Champagne Kisses. Zuri Day

      Chapter 6

      “Good morning, son,” Genevieve said, opening the front door and giving Donovan a hug as he entered. “This is a pleasant surprise.”

      Until yesterday’s wedding, Diamond had lived in the east wing of the estate. Dexter’s domain was on the west side of the house. His mother insisted on maintaining a room for her eldest on the property, even though four years ago Donovan had purchased a Mediterranean-style, ocean-view home in La Jolla, a tony suburb of San Diego that was about an hour from his parents. For the past two years, until Ms. Widowed had changed her zip code, he’d lived there almost exclusively. During that time, he was a frequent dinner guest at the Drake estate but was rarely seen for breakfast.

      Therefore Donovan understood, even expected, her surprise. “Morning, Mom.” He followed her into a sitting room where she’d obviously been having tea.

      “Should I pour you a cup, darling? If you’re hungry, there’s plenty of the breakfast casserole left. That’s what we had this morning.”

      “Tea sounds good.”

      After pouring the tea and, against Donovan’s wishes, retrieving a plate of homemade pastries from the kitchen, Genevieve explained simply, “Your grandmother made these.”

      “Oh, well, I definitely can’t turn down her cooking.” Though internal stress over his assistant’s condition and the current workweek had lessened his appetite, he reached for one of the cinnamon rolls, then closed his eyes as he chewed the heavenly goodness. “This is delicious.”

      “How is Sharon?” Genevieve asked as she stirred her tea. “Dexter told me that that was why you left early.”

      “Yes. I knew how frightened her daughter had to be waiting for family to arrive from back east. Diamond encouraged me to go, and it was the right thing to do.”

      “And how is she?”

      “The surgery was a success, but she’s going to remain in ICU until they can be sure that no additional infection has set in.”

      Genevieve nodded. “I’ll call later this morning and, if she’s up to it, go visit her tomorrow. If you haven’t already, remember to send flowers. Speaking of, who’s covering for Sharon while she recuperates?”

      “A temporary agency is sending someone to handle the day-to-day. But there’s so much going on with the international expansion. Dexter would normally pick up the slack, but he has his hands full with the cousins and developing the line for stocking their wine bars.”

      “Donald mentioned that these next couple weeks are very crucial for you, Donovan. All the more reason why your visit this morning, with so much going on, is a surprise.” After a companionable silence she continued, “What can I do for you, son?”

      Now that he was here, the speech that Donovan had rehearsed in his mind seemed lame and the idea that precipitated this talk even lamer. But his trusted assistant was in the hospital and his back was against the wall. After a fitful night’s sleep, he’d wavered in the decision to work with Marissa. As sound as the advice Jackson had given and Diamond had readily seconded was, Donovan knew that being around that cup of hot chocolate would be a major distraction, and, quite frankly, he wasn’t sure he could maintain professionalism instead of trying to take a few sips. So with one last bite of Grandmother Mary’s cinnamon roll for fortification, he began.

      “I need your help, Mom, professionally.”

      “Professionally?” Genevieve repeated with an arched brow as she set down her cup.

      “Yes. Our partners in Asia have a database of over ten thousand potential customers for our wines. Unfortunately, the data was input in Chinese and, while we have some software that will do the translation, we can’t download their file directly from their system to ours. The entries will have to be done manually. Aside from Sharon, Kathleen would have been the only person I could have trusted, but unfortunately Diamond had already promised her this week off.”

      “Your back is against the wall for sure, son. But how can I help?”

      “Mom,” he said, looking her in the eye. “I’d like your help with the international project.”

      “You’re asking me to be your assistant, Donovan? Inputting this data, these tens of thousands of companies?”

      Hearing it from his mother’s mouth, Donovan felt he had more of a chance of the First Lady coming to help him than Genevieve Drake. “I know it’s a lot to ask. But because of the information’s sensitivity, my options are sorely limited.”

      “You talked to your dad about this?”

      It was a fair question. Donovan talked to his dad about everything. “No.” Almost. “I thought there was no need to ask Dad without asking you first.”

      “Really?”

      Yeah, I don’t believe it either.

      “Because had you done so, you’d know that your father and I are handling some family business this week.”

      “What kind of family business?” Nothing happened with one Drake that the others didn’t know about.

      “With all of the activity surrounding your sister’s wedding, we hadn’t had time to tell you about this. But we’re finally going to divide up that property on my mother’s side. You know it’s going to be crazy with everybody trying to get their piece of the pie. I’d just as soon deed my part to whoever wants it just to keep the peace. But not my sister. She’s determined that some cousins, who weren’t on speaking terms with their great-aunt’s brother, won’t get so much as a teaspoon of dirt! She wants me to come down to support her.”

      Donovan sat back and rubbed his brow. The timing of this situation sucked.

      “Donovan, even if this trip weren’t planned, I’d be like a fish out of water in the office. Not to mention navigating the dynamic of your being my boss.”

      “I’d go easy on you.”

      “You’d have a choice?”

      “Ha! Guess not.”

      Donovan knew he was out of all options except one. And with that he picked up his cell and made a call.

      “Hello.”

      “Marissa, this is Donovan.” Okay, man. Here we go.