Jess plopped down beside me with a sigh. “Cole wants me to be a lawyer. In case you hadn’t noticed, he does like setting things up for me,” she said dryly. “Much like he’s done here with you. Don’t worry.” She patted my hand. “This is one of his better ideas. He likes organizing us lame ducks.”
“Lame ducks?” I cast Jess a sideways glance.
“Yeah, you know… Down on your luck, need a favor, need a friend. Cole laps up crap like that.” Jess bounced out of her seat again and headed off to get ready for class.
Leaving the smile to slide from my face. Lame duck? No. Cole didn’t see me like that…did he? A cold chill traveled down my spine and I thought back to the day at Crovens, how quickly he’d come up with the solution involving Jess. Was it to keep an eye on her…or to keep an eye on me?
I shook my head. Cole hadn’t liked me then. Even now, he couldn’t take me seriously…
And never would if he was paying my way.
Shit. A queasy feeling settled in the pit of my stomach. He didn’t really need me to babysit Jess. He’d done it to help me out too. I lowered my head into my hands.
I’d thought I was so brave going against my mother, hiding the truth about my relationship with Logan. But really, all I’d done was trade one lie for another, relying on Cole to run my life. I hadn’t wanted to ruffle the peaceful waters or cause grief. It was easier to bob along to someone else’s tune, so I never incurred their disappointment. Or their wrath.
When had I become so reliant on placating others I’d stopped thinking for myself?
Rolling my shoulders to release the build-up of tension, I scrolled back to the top of the page, determined to read each of the employment opportunities again. Soon I’d have to end this charade with my mother and take control of my life.
To do that, I needed money. And to get money, I needed a job.
“Experience, experience, experience.” I clicked through job adverts, one after another, after another. “Shit.” It seemed even waitresses needed experience these days, and funnily enough, no one was in the market for an ex-pageant queen who could babysit twenty-two year old women. Go figure.
“Can I borrow that red and black sweater I wore last week?” Jess poked her head around the door. “It goes great with my spangly tights.”
“Spangly?” I pushed aside my mounting despair to look down my nose at Jess. “Spangly is not in the fashion vocab. Sparkly perhaps, or even sequined. Never spangly.”
“So sorry.” Jess held back her laughter enough to deliver a mock apology. “I meant to say my bejazzled tights. Not to be confused with ve-jazzled, because believe me when I say that’s another thing entirely.”
“Oh, I believe you,” I spluttered, shaking my head. Seriously, the things that came out of that girl’s mouth… “And yes, you can wear my sweater. Or…” I drew out the sound, tempting my friend. “I have something that would look even better.”
Jess’s tongue was practically hanging out by the time I joined her at my huge walk-in closet. One thing Jess and I had in common was our love of fine clothes. I had given Jess free range, seeing as I’d never get around to wearing half of it anyway.
“Go ahead and take a look while I find what I have in mind.” I nodded toward the racks and headed for the large set of drawers where my jumpers were neatly folded between layers of tissue. No doubt Jess would dig up something other than spangly tights. I shuddered. I was counting on it.
“What’s this? Is it new?”
A gasp and the crinkle of plastic heralded Jess’s find. I knew exactly what had caught her eye. Straightening, I watched Jess peek through the plastic at the stunning designer gown I was to show off at St. Mathew’s ball in a few weeks’ time.
The hospital ball. The one my mother was attending as one of the patrons.
My stomach clenched tight.
The one I was supposed to go to with Logan.
“I’m modeling it for a charity.” I cast my eye over the exquisite glittering gown. There was fierce competition to secure the largest donation for the hospital from selling each garment. The designer had allowed me to bring the centerpiece of his collection home so I could play around with my walk and show off the gown to its full advantage.
I pulled a silver and black jumper from the drawer and handed it to Jess. “This will look super-cute with your spanglies,” I teased. “And grab that silver belt.” I pointed to the rows of accessories hanging on hooks behind the door. “It’ll go perfectly.”
