His own mother, Charlotte, as she preferred to be called by her sons, lived in California with her second husband. He rarely saw her and that was something that they were both okay with. She had bonded with her husband’s children from his former marriage and she tended to act as if he and his brothers were just distant acquaintances unless she needed the services of one of the Oceanix Resorts.

His father had died a couple of years back of a heart attack. He had been a brilliant businessman but lived the extravagant lifestyle of the rich. After his divorce, he never lacked for female company. Seth was sure that he never lacked for it while he was married; he just tried to hide it better than he had afterward. He had vowed to never remarry and Seth was grateful that he had kept that vow. Having to deal with a stepmother was something that neither he nor his brothers had wanted.

He jumped when Margie snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Can I have that contract or do you plan to sit there clutching it while staring into space for the rest of the day?” He handed the papers over without comment and watched as she flipped through the pages. When she was finished, she shook her head saying, “Man, it sucks to be you. Talk about bad memories.”

Margie was one of the few people he had told about the fiasco with Beth and he now wished that he hadn’t. He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not a big deal.”

“Well, obviously,” Margie snorted. “That kind of shit happens to you every day. I think whoever came up with the idea for Myrtle Manor was sitting at a table next to you that night and overheard your whole conversation. The only thing that would have made it any better was a possible paternity issue. Any chance that you could be the baby daddy?”

“You’re a horrible assistant,” Seth deadpanned.

Margie laughed. “We both know I’m fabulous and you could never hope to do any better. Who else would put up with your snarky comments and lousy pay?”

Seth smiled, enjoying their verbal wordplay. “What? You haven’t managed to talk payroll into giving you a raise? You’re slipping in your old age.” She probably had him on the snarky comments, but she usually started it. As for the lousy pay, he highly doubted there was a better-paid assistant in the area or even the state. She also enjoyed more perks than anyone else in the resort. Some of them he had given her, some the other employees showered on her. They all thought he didn’t know, but there was nothing that went on in the Oceanix that Seth was unaware of. He made it his business to be one step ahead of everything and everyone. Margie deserved it though so he didn’t mind. She held the chaos at bay and kept things running smoothly, something that was priceless to him. He loved her unwavering loyalty and also her ability to give it to him straight when others just tried to tell him what he wanted to hear. Margie never sugarcoated things for him. As far as the rest of the staff and their clients were concerned, the woman could sell shit to a manure farmer. She was smooth, sweet, and full of southern charm.

Margie straightened to her full height, which was an impressive five-nine, and smirked. “Trust me, honey, there is nothing slipping here. I pay good money to keep it all where it’s supposed to be. Now should I send this contract over to Danvers? Does Beth handle that?”

Seth waved her away saying, “Get out before I call Joe. I think something is wrong with my computer. It’s been freezing up a lot.”

The smirk left her face as she glared at him. “If you do that, I will personally ask for Beth when I send these contracts back. Or better yet, maybe Nick. Talk about awkward.”

“I’ll behave if you do,” Seth countered.

“Fine,” she snapped before closing the door behind her in a huff. He declared himself the winner of this round. He very seldom got one up on Margie, but Joe worked every time. The head of their IT department was a sore subject for her. A few years back at the company Christmas party, Margie had indulged too much at the open bar and had grabbed Joe in a drunken embrace. He had turned her down flat. Since Joe had been after Margie for years, she had been shocked when he said no. He didn’t want to take advantage of her while she was intoxicated. To him, that made Joe a good guy. To Margie, that made Joe the man who rejected her and the sting to her pride was still there. Seth knew that Margie liked him, but she just couldn’t get past the humiliation of the party and she tried to avoid him now at all costs.

Settling back in his chair, he took a minute to gloat before moving on with his day. It wasn’t often he got the best of Margie and he needed to enjoy the moment.

Mia Gentry walked through the glass doors in the lobby of the Danvers International building singing to the music piping through her earbuds. At twenty-eight, she felt like some dirty old lady for listening to Justin Bieber, but she loved his music. She stuck the foot of her hot-pink pump in the door of the elevator to hold it. Suzy and her husband, Gray, were standing just inside the door as she made her way inside. God, she felt like such a frump standing next to her fashion idol and her GQ man. She wondered idly if they were into threesomes. She had never tried that, but she had a bit of a girl-crush on Suzy, and Gray was smoking-freaking-hot. Yeah, she wouldn’t think twice if they asked her. She smiled and muttered, “Morning,” as the doors closed.

Oh my god, he had his hand on her ass. That was it for Mia. Any man confident enough to feel up his wife in a corporate America elevator was the total shit as far as she was concerned. She knew she had just found some new material for the session with her battery-operated boyfriend tonight. Suzy and Gray stepped out on the fourth floor and as the doors were closing, Suzy flashed her a grin saying, “I love your shoes.” Luckily for Mia, she managed to contain her squeal until the elevator was moving again. Yeah, this day was looking up. Her fortune cookie from last night was right; good things do come to those who wait.

She stepped off at the sixth floor into the hub of the installation and support department for Danvers International. This place was heaven for a geek such as herself. She had worked here for three years now and had loved every minute of it. She had started out doing customer support and had eventually moved up to site installation. She supervised a crew of ten people, and depending upon the job, some or all of them traveled to each site. Although, when she had moved into management, she had given up a lot of the travel that had been required. She now only went on-site for a few days for the larger jobs or to fill in if necessary.

She grabbed a cup of coffee from the break room on her way to her corner office. Her space was small, but she treasured the window with the view of downtown Myrtle Beach. It was a big upgrade to her starter cubicle in the cube-farm down the hall. Just as she was running through the emails that had accumulated since yesterday, her boss, Hank, walked in and sank down in the chair in front of her desk.

“How’s it going, kid?”

She smiled at his standard greeting. Hank was in his forties and saw everyone around him as his kids. He had a thick mane of gray hair and if she squinted just right, he reminded her of Richard Gere. He had more than a few admirers in the office, both male and female, so apparently everyone else agreed with her assessment of his looks. “It’s going, no problems to speak of.”

Hank shook his head, giving her a rueful smile before saying, “Well, I’m about to mess that up for you. I know you’ve got half of your crew in Alabama this week, and Nikki is out with her . . . um . . . lady problem, but I’ve got a local install that just came through and it’s VIP.”

Mia rolled her eyes. “First of all, Nikki just had a baby; how is that a ‘lady problem’? And secondly, who’s the local VIP? Unless we’re talking about something for the city, it should only require a couple of technicians, tops.”