Kate Takes Care Of Business (5 page)

Her father sunk back in sofa and closed his eves for a moment. “It’s a good idea Kate and in tune with what I’ve been saying but Hallman and the board will want to see the numbers and a viable business plan. They need proof from a test case before they’d accept the proposal.”

The ongoing strain of dealing with Richard Hallman and the board was clearly exacting a punishing price from her father. His usually lively eyes were dull with weariness and lack of sleep.

Dad twisted his wedding band on his finger. “I’ve played practical business politics with Rich for years. Do you remember those big parties your mother used to throw?”

Kate looked at the gold ring on his finger and knew he would never take it off. She smiled. “Sure, Dad.”

“Most of them were just to smooth over some perceived slight or minor disagreement between us . . . your mother was always so good at that.” He shook his head. “But this is something else. I only hope I can bring him around to at least consider a one-off business case . . . but how am I going to come up with
that
on before the meeting?”

He rose from the sofa. “Sorry for barging in like this but I needed to talk.” He walked to the door. “Thanks Kate.” He arched his brow. “Now get some sleep.”

Kate put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “You too, Dad, We’ll work it out.” She kissed him on the cheek but as she closed the door she wasn’t so certain this time.

CHAPTER SEVEN

Kate slept restlessly and stumbled out of bed to a day as gray and lackluster as yesterday had been blue and exciting. It fitted her sour morning mood perfectly.

She showered and between mouthfuls of her room service delivered omelet dressed in mauve slacks and a rose sleeveless blouse. Gulping her coffee in a plastic mug, she went down to her father’s suite.

Her father’s personal assistant, Lucille Cooper opened the door. “About time you showed up.” The wispy little woman with mouse-colored hair and pale blue eyes scrutinized Kate from behind retro horn-rimmed glasses. “I’ve tried calling several times. Is there a reason I couldn’t get through to you?”

“Not now Lucille.” Kate rubbed her still throbbing temple. “Maybe I should have stayed in Westport.” She brushed by Lucille into the room.

“Your father asked and I told him you were sleeping and that’s why you didn’t pick up.” Lucille said, closing the door. “You were
sleeping
, weren’t you, Kate?”

“Yes, Lucille . . . and
alone
. Didn’t he tell you?” Kate smiled at her. “In case you were interested.”

“Not in the least,” she said earnestly. “You’re a big girl now, Miss Winslow.”

Kate’s father covered his wry grin with his hand and coughed.

Lucille’s motherly concern never failed to amuse Kate and it touched her unexpectedly this morning. She was at low tide, where she began to wonder if she might reconsider her secret promise with Sterling.
Why wait until forty if marrying him could save Dad’s job and the Winslow stake in the company’s future?

She had no idea if Reid would call again or not and quite honestly, she didn’t care. Whatever they had or
might
have had was likely finished. Kate checked for missed calls from Sterling, but there were none.

After helping her father and his team brainstorm ideas for a business plan all morning, Kate took a lunch break back in her room. Walking down the hall to her room she saw Sterling standing outside her door.

His face softened with a warm smile. “Hi.”

Kate opened the door. “Shouldn’t you be picking up your father from the airport?

Sterling followed her inside. “I’ve decided to forgive you for last night and take you dancing. You still like to dance, don’t you?”

Kate shut the door. “Sterling, seriously, where’s your father?”

He tossed his car keys in the air and caught them. “Dear old dad doesn’t like my
aggressive
driving style. I think he chartered a helicopter and he’s much happier in a limo anyway.”

“Look, thanks, but I’m really busy. The shareholder’s meeting is next week in case you’ve forgotten.” She turned away from him. “There are a lot of important issues on the table.” Kate couldn’t dare mention what her father had said about Sterling being possibly elected to the Board of Directors.

Sterling walked up to Kate. She felt the familiar tingle she always got when he stood so close. The soft brushing of his fingers against her cheek only made things worse. For a few moments she recalled the short-lived affair when their eager, lonely bodies joined together as one.

“I thought we should make it a party.” Sterling lowered his hand. “Ask our new friends Liz and Reid. I actually ended up having a pretty good time last night . . . after you left.”

