“She claims.”

PJ hit a button on her keyboard and an image popped up on the big screen at the end of the table. “Those are my receipts for the last three months. Broken down per job and by profit after expenses.”

There was savage satisfaction when her uncle’s face changed as he added it all up.

“Obviously we need to establish things like hourly rates and that sort of detail, but this is not only viable it’s smart. This is adding to what we do in a way that is relevant to me as a Colman but also relevant to car people, which is part of our mission statement.”

He frowned again. “Just because we can do something, young lady, doesn’t mean we should.”

“Why shouldn’t we? I’m not indispensable as a sales rep. I’m using my skills in ways that benefit this company and expanding our client base.” Then she turned to Jay. She’d tossed him a sweet deal with the offer to split her accounts between him and Shawn.

Jay loved money and he loved power. Those accounts would give him more of both. And he loved Colman. He might think her vagina clouded her thinking on most things, but that offer of those accounts was what she planned to use to crowbar her brother onto her side.

Shawn had recommended she come up with a few different ways to be compensated in her new position, so she’d gathered the financial information, and as she did it, she’d realized what a huge thing he’d done for her. She probably wouldn’t have included it at first, thinking to make her point verbally in her presentation. But Fee never would have taken her word for it, and without the data, others wouldn’t be so eager to come down on her side and risk her uncle’s grumpy wrath.

“I’ve e-mailed everyone copies of three different approaches to compensation for this new position and I’m happy to talk about each one. I’ve included pros and cons of each as well.”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” Fee bitched. “Your father isn’t here, so we can’t vote on anything anyway.”

He wasn’t. Yet another disappointment in years’ worth of them. She’d reminded him of this meeting several times and not once had he said he’d be gone.

“I’m not asking you to vote today. Naturally I expect you all want time to read the material and make a decision. I’m available if you want to speak about this more.”

Fee grabbed his things and rushed from the room without saying good-bye. Jay stood. “I’ll look at everything. I’m not convinced adding more things won’t actually hurt Colman.”

“That’s fair. We’ll talk when you’re ready.”

He nodded and then spoke again. “This is excellent work.” Jay then left, along with everyone else but Shawn and Julie.

Shawn gave her a hug and kissed her cheek. “You did good, Penny-Lope.”

She rolled her eyes at his use of her nickname. So many people mispronounced her name when she was a kid, her mother finally gave up and allowed the use of PJ instead of Penelope. But Penny-Lope had stuck with Shawn.

“You saved my butt with the suggestion about the compensation comparison.”

He winked. “Nice work tossing half your accounts to Jay. He’s greedy enough that it’ll be a factor for him. Not that I’m complaining about my half of those clients. I need a new car. My transmission is making noises again.”

“Colman has three full-time mechanics. All in a garage about two miles from here. Why are you driving a car with a dodgy transmission?” Julie shook her head at their brother.

“Okay, so to be more accurate, I want a new car.”

Laughing, the siblings headed out to their own offices and jobs.

Audra leaned across the table. “What is the story with tall, dark, and pierced?”

“Asa?” As if anyone else was on her mind these days.

“Yes.”

“Months now he’s looked at my tits and he’s looked at my ass. In that way, you know how they do. I know what it looks like when someone is imagining me naked. He does it all the time. Flirts with me like crazy, but he holds back. I thought it was that he had a girlfriend, but now I’m not sure. I don’t think he’d go as far as he does with his flirting if he was seeing someone. Maybe he just doesn’t dig me that way and I’m too stupid to see it.”

“Please. Have you looked at yourself lately? You’re adorable. And gorgeous and sexy. Maybe it’s the business thing? Like you two work together at times, so maybe it’s that. If it is, just change his mind. Flash your boobs. Makes them forget what they were going to say.” Audra raised a glass.

“Well, here’s the thing. Twisted Steel calls me regularly now. I’m their go-to person. That’s great and it makes me happy to know this thing is working out. But I want him. Oh man, do I want him. At the same time, it’s hard enough to be taken seriously. If I go hooking up with Asa, how’s that going to look? What if people think I banged my way into a job instead of earning it?”

“A round of shots first and then we’ll continue to discuss this.” Audra tried to get their server’s attention, but it was crazy busy so in the end, PJ headed to the bar to get them herself.

Of course as she stood there, several of her friends already at the bar passed her back a shot, and then another, so by the time she made it back to the table they’d been joined by half a dozen more people.

“I might have already gotten started.” PJ grinned at Audra.