Kitabı oku: «The Boss's Marriage Plan»

Chapter One

Tess Miller stood quietly nearby as her older sister, Nina Miller Wheatley, made a minute adjustment to an impeccably set Thanksgiving dinner table. Nina’s formal dining room glowed not only with the light from a crystal chandelier but from multiple candles on the table and antique sideboard. Fall flowers spilled over crystal vases onto Pilgrim figurines and pumpkins nestled beside them. Calligraphy place cards rested in little turkey-shaped holders beside the brown-and-orange plaid place mats. Tess didn’t know why they needed place cards when the entire dinner party consisted of Nina, her husband, their three kids and herself, but her overachieving sister never did anything halfway.

There was enough food for another six people, at a minimum. Turkey and dressing, several side dishes, salads and four choices of desserts crowded the serving tables. Tess had brought a casserole and a cake, both of which Nina had proclaimed “very nice” and had then set at the back of the buffet.

Nina wore a rust silk blouse and dark brown slacks that showed off her gym-toned body. Not a salon-tinted blond hair was out of place in her stylish do, and her makeup was perfect despite the hours she’d spent in the kitchen. She’d given a critical once-over to Tess’s black wrap top and slim charcoal pants, but her only comment had been that maybe Tess should consider adding more red highlights to her hair, just to “spice up” her shoulder-length auburn bob. Tess was perfectly content for now with the color nature had given her, but she hadn’t wasted breath arguing.

The sisters didn’t look much alike. Tess’s brown eyes had a more golden tint than Nina’s, her face was more oval and she’d inherited their father’s shallow chin cleft. At five-four, she was two inches shorter than her sister, though she’d always wondered if being taller would have made any difference in Nina’s still treating her like a child.

“Everything looks beautiful, Nina,” she said, knowing just what to say to make her sister happy. “I can tell you’ve worked very hard.”

Nina heaved a long-suffering sigh. “You have no idea. All the chopping and mixing, cooking and baking, not to mention keeping up with all the kids’ extracurricular activities and volunteering at two different schools. I’m utterly exhausted, but of course it’s all worth it for my family.”

Through her mental sigh, Tess heard a football game playing in the den. She knew her brother-in-law, Ken, and her nephews, thirteen-year-old Cameron and nine-year-old Austin, were parked in front of it, though both boys were probably engrossed in handheld video games. Almost fifteen-year-old Olivia was in her room, likely risking carpal tunnel syndrome with marathon texting to her bazillion friends. None of them had offered assistance to their mother, though Nina wouldn’t have accepted if they had. She loved being a martyr to her overly indulged family.

Nina shook off her air of selfless weariness to replace it with a sympathetic smile toward her much younger sibling. “You wouldn’t understand, of course, not having a husband and children of your own to take care of.”

She didn’t add the uniquely Southern, artfully patronizing “bless your heart,” but Tess heard it anyway. Ever since Tess turned twenty-one eight years ago, Nina rarely missed an opportunity to voice her concern that her sister would remain single and childless. It didn’t help that her only semiserious relationship during those years had crashed and burned.

While Tess wanted a family of her own, she was increasingly resentful of her sister’s condescension, making every holiday gathering progressively more uncomfortable. That was a shame, because she and her sister were the only surviving members of their immediate family. Their parents, who’d been in their midforties when Tess was born thirteen years after Nina, had both died within the past six years. Now Nina always made a big show of including Tess at every holiday table because as she said, “Tess has no one else to share the special days with.”

Tess drew a deep breath before asking, “Would you like me to call everyone to the table?”

“In a moment. First I want to ask if you’d allow me to give your number to Cameron’s orthodontist, Dr. Mike. He’s really quite nice, if a bit socially awkward. He’s been divorced for almost a year. He seemed interested when I showed him your photo on my phone, but after that little fit you threw last time, I knew better than to give him your number without asking.” Nina rolled her eyes, as if making it clear she thought it unreasonable that Tess objected to Nina handing out her number to just any single stranger.

“Seriously, Nina, stop trying to fix me up,” Tess said with a firm shake of her head. She didn’t mind her friends arranging the occasional blind date, but she’d rather her meddlesome sister stay out of her love life, such as it was. The thought of her photo being shown to random men made her very uncomfortable. “I don’t need you to arrange dates for me.”

