Dear Diary (8 page)

Her phone buzzed imperatively. “Don Tisdale’s just come from Mr. Kern’s office and he’s moving fast toward your office,” Pamela, the floor receptionist, revealed in an undertone on the intercom.

Rory’s lips twisted. “I’m ready,” she said.

“Five, four, three, two—”

The door to her office blew open. Don Tisdale, immaculate in a three-piece dark pinstripe suit, charged forward, his normally perfect, plastered-down, brown hair frayed and standing on end.

“Bingo,” Pamela murmured and clicked off.

“I just talked with Mr. Kern,” Don began without preamble. “They sold!”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, Jacobson & Kern. They sold the company!”

“No.” Rory was astounded. “They couldn’t have. We would have known about it before.”

“That’s what
I
said,” Don sputtered. “After all the rumors about this person or that person, or this company or that company… I just never believed they’d go through with it.” Don was beside himself. “They signed the papers last night.”

Rory sank down into her desk chair, her mind racing. Don had been with Jacobson & Kern for years; Rory since out of college. Neither was eager to have new employers, nor did they want to beat the street for an equitable position with another firm.

“I guess this isn’t really a surprise,” she said slowly.

He made a strangled sound. “Yes, it is. The whole damn company’s been pulled out from under us!”

“We’re still employed.”

His face turned so red he looked as if he were about to burst a blood vessel. “But for how long? In this economy? We might as well kiss our asses goodbye.”

Rory remained calm. Over the ten years she and Don had worked together, she’d gotten used to his tantrums and outbursts. “Whoever’s bought us out will look at our work records and make their decision on that. There’s no reason to get hysterical.”

“Easy for you to say,” Don muttered, flinging himself into a chair. “You look great on paper.”

Rory ignored him. Yes, her ten years as an investment advisor had awarded her a nice job in an enviable career. She did her job well. Not remarkably, perhaps, but soundly. People liked her. They trusted her. She was calm and knowledgeable. Trustworthy. Dependable. Good old Rory Camden.

Nick had once told her she possessed an adventurous spirit. No way. She was successful and happy and it all came from doing the job right. Period.

“Do you know who bought us out?” she asked.

Don gave her a strange look. “You don’t have to play coy with me, Rory. Really.”

“What are you talking about?”

“You know who it is.”

She stared at him, baffled. “Sorry, Don. I’m in the dark.”

“Well, he called
you
didn’t he? I saw the note on your desk earlier.”

A haunting sense of awareness swept through Rory. “Nick Shard has bought Jacobson & Kern?” she asked, her voice sounding strange and far away. She started to laugh, at first in small chuckle, then with huge gasps of air until her eyes burned with tears.

“What’s so damned funny?” Don demanded.

She shook her head, unable to answer. For several hours she’d thought… what? That Nick was about to make a reappearance in her life? That he was lonely and longed for the friendship they’d once shared? That he’d
wanted
plain old Rory? How unbelievably ridiculous. He’d merely bought another investment company. It just happened to be the one she worked for.

“Since you seem incapable of getting your vocal cords in gear again and explaining what’s so hilarious about a San Francisco firm buying us out, I’ll—”

“Don, Nick’s from the Seattle area. Piper Point, to be exact. He and I went to school together.”

Rory was certain she’d never seen a blanker look in her life than the one on Don Tisdale’s face. “My God!” he blurted. “Why am I talking to you? You’re going to make out like a bandit!”

“I have no idea what Nick is like as a boss, but I guarantee his success has been because he’s hired good people and made wise decisions. I’m not going to make out like a bandit. Everyone here will be judged on merit, believe me.”

Too late, she realized she’d inadvertently hit a sore spot with Don. “That Marsden fiasco is going to be thrown in my face again,” he muttered furiously. “And it wasn’t even my fault.”

Don had talked one of Jacobson & Kern’s clients, John Marsden, into investing in a building renovation project on the outskirts of Seattle just before the economic downturn. That part of the city hadn’t taken off as Don had predicted and now the building was still nearly empty. Marsden had lost a bundle. Ten months ago Marsden had finally moved his Jacobson & Kern business investments to another Seattle firm, and though Jacobson & Kern had handled only a small portion of the man’s vast wealth, it was still a deadly blow to both the company and Don Tisdale.

And despite Don’s protests, it
was
his fault. Rory had even tried to talk him out of the investment at the time.

She was smart enough not to point that out.

“Well, I’m not going to go down without a fight,” Don muttered, jumping to his feet and smoothing his hair. “If Nick Shard tries to let me go, he’ll be facing a lawsuit. See you at the meeting. It ought to be fun.”

He stalked out of her office, puffed up with injustice. Through new eyes, Rory looked down at the note she’d written.
Return Nick Shard’s call… if you have the nerve.

If you have the nerve
. And now he was going to be her boss? She wasn’t certain how to feel. What was Nick thinking of, buying a Seattle firm? If the papers had been signed last night, that must mean he was in the city. Yet all he had done was leave a voicemail at her office. She’d been home all evening and still, he hadn’t rung to deliver the news personally.

“I suppose I’m lucky he even knew I worked here,” she said aloud to the empty room. Glancing once again at her watch, she realized the meeting was in less than ten minutes.

Would Nick be there?
she wondered nervously.

Insanity. That’s what it was. Pure insanity.

