Prodigal Son, page 19
part #1 of The Family Business Series Series
“I’ve been told before.”
Samantha laughed, then grabbed her purse. “I have to go find Jack. If he calls here, would you tell him I’m looking for him?”
Helen reached for the phone. “Just go back to the office. I’ll call Mrs. Wycliff so she can let him know you’re on your way.”
* * *
Jack paced in his office, not willing to believe the message until Samantha actually walked in.
“I wasn’t leaving,” she said as she rushed up to him. “Well, okay, I was leaving the company, but not you. I thought it would make it easier for you.”
“Letting the board pin all this on you?” he asked gruffly, as he pulled her close and stared into her eyes. “Why would having you gone help?”
She smiled. “I had a momentary loss of brain function. It won’t happen again.”
“Good.”
She felt right in his arms. Warm and soft and feminine. Also stubborn, difficult and outrageous and he didn’t want her to change a thing.
“Oh, Jack,” she said quietly. “This is a really big mess.”
“Yeah, but we’re going to fix it. For one thing, I’ve refused to accept your resignation, so don’t think you can get out of working here.”
“I don’t want to try, but I did think of something that may be significant. While I was in the cab from Helen’s I wrote out a time line.” She pulled a small piece of paper from her purse. “There’s something we’ve all overlooked. The website crashed.”
He stared at her. “What?”
“Remember? The site went down. The tech guys got it up and running. From this end, the site was fine. But when the site came back online, something happened in the server, switching everyone who logged on to the porn site. I think the two incidents are related. I think the whole thing was rigged to be triggered by the rebooting of the website. Which means it could still be an inside job.”
He grabbed her shoulders and swore. “It has to be. That’s the only thing that makes sense. We’ve been talking about how this all feels personal. You haven’t been around long enough for anyone to hate you—”
“Neither have you,” she reminded him.
“I’ve been around my whole life. Even if I wasn’t here, people knew who I was. They knew I wasn’t involved. Then my father dies and I come in and take over.”
“Or maybe someone was angry at your father and wanted to get back at him through the company.”
A real possibility, he thought. He released her and lightly kissed her. “You’re pretty smart.”
She smiled. “One of my many good qualities. So we have this great theory. Now what?”
“We call in a friend.” He walked to the phone and dialed a number. “Roger? It’s Jack. Samantha and I have come up with a possible scenario. If I tell you what it is, can you tell me who is capable of doing it?”
He listened carefully, then thanked the man and hung up.
“Well?” Samantha asked. “Are there any names?”
“Two, and one of them is Arnie.”
* * *
The two men arrived at Jack’s office less than ten minutes later. Samantha took one look at them and knew Arnie was the culprit. The truth was there in the way he wouldn’t meet her eyes.
Jack invited the two men to sit in the chairs by his desk, but before he could start questioning, she walked up to Arnie.
“Why?” she asked softly. “I thought we were friends. We put in all those late nights together. You had great ideas and I listened. I trusted you. I don’t know why you wanted to punish the company and I’ll accept that you probably had a good reason, but you hurt children. Innocent children. What about them?”
Arnie stared at her and slowly blinked. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
The man with him, Matt, shifted in his seat. “Me, either. I didn’t do it, if that’s what you want to find out. The site went down and I worked on that, but I never touched the server.” He swallowed. “I have kids of my own. Two. I wouldn’t do this.”
Samantha never took her gaze off Arnie. “But you would. I thought we were friends.”
Jack moved up behind her and put his hand on her arm. “It’s not about you, Samantha. It’s about me. Am I right, Arnie? It’s about me and my father and the company. Because I have it all now. The old man is gone and I have everything.”
Arnie sprang to his feet. “You don’t deserve it,” he yelled. “You don’t. You never cared about the business. You never respected your father. Did you think I didn’t hear what you said about him? He was a great man. You’ll never be like him. Never.”
Samantha nearly forgot to breathe. “But you were so supportive of the website.”
“He was playing you,” Jack said tonelessly. “He played us all.”
Arnie’s lip curled. “You made it so easy. Both of you. I knew your father. We were friends. He liked me. Did you know he talked about you all the time? He missed you and wanted you in his life and you couldn’t be bothered. George Hanson was a great man and now he’s gone and you don’t deserve to run his business. You don’t deserve to even sweep the floors.”
“So you wanted to take me down,” Jack said. “You knew there was a good chance that I would be ruined by the scandal.”
Arnie shrugged. “I had high hopes.”
Samantha couldn’t believe it. “This was your plan from the beginning?”
