by Shirley Jump
“I’m...an investor,” Jack said. “Of sorts.”
“Of sorts?”
“I buy and sell businesses. I find ones that need a cash infusion, and if I think they’re viable, I invest. If I think they’re not, I buy them and either sell them again or break up the pieces and sell it off.”
A shiver ran down her back. The leather seemed to chafe now, not comfort. “You’re...a corporate raider?”
“I’m a little nicer than that. And I tend to work with small to medium-sized businesses, not giant Goliaths.”
The connection fused in her mind. His job. His name.
Jack Knight. Owner of Knight Enterprises. A “business investor”—a euphemism for his true identity. Jack Knight was a vulture. Feeding off the carcasses of desperate business owners.
It had to have been the exhaustion of the day that had kept her from putting the pieces together until now. How could she have misread all the clues?
And to think she’d wanted to kiss him five minutes ago. She bristled. “The size doesn’t matter to the company that gets sold off, or taken over, or destroyed in the process of that kind of ‘help.’”
“I must have given you the wrong impression. There’s more to it—”
“No, there really isn’t. You destroy people’s companies, and their lives.” The words sprang to life in her throat, fueled by exhaustion, shock, and surprised even Marnie with their vehemence. She never did this, never showed outrage, never yelled. Jack Knight had brought out this other side of her, with a roar. “Do you even think about what happens to those people after you swoop in and tear their company to shreds? They spent their lives building those companies, and in an instant, you take it all away. And for what? A bottom line? A few more dollars in your pocket? Another sports car for the collection?” She let out a gust, then grabbed the door handle. It stuck, then yielded, and fresh night air washed over her. She’d gotten distracted, by a dimple and a zing. Idiot. “Goodnight.”
“Wait. What did—”
She shut the door, cutting off his words. She’d confronted him, told him off, and told herself it felt good to finally say what she should say, exactly when she was supposed to say it. Jack idled in the space for a moment, then finally, he drove away, swallowed by the night.
Disappointment hit her first. If only she’d kissed him. If only she’d let herself get talked into that cup of coffee.
If only he’d been someone other than Jack Knight.
Then righteous indignation rose in her chest. He was the one at fault, not her. He was the one who had ruined her father’s company, not her. If she’d told him what she really wanted to say to him, if she’d really let the confrontation loose, she’d have resorted to some very unlady-like behavior, and she refused to give him that satisfaction. Jack Knight didn’t deserve it, not after what he had done to her father.
So she had said goodnight, got out of Cinderella’s carriage, and went back to the real world, where princes didn’t come along very often, and there were no mice to do the work for her.
CHAPTER TWO
“ARE YOU GOING to admit I was right?” Marnie whispered to her mother. They were standing to the side of the private dining room of an upscale Boston restaurant on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Soft jazz music filled the air, accented by the rise and fall of a dozen human voices.
A blush filled Helen’s cheeks, making her look ten years younger. She had her chestnut hair up tonight, which elongated her neck and offset her deep green eyes. The dark blue dress she’d worn skimmed her calves, and defined the hourglass shape she’d maintained all her life, even after giving birth to three children. Coupled with the light in her eyes and the smile on her face, Helen looked prettier than ever, and far younger than her fifty-eight years.
“Yes, you were right, daughter dear,” Helen whispered back. “How’d I get such a smart child?”
“You gave me great genes.” Marnie glanced over the room. Cozy and intimate, the private dining space offered a prime location, great parking and an outstanding menu, making it perfect for Matchmaking by Marnie meet and greets. In her experience, full and happy stomachs equaled happy people who then struck up conversations.
Today, she’d invited ten bachelors to meet her mother, and set up a buffet of finger foods on the far right side of the room. While they noshed on chicken satay and mini eggrolls, Helen circulated. Three days ago, when Marnie and Erica had proposed the idea of a mixer to Helen, she’d refused, insisting she didn’t need to be fixed up, and didn’t want to be, but after a while, she’d relented and agreed to “put in an appearance.”
That appearance had lasted more than an hour now. Once the first man talked to Helen, and two more joined the conversation, Marnie had watched her mother transform into a giggling schoolgirl, flattered by all the sudden attention. Marnie made sure each bachelor got equal time, then stepped back and allowed the pieces to fall where they may. She’d paved the way, then let Mother Nature finish giving directions.
“So,” Marnie said, leaning in closer so they wouldn’t be overheard, “is there one man in particular who you like the most?”
Pink bloomed in Helen’s cheeks. “Do you see the one standing by the bar?”
“The tall man with the gray hair?” Marnie and Erica had interviewed so many eligible gentlemen in the fifty- to sixty-plus age range that some of them had become a bit of a blur. She didn’t remember the details of this man, only that he had impressed her during the group interviews.
“His name’s Dan. He’s retired from his landscaping business, hates to golf, but loves to watch old movies.” Her mother grinned, and in that smile, Marnie could see the energy of a new relationship already blossoming. “And, you’ll never guess what his favorite movie is.”
Marnie put a finger to her lip. “Hmm...Casablanca?”
Helen nodded. “Just like me. We like the same kind of wine, the same kind of music, and both of us love to travel.”