Our new friends?
Kate stepped away and took a deep breath to calm the rising fury inside. “If I never see those two again, it will be too soon.”

“Stop overreacting. I’m not asking them to join our country club.” Sterling laughed and peeked into the bedroom. “Sure, we see some things differently but Liz struck me as very smart and you obviously liked Reid well enough to stand me up for him and go to that dive in the first place.” His face darkened as if offended. “I’m willing to give you a pass so the least you can do is—”

“You don’t have to give me anything. Have your party but count me out.”

Sterling puckered his brow. His threatened explosion of accusations was halted by knocking on the door. “Come on, Sterling.” Lucille spoke briskly from the other side. “Your father is in the lobby and he wants to see you right now.”

Sterling grumbled a curse under his breath. “We’ll talk about this later.”

“What the hell is there to talk about?” Kate opened the door. “Better hurry up. You know how much your dad hates to be kept waiting.”

There was nothing he could say that would make her endure another evening of Liz and Reid’s unbearable company. Her resolution faltered, however, when she thought of her father. It was not a good idea to argue with Sterling at this point and make a bad situation worse between her father and Richard Hallman.

As Sterling walked out in the hall to join Lucille, Kate made a face at him that made Lucille grin. “And don’t you go anywhere either,” she said to Kate. “I’ll be back in about ten minutes.”

Feeling trapped, Kate turned her sullen gaze over Central Park. The trees seemed less vibrant today and the brilliant sun trying to peek out from behind gray clouds did nothing to lift her spirits.

A few minutes later there was another knock at the door. “Come in Lucille,” Kate said, still staring out at the park. “The door’s open.”

“Hello, Beautiful.”

Kate whirled to find Reid, tall and forever uncombed, in the middle of the room with the door closed behind him. She choked with anger that was sharpened by fear. Fear not of him but of herself and what she might do next. She managed a strangled voice. “What are you doing here?”

“You said come in, didn’t you?”

The smile in his eyes contained a sensuous flame Kate found irresistible but today she didn’t want to see it. He offered his most engaging grin but when he saw it wasn’t working he became somber.

“I was expecting someone else so you’d better leave now.”

He stepped toward her. “I had to wait until Sterling left.”

“You were watching my room?” The idea at once thrilled and frightened her at the same time.

“I didn’t want to call you. I had to talk to you alone. I know I’ve made some mistakes since I’ve met you, but you’re making bigger one, Kate.”

A quiver of anticipation touched her spine “About what?”

He was moving toward her, and every nerve in her body cried out to him, to be swept up in his arms.

“About us.” His gray eyes held her blue ones.

Kate’s pulse began to beat erratically. “But I thought I didn’t fit into your picture of the world and you didn’t fit into mine. Isn’t that what you said in the park?”

“I was jealous,” Reid answered quickly, “of you, of the lovely sheltered world that has always been yours.” His face closed, as if guarding a secret. “I was afraid if I offered you something different you’d be miserable and come to hate it . . . and me. I kept thinking about all the things that Sterling Hallman can give you and that I can’t.”

Kate’s soft mouth twisted. “Are you saying you want me to be with him?”

Reid shook his head. He stepped so close that she could feel the warmth of his body. “Sterling isn’t half good enough for you. Now that I’ve met him, he’s nothing but another spoiled rich kid who thinks he’s entitled to everything without giving anything back. It’s bastards like that who dug us into this financial hole in the first place.”

“And is that what you think about me too?”

“No. Maybe you were raised the same but you’re
different
from him. You’re compassionate and sympathetic to those who have less. You have a big heart, Kate. You don’t need his family money so why would you ever marry a man like that?

Kate stood there, amazed, and shaken.
Yes, why would you marry a man like that . . . if you don’t love him?
The reasons she thought were so important were no longer because they weren’t
hers
. Kate stared at Reid, her heart pounding.

“I know I have a lot to learn about becoming the best man I can be.” He took a breath. “But I still have time before I get married.”

“Married? You?”

