and performance at the company. She’d chosen the small conference room as a neutral territory. It wasn’t her favorite place, but served its purpose with its nondescript grey walls, a large oval brown table and seven plush grey seats. Her business partner, Marshall Holmes, had selected the furniture and told her they were top of the line (when she’d seen the bill she’d convinced herself he was right) and helped their business make a great impression on clients who visited their office.
Marshall felt a little uneasy about their location in Winchester, Delaware, a city in New Castle County that didn’t have the history of Wilmington or the flash of other notable cities namely Newark. She didn’t care that they weren’t in New York or New Jersey. Delaware was the state of the Duponts and other smaller, although less notable companies, and the people they worked with didn’t care about their location as long as 3R was able to supply them with the material they needed.
She knew how to make people trust her, she was also a mean negotiator and fair moderator. She’d come into this meeting remembering all that. She’d planned to gently let Joshua know he was being let go.
She felt her choice of words would be kinder than saying he was being fired. This meeting wasn’t something she’d looked forward to. It had actually been something she’d been dreading for a week when Marshall told her that they no longer required his services.
After a quick scan of Joshua’s performance review she had to agree. She’d been the one to hire him. It had been two years ago and she’d had hope for him, but nothing had come of it. She’d made it a policy that once someone had to part with the company she would do the deed. She didn’t want to hide behind her position. She knew the name of each of the fifteen people who worked for them. She didn’t want to become some impersonal corporate drone.
Today was the first time she wished she hadn’t made that policy. That she could hide behind HR and not look back. But aside from a restless night, she’d been prepared. Marshall saw her as too accommodating. Today was the day she would prove him wrong.
Except she couldn’t.
Because Joshua Akibu hadn’t come alone.
He had a baby.
A cute little baby with a tiny birthmark on the temple, dressed in a bright green jacket. He held the baby in his right arm, while a large diaper bag draped his shoulder and two large black straps of his black backpack covered his chest.
“I’m really sorry about this,” he said, dropping the diaper bag on the floor.
“Are you babysitting?”
“No.”
Her brows shot up. “It’s yours?”
He hesitated. “It’s been a crazy morning, but I—”
“I understand,” she said quickly, not quite knowing how to interpret the odd note in his voice. She couldn’t tell if it was embarrassment (he didn’t seem the sort who was easily embarrassed), frustration (he was an engineer, they loved being frustrated and solving problems) or annoyance. Whatever the reason, she didn’t want the meeting to be any more awkward than it already was. The feeling of dread slowly changed into something else. Something less frightening into something she could handle.
Understanding.
This baby explained everything. Now Joshua was no longer a mystery.
She now understood his tardiness, his tired face, his terse responses to others. He was a sleep deprived new father. Nobody would have ever suspected he had a life outside of work let alone a woman and a child. Yes, this changed everything. She couldn’t fire him. Not now. Not three weeks before Christmas. A bachelor with no life was easy to let go, but a new father...
She would come up with a reason to keep him, he deserved a second chance. Marshall wouldn’t like it but this man and his child were worth fighting for.
Karen reached for the glass of water again, this time with a steady hand. Her mind raced. She would tell Marshall that helping Joshua was the perfect opportunity to show how considerate they were to those employees with parental considerations. Good—no great—for their image. She took a long swallow and set the glass on the table. Yes, this would work.
Joshua sat. He didn’t take off his backpack so he sat perched on the edge of the seat, placing the baby on his lap. “I can explain.”
Karen shook her head, softening her words with a smile. “You don’t have to. You’re a dark horse, but I’m actually glad to find out.”
He frowned. “Find out?”
“Why you’ve been the way you are. A number of your colleagues have been complaining about your cold manner. But if I were sleep deprived I'd be the same.”
His frown increased. “My cold man—”
She waved his words away. “Doesn’t matter now. The truth is I was going to let you go, but now I’m going to fight for you. What’s its name?” She motioned to the infant.
He hesitated. “You were going to fire me?”
Maybe she shouldn’t have told him that, he looked more flustered than she’d expected him to be. No, not exactly flustered, shocked and a little annoyed. But she probably would have felt the same. She wouldn’t focus on chit chat right now. “This isn’t going to be easy, but with a second chance we can improve your performance. I wish you’d let us know your situation. We do allow telecommuting, there are ways you can work from home. We could have given you time off. We could have arranged for—”
“You were going to fire me?”
No, he didn’t sound annoyed. He sounded angry, but she couldn’t understand why he kept harping on that issue when it was no longer a problem. “Yes, but now—”
“May I ask why?”
“Why what?”
“Why you were going to fire me.”
She cleared her throat. The sight of the baby in his arms should have softened his image, but somehow he appeared more fierce.
Joshua was not a classically handsome man. There was a beautiful magnificence to his angular West African features and dark lashes that were as long as a doll’s, which would have been pretty on a woman as well as the full black eyebrows that looked drawn on with the perfection of a makeup artist.
But the lashes and eyebrows gave no softness to his features. There was nothing gentle about him. He wasn’t incredibly tall, but carried himself in a manner as if he could soar above you. His dark eyes had a cutting glare that put anyone in his line of vision on alert. That’s how he made her feel now. On edge. But she didn’t want to feel that way. She was desperate to understand him.