“Are these the shoes that go with the gown?” Jess ignored my offer, too busy hauling the matching nine-inch plaited stilettos from the bottom of the bag. She clutched them to her chest, petting them like they were precious. “Oh my god. I have to try these.” She threw herself on the ground and fumbled with her laces, trying to get her shoes off so she could wear the ridiculously, precarious heels.
“Ah, no can do. Sorry, the designer made me promise on my life not to touch them until the show.” I scooped up the shoes. Jess would have to slobber on them from afar. No way could I let her teeter around and break her damn ankle. Cole would never forgive me.
Jess pouted. Until I drew the gown out of the dry cleaning bag to show her the full effect. The strapless bodice linked in a series of gold knotted thread, flaring into volumes of gold and black gossamer silk. Jess stood, mesmerized, running her fingers over the sleek fabric.
“Yeah. It does that to you, doesn’t it?” I agreed.
“I’ll make Cole go. If he sees you in this, he’ll totally spend a fortune buying that dress for you. And then I can borrow it!”
Cole at the ball. A whole Cinderella dream sequence unfolded in my head…until I got to the part where Logan appeared at my side.
“Uh. No. I don’t think that’s a good idea. It’s really expensive to get tickets.” I wrinkled my nose. “And the food is never that great.”
Jess’s eyes were still shining. “It’s for charity. Cole can appreciate that.”
“Knowing how Cole feels about the rich and famous, I doubt it.”
“We can’t always wait for Cole to be okay about everything,” Jess grumbled. She grabbed up her bundle of clothes and flounced out to get changed.
Leaving me to get back to my laptop and my résumé, feeling guilty as hell about living one life, but having people believe I lived another. It was getting complicated. Noelle had called the other day wondering why I hadn’t been back to lunch with the girls, and I had spun some lie instead of telling the truth.
That I’d never be back.
Why had I lied? Did part of me still want my old life, where I didn’t have to worry about money? Where decisions were made for me? All I had to do was show up and look beautiful.
I sure as hell wouldn’t have to worry about finding a job. I shut down my laptop with a snap. My résumé was a jumble of pretty words that didn’t mean anything. I was never going to get work this way.
It would be easier to go back to the life I’d known.
Glittering balls, expensive dresses…life lived on the surface.
Except something in me had changed. The cage door was open and the air of freedom beckoned. I would do anything to stay on the outside, even if it was hard and horrible and confusing. Better than sitting in captivity, knowing how much more there was out here.
And there was something I could do, I realized. Someone I knew in human resources who owed me. I tapped my fingers against the table, mind racing. Logan had already been paid for the privilege of being my ex-fiancé, thanks to my generous allowance. He must have some idea of the kind of job I would be suitable for. Maybe he even knew of something.
Yes. It was time for Logan to start earning his money.
Chapter Twenty
Madison
I had thought it would be tough persuading Logan to help me. Instead, he’d listened to my problems, leaned forward with a look of intrigue…and offered me a job.
Now I was having a tough time convincing him what a bad idea it would be to work for him.
&
nbsp; “Surely there must be another way. Another company. I need a job, but—”
“Exactly. You need money. Experience. I can give you that.” He jabbed his finger into the air. “In fact, I’ve been toying with the idea of trialing a junior exec admin program.” His eyes gleamed as he looked me up and down. “It’d be perfect for you.”
Perfect? Yes. But what would Cole say when he found out? Getting a job with Logan could hardly change his low opinion of me.
“It’s not quite what I had in mind,” I started carefully.
Logan’s grin faded and his expression grew harder. “What, working in administration too good for you? Sorry to tell you this, babe.” He gave the word a hard edge. “But you’re not going to get a better offer.”
“No, it’s not that…” I protested. Then stopped.
I was doing it again. Living my life to suit other people, too scared to take a risk because I worried how it would look to someone else. Logan was right. I wouldn’t get a better offer. And I couldn’t let Cole dictate my decision, not when he wasn’t even going to be around much longer.
