Man About the House

by Alison Kelly

  CHAPTER FIVE

  BRETT decided it was a good thing he wasn’t a cat or a dog, because if he’d had to depend on Joanna feeding him he’d have starved to death!

  He didn’t sight her again over the weekend after she went to the football, although the scent of her perfume in the bathroom on Sunday morning suggested she had come home at some stage. On Monday she’d left for work before he was up, and some time during the day, while he’d been out scouting local real estate agents, she’d left a message on the answering machine saying she’d be late home. The same thing had happened on Tuesday.

  Not that her absence bothered him, Brett assured himself. But either Meaghan was shelling out a bundle in overtime or his phantom housemate had one hell of a social life. Then again, why wouldn’t she? She was young, single and painfully attractive; it’d be at least four or five years before she tired of the frenetic pace of trying to combine the party and nightclub scenes with a career.

  Whereas here he was today, heading home after having spent the morning with the staff of his mother’s company, lunch with the owner and general manager of a national television network and the afternoon inspecting four different houses with four different realtors in four different suburbs. About the only recreational activity he was looking forward to was sinking his teeth into the pizza on the passenger seat then catching the late-night news before bed. Of course he wouldn’t have minded a little company too, but he hadn’t been able to motivate himself enough to return the interest of the redhead who’d been working her cute little butt off at the pub trying to chat him up. And the reason for that was Toni, no one else.

  His first thought at the sight of his sister’s car parked haphazardly at the front of the house was that he’d have some company after all and that he should’ve ordered a bigger pizza. The second had him pressing down on the accelerator...

  He entered the house to the sound of a three-way female discussion about whether Meaghan should or shouldn’t have bought the coat she’d tried on in Armani’s. They hadn’t reached a consensus by the time he walked into the kitchen and interrupted them.

  His sister and niece greeted him with a casual enthusiasm that included demanding to know what kind of pizza they’d be having. The raven-haired witch standing next to the stove-top, ignoring the squealing whistle of the kettle, merely produced an uncertain smile and asked if he wanted tea or coffee.

  If hearing her voice on his arrival had lightened his spirits, seeing her had them all but floating. Which perversely bothered him, because he’d pretty much convinced himself this girl held no interest for him. None.

  Besides, he reasoned silently, if he had been interested in Joanna, or her unexplained activities of the three previous nights, he could easily have extracted the information from his sister under cover of enquiring how things were at the agency. The fact he hadn’t done so seemed to prove his curiosity about his rarely sighted housemate was waning. Good. She was way too young for him, and even if she wasn’t, he wasn’t interested in complicating his life right now with another relationship. He wasn’t.

  ‘Brett! Are you listening to me?’

  Meaghan’s impatient tone and expression dragged his eyes away from the brunette engaged in the fascinating act of standing on tiptoe to lift mugs from the top shelf of the cupboard. Lycra bodysuits and short skirts were definitely the fashion world’s greatest contribution—to men.

  ‘Huh? Oh, sorry. I was thinking about a block of land I looked at today.’ Well, he had looked at several potential building sites. At Meaghan’s sceptically raised eyebrow he tacked on, ‘It was up at North Palm. Heaps of potential. I’m going to get Jason’s opinion on it when he gets back from Melbourne.’

  ‘Well, right now it’s your opinion I want, brother dear. That—’

  ‘You’ve got it, and it’s good,’ he responded glibly, dropping the pizza box on the table and his backside onto the nearest chair.

  ‘Cute. But I hadn’t finished. I also need your time—and presence—at the agency.’

  ‘No way!’ he said vehemently. ‘Absolutely not. I told you, I’m not interested in taking an active interest.’

  ‘I’m not asking for a lifetime commitment,’ she said, nodding as Karessa announced she was going in to catch the end of a medical series on TV. ‘I just want you to sit in on a couple of meetings I’ve got planned.’

  ‘No go.’ He shook his head for added emphasis and caught Joanna watching him with a kind of wistful curiosity. When she realised he’d noted her interest she quickly busied herself with pouring the coffee.

