by Jill Snow
“I don’t know. A week, maybe two. Maybe longer. Will you miss it?”
Gertie looked around her. “I know it doesn’t look like much, but it’s home. And I have wonderful friends here. Nurse Kathy is lovely, too.”
“Yes, we met.”
“Already? You do get around, don’t you?”
“It’s not like that.” Then Conor started to laugh at the look the old woman sent him. “You’re teasing me.”
“Yes, I am, young man, and having great fun doing it. My life has been rather dull lately. This excitement is just what the doctor ordered.”
Conor doubted that but he didn’t disagree. He picked up her bag and said, “After you, ma’am.”
“Let’s go see Joe, he’s my closest friend in here.”
Conor followed Gertie down the corridor to Joe’s room. He held the door open for Gertie. The room was similar to the one Gertie lived in.
“Gertie, are you going out?”
“Joe, I am going away for a week or so with my granddaughter Emily and this young man, Conor Dunne.”
Conor stepped forward and shook the old man’s hand. He had a surprisingly hard grip for his age.
“Nice to meet you. Do you know what you’re doing taking on bringing Gertie out in public? She tends to let her mouth run away with her.” The man’s eyes were teasing but the expression on his face when he looked at Gertie was one of adoration.
“You behave yourself, Joe Johnston. Now, will you feed Tibbles for me?” Gertie asked.
“That mangy old cat. Why can’t you leave him to fend for himself?”
“Joseph Johnston, don’t try and pretend you don’t love that cat as much as I do.”
“It’s a flea-bitten monster.”
“He is not. He’s just old and lonely. Needs a little tender care in his life. Now promise.”
“Yes, Gertie.”
“Good man. I will bring you back a present when I get back.”
“Just bring yourself back safe and sound, darling. That’s enough for me,”
Uncomfortable at intruding on what seemed to be a tender moment, Conor walked over to the window and pretended the view outside was fascinating.
Chapter 29
Emily stood in the reception area, wondering what on earth was taking her grandmother and Conor so long. She hoped her grandmother hadn’t totally embarrassed her. Goodness only knew what she would say to Conor. She was tempted to call him to find out how long they would be but that looked desperate. Instead, she called Carrie.
“Hey, girl, how are you?”
“Fine, thanks. How are things there?’
“That Steven guy is very hot. I think we could be onto a good thing.”
“What about Jack, the model guy?”
“Jack who?”
Emily laughed. “Carrie, you are incorrigible.”
“No, I’m not. I am young, free and single—unless, of course, Steven wants to change that. He’s so fit and his clothes—someone must sew him into his pants every morning.”
“Carrie, if you can get your mind out of the gutter and tell me what’s happening on the business front, I’d like to know.”
“All is fine. Jason is grumpy, he doesn’t like Steven. Probably because he’s turned all the girls’ heads. Nothing on your stalker. He hasn’t said a word online.”
“What’s the story over at Sunny Studios?” Emily asked.
“You tell me. You have the inside scoop, what with shacking up with tall, dark and broody.”
“He’s not broody, he’s just deep and thoughtful.” Emily immediately regretted saying that as now Carrie wouldn’t leave her alone.
“Are you falling for Mr. Dunne?” Carrie asked, almost squealing.
“Carrie. As if. I have work to do.”
“You work too hard, Emily. I’m serious. Conor Dunne seems to be a nice guy. He’s loaded, sensitive and owns a gaming company. What more could a girl ask for?”
“Speaking about gaming, how did the betas like the changes we made to Warrior Queen?”
“Okay. Change the subject, then.” Carrie laughed. “They loved them. They’re clamoring for the launch date to be moved up. Jason said no.”
“Why? Because of the Christmas market?”
“He didn’t give a reason, just no. I think he misses you, Emily. He’s downright sulky.”
Emily spotted Conor and her grandmother coming her way. “Got to go, Carrie. Will check in with you later.”
“Okay. Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”
Laughing, Emily hung up. Conor raised his eyebrows but didn’t ask any questions.
“You good to go, Nana?”
“Yes, darling. Can’t wait to see our new lodgings. Conor says he has a room with a view.”
“I bet he does,” Emily murmured under her breath and immediately felt bad. He was doing her a favor. Why was she so disgruntled? Was it because he had turned her whole world upside down?
Conor chatted with Gertie the whole way home as Emily seemed to have lost the ability to talk. She’d been on the phone when he had walked into reception. Maybe there had been more threats, but he couldn’t very well ask her. Not in front of her nana.
“So where in Ireland do you come from?” Gertie asked.
“I grew up just outside of Dublin city, near the sea.”
“Our family is from Ireland, too. Isn’t it, Emily?’
“Nana! The Irish side of our family got off the boat two hundred years ago. We’re hardly Irish.”
“See what I have to put up with, Conor?”
Conor just smiled, although he was now even more worried. Emily had been patient with her nana, yet now she was bristling. He couldn’t wait to get her alone, make her talk to him and tell him what was going on.
“Here we are.” He pulled up outside of his apartment.
“You live here? It looks like a skyscraper,” Gertie commented.
“Well, it’s tall, but it’s home,” he replied.
