She went still then sank back down onto the edge of her chair. “What other problems?”

He told her about the grading problems with some of the growers. “Oh, god.” She chewed on her bottom lip, looking away from him across the office. Then she straightened her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “I can help with this, Travis. I know I can.”

Admiration warmed him inside. She was strong. Not afraid of anything. The vulnerability he’d seen last night was in no way a sign of weakness. He couldn’t prevent the faint smile that curved his lips.

“That’s what we’ll talk about this afternoon.”

“I don’t want to have that meeting this afternoon.”

“What?” He stared at her. “You’re the one who wanted it, Samara.”

She shook her head, her mouth flat. “I don’t feel prepared enough. I want some time to look at the financials, get up to speed on the problems.”

Travis shook his head. Would he ever understand her? “No,” he said. “I want the meeting.”

She made a frustrated sound. “Of course you do. You’re just going to make me look like an idiot so you can take over. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

His body slumped with disappointment as he sat back in his chair. She really didn’t think much of him. Certainly didn’t trust him. The depressing realization of that weighed on his shoulders, seeping down into his bones.

“That is not my plan,” he said heavily. God, he was tired. And it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. “Okay, fine. We’ll put the meeting off for a week to give you time to get up to speed. I’ll start on getting some things together for you.” She did have a right to know, dammit. He’d let her draw her own conclusions from the documentation he gave her about how they’d gotten into this little mess.

“Fine.” She stood and tugged her skirt down. “I’ll be in my office.”

He watched her walk out of the office, spine straight, head high, her cute little butt twitching under the snug skirt.

He sighed again and leaned his head back against the chair. Damn you, Parker!

Now that Samara had some idea of what was going on, there’d be no stopping her. The struggle between her right to know, as Parker’s heir and a forty percent shareholder in the company, and Travis’s desire to protect her and shelter her, battled inside him, leaving his gut knotted and his energy drained. He couldn’t go on like this.

The truth was, as she’d pointed out so many times, she wasn’t a child. She was a grown woman, educated, with good knowledge of the coffee business, more than any other regional manager, certainly. As much as he wanted to see her as a young girl, as much as he wanted to protect her and look after her, he had to acknowledge her abilities. Yeah, he could tell himself Parker would want him to look after her, but Parker had wanted him to have nothing to do with Samara. And even though he was trying to preserve Samara’s high regard for her father, he couldn’t lie to her.

He needed to figure out a new strategy.

“And remember the time in high school when Jason White dumped you for that slut Phoebe Garmon and you wrote all over the bathroom wall at Hannigan’s that he had a tiny little penis?”

Samara grinned at her friends Gia, Bailey and Liz, sitting with her around a small table in a trendy downtown eatery. They’d just finished dinner and a couple of bottles of wine amid a raft of reminiscence and a lot of laughter.

“He was so furious about that!”

“But it was hilarious! He deserved it.”

“So are you staying here permanently, then?” Gia posed the question to Samara, both hands clasped around the wineglass on the white tablecloth in front of her.

Samara didn’t know how to answer that question. The reality of her father being gone still hadn’t totally sunk in, and she’d been so busy fighting with Travis about who was going to run the company, it now hit her like a Pacific Ocean breaker that, if she was going to move back to Portland, her life had just completely changed.

“I guess I am.”

“That’s so great!” Liz lifted her glass of wine. “We’re so happy to have you back, Samara. Truly, this has been so much fun tonight.”

“You’re going to miss San Francisco,” Bailey said. “Portland’s nothing like that.”

“No,” Samara agreed slowly. “It’s different.”

“There must be so much to do there,” Liz said.

Samara smiled at her friends. There must be, she thought ruefully, but she’d never taken advantage of even a fraction of everything the city had to offer because she’d been so immersed in her school and then work. She hadn’t made any close friends, feeling emotionally numb and detached after she’d taken off from Portland, and had only dated sporadically, for the same reason. At least partly. The other part—Travis. There’d never been another man who’d attracted her or interested her in the same hot and hungry way Travis had.

“You’ll have to come to Pilates class with us,” Bailey said. “We go every Wednesday. It’s the most awesome workout.”

“Sure,” Samara said. “Sounds good.”

Bailey turned to Gia. “You know who you should introduce her to?”

Gia lifted a brow and shot an amused glance at Samara. “Who?”

“Brent’s brother.”

Samara opened her mouth to speak, but Liz beat her to it.

“Yes! He’d be perfect for her!”

“I don’t think so,” Samara began, turning her wine glass stem between her fingers.

“Why not? If you’re going to stay here—”

“Is he a funeral director too?” Samara asked.

“What’s wrong with being a funeral director?” Gia frowned.

“Nothing! Nothing at all. Just asking.”

“Well, he’s not. He’s an accountant.”

“Oooh. Exciting.”

Gia frowned again. “He’s a nice guy.”

Samara sat back in her chair and looked at the three faces of her friends, trying to do what they thought was a good deed, and her heart swelled with affection for them. Something she hadn’t felt for a long, long time. She smiled. “Thanks, you guys, but seriously, I’m going to be too busy to date for the next while. I have a ton of stuff to learn about the business. Travis gave me a whole whack of reports and financial data to go over, and....well, there are some problems at the company I need to figure out and try to come up with solutions.”

“Travis.” Gia gave Samara a look from beneath her lashes. “Travis Murray.”

“Yes.”

“He’s the guy you had—”

“Would you look at the time!” Samara tapped her watch and pushed her chair back. “I need to get home and start looking at some of that stuff. It’s been so nice to see you all again...”

“Sit.” Gia held up her hand.

Gia knew about the crush she’d had on Travis all those years ago, but even she didn’t know the truth about what had happened. Liz and Bailey knew nothing and were looking with wide-eyed glances from Gia to Samara and back again.

Samara subsided into her chair. “Gia...”

“Is he married?”

“No.”

“I thought he moved away too.”

“Yes. To Los Angeles. He’s back now too, to deal with things—”

“So you two will be working together?”

“Yes.” Samara saw the wheels turning in Gia’s head. “That was a long time ago, Gia.”

“What was?” Bailey leaned forward. “Who is this guy?”

Samara waited for Gia to spill it all, her tummy tight. She swallowed. “He’s my dad’s business partner,” she managed to say. She held Gia’s gaze and willed her to keep that embarrassing secret to herself.

Gia’s eyes narrowed, and she tilted her head. Oh-oh. If she’d wanted Gia to get that idea out of her head, she’d handled this all wrong. Now Gia knew there was more to it than just a teenage crush.

To Samara’s intense relief, Gia dropped the subject, but Samara knew it wasn’t dead and gone and she’d hear more about it from her friend.

As they all hugged goodbye on the sidewalk in front of the restaurant, Samara’s chest grew warm and achy. As much as she hated to admit it, she’d missed having friends and missed the history she shared with these women, the laughter and tears and experiences that had bonded them together. She’d had nothing like that in San Francisco, just some casual work acquaintances, and only now did she realize how much she’d missed their friendship.