  ‘Brett, please.’ Meaghan switched from bossy to pleading with practised smoothness. He wondered if this trait was inherent to all sisters or if his was merely particularly gifted. ‘This is really important to me. To us.’

  ‘Why?’ he asked, more interested in the shy, uncertain smile Joanna bestowed on him as she placed his coffee on the table. While her fair skin and raven hair gave her an exotic, dramatic look in the basic black she always seemed to wear, Brett wondered if she had any idea how magnificent she’d look draped in a sheet the same colour as her eyes. He’d had sheets that colour once...

  ‘Brett!’

  He started guiltily and hoped his sister’s glare meant she hadn’t added mind-reading to her vices. ‘What?’

  ‘Look, I know you aren’t fussed with getting involved with the agency, but this is too crucial a matter for you to ignore,’ Meaghan told him.

  ‘I think it’d be best,’ Joanna said softly, ‘if I left you two to discuss this in private.’

  “There’s no need for that, Joanna,’ Meaghan countered, ’Sit down. You’re already aware of what’s going on. The thing is, Brett...’

  Brett looked from his sister to the hovering Joanna, who hesitated for long seconds then took the seat beside him so reluctantly that he had to wonder whether Meaghan was about to announce the possibility of financial ruin or if his deodorant was letting him down. Joanna, on the other hand, carried the same alluring scent which invariably had his hormones twitching. He took a mouthful of scalding coffee to distract them. It was painful but effective therapy, and dragged his attention back to his sister, seated opposite.

  ‘I’ve taken Meaghan’s as far as I can in Sydney,’ she was saying. ‘financially we’re in a position to capitalise on that success. Doing this is the next logical step. You must see that, Brett.’

  He had no idea what it was he should be seeing, but the expectant stare he was getting hinted that Meaghan considered she’d made things perfectly clear. Damn! He didn’t know what perfume Joanna wore, but it could double as a mind-washing chemical. In a bid to counter it, he lifted the lid on the pizza.

  ‘Well, Meaghan,’ he said, fishing for a response that wouldn’t show his lack of attention, ‘the agency’s success is entirely due to your management, so I’m more than happy to trust your judgement on this. You’ve managed for four years without my input; I don’t see why you feel you need my opinion.’

  ‘Fine, then!’ His sister cut him off with haughty curtness. ‘I was only acting out of professional courtesy, but if you’re happy to let me invest close to a million bucks of the company’s money cold—’

  ‘What?’ His amazement clashed with a breathy gasp from the woman on his left, who’d had him so distracted he’d clearly missed vital chunks of whatever his sister had said. But he also knew the mention of a sum that large wouldn’t have escaped his notice even if Joanna had stripped naked. Well, okay, maybe under those ideal circumstances he might have missed it, but unfortunately the lady beside him was still very much clothed. His sister, however, was on her feet and pacing the room with theatrical earnestness.

  ‘Expansion makes sense, Brett. And even if we weren’t in such good shape I couldn’t not consider this deal. This is opportunity virtually storming the door. To ignore it would be lunacy, especially now the agency is perfectly poised to move to a higher level. After all, how often does the chance to buy into a London-based modelling agency presen
t itself?’

  ‘Mercifully, not often,’ he muttered dryly. Then decided to try reason. ‘Meaghan, at the risk of sounding conservative, don’t you think it would be better to expand on a more local scale first, like Melbourne or New Zealand?’

  ‘No!’ she said. ‘Oh, I know we’ve only just cleared all our establishment debts and all, but...this is a golden opportunity, Brett. We’d have international connections that’d mean local models would be falling over themselves to sign with us.’

  That was all well and good, but Brett was more interested in ensuring that if things didn’t work out they wouldn’t get tripped up on bankruptcy. ‘What about the financial ramifications for us?’

  ‘I’ve already spoken to our accountant,’ she told him. ‘The thing is, if things go as I expect, you’ll be looking for more tax breaks inside two years.’

  He could recognise Meaghan being evasive or ‘creatively truthful’ a mile off. ‘Okay, now tell me exactly what the accountant said on the subject,’ he said.