That last thought caught at my chest and I lifted my chin. “So, how does this work?” I turned to Logan with a smile of acceptance. “You keep my money but give me a job here?”
“Yes. It’ll just something simple. It’s not as if you’ll have any clue what you’re doing.”
I let him away with the insult, although it stung a little. I might not have had a full education, but I wasn’t stupid. “I know enough to go to your father and explain why I need a job,” I snipped back, holding Logan’s stare to show him just how smart—and serious—I could be.
“Touché.” He flashed his patented naughty grin. “What happened to you, Madison? You’ve changed. Gotten all sassy.” He licked his lips.
“Perhaps this is who I was all along?” I suggested.
“I don’t think so.”
I puffed out a sigh. Logan was right. This is who I’d always wanted to be. The real Madison St. James had been buried long ago.
“What do I need to do?” I wanted to get on with it, before I lost my nerve and backed down. This was the first time I’d done something rash since the night I’d met Cole in the bar. And look what that had gotten me. My life turned upside down. For me to make it the right way up, this was one step I needed to make on my own.
“Can we get started?” I stood up.
“Yes.”
I tried to ignore the fact Logan eagerly rubbed his hands together.
Yet, I couldn’t fault his assistance in organizing my new job. He’d shown me how to enroll at the temping agency, fill out forms in the most flattering way and fudge my résumé with a bit of creative padding.
Once all of my paperwork was in place, Logan contacted the agency looking for a mature junior administrator and, not surprisingly, I fitted all the criteria for the position perfectly. I now had a short-term contract to work for Noah Chatterton, an up-and-coming engineer at Crovens, who was happy to trial the new assistant program Logan had created to improve productivity. I was due to start on the other side of the weekend.
The only thing marring my excitement at finding my first job was the fact I still hadn’t told Cole. I might have been all fired up about my decision to get on with life, but when it came to sharing my future plans to Cole, I plain chickened out.
The timing never seemed quite right. Cole was preoccupied, which created a convenient excuse for me to back out whenever I tried to broach the subject. The only good thing—if you could call it that—was that Cole wasn’t talking either. He was clearly worried about something. Something to do with his work. But he shut me down whenever I asked about it.
Cole was a man who took care of others, not the other way around.
So, I turned my attention to my job. I was twenty-three years old and about to make a proper contribution to society, pay taxes, join the daily slog. I couldn’t have been happier. I began to think I might just survive when Cole walked away, that I’d begun to get a grip on controlling my own future.
The next step would be telling my mother.
I shuddered. Growing up, I had seen her at her worst. We’d been poor and on our own, and I recognized that my mother had been scared. But our lives were different now. Chalk and cheese. She needed to accept those years were over. The social ladder had been climbed and I wanted off the sycophantic carousel.
Chapter Twenty-one
Cole
Wires and electronic guts spilled out of what used to be a phone.
“Fuck!” I jammed the remains of my landline back on the cradle. Then still not satisfied, I took advantage of the visceral pleasure by picking it up and shoving it down again. “Goddamn piece of shit!”
I dropped my head in my hands and stared at the top of my desk through my fingers. Three years I’d worked on this mall deal. Three long, fucking years of meticulous planning and scraping together of funds and negotiating red tape…
All for nothing.
“I tried to move ahead on the consenting, but we’re too late, Salamond Holdings have lodged a claim.” Marcus had sounded as weary as I felt when he’d broken the news.
“Salamond Holdings. Who the fuck are they?”
“Look, Cole. I—”
“Who owns it?” I demanded, knowing by the sound of his voice that Marcus had figured it out.
A pause. Then, “Your uncle. Russell Langford. Among others…”
Which is when I had taken it upon myself to hang up the phone in my not so delicate way.
Karma had really come along and kicked me in the nut sack.
Why? After everything Russell and Thomas had put me through, why were they still hell bent on wrecking my life? They had money. They had prestige. They held all the goddamned cards.
