Читать книгу Blind Dates and Other Disasters: The Wedding Wish - Элли Блейк, Ally Blake - Страница 14

MONDAY morning Holly’s intercom buzzed.

‘Call on line three, Ms Denison.’ The receptionist’s fuzzy voice came through the speakerphone on her desk.

Holly looked apologetically at Lydia, who was standing on a chair in the middle of her office, her outstretched arms draped in several large swatches of fabric. ‘Do you mind hanging in there for a minute? I’ll be quick.’

Lydia strained dramatically under the weight. ‘Get it, Holly, I’m just fine up here.’

Holly grabbed the phone and swung back in her springy leather chair. ‘Holly Denison.’

‘Holly. It’s Jacob.’

Holly shot forward on her chair, her feet now both firmly planted on the ground. He needn’t have introduced himself. That rich, masculine voice with its gentle American twang set her nerves on edge from its very first syllable.

Lydia raised her eyebrows and mouthed, ‘Who is it?’

Holly shook her head, before pressing the phone firmly to her ear. After Friday night Holly had spent a restless weekend convincing herself turning him down was for the best.

But three little words were enough to have her doubting herself again. And if he was calling to ask her to dinner again, she did not know if she would have the strength to refuse.

‘Yes, Jacob?’

‘I have a party to organise and I want to employ your professional services for the event.’

She scribbled, Lincoln Holdings—party onto her notepad.

Lydia could see the notebook clearly from her elevated position and her jaw dropped. Holly waved a frantic hand at her mouthing for her to dump the fabric swatches over the back of the chair and disappear.

Lydia mouthed, ‘Good luck,’ before she tiptoed out.

So he had not called to renew his dinner offer. Holly was glad he was not there in person to see her blush. He had obviously taken her at her word on that count. But that was what she wanted. Wasn’t it?

Then it hit her what he had requested. Jacob Lincoln was offering Cloud Nine a gig. But she knew his idea of a party was very different from her own. She shuddered at the thought of having to search the local bars and pubs for a venue and putting up posters advertising a wet T-shirt contest with a free keg of beer being the first prize.

‘I am flattered that you thought of Cloud Nine for the event, Jacob, but I’m not sure we provide the sort of parties that would suit your tastes.’

Jacob surprised Holly by laughing loudly on the other end of the line. ‘Relax, Holly. I’m not after nude mud wrestlers. Besides, this is not for the company. It’s a private affair. My sister Ana wants an engagement party. Something much more along the lines of what you created for the big marquee would be appropriate.’

This sounded much more up her professional alley but Holly knew that the theme of the party was not what was really worrying her.

‘Well, I am extremely busy at the moment but I could pass you on to another of our wonderful event managers who specializes in exactly these sort of—’

‘Look, Holly—’ his voice seemed to lose all patience ‘—this is just the beginning of what I am proposing here. If I like what you do with this gig, I will be offering you the entire Lincoln Holdings event management account.’

Holly blinked. Slowly. If she had had the strength, she would have pinched herself.

‘The entire Lincoln Holdings account?’ she repeated.

‘Yes. We have been able to handle the workload internally until now but the company is leaping ahead internationally and the job is getting too big.’

Holly desperately tried to rein in her imagination, which was running riot with wild ideas.

‘What’s the catch?’ she asked, hoping there was a great big one so she would have a sane reason to refuse.

‘The catch is I don’t want anyone else in charge of my account. I want you.’

Be careful what you wish for, Holly, for you just might get it. Those words echoed through her head as she sat in stunned silence.

He was offering her an account that her firm, amongst dozens of others, had been wooing without success for years. There was no way she could seriously convince herself or anyone else that she should turn this opportunity down. She had to do this party and it had to be perfect.

She sighed aloud. ‘All right. I’ll do it.’

‘Don’t sound so eager, please.’ He laughed.

‘I am, don’t get me wrong. This is a huge opportunity. Though I can’t help but wonder why.’

‘Why not?’ Jacob asked.

‘Well, you’ve seen my work. And we both know I don’t have the same tastes as you.’ And we all but had a fight the other night. And I had thought I might not ever hear that divine voice of yours again.

Jacob laughed again and Holly grimaced, aware that she was fast finding the sound addictive.

‘You really know how to sell yourself, don’t you? I’m beginning to change my mind about the whole deal.’

Holly could not help but laugh as well. ‘Look, I will happily take on your sister’s engagement party and don’t get me wrong, I will knock your socks off, it will be that fabulous. But I have a counter proposal.’

‘Okay, let’s hear it.’

She took a deep breath and went for it. ‘I will deal with your sister alone for this party and when you give me the Lincoln Holdings account, which I am sure you will, I will deal with your promotions division, and not with you.’

‘Well, now, that was more like it,’ Jacob said, ‘I was not sure that you had that self-protective spirit in you.’

