Somehow Hugh had lost control of the entire situation and his head was spinning. Before he could voice another concern, Bill shook his hand and left the restaurant. “What the hell just happened here?” he asked out loud to no one in particular.
Aubrey stood and straightened her dress. “Hugh, you have to know… I didn’t plan—”
“Don’t,” he interrupted. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done?”
She shook her head.
“I have been working on this deal for months, and you just undid everything I had worked on.”
“I didn’t know!” she cried. “I had no idea Bill was going to—”
“Whatever. It doesn’t matter. It’s done. I just… I need a little time to process it. Meet me in my office at four and we’ll talk about it some more.”
And with that, he was gone.
* * *
Aubrey wasn’t sure if she should high-five or kick herself.
This was an incredible opportunity—everything she had been hoping for career-wise. And all done without the help of her family connections.
That was the best part.
There wasn’t a doubt in her mind that she could do it. Right now her brain was simply swirling with ideas even though she had never seen any of Hugh’s other resorts. Just knowing the locations and having the opportunity to make each event new and different and exciting was more than she had ever hoped for. Hugh would certainly see…
Hugh.
The image of the carefully banked anger on his face was etched clearly in her mind. How could she have known a simple conversation with Bill would transpire into all of this? It was obvious Hugh had some strong opinions regarding her running out on her wedding, and this whole situation wasn’t going to help. By now he probably had her categorized as a major flake—or a royal pain in the butt.
It couldn’t be helped. Well, the wedding part could have been helped. She never should have agreed to marry Paul. It was a stupid idea and completely childish. At twenty-six, she was too old to keep trying to seek her father’s approval. If she hadn’t earned it by now, she never would. And it was his loss.
Keep telling yourself that and maybe someday you’ll believe it.
And as for the whole thing with Bill… Well, she had just been making conversation. There was no way she could have known Hugh had been working on this deal or for how long. Aubrey knew she was many things, but a mind reader wasn’t one of them and he was going to have to deal with it.
And Aubrey had a feeling she was going to have to get used to dealing with Hugh. It wasn’t a bad thing, per se, but she couldn’t quite shake the feeling they were going to butt heads the entire time she worked for him.
That caused her to pause. What exactly was this going to entail? Her life was back in Raleigh. Hell, she was wearing the last of the clothes she had packed. Was she going to be able to work remotely? Immediately she shook her head. In order for her to get a feel for each of the events, she was going to have to travel.
Yippee! her inner voice cheered. Oh, it was going to be so good to break away and finally start to live! For far too long Aubrey had let other people’s ideas and watchful eyes dictate the things she did, and she was tired of dodging those looks and opinions. This was going to be her time—time to prove to everyone she could make it on her own. That she was smart enough. Strong enough.
Good enough.
With her inner pep talk done, she finally rose from the table and went to pay the check. “No worries, Miss Burke, it’s been taken care of,” the hostess told her.
“But…by who?”
“Mr. Shaughnessy.”
She hated that Hugh had done so much for her and she had kind of ruined his business plan. Aubrey knew she’d be able to make it up to him by hitting this campaign out of the park and making it a success. But it was going to take a while. And she had a feeling Hugh Shaughnessy was not big on patience.
It was already pushing three in the afternoon. Looking down at herself, Aubrey knew her little red sundress was not the type of thing she should wear to a business meeting, and no matter how unconventional this all was, meeting with Hugh constituted a business meeting.
Turning back to the hostess, she began to formulate a plan. “Excuse me, is there a boutique anywhere on the property where I could get a couple of outfits that aren’t quite so…”
“Casual?”
Aubrey nodded. “Exactly. I’m not looking for bathing suits or T-shirts. I need something more put together than what I’m wearing now.”
The girl nodded, took out a map of the resort, and showed Aubrey where to go. “They have clothes for just about every occasion, so you should be set.”
With a word of thanks, Aubrey took the map and headed off in the direction of the boutique with a little spring in her step.
Hugh Shaughnessy may not think he needed her on this project and he may not want her on it, but by the time she was done, he was going to be damn glad about it.
* * *
“Miss Burke is here to see you,” Dorothy said to Hugh over the phone, and Hugh looked at his watch.
She was five minutes early.
He almost smiled at the fact that she quite possibly was on the same wavelength as him where work was concerned, but then he remembered how she had all but ruined the presentation he had worked so hard for.
The fact that her ideas blew his out of the water was beside the point.
Hugh knew enough about business to realize the presentation he had put together would not have impressed a man like William Bellows. It would have come off okay but uninspiring. What Aubrey had managed to think of in such a short amount of time was really impressive.
But still annoying.
“Give me five minutes, Dorothy, then you can send her in.”
“Yes, sir,” she said and hung up.
Relaxing back in his chair, Hugh tried to figure out what he was supposed to do with Aubrey. When he’d come back to the office after meeting with her and Bill, he had found Marnie still sitting there waiting. It had been awkward explaining she wasn’t going to be needed for this particular project, and then apologizing for wasting her time.
