Page 29 of Love In Hiding

“Belinda should get all of that for us now. I’ve seen the trends and the decline in purchases. Businesses not happy with the turnaround time on the product.”

“The product itself isn’t lacking,” she said. Which meant it was the way the business was being handled.

And why she was here.

She wasn’t privy to the profit West made on his businesses, but she knew Stonington was one of the top lobster landing ports in the US.

This plant was massive, and expanded to twice its size when West invested in it eight years ago.

“The profits have been steadily dropping in the past twelve to eighteen months,” he said.

“When it sounds as if Chad took over.”

“You don’t have enough to make that assessment.”

She bit the inside of her cheek. “I know my job as well asyou know yours. I’m making an educated guess but not a final judgment. I won’t get to that for a week or more.”

A few days here auditing their processes and procedures, then going over all her notes and running more analysis back home, trying to streamline and look into supply and distribution chains.

Belinda came rushing in. “I just found out that one of my main freezers has been down for months.”

She turned to Spencer. “And what exactly was held in there?”

“We ship out live lobsters when the orders come in. That’s a big part of our business daily and on a timeline. But we also freeze lobsters after they are cooked to go to wholesalers. Do you want to know that process?”

“Please,” she said.

Two hours later, London got the rundown on that and the impact of one freezer being down. That alone could contribute to the decrease in profit.

By five, she was exhausted, between their travel time and the almost six frustrating hours of how poorly things were being run without Belinda’s knowledge and the man in charge out of town for the week.

She was pretty sure things could be turned around relatively easy, but she wasn’t out for easy. She was out for efficiency.

Before they left, she told Belinda to get the freezer fixed ASAP or get it replaced if it couldn’t be repaired. She didn’t care that Chad had pulled people off that process to put them in the live process for more orders there.

Increase staff if need be, but don’t all but halt half of the business’s revenue.

She and Spencer left and climbed into their rental, her head back against the seat.

“Just say it.”

“Say what?” he asked.

“I was out of line with my words and my tone.”

“If you know, then I don’t need to say it.”

The silence that followed was louder than a hammer slamming a nail into a coffin.

9

PRETENDING OTHERWISE

“Here’s your key.”

Spencer looked down at the key that had been slid in front of him. Not even a keycard, but an old-fashioned key. “Where’s the other one?”

“Oh,” the woman said. Kayleigh by her nametag. Young and probably a summer job by the looks of it. “You want a second one. It didn’t say that here.”