“Sure thing, babe. Did you really think you were all that?” His expression turned contemptuous. “I had you all fooled. I don’t care about what happens to me because the company is ruined. You’ll never recover from this. Face it, Jack. You’re screwed. You’ll stay on to save the sinking ship, but it can’t be saved. I made sure of that. The lawsuits will bankrupt you and even before that, no one will ever want to do business with your company again. You’re in charge of a worthless empire. And you have me to thank for it.”
The door opened and Mrs. Wycliff led in the detective and several uniformed officers. They read Arnie his rights and took him away.
Matt excused himself, as did Mrs. Wycliff, leaving Samantha and Jack alone.
He led her over to the sofa and pulled her down next to him.
“I want to say that was easy,” he told her, “but it’s just beginning. Knowing Arnie did it and why doesn’t clean up the mess any faster.”
She snuggled up against him. “At least it gives us a place to start.”
He kissed the top of her head. “Maybe I should just give the board what they want. It’s going to take years to get the company back on its feet.”
She shifted so she could look at him. “Don’t you dare. I mean it, Jack. Your dreams are too important to give up. You have a commitment here, so stay for now. But only on your terms. Don’t walk away from everything you’ve ever wanted just because of this.”
“What if what I want is you?” he asked.
Her heart flopped over in her chest. She felt the movement, along with a rush of gladness. Her mouth curved in a smile.
“I would say that’s a good thing because I want you, too.”
He stared into her eyes. “Seriously?”
“Yes. I’ve spent so much of my life running from the things that frightened me, but I never once stopped to think about what I might be missing out.”
He took her hands in his. “Me, too,” he murmured. “I haven’t wanted to believe love lasts. For me, it didn’t. Now I’m wondering if the reason I couldn’t give my heart to someone else is because I’d already given it to you. I love you, Samantha.”
Her breath caught. “I love you, too. I think I have from the first moment we met.”
“So we wasted ten years?”
“No. We became the people we needed to be to find each other now.”
“I like the sound of that.”
He pulled her close. She went willingly into his arms. They kissed, their lips clinging.
“We can do this,” she told him. “We’ll fix Hanson Media Group, then we’ll get you back to your law firm. You need to become a judge. You’ll look good in black.”
He laughed. “Hell of a reason.”
She grinned. “Okay. You’ll be great at it, too. How’s that?”
“I like how you think.” He kissed her again. “In fact, I like everything about you.”
“I feel the same way about you.”
“Want to get married?”
“Yes.”
“Just like that? You don’t have any questions.”
She stared into his eyes. “I love you, Jack. I trust you and I want to spend my life with you. What questions could I have?”
“I’ll do everything I can to make you happy,” he told her. “I’ll be there for you.”
She knew he would. He always had been.
He put his arm around her. “I’ve been thinking about my brothers. I want to get them to come home. Not just because of the company but because we need to be a family again. You think I could get them back here for a wedding?”
She leaned against him and sighed. “Absolutely. And if they don’t agree, we’ll hunt them down and drag them back. That could be fun.”
He chuckled. “This is why I love you. You always have a plan.”
“It’s one of my best features.”
“And the others?”
“How much I love you.”
“Right back at you, Samantha. For always.”
* * * * *
The Best Laid Plans
Sarah Mayberry
Dear Reader,
I am beyond thrilled that Harlequin is reissuing The Best Laid Plans. I fell for both Ethan and Alex as I wrote this story, and the ending is still one of my favorites. I love how strong Alex is, and how hurt Ethan is—even though neither of them appears that way from the outside looking in.
It’s only when they get to know each other as more than colleagues that they begin to peel away each other’s layers and understand one another—and, of course, that’s when they also fall in love.
One of the other things I really like about this story is that the hero and heroine are both “up there” in terms of age. Often romance is peopled by younger women and slightly older men, but I wanted to write about people who have seen a bit of life and have the scars and baggage to prove it.
I really hope you enjoy The Best Laid Plans. I love to hear from readers, so please drop me a line via my website, www.sarahmayberry.com, if you feel the urge.
Happy reading!
Sarah Mayberry
This was a hard one. Big thanks and hugs and commiserations and air kisses to Chris and Wanda, my frontline pit crew who cheered me on from the sidelines and gave me the occasional kick when I needed it and listened to all my whining and gnashing of teeth.
Also thanks to the Libster for very generously sharing her knowledge of artificial insemination with me.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Epilogue
Chapter One
“Damn your eyes, where did you come from?”
Alexandra Knight plucked at the run climbing the right leg of her panty hose, sending it racing even farther up her leg. When she’d pulled on her hose ten minutes ago, they’d been perfect. And she knew for a fact that there wasn’t another pair anywhere in her apartment since she’d already dragged these ones out of the laundry in desperation.
She checked her watch. She was already in the underground garage of her apartment building. If she went upstairs and changed into a pantsuit, she’d chew up ten minutes, minimum. But if she swung into the convenience store near her downtown Melbourne office, she might make her first meeting. If she hustled.
