The Real Deal by Lucy Monroe Page B

also by the authoritative tone of his voice. “What?”
    â€œHe doesn’t mean anything by it. He’s a genius.”
    â€œSo I’d heard.” She found it very difficult to believe Jacob was defending Simon’s actions to her, as if her opinion mattered.
    â€œHe’s not ignoring you so much as he’s so focused on the complexities going through his mind, he’s not even peripherally aware of what is happening around him.”
    â€œWhat happened to your bad grammar?”
    Jacob’s skin took on an interesting burnt hue. “I talk the way I want to.”
    She let that go. Jacob, she was discovering, was an entity unto himself. “You don’t think it was on purpose?” she asked, referring to Simon’s second abandonment.
    â€œNo, Ms. Zachary. The boss doesn’t mean to do it. It’s just the way he is.”
    â€œNo wonder he doesn’t have a lot of friends.” She was making an assumption based on Simon’s lifestyle, but Jacob sighed.
    â€œHe’s spent his whole life out of step with his peer group one way or another. The boy is more comfortable experimenting in his lab than making friends. I think he finds his computers easier companions than people.”
    The boss had become the boy and she realized the relationship between Simon and Jacob was more multifaceted than it appeared on the surface.
    â€œIf I leave him a message to call, do you think he will?” The prospect of talking to Simon on the phone and seeing him again, even after his habit of disappearing without a word, was much too appealing.
    â€œYes.”
    She gave Jacob her cell phone number as well as the name of her hotel and room number. He wrote them down and she left.
    The ferry ride back to the mainland passed quickly as she tried to strategize a foolproof plan for presenting the proposal to Simon. Unfortunately, by the time she reached her hotel over an hour later, she was no closer to a solution.
    Both Jacob and Eric had made a point of telling her how wrapped up in a new project Simon could become. He was evidently in full new-project-mode now and she couldn’t help thinking that any hope of presenting the merger to him in its entirety was doomed from the outset.

    When she got back to her hotel room, there was a message from her manager requesting she call him. She wasn’t surprised. She’d had to tell him about the glitch with Simon Brant when her last meeting with Brant Computer’s president did not end in a concrete step toward the merger.
    â€œHow did Simon Brant respond to the proposal?”
    â€œHe didn’t.”
    â€œWhat do you mean, he didn’t? Is he a deep player, keeping his thoughts close to his chest?”
    â€œHe’s deep all right, but he didn’t express any reaction because I didn’t get a chance to present the benefits of the merger to him.”
    â€œI thought you were meeting with him this afternoon.”
    â€œSo did I. He didn’t want to discuss business over lunch and afterward he disappeared into his lab.”
    â€œDon’t tell me you couldn’t steer the direction around to the merger over lunch. It was a business meeting.”
    â€œSimon doesn’t see business in the same light most people do. He wanted to get to know me over lunch. He’s not comfortable doing business with someone he doesn’t know.”
    Her boss snorted. “And you went along with that? This is no time to decide to let your ice queen persona melt and start pursuing a personal agenda on company time.”
    â€œI am pursuing Extant Corporation’s agenda to the best of my ability.” The ice queen crack hurt, particularly because it wasn’t true. She wasn’t an ice sculpture, just a flawed one. “I’m not sure trying to convince Simon to support the merger is a practical direction to take right now.”
    â€œI talked to Eric Brant and according to him, we need his