“Well, someone should. I don’t see how you’re going to find anyone sitting in that office working for your taskmaster of a boss. I mean, sure, you meet construction workers and architects and suppliers, but you’re too professional to flirt with them on the job and you’re never not on the job, so where does that leave you, hmm? Needing a little help meeting someone, that’s where. And because I’m actually out in the community mingling with nice, successful people, who better to direct a lead or two your way?”

“If I want your help, I’ll let you know, all right?”

Nina didn’t quite growl her frustration, but she seemed to be making an effort to restrain herself. “You haven’t forgotten about Dana’s party the second Saturday in December, have you? You have to be there. Everyone’s expecting you. You can come alone, of course, but you know how snooty some of our cousins would be if they think you can’t find a date. Perhaps that would be a good time for you to spend an evening getting to know Dr. Mike?”

“I’ll find my own date, thank you.” Tess wasn’t sure where or how, but she’d bring a date if she had to hire someone!

Maybe she shouldn’t let Nina get to her this way. Maybe she should go to the family gathering alone as she usually did, with her head high and her shoulders squared. Confident, composed and contentedly independent. But then she’d have to endure everyone trying to set her up with their dentists, accountants and gynecologists.

Before her sister could demand details, Tess turned toward the dining room doorway, which was decorated with a garland of autumn leaves and just-too-cute little gourds. “I’ll call everyone in to eat. It would be a shame to let this delicious food get cold.”

It was probably the only threat that could have derailed Nina’s attention from Tess’s personal life. At least for now.

* * *

Tess must not have known anyone else was in the office at 6:00 p.m. on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. No other reason she’d be chatting on her cell phone with her office door open, so her words drifted out very clearly to Scott Prince in the lobby. He didn’t mean to eavesdrop, really. It was simply that while he hesitated, trying to decide if it would be rude to interrupt her, he heard a bit more than he intended.

He’d just quietly entered the reception area of Prince Construction Company, Inc., the Little Rock enterprise into which he’d invested all his time, sweat, money and dreams for the past nine years. It had been a struggling little local-only construction company when he’d purchased it from the retiring owner, with whom Scott had interned while he’d obtained a master’s degree in construction management. His family and friends had been concerned to see him take such a major financial risk, considering him too young and inexperienced at twenty-seven to successfully run a complicated business. It had taken almost a decade of personal sacrifice and unwavering determination to prove their doubts unfounded, but he was now owner and CEO of a successful, multistate enterprise specializing in small to medium commercial construction projects.

Tess had started working for him as a clerk over six years ago and had become his office manager and valued administrative assistant. No one got to him except through her. Some people said he was gifted when it came to surrounding himself with the right people. Tess was a prime example of that. He admitted freely that the whole operation would fall apart without her to oversee the office.

But this was Thanksgiving weekend, not an official workday. Shouldn’t she be spending it with family or friends—at least unless he needed her for some crisis or another, as he confessed he so often did?

“It was the usual painful family meal,” he heard her say from the other room, almost as if in answer to his silent question. “My sister tried to fix me up with every single male she’s ever met, because she says I’m incapable of finding eligible men on my own. My brother-in-law finally told her to lay off because as he said, ‘Some women are just meant to be single.’”

Scott grimaced, knowing now why Tess had chosen to work on the long weekend rather than to spend more time with family. He almost spoke up then to let her know he was there, but she started talking again.

“So, anyway, Nina nagged me about bringing her son’s orthodontist to Dana’s big Christmas bash, but I told her I’d find my own date, thank you very much. No, I don’t know who it will be. You know my lousy luck with the online dating sites I’ve tried lately. Maybe I’ll just take Glenn. Yes, I know you keep telling me he’s boring, but maybe we’ve been too critical of him. He’s a nice enough guy. Makes no secret that he’s ready to settle down and start a family. Maybe I’ve just been too—”

Scott opened and closed the front door. More loudly this time. He’d suddenly realized that he’d been standing in one place for too long, hearing more than Tess would surely want him to know.

He heard her mutter something quickly, followed by the thud of her phone, then the squeak of her chair. Moments later she appeared in the open doorway looking slightly flustered, though she almost instantly assumed her usual calm and collected expression. She was dressed more casually than on weekdays in a blue-and-black patterned tunic with black leggings tucked into flat boots. She’d left her hair down rather than in the neat twist she usually wore for work. He’d seen her weekend look many times before, of course—but he thought she looked particularly pretty today. The slight flush that lingered on her cheeks was definitely becoming.

“Scott? What are you doing here? I thought you and your dad and brothers were driving to Missouri for the Razorbacks game today.”