Decision made, she strode the final few feet to her car and beeped it open. She reversed out of her spot with a rev of the engine, then shot up the ramp and into the street.
The parking gods were smiling on her and she drove straight into a space in front of the minimart on St. Kilda Road. She was out of the car and heading for the door in no seconds flat.
She had three pairs of panty hose in hand when she hurried out the door two minutes later, only to find the sidewalk blocked by a tall blond man attempting to wrangle a complicated-looking stroller that had become entangled with one of the many bags hanging from its handle. She sidestepped, her thoughts on the day ahead. Her corporate client Jamieson was keen to have the contract of sale she was negotiating on their behalf signed off by the end of the week, which meant she had to redraft the contract by this afternoon so they could—
“Alex.”
She turned instinctively.
“Jacob,” she said, one foot on the curb, the other in the gutter, stunned by the unlikely coincidence of seeing her ex. Her gaze dropped to the small body strapped securely in the stroller he was pushing. There was no missing the resemblance between man and child.
He was a father.
Jacob, the man she’d lived with for seven years, the man who had refused to even discuss having a child with her, had had a child with someone else. Some other woman.
For a moment Alex could do nothing but blink.
She had begged him to reconsider his anti-child stance. They’d fought over it so many times she’d lost count. He’d always been so adamant. So certain, even when they were packing their things and going their separate ways.
And now…
She dragged her gaze from his baby to his face. He had the grace to look sheepish.
“I thought you might have heard through the grapevine,” he said.
But she hadn’t. If she’d known… She had no idea what she would have done.
“How old is he?” she asked. Amazing how calm her voice sounded when the rest of her was reeling.
“Four months.”
She flinched. She and Jacob had broken up eighteen months ago. That meant he’d met someone and gotten her pregnant pretty damn quickly.
“Congratulations,” she said, even though she wasn’t feeling the least bit congratulatory. “What’s his name?”
And her. What’s her name, this mysterious, magical woman who got you to cough up your DNA when I couldn’t even get you to discuss becoming a parent after seven years together?
“Theodore. Teddy for short.”
“That was your grandfather’s name, wasn’t it?”
“That’s right.”
He was blushing. And she’d run out of things to say—except for the one burning question that her pride would never allow her to ask: why not me?
Hadn’t he loved her enough? Had she been missing some vital, essential ingredient that had stopped him from fully committing to her?
Her hand curled into a fist. She wanted to hurt him. Punch him in the face. Grab him by the lapels and demand to know why, how, when. Instead, she forced her hand to relax and made a show of checking her watch.
“I really have to go if I’m going to make my first meeting. Good luck with everything, Jacob.”
She stepped blindly into the street.
“Alex. Before you go… Just in case you thought—I mean, it was an accident,” Jacob said.
“What?” Despite herself, she lingered and turned to face him when she should have gotten in her car and driven away.
“Mia didn’t realize she’d missed a pill and then we found out she was pregnant. So, you know, all this was unplanned.” His gesture took in his child, the stroller, the tangled diaper bag.
“Well. I guess that makes it all okay,” she said.
She escaped to the sanctuary of her car. Except it wasn’t really a sanctuary, since Jacob remained where he was, watching her, an expression on his face that was an equal mix of guilt and defensiveness. Alex concentrated on starting the engine so she could get the hell out of here.
She pulled over the moment she was around the corner and out of sight. She stared out the windshield, her hands gripped the steering wheel so tightly that her knuckles ached.
Jacob was a father. He had a beautiful baby boy. With someone else. A woman named Mia, who had “forgotten” to take a pill or two and forced Jacob into a position he had adamantly, passionately, avowedly claimed he wanted to avoid for the entire duration of his relationship with Alex.
He’d named his child Theodore, after his paternal grandfather. He was even on child-care duty, pushing one of the contraptions he’d once dubbed a “blight on civilization” because of the way they choked supermarket aisles and cafés.
She could hear her own breathing, fast and harsh as though she’d just run a race. She told herself that the past was the past and that what Jacob had done once they’d split was nothing to do with her. But not for a minute did she believe it.
The thing was—the thing that stung so bloody bitterly—was that he’d always been so certain about what he wanted. He’d informed her six months into their relationship that he wasn’t interested in having children. By then she’d loved him so much, wanted to be a part of his life so badly, she’d convinced herself that he would change with time. Lots of men did, after all, and they’d both been only thirty. She’d told herself that once he saw his friends have kids, he’d understand the joy and challenges that children could bring. The love and hope and energy. All she’d have to do was wait him out.
And she had. She’d concentrated on achieving partnership at Wallingsworth & Kent and back-burnered her baby dreams until the issue had become a wedge between them.