“Sounds like a match made in heaven.” Marnie grinned. “Or a match made by a daughter who knows her mother very well.”
Helen chuckled. “Well, I wouldn’t say it’s a perfect match...yet, but it’s got potential. Big potential. Now, if only we could find someone for you.” Helen brushed a lock of hair off Marnie’s forehead. “You deserve to be happy, sweetheart.”
“I am happy.” And she was, Marnie told herself. She had a business she loved, a purpose to her life, and a family that might annoy her sometimes, but had always been her personal rock. She gave her mother a quick hug, then headed for the front of the room, waiting until everyone’s attention swiveled toward her before speaking. She noticed Dan’s gaze remained on her mother, while Helen snuck quick glances back in his direction, like two teenagers at a football game.
“I wanted to thank you all for coming today, and if you weren’t lucky enough to be chosen by our amazing and beautiful bachelorette,” Marnie gestured toward her mother, who waved off the compliment, “don’t worry. My goal at Matchmaking by Marnie is to give everyone a happy ending. So work with me, and I promise, I’ll help you find your perfect match.”
The bachelors thanked her, and began to file out of the room. Dan lingered, chatting with Marnie’s mother. She laughed and flirted, seeming like an entirely different person, the person she used to be years and years ago. Marnie sent up a silent prayer of gratitude. Her mother had been lonely for a long time, and it was nice to see her happy again.
The waitstaff began taking away the dishes and cleaning the tables. Marnie gathered her purse and jacket, then touched her mother on the arm. “I’m going to get going, Ma. Call me later, okay?”
Her mother promised, then returned her attention to Dan. The two of them were still chatting when Marnie headed out of the restaurant. She stood by the valet counter, waiting for the valet to return with her car, when a black sports car pulled up to
the station. The passenger’s side window slid down. “You’re like a bad penny, turning up everywhere I go.”
The voice took a second to register in her mind. It had been a couple weeks since she’d last heard that deep baritone, and in the busy-ness of working twenty-hour days, she’d nearly forgotten the encounter.
Almost.
Late at night, when she was alone and the day had gone quiet, her mind would wander and she’d wonder what might have happened if he’d been someone other than Jack Knight and she’d agreed to that cup of coffee. Then she would jerk herself back to reality.
Jack Knight was the worst kind of corporate vermin—and the last kind of man she should be thinking about late at night, or any time. Of all the people in the city of Boston, how did she end up running into him twice?
She bent down and peered inside the car. Jack grinned back at her. He had a hell of a smile, she’d give him that. The kind of smile that charmed and tempted, all at once. Yeah, like a snake. “Speaking of bad pennies,” she said, “what are you doing here?”
“Picking up my father.” His head disappeared from view, and a moment later, he had stepped out of the car and crossed to her. He had on khakis and a pale blue button-down shirt, the wrinkled bottom slightly untucked, the top two buttons undone, as if he was just knocking off after putting in a full day of work, even on a Saturday. He looked sexy, approachable. If she ignored his name and his job, that was.
She didn’t want to like him, didn’t want to find his smile alluring or his eyes intriguing. He was a Knight, and she needed to remember that. She was about to say goodbye and end the conversation before it really had a chance to start, when the restaurant door opened and her mother and Dan stepped onto the sidewalk.
“Marnie, you’re still here?” Helen said.
“Jack, you’re here early,” Dan said.
The pieces clicked together in Marnie’s mind. The timing of Jack’s arrival. Picking up my father, he’d said.
She glanced from one man to the other, and prayed she was wrong. “Dan’s your father?” she said to Jack, then spun back to Dan. “But...but your last name is Simpson.”
Dan grinned. “Guilty as charged. I’m this troublemaker’s stepfather.” He draped a loving arm around Jack and gave him a quick hug.
“You know Dan’s son?” Helen asked Marnie. “You never told me that.”
“I didn’t know until just now. And, Ma, I think you should know that Jack...” Marnie started to tell her mother the rest, the truth about who Jack was, but she watched the light in her mother’s eyes dim a bit, and she couldn’t do it. The urge to keep the peace, to keep everyone happy, overpowered the words and she let them die in her throat.
Dan Simpson. Father of Jack Knight, the man whose company had ruined her family’s life.
Dan Simpson. The man her mother was falling for.
Dan Simpson. Another Mr. Wrong in a family teeming with them.
“You should know that, uh, Jack and I met the other night,” Marnie said finally. “We sort of...ran into each other.”
“Oh, my. What a small world,” Helen said, beaming again.
“Getting smaller every day.” Jack grinned at Marnie, but the smile didn’t sway her. “How do you know my father?”
She gave a helpless shrug. “It seems I just fixed him up with my mother.”
“You’ve got one talented matchmaker standing here,” Dan said, giving Helen’s hand a squeeze. “You should see if she can fix you up, too, Jack.”
Fix him up? She’d rather die first.
“You’re a matchmaker?” Jack raised a brow in amusement.
“Guilty as charged,” she said, echoing Dan’s words.
Her brain swam with the incongruity of the situation. How could she have created such a disaster? Usually her instincts were right on, but this time, they had failed her. And she’d created a mess of epic proportion. One that was slipping out of her control more every second.