His voice had reached her a little softer and definitely sexier, which was not what Holly had been hoping to bring out in him. She had merely been establishing professional boundaries. Not something she had previously thought sexy, but with Jacob involved …

‘Thank you, I think,’ she said, her own voice huskily mirroring his own. She cleared her throat. ‘If you could pass on your sister’s number we can get started right away.’

Jacob gave her Ana’s contact details. ‘And whatever Ana wants, Ana gets. The result of my being away so long. I am trying to buy back her affection.’

Holly knew from the warmth of his voice that this statement could not be farther from the truth. And again she wondered what sort of woman could secure such staunch and palpable affection from this man.

‘So long as I don’t have to help Ana choose between bronze and pewter candleholders. I’ve been there and done that and it wasn’t pretty.’

‘Pewter,’ Holly answered without pause as she continued scribbling burgeoning ideas onto her notepad.

‘See, that’s just what she eventually chose. I think you two were made for each other.’

‘I think if you promised to stay for ever she would prefer that to a party any day.’

Where on earth had that come from? Holly clamped a hand to her mouth to stop any further recriminating rubbish from slipping out.

‘Would she now?’ His voice whispered down the phone line silky smooth. The insinuation in his question clear.

Holly rubbed her suddenly throbbing temples. ‘Ask her, Jacob,’ she said, pretending she had no idea what he had implied, ‘and see what she says.’

‘I am sure you are right,’ he said, his voice mercifully back to normal. ‘I guess I’ll wait to hear from Ana, then, to see how it’s all going.’

‘I would appreciate that. And Jacob?’

‘Yes, Holly.’

‘Thank you.’

‘Don’t thank me yet,’ he warned her before hanging up the phone.

Holly put the phone down more slowly. Lydia was peering through the glass door with a big expectant grin on her face. Holly waved her into the room.

‘So?’ Lydia asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

‘It may soon be safe to dummy up a press release saying we’ve landed the Lincoln Holdings account.’

‘Yippee!’ Lydia spun around in glee before slumping down on the chair she had been standing on earlier, the important swathes of fabric temporarily forgotten.

‘You had no plans day or night for the next few weeks, did you?’ Holly asked.

Lydia waved a ‘no worries’ hand. ‘The Klingon can wait.’

Holly thought it better not to ask. ‘The sooner we ready our other projects, the sooner we can reel in Jacob Lincoln.’

‘You mean Lincoln Holdings, don’t you?’

‘Of course I do.’ Holly swiftly changed the subject. ‘Now, up you get, back on the chair so we can sort out these fabrics before lunch.’

Lydia grumbled as she stood back up on the chair and stretched out her aching arms, ‘Sometimes I feel highly unappreciated.’

‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ Ben said from Jacob’s office doorway.

Jacob knew from Ben’s smug expression he had been listening for long enough. ‘Believe it, Benny boy. It’s become too big for me and I’ve been contemplating outsourcing for some time.’ For three whole days, in fact.

‘This is the first I had heard of it.’

‘This is the first you needed to hear of it. That’s why the company is my namesake and not yours.’

Ben sauntered into the room, and then lay back on a lounge chair against the far wall. He nonchalantly flipped through a magazine on Jacob’s coffee-table. ‘She didn’t go on any dates this weekend, you know. I had a couple of men lined up, including the new Accounts guy, Matt Riley, the one who tried chatting her up at the greyhound track. But she baulked.’

There is no reason why that should concern me, Jacob thought, then realised he had stopped breathing.

‘And young Matt’s quite the looker, I am told by the girls in Accounts,’ Ben continued. ‘Babeliscious I think was the most common turn of phrase. Modelled his way through college, you know? But … still she said no.’

Ben’s eyes left the magazine and zeroed in on Jacob, who hoped his face showed none of the curiosity he felt.

‘You wouldn’t happen to know why she has suddenly backed off, would you?’ Ben asked.

Jacob merely shook his head, uncertain what state his voice would be in considering his suddenly dry throat. Maybe she had given up the hunt and had decided to become a normal single woman, capable of organising her own social life. Now that would be an interesting turn of events.

Then Ben said, ‘Maybe she just needed to recharge her batteries. Ready herself for next week’s multitude of contenders.’

‘Maybe,’ Jacob conceded, thumping briskly back to earth.

‘Well, it’s been easier than I thought it would be. She really made an impression on the bunch at your welcome home thing at the track. Once word got around she was open to being set up, I’ve hardly had to do a thing.’

‘Lucky you.’

‘Yep. I’ve met all sorts of great guys this last week. I had to cancel one guy’s date but we got on so well I booked him in for a conciliatory lunchtime squash game.’

Jacob was determined not to give Ben the satisfaction of knowing that his comments were surprisingly hitting the mark. He was actually feeling pangs of something akin to jealousy.

‘Was there something else I could help you with?’

Ben looked to the ceiling for inspiration. ‘Nope.’

‘I can find work for you if you’re bored. I don’t think my blinds have been cleaned in the years I’ve been gone.’

