Can't Let You Go

Chapter 31

***TALLY/HONEY***

"How are you coming along on the assignments I gave you?" Darius asks in the car on the way to my house for dinner. He makes a few corrections and answers some questions on the drive. The topic of work continues at the dinner table.

"I thought Bethany left work before I did. She's not home yet?"

Dad answers, "No, she had a meeting to attend. Her team has been working on an RFI for a project to build a ski resort."

Ever the scholar-tutor, Darius interjects, "Pop quiz. RFI versus RFQ."

Satisfied with my answers explaining Request for Information and Request for Quote, Dad steers us back to current affairs. "Yes, well, earlier today, we were told that we passed the RFI along with six others including your Mr. Carter Hazen's company. The two of us are the only ones who aren't alpine sports design companies, though we've both been part of building ski resorts in the past."

Does being a current competitor raise or lower Carter's score as a potential husband?

"I remember. Savis did the lodge and village at that place in Germany. I can't remember the name, you know where I mean obviously. Where is this project?"

"In Chile. The biggest challenge for us is that we don't have all the bases covered internally. We'll have to subcontract parts of it out. I believe that goes for all the contenders, though so it's not necessarily a disadvantage. Competing for those subcontractors is the issue, especially for the slope design. There's only so many companies experienced in creating a ski resort from raw, undeveloped land. Some of them are our competitors and others were already cut by the investors during the RFI stage. Bethany is on the task of meeting with potential partners. She went upstate to meet with an engineer who's currently working on updating a resort there. She took the chopper, she'll be back tomorrow."

"Oh, okay. Sounds interesting," I reply vaguely, just glad to have a meal or two without her.

"I'm glad you think so because I want you to work with Bethany on this project."

"You okay?" Darius pats my back as I nearly choke on my food from the shock Dad just gave me. He clearly missed my "disinterested" tone a moment ago. But then, he also doesn't see how much Bethany hates me.

"She'll be busy with finding external partners. Internally, our people know what they need to do, but I want you to coordinate and oversee the process."

"Really? Me? You think I can handle it?"

"Like I said, the different divisions already know what their parts are and Darius will be there to guide you. I want you to pick team leaders and manage them. You'll have to report to Bethany of course, but you'll be working independently until she has her matters settled."

The only response I can manage is to nod and give a weak, "Yes, Dad."

—

"Honey." Darius closes the partition between us and the driver after he picks me up for work in the morning

"Hmm?"

"I'm sure you realize Savis doesn't own a construction company."

"Yeah."

"I don't know if you're aware of this, but we frequently partner with Scott Construction to build our hotels."

"I'm well aware of that." A bad nervous habit of rubbing and clicking my thumbnail against the edge of my front teeth resurfaces for the first time in a long time.

"And do you know that Margaret Scott was very recently the ambassador to Chile?"

"I'd heard."

"Well, there's not a delicate way of saying this, but are you still on poor terms with Ashton Scott?"