Yet, even as I ranted and raved and kicked my filing cabinet, understanding poured salt in an already open wound. I was doing well. Too well. I’d become a threat.
Thomas was on his way to becoming a senator. A squeaky clean golden boy with a sparkling smile and honesty that shone from those apple-pie cheeks.
And the only person in the world who could refute that fact, was me, because I knew the truth behind the drugs in that locker.
Up until now, I hadn’t been anyone to take seriously. I was a small time businessman with a murky past who’d been notoriously expelled from a prestigious college. Over the years, I’d proven myself and now, with this mall development, I was moving from obscurity to a place where people might just start listening if I every decided to spill the truth. With Thomas so close to the White House, Russell could never let me amass that kind of influence.
“Do you have any money, boy?”
Well, if they thought I would roll over and take it up the ass this time, Thomas and Russell were in for a surprise. I swept bits of phone into the trash with an angry swipe. Then pulled out my cell and hit Marcus’s number.
“Sorry ’bout that.”
“You okay?”
“Yep. Just needed a minute to cool down.”
“What’s going on, Cole?” Marcus sounded worried. “Why has Salamond Holdings left it this late to lodge a claim? And why your uncle? Has he talked to you about it? What about your grandfather?”
“Drop it, Marcus,” I cut off the litany of questions I had no logical answers for. “They’re not family. You know that.”
“So, that’s it. You’re going to give up?”
“Fuck no!” The denial exploded from my lips. My teeth hurt from gritting them so hard, but I still managed a grim smile. “I’ll talk to Henry Crovens, get the full set of plans and any supporting documentation. Give me a few days to look through it. Then we attack.”
I left for Wellsford within the hour. Into the eye of the storm.
And in the middle of the tempest in my mind, sat Madison. My moment of calm. I couldn’t wait to see her again. I’d been distracted when we’d talked over the last few days, but she was exactly what I needed now to keep my mind off my problems.
/>
Time away had served to reinforce how much I’d missed her. I liked being around Madison. Enjoyed her company. I wanted her back in my arms. In my bed. In my life.
She was the only ray of sunshine in an otherwise shitty day.
Chapter Twenty-two
Madison
Just like every other day in my first week of work, Logan loitered around the foyer of Crovens, waiting for me to arrive. He nodded with approval at my smart business attire—tea-colored skirt, a cream top with an olive scarf twisted artfully around my neck.
“Nice. Very nice.”
Was I imagining it, or had his eye lingered somewhere just below my neck line?
I hid my frown. “Professional chic. I want to look the part. Not that I’m playing,” I added as he finally dragged his gaze higher.
Unabashed, a grin of appreciation slid over his face. I sighed. So not going there. I wasn’t naive enough to believe Logan had arranged this job out of pity—he wouldn’t know the word if it fell out of the dictionary and slapped him upside the head—but I expected a degree of professionalism.
“I’m here to work. Remember?” I threw a quick look at the reception area, but Megan was busy and not taking any notice of us.
“Yeah. I remember.” Logan drew out another lingering look. “Has anyone cottoned on to you yet? He pulled out his trademark grin. “I mean, seriously, Mads, it’s not like you know what you’re doing.”
I stiffened as he shortened my name. He knew I hated that.
“So far, it’s just been a matter of organization.” I eyed him coolly. “That’s what I am good at. Organizing charity events, ensuring everything is there, the catering, the entertainment, the seating arrangements. Working for Noah is similar.”
“Yes, building a modern marvel of the structural world is just like a charity event.” Logan stopped short of rolling his eyes.
“You know what I mean.” I huffed. “It’s about keeping everyone happy. You should try negotiating wedding plans with my mother, then you’ll know what I mean.”
“I’d rather not be reminded of the fact we were supposed to marry.” The grin slid off Logan’s face and he shot me a brooding look. “I fucked up. I get it.”
The Rebound (One Night Stand Series Book 2) Page 11