Nick sat at the large, round conference table in the Jacobsen & Kern boardroom. He even liked the fact that the table was round. Straight out of Camelot. The whole thing was perfect. And best of all, Rory Camden was one of Jacobson & Kern’s sterling employees.

Rory. He couldn’t think of her without smiling. What was she going to say when she found out? Plenty, he thought with a grin.

In front of him were the contracts he’d signed, along with Paul Kern and Charles Jacobson. He’d never seriously believed they would sell to him. Sure, he was a Washington boy, but he’d defected to San Francisco. A serious charge. When he’d told them he was moving back, that he’d already purchased the condominium on Lake Washington, then Charles Jacobson had pulled an ancient pen from his breast pocket and signed his name to the bottom of the contract without another word. Paul Kern had followed suit. And in a kind of delayed shock, Nicholas Shard became sole owner of the prestigious investment firm.

He would have to sell his San Francisco firm to make the deal, but he felt little regret. The decision to move to California had been made right after the divorce, when he wasn’t thinking very soundly, when he was running away. He’d only wanted to escape. But he’d wanted to come back for a long, long time, and now, to be the owner of Jacobson & Kern… Why, even his own father with his grandiose ideas and expectations wouldn’t have expected his son to succeed so well.

Nick’s smile faltered as he was attacked by poignant memories. If only his father had lived to see this day. Recurring heart problems had finally taken his life. And his mother’s health had deteriorated so swiftly after his father’s death, Nick could hardly credit it. She was not the same woman she’d been by any stretch of the imagination, and it felt as if he’d lost them both. He’d still been married then, precariously, but things with Jenny had been on a rapid downhill slide. Jenny had not understood his utter grief over his father’s passing; she’d never had that kind of relationship with either of her parents.

Rory had called to offer condolences and hearing her voice had nearly been Nick’s undoing, though he’d carefully kept the worst of his grief from showing. Given half a chance, he would fall into Rory’s arms and walk away from his marriage. She understood him what he was going through. Jenny didn’t. But then Nick made the unforgivable mistake of telling Jenny he’d talked to Rory and a fight began between them that ended with Jenny accusing him of being in love with Rory and Nick responding with harsh words about
their
relationship, how it wasn’t working out, how cracks were showing in the foundation, how it seemed like maybe the wrong choice had been made when they decided to marry.

Well… that had gone over like the proverbial lead balloon.

Jenny had walked out, tears standing in her eyes. Nick had damn near run to Rory right then, but, of course, Jenny had strained that friendship too. It was Jenny to whom he should turn, he knew, but he couldn’t make himself. He apologized later, for hurting her, but it was too little too late, and honestly he hadn’t really cared all that much. He’d made a mistake with Jenny. She wasn’t who he thought she was.

Nick slid paperclips from the contract and absently began pulling it apart. Jenny wasn’t Rory, and though he’d known that at the time and accepted it, he hadn’t really known Jenny. She’d managed to cover up the worse of character traits before they were married, or maybe he’d just refused to see them, but then later, when he did know her better, he was shocked and appalled at the extent of her narcissism. Their marriage ran along its rocky course until everything fell apart after his father died and he realized Jenny just didn’t have the depth of feeling he needed in another person.

Just before his divorce was finalized he’d called Rory. “I’m getting divorced,” he told her baldly on the phone.

After a sharp intake of breath Rory answered, “Wow, I don’t know what to say.”

“How about, ‘I told you so.’”

There was a long hesitation, then she said lightly, “I was thinking more like, ‘I’m sorry. You okay?’, but I could go with ‘I told you so’.”

He’d been undone by her candor. If he could’ve, he would’ve reached right through the phone and kissed her. “You never said it at the wedding, but you were thinking it.”

“There’s no accounting for people’s choices,” she said.

“Jenny was a bad one, huh?”

“She was your choice, that’s all,” she sidestepped. “Don’t make this about me. You married her. She was your wife. I’m going to leave it at that.”

“You’ve managed to stay away from that mistake.”

“Marriage? More like it’s managed to stay away from me.” As if hearing herself, she added quickly, “Not that I’m looking for it. And hey, don’t worry. You’ll get over it. My father did.”

Was there bitter irony in her words? Nick had never been quite sure. He knew she’d suffered during the time of her parents’ divorce, but she’d never said exactly what happened. Obviously she blamed her father. Well, why not? The guy had remarried almost immediately.

Nick didn’t recall the rest of the conversation. It was good to know that Rory was still there, still irreverent and still sane. She’d emailed him a couple of times after that, but he’d been too mired in the emotional toll from his pending divorce to reply.

Nick grimaced. No, that wasn’t the truth. The truth was he hadn’t known what to say to Rory after that. In a strange way, he’d divorced her as well as Jenny. All he’d wanted was out. Out of Seattle and out of his marriage. He’d seen Rory one other time when he’d been on his way to see her and she suddenly walked out of the building with a guy. They were heading to lunch, he’d realized, and he’d suddenly rethought just dropping in to see her. He didn’t know what their relationship was but instead of interrupting her lunch plans Nick had just walked away. Since then he’d stayed in San Francisco. He’d forfeited Rory’s friendship and that was his one regret. But now he had a chance to put that right.

A soft knock sounded on the boardroom door. “It’s open,” he called.

The door widened and Rory Camden stepped inside the room.