He did find out, however, she was not interested in filling Heather’s position, so he was still back to square one on that front.
The obvious choice at this exact moment was to offer it to Aubrey. It would solve a lot of problems, and since she was going to be on the payroll for this project, it just made sense. Unfortunately, he knew this project was going to demand a lot of time and attention to pull off successfully, and he didn’t want her distracted by any other events.
So again, back to square one.
His cell phone rang and he was about to hit ignore when he saw his brother Quinn’s face on the screen. Two brothers in two days? What were the odds? “Hey, Quinn, what’s up?”
“Dude, when are you coming home again?”
“I’m fine, seriously, thanks for asking,” Hugh said dryly.
“Yeah, yeah, yeah…you’re fine, I’m fine, blah, blah, blah. I’m serious, man. When are you coming home again?”
“I…um…two weeks. Why? What’s up?”
Quinn let out a breath—loudly. “There’s some property that’s recently been brought to my attention that I think would be perfect for one of your resorts.”
“Oh no. Not you too.”
“What? What do you mean not me too?”
“Dad’s been harping on me to put my next resort in North Carolina, Aidan’s mentioned it, and he got Zoe in on the whole thing. Hell, even Darcy’s mentioned it as a way to tell me she’d be open to moving back home if she could work there.”
Quinn laughed. “Did she say work or was it implied? Because I have a feeling Darcy would be more interested in socializing and hanging out by the pool than doing actual work.”
“I don’t remember. So how’d you find out about this property?”
“Anna’s taking a real estate course and…”
“Wait a minute. When did that happen? I thought she loved working at the pub?”
“She does, but suddenly she felt she was in a rut. So now she’s thinking real estate could be interesting. Personally, I think it’s boring as shit, but I’m not the one who has to do it.”
“Can’t you talk her out of it? I mean, she’s really good with the pub. And you know old Steve is going to retire in the next couple of years—I always thought she’d take it over. She’s a phenomenal cook and we all know she’s basically running the place now.”
“Look, you don’t have to tell me. She’s got it in her head she needs to make some changes in her life. Don’t ask me why, must be a girl thing.”
“What are you, twelve?”
“Shut up.”
Hugh chuckled. “Okay, so I’m guessing Anna found out about this property and you think it would be good for me…why?”
“Prime location, Hugh. It’s closer to the sound than the ocean, but you’ve got over two hundred acres.”
“Is there anything on it now? Any structures?”
“No. It’s a clean slate. The listing hasn’t gone public yet but Anna thinks…”
“Would Anna get the commission?”
“I would imagine so. She takes her test next week so she should have her license not long after.”
It was the last thing on Hugh’s mind—building a resort in North Carolina—but he had to admit knowing there was property available was pretty damn appealing. There was a soft knock on his office door and he looked up as Aubrey walked in.
Talk about appealing…
“Look, Quinn, I’ve got a meeting starting now. Send me the information and some pictures and let me think on it.”
“Oh man! Really? Are you seriously thinking about it?”
“Slow down. I’m not making any promises, but if you look at it and think it looks solid and Anna’s involved, I’ll definitely give it some serious thought, okay?”
“Deal. And Hugh?”
“Yeah?”
“Thanks.”
Putting the phone down on his desk, Hugh motioned to Aubrey to have a seat. He immediately noticed that the red dress she’d had on at lunch was gone and in its place was a more sensible ensemble—cream skirt and blouse and low heels. It wasn’t nearly as appealing as the red dress, and yet she still looked stunning.
Reel it in, Shaughnessy, and focus on business. And for the love of it, don’t think about what color thong she’s wearing today!
Easier said than done.
“Hugh,” she began before he could say anything, “I want to apologize for the way things went earlier. I had no idea Bill was going to propose this arrangement to you. Had he talked to me beforehand, I would have bowed out.”
“Are you saying you don’t want to do this?”
“Oh no. I want to do this and I know I can do an amazing job with it. I just don’t want you to…you know…hate me because of the way it all came to be.”
He studied her for a moment. She was nervous. She was fidgeting. And he’d made her feel that way. Hugh was a serious businessman who held everyone who worked for him to a high level of expectations, but he never liked to make someone uncomfortable. Sighing, he tried to make himself relax.
“Look, I’m not going to lie to you, Aubrey, this was not the way I envisioned my meetings with Bill going. You took me by surprise with your ideas and how much Bill liked them and… I’ll get over it. I promise I won’t let it interfere with our working relationship.”
She visibly relaxed. “Oh. Okay. Good.” And then she smiled at him. “Which brings us to the first topic—my working for you. I’m not really sure what it’s going to entail. I mean, as of right now, I don’t have a place to stay except back home in Raleigh.”
“What happened to your room?”
“I checked out. It was only for the night.”
“Oh, right.”
“So I’ll need to know what you’re going to expect from me and where I’ll need to be and when. I’ll obviously have to go home and take care of some things there—I hadn’t planned on being gone this long.”