“We were. But Eli had to be on call because one of his partners broke an arm in a Thanksgiving biking accident. Then Jake’s son came down with a virus and our plans all fell apart. We gave our tickets to Mom and Dad’s neighbors and their kids. They were happy to get them.”

“I’m sorry your plans were canceled. You really needed a break from work.”

He felt his mouth quirk into a half smile. “Are you saying I’ve been surly lately?”

“Not surly, just... Okay, maybe a little surly,” she said with a quiet laugh.

He could count on Tess to be honest with him, sometimes brutally so. Somehow she always managed to do so without crossing boundaries of the employee-employer relationship, even when she was annoyed with him. And she had been annoyed with him on several occasions.

He cleared his throat. “Sorry about that. You have to admit, the past few months have been challenging.” They’d dealt with a couple of big, complicated jobs, a burglary at a job site that had cost them several expensive tools, even a break-in here at the office earlier in the year. Speaking of which...

He frowned. “Why was the security system turned off? You shouldn’t be here alone on a weekend, especially after dark, without that alarm activated. As I’ve just proved, anyone could have walked in.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “Didn’t you have to use your key?”

He was still surprised she hadn’t heard him enter the first time, which only illustrated how focused she’d been on her conversation. “Well, yes, but still...”

Relenting, she smiled. “I’ve had the security system on almost the whole time I’ve been here. I turned it off when I ran out to my car for something I’d forgotten and I was going to turn it back on after I finished a phone call in my office.”

He kept his expression as unrevealing as he could manage. He knew she’d be embarrassed if she thought he’d overheard too much of that call. “I want you to be safe when you’re here alone. Keep the blasted thing turned on.”

Sending a salute toward him that was just short of impertinent, she said, “Yes, sir. I’ll do that.”

He sighed and shook his head. “Insubordination. Remind me again why I keep you around?”

She laughed easily, slipping back into the comfortable relationship they’d forged during their years of working side by side. “Because you know this entire enterprise would collapse without me.”

He chuckled after she pretty much echoed his thoughts from earlier. He had to concede her point.

She’d made her mark on every aspect of his business, from the state of the reception area to the total of the bottom line.

Speaking of the reception area... He suddenly noticed decorations that hadn’t been there a few days earlier. A Christmas tree sat in the front corner, decorated with gold-and-white ornaments and tiny white lights. A strand of garland wound with gold ribbon draped the front of the reception desk, matching the wreath on the door. On the tables sat frosted glass holders with fat white candles. All very subtle and tasteful—very Tess, he thought with a faint smile. She could have assigned one or two of the clerical workers she now supervised to decorate, but she’d no doubt taken care of it herself, as she had every Christmas since she’d started working for him.

“You came in today just to decorate?”

“I thought I’d get the decorations up while I had a quiet afternoon to work on them. I’m almost finished.”

“Looks nice. Is there anything I can do to help?”

“I’ve got it, thanks. There are only a few more things I want to do.”

Nodding, he moved toward the closed door of his own larger office to the right side of hers. “Let me know if you need anything. I’m going to review the paperwork for that Springdale job we start Monday, just to make sure everything is lined up.”

“I left a couple of contracts on your desk for you to look over and sign. They could have waited until Monday, but since you’re here...”

“I’m on it.”

He glanced over his shoulder as he opened the door with his name engraved on a brass plaque. Tess stood half-turned away from him, frowning in concentration at the Christmas tree, which looked perfect already to him. She really did look pretty today. He thought fleetingly about telling her so, but something held him back.

He made a cup of coffee with the pod brewer on his credenza. “Would you like a hot drink?” he asked through the open doorway as the enticing aroma filled his office. The rack beside the pot always included a variety of herbal teas that he knew Tess liked. They often shared drinks at his desk as they discussed business.

“No, thank you,” she called back without making an appearance. He told himself he wasn’t disappointed that she was too busy for a cozy chat, which meant he had no excuse to procrastinate any longer with the work he’d come in to see to.

Taking a seat at his desk, he tried to concentrate on paperwork for the next twenty minutes. Despite his resistance, his thoughts kept returning to the one-sided conversation he’d accidentally overheard, and the glimpse of insight it had provided into Tess’s personal life. Of course, he couldn’t have worked so closely with her for six years without knowing some things about her.