Ben looked at his watch. ‘Sorry, Link. I’ll be late for squash with my new friend.’

He stood and ambled back to the door before looking back with an easy grin. ‘Just think, if Holly had not been run down by that oaf in the street the other week and been so turned off by him as to go on this husband hunt of hers, I would be eating lunch alone in my office right now. You’ve got to love the girl!’

‘Who’s an oaf?’ Jacob called out but Ben had already gone.

So, Holly had been turned off by the ‘oaf’ in the street, had she? Jacob fumed. He grabbed a stick of gum and chewed it furiously as he swung sharply back and forth in his office chair.

No wonder she had begged him not to tell Beth they had met before. Turned off! She had been practically undressing him with her eyes that first morning, he was certain of it. The little fraud. She deserved to be found out for twisting that incident to suit her.

Unless she really had found him repellent from their first meeting. Every time he had seen her since she had been edgy and had made it clear she would rather be anywhere than in his presence. And she had flung the ‘not her type’ line in his face with convincing vigour.

All the better for him if that was the end of it. No use wasting time struggling to bat down his growing attraction to the woman if he held no appeal for her in the first place.

And then he stopped, mid swing, his feet planted firmly on the carpeted floor, and his hands grabbed his desk as he realised what Ben had unwittingly revealed. The one detail that made all of the above possibilities irrelevant.

He was the reason behind Holly’s whole husband hunt.

‘That’s great Holly! What a coup,’ Beth said over the phone later that night. ‘And you’ll love Ana.’

‘Please tell me you can come.’

‘Of course. Unless the baby makes other plans we’ll be there with bells on.’

‘Bells will not be necessary. Evening wear will be fine.’

Holly sat on her bed in her shortie pyjamas and thick socks, assuming the lotus position. She held the cordless phone to her ear, and rocked her neck back and forth easing out the niggling Monday-itis tensions.

‘Ben tells me you cancelled on two of your hopefuls on the weekend.’

‘Hmm. I needed a break.’

‘Really? No other reason? No one take your fancy yet from the hundreds Ben has supplied?’

Holly heard the doubt in Beth’s voice loud and clear. ‘No one.’

‘Not even Jacob?’

‘Beth—’

‘Come on, Holly. If it weren’t for Ben I would grab the man with both hands and not let him go. He’s the catch to end all catches.’

‘You would not. He’s so not your type.’ ‘Then whose is he?’

Holly let that one slide. ‘And besides I feel like a movie star doing the talk show circuit. I need to come up with some new material before even I am bored with my funny stories.’ After one final stretch Holly flopped backwards, her arms and legs spread diagonally across the bed.

‘As long as this plan of yours has not fizzled out,’ Beth said.

‘I promise there has been no fizzling.’

‘Good, because I had already decided that my matron of honour dress was going to be bright red, backless and very sparkly. Besides I did up a current star chart and you are primed for a liaison in July. In fact you are so primed you are about to burst. Maybe tarots would help—’

‘No! I draw the line at tarot cards.’

Beth sighed. ‘Fine. What are you doing tonight? Watching TV?’

Alone? Holly felt the inference come through loud and clear. She glanced at the silent TV at the end of her bed. ‘If it weren’t for your Ben we would still be a pair of old spinsters who loved to do nothing more at night than watch Pride and Prejudice and eat home-made caramel popcorn.’

‘That was fun, though, wasn’t it?’

‘The most fun ever. But then Ben found you, and loved you and showed both of us how much better our nights couldbe.’

Holly sighed. She rolled over and scrunched herself into a warm little ball, with the phone cradled under her head. ‘I’ve seen Pride and Prejudice enough times for one woman. You don’t know how lucky you are, Beth. To have someone so decent and strong and dependable.’

Beth laughed. ‘You make Ben sound like a St Bernard!’

Better a St Bernard than a Rottweiler, she thought as images of Jacob Lincoln with his dark hair, clear sharp eyes and his overwhelming personality bombarded her subconscious.

‘Someone like Ben would drive you around the bend,’ Beth said.

‘Hardly—’

‘For example, he keeps his socks, underpants and hankies in the same dresser drawer. You have a separate drawer for each and organise them by colour and fabric with seasonal adjustments.’

‘How will I ever be able to look at Ben again without thinking about his underwear?’

‘Seriously, though, one day you will meet the man for you. A man who puts honey in everything he cooks. A man who will be happy to let you name your first-born son Maximus as you have always wanted, God help the poor child.’

‘I don’t see what is so wrong with the name Maximus. It’s a powerful and masculine name—’

‘Will you stop kidding around and listen to me?’

Duly chastised, Holly shut up and paid attention.

‘What I am saying is the perfect man for you is out there. But believe me he will be nothing like Ben. That’s nothing against my husband. You drive him around the bend just the same.’

‘Thanks.’

And Holly knew then that, though her friends would always be there with a shoulder to lean on, it would in all likelihood fall to her to find someone to love.