On January third Bob and Ann took off from Manassas Airport and headed south for the trip to Argentina. The Special Forces that the President wanted grew from a small team of highly skilled soldiers to a small army with its own intelligence unit. Ann orchestrated the armored vehicle end of the package. They flew back home with a security package that had grown to four times the original size.
In the next couple of months Ann grew into the job to the point where she was taking care of the sales with little help from Bob. She began to spend every weekend at the farm. Brenda would call the farm if she wanted to speak to her mother on the weekends.
In the middle of March Bob came into Ann's office, "Ann, we have to go to Germany on the third of April. Argentina wants to add GPS to all of the vehicles and the Presidents car is going to have a radio system that he can call anywhere in the world. I don't know if there's room in the car for everything that he wants. We'll have to talk to Stoof International and see if they can do it."
Bob saw the look of concern on her face, "What's wrong?"
"Brenda will be home on spring break in April."
Bob hesitated a minute, "Get Brenda a passport. We'll take her with us. We'll only be gone for a week. Tell her that I'll pay her five thousand dollars as my interpreter, on a contract basis, and I'll pay all of her expenses and give her fifteen hundred for spending money. Do you think that she'd like that?"
Ann laughed, "What college girl wouldn't like to go to Germany for a vacation?"
"We'll have to go to Paris for a one-day meeting and then we can fly home so she'll have some time to get some rest."
On April third Ann. Brenda and Bob took off and headed for Germany. The meeting only took a few hours but they had to wait for engineering to see if everything would fit. While they were waiting for engineering Bob took Ann and Brenda sightseeing. On Friday Engineering told Bob that they had away to fit all of the equipment in the President's car. Bob placed the order and they flew to Paris.
They checked into the Athenee at ten o'clock at night and Brenda was floored at the opulence of the hotel
"My God, do you people live like this all of the time?"
Bob yawned, "I don't know about you two but I'm bushed. I'm going to turn in. How about we go to see the Eiffel Tower tomorrow?"
They both agreed and they went to their rooms. Bob had been taking them on a whirlwind tour of Germany so they were all tired.
In the morning Brenda hear her phone ring. When she answered it Bob asked her to meet him in the lobby in an hour. He told her that he wanted to show her some of Paris. He told Brenda to let Ann sleep for a little while.
Brenda looked at the phone after she hung it up. Why would he want to go sightseeing without Ann?"
Brenda met Bob in the lobby and he took her arms and they walked to a park that was in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. They walked around for a little while and then Bob asked her to sit down on one of the benches.
"Brenda, I'd like to ask your mother to marry me. I want to know if you'd have any problem with that. I haven't asked her yet and if it would cause you any problems, I won't even ask her."
"Do you mean that you'd give her up if I didn't approve?" Brenda asked incredulously.
"Well, you two have been together a lot longer than she and I have been."
"You're a strange man Mr. Bob Long. Of course I don't have anything against it. I just wonder why it took you so long to ask her."
Brenda threw her arms around Bob and hugged him, "Just one condition. I never knew my father. All I know is that he died. I always wanted a father so I'll Ok this marriage if you agree to be the father that I never had."
Bob held her tightly with tears in his eyes, "It's a deal."
Bob took his arms from around her, "There's one other thing. I've set up a fund for your college education. When we get back to Virginia I'll have you meet with my lawyer. You submit any and all bills for anything that pertains to your college education and the bill will be paid. After med school any money that is left over becomes yours. You've always wanted to be a doctor your mother tells me; if you don't become a doctor now it's because of you. Your education is paid for. I should have told you about this first. The money will be there for your education whether your mother accepts my proposal or not."
It was Brenda's turn to cry. Bob took her hand and pulled her up, "I know a nice jewelry shop near here. Let's go look at rings."
They walked to a jewelry store that wasn't open yet. Bob knocked on the glass and a woman came to the door and opened it for them. The woman walked behind the counter and set several ring cases on the glass counter top.