“Doesn’t feel like a home. Feels like an office.”
Conor burst out laughing at the same time as Emily said, “Nana!”
“Sorry, Conor, my grandmother has forgotten her manners.”
“I have not. I say it how I see it. It does look like an office. Does it look better on the inside?”
Conor didn’t want to answer that. His place looked like a hotel suite. He knew it, but it suited him. He didn’t spend a lot of time there. He decided to let Gertie make up her own mind. He parked the car in the underground car park and called the elevator to his apartment. As he did, he showed Emily the relevant codes she would need. “You can use the guest space for your car.”
Emily nodded but remained quiet. Gertie linked her arm through his and they ascended in silence.
“You’re right, it’s a lovely view,” Gertie said once they’d reached his apartment.
“Nana!”
“What’s wrong now? I said he had a lovely view. I didn’t comment about the fact that nothing else looks homey. Or how it’s hard to imagine anyone even lives here.”
Emily flushed bright red. “Oh, my goodness, Nana, can you stop. Conor, I’m sorry she’s so rude.”
“She’s being honest. My own granny would have said the same thing. Sure, it’s missing a woman’s touch, but it’s near the office and I travel so much, I don’t miss anything. Let me show you to your rooms.”
He gave Gertie the bigger of the two guest rooms, thinking Emily would want her gran to be spoiled. Also it had an en suite which would help the older woman feel more comfortable. They left Gertie playing with the various appliances, of which the giant TV seemed to be her favorite.
Chapter 30
Conor escorted Emily to his room. “You can stay here if you like.”
He realized she’d misunderstood his intentions when she turned bright red.
“Sorry, I meant alone, not with me. I didn’t mean us to…well, you can have the choice of this or the smaller guest room. I am staying at a friend’s p
lace.”
It took a couple of seconds for her to answer him. Did that mean she would have liked him to stay?
“Why? I don’t want to push you out of your home.”
“Really, it’s no trouble. My friend down the hall is away and I thought it would make you feel more comfortable to have the place to yourselves.”
“That’s sweet of you, but not necessary. I can stay in the other guest room and Nana can be our chaperone.”
A chaperone. Did she think she needed one? That was a good sign. He took a step closer to her and she didn’t move away. He put her case on the bed behind her before putting his hands on her shoulders. She looked up into his face, her tongue darting out to wet her lips. Did she have any idea how tempting she was?
“Conor?”
Her soft voice brought him back to his senses. Almost.
He looked into her eyes and then brought his head down slowly, to meet hers. She didn’t move away so he took that as a yes. Her lips were so soft and inviting. She moved closer to him so he put his hands up into her hair, massaging the back of her head. She put her arms around him, making him deepen the kiss. She tasted of mint as well as her own sweet scent.
He broke away before his restraint fled.
“So are you going to sleep here?” He expected her to decline. She wasn’t the type of girl who fell into a man’s bed, whether he was in it or not.
“I could sleep in the guest room, save you from moving out. I would feel more comfortable,” she said, her voice trembling with what he hoped was passion.
“I don’t know if I could sleep knowing you were next door.”
She swatted his arm. “Conor!”
“Great, now you’re talking to me like you were talking to your gran.”
“I need you to know that I…I mean, it’s not that I don’t like you but I can’t…” she turned various shades of pink before he came to her rescue.
“I won’t ask you to do anything you’re not comfortable with. I love kissing you. But I promise to behave.”
They were interrupted by a rap on the door. “Can I come in? Are you both decent?”
“Nana!” Emily said at the same time as he said “Gertie!”
Chapter 31
They burst out laughing as her grandmother came in. Despite having moved away from each other, her grandmother seemed to know she had interrupted something. Emily walked over to give her grandmother a hug. She had uprooted the old lady and her nana had hardly complained. Not really.
“I think I might like living here after all. You got more channels on TV, for one thing. And the kitchen is fairly swanky, too. The bathtub is the size of a pool, though. Did you never think of conserving water?”
“I’ve never used it. I prefer to shower.”
Emily tried to concentrate on something other than Conor and their kiss. She walked to the door. “Where is the other guest room?” Turning to her grandmother, she explained quickly, “Nana, Conor has decided not to stay in his friend’s house after all.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised.”
Emily wanted to hit her nana as the old lady looked at her and Conor, with a smug, self-satisfied expression on her face. Instead, she opted to find the guest room following Conor’s instructions. It was smaller than the other two bedrooms but still bigger than her own bedroom. She put her bag on the bed trying to resist the urge to jump on top of it and do cartwheels. It was huge.
“You don’t have as nice a view as we have but it will do, I guess,” Nana said, her eyes glowing with laughter.
“Nana, are you trying to rile me up? Conor doesn’t have to put us up.”
“Sure, he’ll enjoy it. Don’t like living on your own, do you, son?” Nana asked Conor.
Conor colored as Emily stared at her nana. She was calling Conor Dunne, the billionaire, son? Oh, please let the ground open up and swallow her now.
“Now, ladies, where would you like to go for lunch? I am starving.”
“Me, too. I could eat a horse,” her nana said.
“My tastes don’t go that far Gertie, but I can recommend a nice Chinese restaurant or Indian if, you prefer?’