  His comment drew an amused chuckle from Joanna and a dismissive wave from his sister. ‘Brett, he’s an accountant for God’s sake. He thinks it’s a risk to keep more than ten dollars in petty cash. All that really matters is he agrees that financially we can afford to do this. You can ask him yourself,’ she told him. ‘Of course, what he doesn’t understand is why we can’t afford not to do it.’

  ‘In other words, he’s not foaming at the mouth with excitement at the idea.’

  ‘Brett, the potential this has for us is enormous. Bigger than enormous. You must see that?’

  There was no denying her excitement or passion for the project, but it wouldn’t be the first time Meaghan had been excited or passionate about something that wasn’t in her best interests. His sister was notorious for following her impulses rather than her common sense—something he knew she privately feared, even if she wouldn’t publicly admit it. So, for all that Meaghan was pushing to sell him on this deal, Brett knew that if she’d been a hundred per cent confident she was doing the right thing she wouldn’t have invited him to play devil’s advocate. Meaghan’s projected image of being totally self-confident was more often than not only skin-deep. A defence mechanism developed in the wake of the emotional demolition job the bastard who’d got her pregnant had done on her.

  The surge of brotherly love and pride that rose in him as he remembered how hard Meaghan had struggled to put her life back together took some of the edge off the anger he still carried over what had been done to her. It also stopped him from sticking to his plan of having nothing to do with the agency.

  He sighed, reluctantly accepting his fate. ‘When and where are these meetings you want me to attend?’

  His sister’s face broke into a broad grin. ‘One’s tomorrow at nine o’clock. At the agency. We should be finished by midday at the latest. But if that’s going to be a problem for you I could try and reschedule it.’

  He held up a hand to halt the enthusiastic babble. ‘Relax, Meaghan. As it happens, tomorrow’s fine.’ It wasn’t, but he could rearrange the appointment he had with an architect friend of his father’s.

  ‘Great!’ she exclaimed. ‘And, Joanna, since Brett will be driving in, don’t worry about starting at eight-thirty. You can come in whenever he does and save yourself a bus trip...’

  The front seat of his mother’s Honda coupé had never felt so claustrophobic, and he could literally feel the tension radiating from the passenger side seat. Though they’d shared a pot of coffee at breakfast, the conversation hadn’t exceeded mutual good mornings, and the scintillating exchange of, ‘What time will you be ready to leave?’

  ‘Whenever you say.’

  ‘Seven o’clock, okay?’

  ‘Fine. Thanks.’

  Now, at two minutes past the designated departure time, they were negotiating the winding Palm Beach Road in a thick, stilted silence. The last time Brett recalled being tongue-tied around a female he’d been thirteen and awestruck by the smile of fifteen-year-old Kylie Peters. Back then his awkwardness had stemmed from the fact that he didn’t know how to deliver a smooth pick-up line; now it existed because he realised he didn’t know how not to. While it was no use denying he found the shy, reticent Joanna extremely attractive, his conscience was having a hard time letting go of the fact she was twelve years his junior and even younger in experience. Hell, when he’d been having wet dreams about delectable Kylie, the now even more delectable Ms Joanna Ford had been wearing diapers!

  Further complicating things was the guilty recognition that he’d agreed to attend this meeting today more out of a desire to spend time with Joanna than a desire to oblige his sister. Then again, his sister was the one who’d placed this hot little brunette off-limits to him, so it wasn’t as if be was predisposed to being all that obliging to her anyway!

  ‘Thanks for the lift. It sure beats the bus.’

  The husky sound of Joanna’s voice caused his pulse to trip and him to veer slightly onto the wrong side of the road. Peripherally he saw her clutch the dashboard.

  ‘You and Meaghan had the same driving instructor, huh?’ Her calm, ironically delivered aside made him burst out laughing.

  Risking his pulse-rate further, he looked across at her. ‘Yeah. But the difference is I listened to him.’ Looking back to the road, he added, ‘I hope you aren’t trying to copy Meaghan’s driving style too closely.’