Brenda smiled, "You had this all set up didn't you?"
Bob pointed to the engagement ring that had a matching band that he wanted to get for Ann. Brenda tried it on and admired it. She smiled and nodded her head yes.
"The only thing wrong is that she'll have to have a crane to lift her arm," Brenda said, "This rock is huge."
As they walked out of the shop with the ring in bob's pocket Brenda asked, "When are you going to ask her?"
"Well, she loves the Eiffel Tower so I thought that I'd ask her at the top. When we go up there you can gives us a few minutes alone and I'll ask her."
When they walked back into the hotel, Bob told Brenda that he had slipped a note under Ann's door telling her that they were going for a walk.
Bob and Brenda walked to Ann's room and knocked on her door, "Where did you two go?"
"We were up at six," Brenda said, "I woke Bob up and we took a walk."
"Let's go down and have breakfast and then we'll go see the Eiffel Tower," Bob said.
Ann grabbed her coat and purse and followed them down to the restaurant. Brenda was again amazed at the service and the opulence. They sat drinking coffee for a while after they finished breakfast. Brenda started getting fidgety and kept asking them to hurry up because she wanted to se the Eiffel Tower.
Bob called his car and the driver picked them up and they drove the few blocks to the Eiffel Tower. Since it was so early the crowds were small. They took the elevators to the top and got out on the observation deck. Bob took Ann to the western side so that she could watch Paris come alive as the sun started getting higher in the sky. Brenda started to lag behind. When Bob and Ann were alone he put his hand in his pocket and held the ring box in his palm.
"Ann, I'd like to ask you something," He pulled the ring out of the box, "Will you marry me?"
Ann stared at him for several seconds before she threw her arms around his neck and kissed him. She was hugging him so tight that she was hurting his neck. She started crying and several people looked to see what was wrong. One of the Chinese people pointed to the ring on Ann's finger and shouted to the others in his party and they started taking pictures of Ann and Bob.
Brenda came around the deck and saw her mother hanging on to Bob, "Well, what did you tell him?"
"She hasn't given me an answer yet."
Ann looked at him through her tears, "Yes!"
Brenda ran to them and put her arms around the both of them. They clung to each other for a long time.
Ann looked at her daughter, "You mean to tell me that you were in on this?"
Brenda laughed, "No, I only found out a couple of hours ago."
Bob looked at his watch, "We'd better go down now. I made reservations for the two of you at the Villa Thalgo spa. It's time that we taught Brenda how to live. We'll go out clubbing tonight and show Brenda what Paris is like at night."
As they drove to the spa Bob turned to Ann, "I told Carl on Christmas that I was going to make some changes to Paladin. I'm going to ask Carl to take over my position. I'm going to remain as chairman. That will cut my traveling down to a couple of times a year. When I do travel I'm going to take my wife with me of course. I'm not sure what I'm going to call Paula but she and Carl work well together and I want her to be his second in command. Ann, I'd like you to leave your position as vice-president. Remember when we talked about developing security products of our own? I want you to take that on as your own project. All I have in my head is the thought that we need to have our own products. You'll have to get it off the ground and figure how to make it profitable. I will give you any help you need but only when I'm asked. It's your project. My thoughts are that we could set up that operation as a separate company with you as president. I've got some ideas of my own for Paladin so you'll have to take that company and build it on your own. Hire the right people and I don't think that you'll have any problem.
Brenda was sitting there with her mouth open, "My Mom, the president of her own company?"
Ann smiled at her daughter, "What, do you think that I'm a dumb old woman?"
Epilog
Bob and Ann were married on June first in a ceremony held at Bob's farm. Brenda was maid-of-honor. The only member of the wedding that was nervous was Bob Long. As Ann turned and kissed Bob after the wedding vows she saw Paula collecting money from some of the other Paladin employees.
Ann took Manassas Security Products and made it into a multi-million
dollar company.