“Do you have that fast food chicken place close by?”
Emily giggled at the look of consternation on Conor’s face before her nana put him out of his misery. “Only joking. Chinese sounds lovely. But first we should get changed. Emily, you need to put some make-up on.”
Make up? What was her nana up to now?
“I think Emily looks beautiful as she is. Unless, of course, she wants to freshen up?” Conor said. Nana gave him an assessing look.
“I’m good,” Emily managed to squeak. He liked her even without make up. She knew she wasn’t ugly, but only super models got away with going out without makeup. Didn’t they? That’s what Jason and every boyfriend she ever had, had thought.
They walked to the restaurant, which wasn’t far away at all. Conor had introduced her and her grandmother to the security staff on the front desk. He had also ordered two guest keys, one for each of them. Nana had tried to decline, worried she might lose it, but Conor had insisted, telling her he didn’t want her to think she was a prisoner. Emily’s heart swelled watching Conor with her grandmother. He was so thoughtful and caring. It seemed to come naturally to him.
It didn’t take long to reach the restaurant. Not being used to Chinese food, Nana let Conor order for her. The food was sensational, as was the wine Conor selected to go with it. But the company was even better. Emily almost forgot why they were there with Conor. He kept the both of them entertained with stories from Ireland and also from his early days of investing.
“What made you start investing in companies?”
“It was a school project, Gertie. We had to come up with ideas on how to raise a million euros. My classmates were all for getting a loan from the bank, but I don’t like banks. Or at least I didn’t back in those days. So I decided there had to be another way. I worked out that the company could be split and sold in different parts. Each part could be a sustainable business but focus on what it did best, thereby becoming more profitable in the future.”
“I bet your folks are proud of you.”
The look on Conor’s face said otherwise. Emily sucked in her breath, as she glimpsed the pain in his eyes.
“Nana, did you ever try seaweed before? This is just delicious.”
Conor squeezed her hand under the table. She squeezed his back, hoping to show him some comfort.
Conor asked her nana some questions about the retirement home. When Emily wondered why he was being so inquisitive, he explained what he had seen while he was waiting for them to pack.
“Oh, yes, we get some nasty staff. They are people who need the money rather than have a gift for working with people. If I had my way, people like Nurse Kathy would get paid more than football players. She does an amazing job, works all the hours God sends and for what? So she can scrape by? She has two children, and they will never have the benefits my Emily and you have had. She’ll never be able to afford to send them to college. She says they are doing well in school. Poor girl feels guilty about not being able to provide them with a better future, but what else can she do?”
“It isn’t a fair world, that’s for certain,” Conor said.
“No, it isn’t, but today isn’t the day for discussing that. I like hearing about Ireland. Always wanted to go there. But it was never the right time.”
“It’s a beautiful place for sure, but it’s always raining. At least it seems to be always raining. If we could take some of the sunshine from here and put it in Ireland, there wouldn’t be a better place to live in the whole world.”
“Does your family mind you being so far away?”
“Nana, not everyone wants to discuss their private life,” Emily reminded her.
“Sorry, Conor, I didn’t mean to intrude. I was just making conversation. Emily will tell you I am far too direct for my own good.”
“It’s fine. I just don’t
like speaking much about my family. My granny, God rest her, was like you, Gertie. Spoke her mind. She wasn’t cruel, not intentionally anyway, but she didn’t believe in the old flannel.”
Emily didn’t understand what he meant.
“It’s a saying in Ireland. You know, when you’re trying to butter someone up or be nice to them because they are important in their eyes or you need something from them. Granny didn’t believe in that. She treated everyone the same, from the road sweeper to the local priest. The priest felt she showed a lack of respect but I think that was what God intended. We should treat everyone equally regardless of where they come from or how much money they have in their wallet. I miss her. She died before I could take her to travel the world. She wanted to see Australia, in particular.”
“She sounds like my type of woman.”
“She was. She was my father’s mother but in their case, they couldn’t have been more different.”
“Is your father dead, too?” Nana asked.
“Yes. He died when I was ten.”
“I am sorry to hear that, Conor. A boy needs his father, especially when they are young. In an ideal world, they would have two parents to love them.”
“Well, in my case I would have settled for Nana. Mam tried her best, I guess. She’s an alcoholic.”
“Oh, Conor, I didn’t know that,” Emily said, feeling horrible her grandmother had brought up all his demons.
“I’m glad you don’t. It’s one thing I try to keep out of the gossip pages. Anyway, Mam is sober now, well at least she says she is. We haven’t met in some time. Granny died when I was twenty-two, just before I made my first million. So there you have it. The Dunne family history in a nutshell.”
Emily took Conor’s hand again and held it tightly. “I am so sorry,” she whispered. He glanced at her but didn’t reply.
Gertie busied herself eating her food. For once she seemed lost for words. Then she shocked Emily.
“It can be a cruel world. Emily’s parents were the best. My son was a wonderful father and husband and his wife was an amazing woman. She brought out the best in everyone. The day they were killed—well, the sun went out in my world. But I had Emily to bring up and so I worked at that. I tried to do the best job I could.”