  She smiled. ‘Actually, I’m thinking of enrolling with a driving school. I’m just not sure how to tell her without hurting her feelings. She and your mother have been very good to me.’

  ‘Why not tell her that since we’re living in the same house and she’s got to come out of her way you’ve decided it’ll be simpler if I took over giving you lessons?’ He was as taken aback by his suggestion as Joanna seemed to be. Wonderful! His libido was assuming the role of his brain.

  ‘No...I couldn’t do that; I couldn’t lie to her.’

  ‘It’s only a lie if you’re not doing it.’

  ‘You...you mean you’d really do that? Give up your time to give me lessons?’

  Brett gritted his teeth to keep from telling her what else he’d be prepared to give up to be able to tutor her in other directions. ‘Sure. No problem.’

  It was a moment before she said, ‘Well, okay, then. Thanks.’

  The smile she gave him was dazzling, and had him gripping the steering wheel far tighter than any driving instructor would recommend. Talk about buying himself more trouble!

  ‘Meaghan’s really pleased you’re getting involved with the business,’ she said, with the air of one who wasn’t sure if she was speaking out of turn or not.

  ‘Mmm. Well, I’m glad she’s happy,’ he grumbled. ‘Frankly, the less time I have to spend at the damn agency the better.’

  ‘Would it help if I offered to run interference if any of our clients get out of hand?’

  The hesitant, cryptic offer had him shooting her a questioning look. Just when she’d opened her mouth to explain, the penny dropped in what Brett had once regarded as his better than average brain.

  ‘No! Let me guess...’ he said sourly. ‘My sister has recounted the details of my recent disastrous love life and my aversion to models.’

  ‘Karessa, actually,’ she corrected.

  ‘Karessa. Wonderful. Glad to know I can rely on all members of my family to air my private life.’

  ‘Oh, she wasn’t gossiping,’ she said quickly. ‘Actually, she was just trying to reassure me. I was thinking of finding somewhere else to stay.’

  He swung to face her. ‘You’re moving out? But you can’t! What about the driving lessons?’ It was probably the most inane comment he’d ever made, but she didn’t seem to notice.

  ‘Oh, not Not now. It’s just that, not really knowing you, I wasn’t very comfortable about sharing a house with you. And, well...to be honest, that’s why I’ve been avoiding you.’

  ‘Avoiding me?’ The words came out with a hint of the desperation he was fe
eling.

  ‘I’ve been deliberately staying out late so I didn’t have to be alone with you,’ she confessed. ‘I’m sorry. But now that everything’s out in the open and I know I can trust you, well... I’ll be home more often.’

  Oh, swell! She trusted him! Just the sort of pressure a guy needed in this situation!

  ‘I meant what I said about taking turns with meals,’ she continued. ‘And if it’s okay with you I thought I’d cook dinner tonight,’

  Dinner? Brett doubted he’d ever have an appetite again. Talk about being put in a moral vice. Here he was with his hormones running amok and she trusted him. Well, bloody great! That made one of them!

  Brett figured they were waiting for the slowest moving elevator in the world as he again tried to put some distance between himself and a leggy blonde who, if she got any closer, would give him a chill from the breeze of her batting eyelashes. Had he thought the consternation on Joanna’s face stemmed from jealousy, he’d have played up to the slinky model for all he was worth, but he knew her disapproval wasn’t that personal. Joanna felt safe with him. She trusted him.

  ‘Carla,’ she said, addressing the model, who was now fingering Brett’s lapels and trying to convince him they should get together for drinks, ‘aren’t you due at a shoot in the city?’

  ‘That’s not till two.’

  ‘Oh. Sorry, I didn’t realise they’d rescheduled it again.’ Carla flicked an irritated frown at her. ‘What do you mean, again? It’s always been two.’

  ‘Oh?’ Joanna sounded bemused. ‘I was sure Meaghan mentioned something about the Mundle shoot being changed.’ The turquoise eyes that met Brett’s were full of mischief. ‘Guess it was another one.’