“Eventually, yeah, even the notorious bachelor Reid Griffin wants to get married and raise a family . . . as crazy as that sounds.” His laughter was tender. His arms reached for her. “Kate, I love you. I knew I did from that first night in Central Park.”

Reid whispered more sweet words into her ear but they sang to Kate like a choir in the room. With a pulse pounding certainty, she knew that she loved him too. She yielded to his hands and raised her face to his firm lips and kissed deeply.

Her eyes closed, Kate floated in soft-scented darkness. Lost in his encircling arms, she pressed herself against his yearning body. “Reid, I love you.” He snuggled her head into the hollow of his shoulder and smoothed her satin black hair. She had believed him callous, but all along her heart had known better.

She felt his masculine intensity and heat rise as a dizzying current of desire raced through her body. They moved together, bound in their frenzied embrace toward the bedroom.

The hotel table phone rang, bringing Kate back to the world around her.
Oh my God, there’s no time. I have to get back to—

Kate broke their breathless embrace. “I’m sorry, Reid I can’t. Not now.”

Reid gasped for breath and stared at the phone. “Then for both our sakes you’d better answer it now or I’m going to rip the damn cord out of the wall.”

Lucille was on the other end. “Kate? Is everything all right?”

Kate swept back her tousled hair. She glanced at herself in the wall mirror. Her clothing was disheveled and her lipstick smeared.

“Kate?” Lucille asked again.

Kate cleared her throat, trying to calm the pounding rhythm in her heart. “I’m fine, Lucille. Is anything wrong?”

“That depends on which end of this line you’re on. Your father wants you to meet Mr. Hallman.”

Kate jerked her head toward the desk clock. Lunch had finished twenty minutes ago and she was expected back in the meeting room. She gasped. “I’m sorry, I . . . I took a little nap and dozed off. I’ll be right down.”

“Too late. They’re coming up to see you.”

“Please, Lucille, not yet. I need time to freshen up.”

There was a pause. “I can stall them for ten minutes so if you have anything that needs to be
freshened up
it better be fresh out the door by the time they arrive.”

“Thanks Lucille. I owe you.”

Somehow Lucille must have known that Reid was with her and that both her father and Sterling’s would be less than overjoyed to see him. Lucille Cooper was smart, a lot smarter than most people in the company gave her credit for. The wispy woman was one of those nondescript people who had the gift of seeing rather than being seen.

Kate put down the receiver and turned to Reid. “You have to go right now. My father and Mr. Hallman will be here any minute now.”

“I didn’t think you and Sterling were on such formal terms.”

“Funny. It’s Richard Hallman and they’re probably in the midst of an argument about our outsourcing plan. It wouldn’t work in our favor if they found you here.”

Reid stared, unmoving. “But why’s that? You said you and Sterling aren’t dating so why would it matter?”

“Because—” Kate stopped herself. This wasn’t the time, because there wasn’t any, or the place to relieve Reid’s suspicions. And if there
was
time that wasn’t the first thing on her list that she wanted to relieve! She looked at him then glanced at the door. “Please, Reid. You have to go. I’ll explain later.”

Reid hesitated. “You have to learn to trust me, Kate.”

“I do but I can’t—”

Reid interrupted with a note of admiration in his voice. “I know your father is risking everything with this plan and because of that he’s a better man than I gave him credit for in my columns. I’m on his side with this . . .” He drew Kate back to him and kissed her gently. “Which means I’m on
yours
. . . if you’ll let me.”

The rich outlines of his shoulders strained against his cotton shirt. She clung to him for a heartbeat then pushed him from her. “Reid, you have to go. Please.”

He kissed her once more on the mouth then turned and hurried to the door.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Five minutes later, Kate opened the door to greet her father and Richard Hallman. Thankfully, both men were tense and too absorbed in their own conflict to notice Kate’s agitation.

“Hello, Katey,” said Mr. Hallman, giving her a quick hug. That had been his nickname for her since she was in ponytails. She didn’t mind . . . as long as no one else called her that.

Richard Hallman was a huge man with thinning hair. He had probably once looked as athletic as Sterling did but he had gone to beef. He had a triple layer of chins and an enormous paunch. His chins seemed to quiver with indignation and hurt.