Through night classes and online courses, she’d completed her business degree and had earned postgraduate hours since she’d started working with him. He knew she took pride in those accomplishments. During that same time, he’d seen her deal with the illness and loss of both her parents. He’d gotten the impression the majority of the caregiving had been on her shoulders because her sister had been so busy with her young children. Yet he’d never once heard Tess complain. Whatever she dealt with in her off-hours, she’d always reported to work with her usual serene efficiency.

Serene. He repeated the word in his head, thinking how well it suited his assistant. Throughout several major work upheavals, when he’d been edgy and bad-tempered amid the confusion and mayhem, Tess had remained...well, Tess. She came in every morning with a smile, an encouraging word and a roll-up-her-sleeves attitude that let her tackle each day’s tasks with single-minded focus.

One would think someone so agreeable would be a bit of a doormat, easily intimidated, perhaps. Not Tess. He’d witnessed her hold her own with even the most belligerent, disgruntled employees and clients. One of his job foremen had confided to Scott that Tess reminded him of a nun who’d taught his junior high math classes. “Nice lady most of the time,” he’d clarified. “But get out of line, and you’d get a ruler across the knuckles before you could spit.”

Scott could imagine Tess wielding a mean ruler if necessary. But he’d never thought of her as a nun—had he?

He cleared his throat and reached hastily for his quickly cooling coffee, almost knocking over the cup in his clumsiness. He salvaged the papers on his desk at the last moment and with a muttered curse.

“Everything okay in there?” Tess called from the other room.

“Yes, fine, thanks.”

Maybe he hadn’t thought of Tess as a nun, but before that overheard conversation, he’d had no idea she’d tried online dating, or that she’d been actively looking for a match. Meeting strange men online was dangerous, he thought in disapproval. Sure, people did it all the time these days, but it just didn’t seem right for Tess.

He knew she’d been in a relationship about three years back that hadn’t worked out. That was about the same time he’d been briefly engaged to a stunning but capricious woman who’d understandably—and angrily—chosen to pursue a career in modeling over marriage to an often-neglectful workaholic. He still winced when he remembered the scene Sharon had caused when she’d broken up with him in a crowded restaurant, and all because he’d been a few minutes late meeting her there. Okay, twenty minutes late, but he’d texted to let her know he’d been held up—again—by yet another work crisis. She’d known going into the relationship that his business required a great deal of his time, but like others he’d dated before her, she’d expected more from him than he’d been able to give. She’d stormed off furiously when she’d finally concluded that his construction company meant more to him than their relationship. The split hadn’t been amicable, but then for some reason, his breakups never were.

He wondered if Tess had remained on good terms with her former flames. He wouldn’t be surprised if she had. Unlike the volatile Sharon, Tess was the practical, pragmatic type. In the years she had worked for him, he’d never heard her carry on about romance and unrealistic fantasies.

Of course, he rarely allowed himself to think of Tess as a vibrant, available single woman. After all, she worked for him, and he’d never even considered overstepping their professional boundaries and risking their comfortable work relationship. She had just turned twenty-three when she’d applied for the clerical job with him. He’d been a couple months shy of thirty-one, and had already owned the business for over three years. Perhaps that was why he’d thought of her all this time as much too young for him, though the actual gap was only seven years. She would soon turn thirty, he mused, surprised by how quickly time had passed. He supposed it was only natural that she would now be considering marriage and children. After all, he’d given quite a lot of deliberation to those things lately, too.

She strolled in through his open doorway. “I thought I’d put this candle on your table. I know you don’t like a lot of froufrou in your office, but this isn’t too much, is it?” She held a hurricane glass candleholder with a little garland around the base. “You’ve got a few meetings scheduled in here during the next couple of weeks.”

He often eschewed the main conference room in favor of the cherry table in his office. Everything he needed was available to him in here—a projector and screen, whiteboard and display easels and blackout shades to hide the distracting views of the Arkansas River and the distant rolling hills. He loved his office. It was exactly what he’d envisioned back when he’d first started building his own business.

“I don’t mind a candle on the table,” he assured Tess, making her smile.

“How was your Thanksgiving?” she asked as she fussed with the garland.

“Nice. Noisy. The kids were wound up from all the attention.”

Both his brothers were happily married fathers. His older brother, Eli, a family practice physician, had twin girls, Madison and Miranda. Cute as little bunnies, they were almost five years old and full of energy. He was their “uncle Scotty,” and he adored them, just as he did his little nephew, too. Six-month-old Henry was his younger brother, Jake’s, kid. Both his brothers had been lucky enough to find their soul mates—Eli and Libby had started dating when both were in medical school, while Jake, an attorney, had met psychologist Christina at a cocktail party a couple years ago.