Perhaps it was fear that colored his brown eyes to an almost iridescent black. Fear that he’d nearly lost the ability to provide for his family. He saw her as the enemy. She had to reassure him that his job was safe, at least for now. That she wanted to be, if not a friend, at least someone he could trust. “I told you that—”
“I’d like to know the specifics,” he cut in. The sound of his cold, deep voice burned like a laser boring a hole through tissue paper, making her feel scorched. “I always do my best.”
Karen sighed, the feeling of dread inching over her skin again. He didn't seem the type who would appreciate feedback, but she might as well address it. She opened her tablet and looked at his performance review. “According to the head of your division you’re not a team player, you make the others feel inferior, you’re brash, you’re impatient, you’ve been late on more than one occasion.”
“Except for the days I was late due to car trouble, those are generalities. I’m asking for specifics.”
“Our form doesn’t measure that.”
“Perhaps it should.”
This time she bristled. She didn’t like his feedback about their form but, unfortunately, he was right. It was hard to fight against personal bias. What did ‘not a team player’ mean? All she saw was a number. Three out of ten. She could see him making people feel inferior, but was it on purpose or a misunderstanding?
The baby squirmed and made a soft cry. Joshua glanced at his watch.
“Is it feeding time?” Karen asked him, her edgy feeling growing. The last thing she wanted was a baby wailing on top of everything. “Do you need to warm up a bottle or something?”
“No.” He searched through the diaper bag. Even when the baby started to cry (clearly he was taking too long to find what he was searching for) he looked resigned rather than angry. It was a stressful and tense time, but he was handling it well. But when the baby’s cries intensified she wondered if the harried father had left the bottle at home and if they’d have to cut the meeting short so that he could get the baby something. She wondered if she’d have to drive him or... Finally, he pulled out a bottle, settled the baby down then started to feed it with a casualness that made it clear he’d done it many times before.
“What’s the name?” Karen asked hoping to change the subject. The fierce look hadn’t left his face and she desperately wanted it to. It was hard to have a civil conversation with someone who looked like they wanted to burn you alive. Joshua looked like the kind of man who could make the wind tremble with a glance or take down a giraffe with his bare hands.
“Did I have personal complaints?” he said, raising his voice above the baby’s loud, sucking noises.
Karen held back another sigh. The man was stubborn. Why was he so hesitant to give her the baby’s name? Was he being that petty? Didn’t he realize she was on his side?
“Marshall said something, right?” Joshua continued.
She stood and took the seat beside him so there was no distance between them. “As I stated,” she said, keeping her voice moderate and calm, “this is a misunderstanding that can be fixed.”
“He said he’d try to get rid of me.”
She’d never heard that. “When?” she asked surprised. She could never picture Marshall being so unprofessional.
“You didn’t know that?”
“I’m sure it was a misunderstanding.”
Joshua nodded. “If that makes you feel better,” he said. His indulgent tone was offensive, as if he were speaking to a naive child who still believed in Santa Claus, but the tender way in which he held his child made her take hold of her temper. Joshua wasn’t someone she had to like. That wasn’t why she’d hired him. She’d felt he would be a great addition to their company and she still believed so.
“The point is you’re not getting fired and we need to decide how to best work with your team.”
He sent her a long look. “You like looking on the bright side of things, don’t you?”
“Yes, why not?”
He sighed. “More reasons than you know.”
She felt her patience thinning. He would teach his child the wrong life lessons by being so cynical. “Joshua, I really think that you’re an amazing person. I believe that we can handle whatever has happened in a very simple way. What have you been working on recently?”
His brows shot up again. “You don’t know?”
“Should I?”
“I sent you a full report of all my ideas awhile back, some that even my colleagues had agreed on. I also listed possible concerns that need to be addressed over the next six months.”
She hated being caught by surprise, even worse, not knowing what was going on in her own company. How could his performance review say that he was disruptive, uncooperative and lacked initiative when he’d just told her of a report that showed the direct opposite? And his colleagues had agreed with him? Something was going on.
“Are you sure you handed it in?” she said. “As a new father—”
“Of course I’m sure. Ask Marshall. I gave him a hardcopy to discuss with you.”
Careful Karen. She took a deep breath. She didn’t want to put him on the defensive. Otherwise her little boat of goodwill would be wrecked by an iceberg. She smiled. “It’s probably lost somewhere on my desk.”
“I sent a softcopy too.”
“And my computer,” she quickly added, “and I haven’t gotten to it. It’s my fault and I apologize.”
“Why would you apologize for something you aren’t sure about yet? What if you never received it?”
“I’m sure that’s not the case. Anyway, I will look over your report and get back to you as soon as I can.” She lightly touched his hand. “In the meantime, if there is anything you need let me know.”
Joshua stood and slung the diaper bag over his shoulder. “I’m fine, thanks.” He walked to the door.
Karen wouldn’t have thought much of his cool dismissal if she hadn’t spotted two pretty baby brown eyes, gazing at her over his broad shoulder, making her smile.