“You weren’t going on a honeymoon?”
She sagged in her seat. “Okay, I’m going to say this once and that’s it. My relationship with Paul was a mistake. We weren’t in love, we barely dated. I’m not proud of how I was willing to marry someone under those conditions, but there it is. I would appreciate it if we could move on from it. I feel like you keep bringing it up and I don’t understand why.”
Neither did he, but Aubrey kept looking at him expectantly. “Curiosity. I never knew anyone who walked away from their own wedding.” He shrugged, trying to sound casual.
She sighed wearily. “I don’t want it to keep being a…a thing, you know? I don’t want you to define me by this one act.”
“It was a hell of an act, Aubrey. It’s not every day I find a woman so desperate to get away from the man she’s supposed to marry that she’s willing to climb out windows.”
She stood abruptly and took a step toward him. “You know what? This isn’t going to work. I thought maybe it could—hoped it would—but I don’t think it can. For whatever reason, you’re stuck on this one point and it’s something I’d like to forget.”
“Forget?” Hugh cried. “Sweetheart, it happened less than twenty-four hours ago! Cut me some slack here! It’s how we met! I’m not likely to forget that a beautiful woman flashed her ass to me as she climbed through my office window!”
“Flashed my…!” She let out a little shriek of frustration and blushed furiously. Turning away, she picked up her purse and stormed toward the door.
Hugh was on his feet in an instant and ran after her, slamming his hand against the door before she could open it. Aubrey was trapped between Hugh and the door, and they both seemed to instantly still. Without conscious thought, he leaned in until they were almost touching. He could smell her shampoo, her perfume, and as those scents wrapped around him, Hugh was powerless to stop a small groan from escaping.
“Hugh,” she said softly, but he heard the tremble in her voice.
And immediately stepped away.
Mentally cursing himself, he took a few more steps away from Aubrey, but noted she hadn’t moved. Hugh knew he had to get his head on straight before he spoke. Taking a steadying breath, he forced himself to turn around and face her. “I’m sorry.”
Aubrey looked over her shoulder at him. “I meant what I said,” she began, her voice softly shaking. “This won’t work if you’re going to keep throwing yesterday back at me. I’ve had to deal with that sort of thing my entire life and I’m done. I won’t tolerate it from you—or anyone else.”
He nodded. “I understand and again, I’m sorry. I’m not perfect, Aubrey, and I can’t promise it will never happen again, but I do promise to do my best. Please. I want us to work together on this. Bill wants us to work together on this. If I promise to try to act as if we’re meeting for the first time—right here, right now—will you stay?”
She was silent for so long, Hugh thought she was surely going to tell him to go to hell and storm out the door. Then, with nothing more than a slight nod of her head, Aubrey walked back into the room until she was standing right in front of him.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Shaughnessy,” she said with a bright smile. “I’m Aubrey Burke. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” She held out her hand and Hugh shook it.
“Thank you for coming to meet with me on such short notice, Miss Burke. Please…have a seat.”
And just like that, they were ready to start anew.
* * *
An hour later, Aubrey had finally finished outlining all the ideas she had so far. She was mentally exhausted.
>
“I think if you can give me a couple of days, I can have a formal draft of all of this. Right now it’s mostly me talking off the top of my head. I wasn’t prepared to come in and do a full presentation.”
Hugh nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem.” He looked at his watch. “But it is getting late and there are some things we need to address right away.”
“Such as?”
“I know you mentioned needing to go home, but I’d like it if you stayed through the weekend so we can meet with Bill another time or two.”
“It shouldn’t be a problem, except I checked out of my room. It’s Friday, which means you probably have all of the rooms booked, so I’ll need to find a place to stay.”
With nothing more than a nod, Hugh picked up the phone and had Dorothy check their availability for the weekend. He hated the thought of sending Aubrey to stay someplace else when she didn’t have a car to get back and forth.
Sure, that’s the reason, he mocked himself.
Who was he kidding? If there weren’t any rooms available, Hugh’s apartment had four bedrooms—there would be plenty of room for her. He always made sure his on-site apartments were large enough so his family could come and stay with him at any time. Most of them had never taken him up on the offer, but Hugh felt better knowing the space was there should he need it.
Having Aubrey stay there, however, was probably not the smartest plan he’d ever had. For starters, he barely knew her. And yet he was wildly attracted to her. Maybe it was because he hadn’t had a date in months, but Hugh had a feeling it was more than that. He saw beautiful, single women walking around his resorts every day and none of them had caused the kind of kick-in-the-gut reaction Aubrey had.
Too bad the timing sucked.
Hanging up the phone, he looked at Aubrey. “Dorothy is going to check on a room for you. And once she’s done, I’ll have her work on your flight home on Monday. We’ll need to discuss how long you’d like to be home for, then I think our best course of action would be to take a bit of a whirlwind trip to at least four of the resorts. This way you can start working on the campaign. I’m sure seeing them in person will help with the creative process.”
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