As much as he’d enjoyed the gathering, Scott had been painfully aware that he was no closer to having a family of his own than he’d been during the last solo holiday season. None of his relatives was actually nagging him to marry—after all, the next generation of Princes was already well established—but he couldn’t help wondering if they thought something must be lacking in him. Increasingly, he wondered the same thing about himself.

Without arrogance, he could admit he’d accomplished a great deal in his almost thirty-seven years. Valedictorian in high school. Summa cum laude college graduate. A master’s degree. His own business. He had a nice home he’d remodeled himself, with a couple of empty bedrooms he hoped to fill someday. All his life he’d heard about biological clocks, but he’d never quite understood the term until he found himself only a few years from forty without any immediate prospect of a wife and kids. During these past twelve months, he had attended cocktail parties and professional mixers—more than he would have liked, actually. He’d gone on blind dates, been to clubs and bars and charity fund-raisers. He’d met a lot of nice women, had some good times, made a few friends...but he’d yet to find anyone he thought would be a lifelong partner.

After his brief engagement to Sharon had ended so disastrously, he’d wondered privately if he was destined to remain a workaholic bachelor. He was accustomed to success, to achieving the high-reaching goals he set for himself. His only experiences with failure had been in the romantic area of his life. He really hated failure.

Tess stepped back to critically study the centerpiece she’d created. Apparently deciding it would suffice, she turned to the door, asking over her shoulder on the way out, “Have you signed those contracts?”

He reached hastily for the stack he’d yet to touch. “On it.”

He wondered half seriously what she’d have said if he shared that he’d been fretting about how to find a mate. Knowing Tess, she’d set her mind to solving that issue for him. He’d probably come in on Monday to find a line of qualified applicants standing outside his office door. Having trouble in her own quest wouldn’t stop her from setting to work on his if he asked.

His smile faded as it occurred to him that maybe he was on to something here. Oh, not the part about asking Tess to find candidates for him, but the idea that he’d been going about this all wrong. Perhaps he should approach this endeavor with the same attitude he’d used in establishing his successful business. Practicality and analysis were his strengths. Romance obviously was not. There had to be nice women out there who didn’t require all the fancy trappings of courtship, but simply wanted to marry an upstanding, decent guy and start a family. Surely a union based on common goals and values, preferably even friendship, would appeal to someone besides himself. Maybe if he spelled out from the start what he had to offer—and what he didn’t—there would be no artificial expectations that could only lead to another disappointing failure.

When he’d drawn up his original business plan, he’d made lots of lists. Where he needed to focus his efforts, how he wanted to solicit clients, specific steps for growing the business in a sensible, feasible manner and at a reasonable, sustainable pace. Perhaps he should approach his marriage plan in a similar vein.

He visualized a mental list of the type of woman he thought would suit him best. It should be someone organized and efficient, much like himself. Practical—the kind of woman who would understand he was never going to be a smooth-talking Romeo, but that he would be loyal, generous, committed, dependable. That was the type of husband and father his dad was, and that his brothers had become. Maybe they had married for more emotional reasons, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t make his own future partnership just as successful. Middle kid that he was, he’d always had his own way of doing things, as his mother had pointed out on many occasions. His way had turned out well for him in business, so why not in marriage?

His wife didn’t have to be model beautiful, as his ex-fiancée had been, but it would be best, of course, if he was attracted to her. He’d always been drawn to kind eyes and a warm smile, and he had an admitted weakness for dimples...

He heard Tess moving around in the other room. She had nice eyes, he thought, along with a generous smile with occasional flashes of dimples in the corners. She never wore much makeup, but he’d noted some time ago—just in passing—that her skin was creamy and flawless without it. He supposed she would be considered girl-next-door attractive rather than strikingly beautiful—but then again, there was nothing he’d have changed about her appearance. On more than one occasion, especially during the past year or so, he’d found himself admiring her attributes in a manner that had made him immediately redirect his thoughts, chiding himself that it was inappropriate to even notice those things.

A muffled thud and a disgruntled mutter drifted in from the lobby. Curious, he stood and walked around his desk to stand in the open doorway. “What are you doing?”

Tess was on the floor beneath the big artificial tree, propped on one arm as she stretched to reach something he couldn’t see. “I knocked off an ornament when I was trying to straighten a branch. Oh, here it is.”