Cassidy stood up. “It’s hard dating. You have no idea.”

“Spare me. You can have anyone you want. You get anyone you want. You’re cute. You’re successful. You have money. You now have a nice retreat out in the country—which I have yet to be invited to. How hard can it be?”

Cassidy crossed her arms. “We do have this discussion a lot, don’t we?”

“Yes. At least once a month.” She waved her hand in the air. “Move on from Claudia. It’s time.”

“She’s friends with Erica and Amber. They like us together.”

“So?”

“And I’ve already invited her out to the house. There’s another couple coming, so that’ll make it bearable.”

“You never said how the party went last weekend.”

“Oh, it was fun. Had a few people drink too much so I had them stay over. The pool was a big hit.”

“I’m sure it was. Maybe one day I’ll get to see it.”

“Yeah. You and Derrick come out, bring the boys. They’d love it.”

“Yes, they would. But teenagers…they’ll think they’re too grown up to go with Mom and Dad to a pool party.”

Cassidy nodded. “I keep forgetting they’re all grown up.” She motioned to the door. “Why don’t you head out early? I’ll see you on Monday.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah. Give Derrick a kiss for me, huh?”

“I will. See you Monday.”

Cassidy sat down again and spun her chair around, gazing out of the high-rise window. Sometimes, it was still a shock to be sitting where she was. She worked hard for it, though. Putting Anderson Heating and Air Conditioning at the top of everyone’s list hadn’t been easy. Her grandfather was probably rolling over in his grave at the idea that they even had corporate offices, much less that they took up the entire twentieth floor in a fancy office building.

Dispatch was done from here. Online scheduling was managed from here. Accounting. Payroll. Marketing. All here. And spread out over Dallas and Fort Worth were now ten hubs that they could dispatch from. They could be anywhere in the Metroplex within twenty minutes of getting a call. That kind of service couldn’t be matched by anyone. No one could even come close to that.

That’s not to say it hadn’t taken years to get to ten hubs. No. When she’d come on board, they only had the one office, which her father ran. Her brother was out in the field. He had been the hardest one to convince to branch out. But now, fifteen years later, they’d more than quadrupled in size.