Beside her, Dan and Helen were chatting, making plans for dinner or lunch or something. They were off to the side, caught in their own world of just the two of them. All of Marnie’s senses were attuned to Jack—the enemy of her family and son of the man who had finally put a smile on her mother’s face. How was she supposed to tell Ma the truth, and in the process, break a heart that had just begun to mend?
Jack leaned in then, close, his breath a heated whisper against her ear. “I’m surprised you didn’t try to fix me up the night we met.”
“I wouldn’t do that to one of my clients,” she whispered back.
Confusion filled his blue eyes, a confusion she had no intent of erasing, not here, not now.
“I’m not sure what I did to make you despise me,” he said, “but I assure you, I’m not nearly as bad as you think.”
“No, you’re not,” she said just as the valet arrived with her car. She opened the door, and held Jack’s gaze over the roof. “You’re worse.”
Then she got in her car and pulled away.
* * *
A matchmaker.
Of all the jobs Jack would have thought the fiery redhead Marnie Franklin held, matchmaker sat at the very bottom of the list. Yet, the title seemed to suit her, to match her strong personality, her crimson hair, her quick tongue.
His stepfather had raved about Marnie’s skills the entire ride from the restaurant to the repair shop to pick up the car the taxi driver had rear-ended, return the rental, then head home. The event had agreed with Dan, giving his hearty features a new energy, and his voice renewed enthusiasm, as if he’d reverse-aged in one afternoon. At six-foot two, with a full head of gray hair, Dan cut an imposing figure offset by a ready smile and pale green eyes. Eyes that now lit with joy every time he talked about Helen.
“I never would have expected to fall for the matchmaker’s mother,” Dan said. “But I tell ya, Jack, I really like Helen.”
“I’m glad,” Jack said. And he was. His stepfather had been alone for a long, long time, and deserved happiness. Just with someone other than Marnie Franklin’s maternal relatives. The woman had something against him, that was clear.
“Her daughter’s quite pretty, too, you know,” Dan said.
“Really? I hadn’t noticed.”
Dan laughed. “You lie about as well as I cook. I saw you checking her out.”
“That was a reflex.”
“Sure it was.” Dan shifted in his seat to study his son. “You know, you should use some of the arguments you used on me.”
Jack concentrated on the road. Boston traffic in the middle of the day required all his attention. Yeah, that was why he didn’t look Dan in the eye. Because of the cars on the road. “What are you talking about?”
“The list of reasons why I should go to that event—and I’m glad I did, by the way—is the same list I should give you about why you should ask Marnie out.”
“I did. She turned me down.”
“And?”
“And what? End of story.” He didn’t want to get into the reasons why he had no intentions of dating anyone right now. He, of all people, should steer far and wide from anything resembling a relationship.
He could bring a business back to life, turn around a lackluster bottom line, but when it came to personal relationships, he was—
Well, Tanya had called him unavailable. Uninvolved. Cold, even. More addicted to his smartphone than her.
A year after the end of their relationship, he’d had to admit she had a point. When he woke up in the morning, his first thought was the latest business venture, not the woman in his life.
Then why had he asked Marnie to coffee?
Because for the first time in a long time, he was intrigued. She’d been on his mind ever since the night they’d met. Confounding, intriguing Marnie Franklin had been a constant thought
in the back of his head. After seeing her today, those thoughts had moved front and center. But he didn’t tell Dan any of this, because he knew it would give his stepfather more ammunition for his “get back to dating” argument.
Right now, Jack was concentrating on work, and on making amends. Jack Knight, Sr. had ruined a lot of lives, and Jack had spent the last two years trying to undo the damage his father had done, while still keeping the business going and keeping the people who worked for him employed. As soon as he’d moved into his father’s office, he’d vowed he would do things differently, approach the company in a new way. He’d gone through all the old files, and had tried to apply that philosophy, one deal at a time.
Tanya might not have thought he had heart when it came to personal relationships, but Jack was determined to prove the opposite in his business relationships. That uninvolved, cold man he’d been was slowly being erased as he gave back more than Knight had taken.
More than he himself had taken.
To try his best to be everything except his father’s son.
That, Jack knew, was why he kept putting in all those hours. He’d been part of his father’s selfish, greedy machinations, and it was all Jack could do now to restore what had been destroyed, partly by his own hand.
Doing so felt good, damned good, but he knew the time he invested in that goal was costing him a life, a family, kids. Maybe if he could do enough to make amends to all those his father had wronged, when he went to sleep at night, then maybe the past would stop haunting him.
And then he could look to the future again.
Maybe.
It hadn’t thus far, and there were days when he wondered if he was doing the right thing. Or just trying to fill an endless well of guilt.
“What do you want to do for dinner?” Jack said, changing the subject.
“You’re on your own tonight, kid. I have plans with Helen.” Dan grinned, and for a second, Jack envied his stepfather that beaming smile, that anticipation for the night ahead. “I’m taking her to Top of the Hub.”
Jack arched a brow at the mention of the famous moving restaurant at the top of the Prudential building. “Impressive. On a first date?”