The Boss and the Plain Jayne Bride (Harlequin Romance)

by Heather MacAllister

  “You’ve missed two filing deadlines.”

  Jayne was so stunned, she literally opened and closed her mouth. “These were clients you assigned to Bill while I had to work over at Venus.”

  “But you should have alerted him to the upcoming deadlines, therefore, I’m holding you responsible.”

  “If Bill had read the timetable in the front of each file, he would have seen the upcoming deadlines for himself.”

  “Jayne.” Mr. Waterman looked disappointed. “It isn’t like you to try to shift the blame.”

  “Mr. Waterman, I have never missed a filing deadline and I wouldn’t have missed this one, but it was Bill’s responsibility.” The same Bill you just promoted because he’d handled my accounts so well, she wanted to add.

  Shaking his head, Mr. Waterman took a gold pen from the set on his desk. “I’m going to have to note this in your record.”

  Unbelievable. “Then I suggest you also make a note of my strong protest.” And for the first time since she’d gone to work for Pace Waterman, Jayne left Mr. Waterman’s office without being dismissed first.

  And she wasn’t going to hang around and watch Bill gloat, either. Gathering up the records she hadn’t yet started to work on, Jayne headed back over to Venus, Inc., crowd of tall, skinny women or not.

  Garrett leaned over the counter and looked at the messages Micky had collected for him.

  Jayne hadn’t returned his call.

  It was the kiss, Garrett had no doubt. A really great good-night kiss after a long evening seemed like a good idea at the time, but Jayne had probably thought about it and felt awkward this morning.

  He didn’t want her feeling awkward. He’d made progress with her yesterday and he didn’t want to go backward.

  “Garrett, what do you think?”

  His mother had brought him three applications and was waiting for his comments.

  “They’re blondes,” he said.

  “Yes, you know Gustav wants blondes to show his fall line.”

  Garrett studied the instant photos that had been taken in the studio this morning. Then he looked at his mother.

  “Oh, I know.” She took the applications back from him. “We couldn’t send Gustav three green girls anyway. But Garrett, your Jayne said we needed to sign more models and there weren’t any suitable candidates today.”

  “We’ll have to advertise.”

  “Of course we’ll have to advertise!”

  “I mean seriously advertise and that’s expensive. What do you think about sponsoring a contest?”

  Rebecca closed her eyes and shuddered. “I hate those. So much work.”

  “Hate what?” Sasha came over with the rest of the applications, looked at the three her mother held, rolled her eyes and took the papers, which she stuck in a large envelope with the date on it.

  “Modeling contests,” her mother said.

  “Ooh, me, too. You know what? I think we ought to go poaching.”

  “He who lives by poaching, dies by poaching,” Garrett said. The last thing he wanted was to alienate the other agencies by stealing their models.

  “It was just a thought,” Sasha said. “Ask Jayne what she thinks.”

  “Ask Jayne what she thinks about what?” She stood in the doorway with an armload of files. Ganett looked even better this morning than he had last night. She clutched the files closer to her as she walked into the reception area. It was a good thing his mother and sister were there. Between Sylvia’s pep talk and Bill’s treachery, Jayne was in a strange mood. Who knew what she might do?

  “I didn’t think you were going to be over here until this afternoon,” Garrett said with a wide smile. He looked pleased to see her.

  “Neither did I. So what did you want to ask me?”

  “Sasha wants to steal models from other agencies.”

  Sasha made a thumbs-up sign.

  Jayne laughed. “Can you do that?”

  “It’s not something I’d want to do on a large scale.”

  “We’d have to cut our agency percentage,” Sasha said. “That’ll get them to sign. Can you figure out how much we can cut and still make the money we need?” she asked Jayne.

  “Are we talking a big cut?”

  “Depends on how fast we want to grow our list.”

  “Sure,” she said. “I can calculate some reduced percentages.”

  Garrett’s mother spoke. “I don’t like the idea except as an extreme measure. The other models always find out and then you have them signing with another agency and we’ll end up worse than when we started.”

  “Then we’ll have to offer them something else,” Sasha said.

  “Any ideas?” Garrett asked.

  Micky had been silently eavesdropping. “Offer them Jayne.”

  “What?” Jayne heard herself echoed by the others.

  Micky held up two sheets of paper. “Sasha showed me her binder and the way you broke down the expenses and income. It makes everything so clear and easy to understand. So I thought I’d copy the form and pretend I was a company.”

  “You’re making a budget,” Jayne said.

  “Yeah, I guess so.” Micky nodded. “I want to know where my money goes and save some for a new car, too. But nobody ever taught me how to handle money. I’ve just been happy if I had some left over at the end of the month. And after I got the form filled in, I was going to ask Jayne for help with it.”

  “And if it worked for Micky, I was going to do it, too,” Sasha added.

  “You know, they’ve got a point.” Garrett looked approvingly at Micky. “Some of these girls start making all this money and they don’t know what to do with it, so they blow it all. If they sign with us, we could offer them Jayne’s services as a financial counselor.”

  “Now, I approve of that idea,” Rebecca said. “James and I have watched too many young women self-destruct in this business. And it is a business, which they seem to forget.”

  “Except I’m more of an accountant than a financial planner,” Jayne felt compelled to point out.

  “But you could do it, couldn’t you?” Garrett asked.

  Of course, she could do it. “Yes, but I’d want to work with an investment banker I trust.”

  “I don’t have a problem with that.” He looked at the others and they shook their heads. Turning to her, he asked, “So what do you say?”

  “It sounds great, except that you’re looking at a lot of accounting hours and I don’t know if Venus can afford to keep paying the Pace Waterman rates as it is. It would be cheaper to hire your own business manager.”

  Garrett smiled. “The job is yours, if you want it.”

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  JAYNE stared at him. Working here? All the time? Seeing Garrett every day?

  Jayne’s future lay in two paths before her. If she followed the Pace Waterman path, she’d be traveling a familiar road that had lately developed potholes. The Venus way was risky. They were still on shaky financial footing and she had no idea where the job would lead.

  But she’d really enjoy the journey.

  Garrett widened his smile persuasively, showing his dimples on purpose, she knew.

  “Are you offering me the position of business manager of Venus, Inc.?”

  “Yes,” he answered without hesitation.

  “Okay,” she accepted, also without hesitation.

  Garrett blinked at the easy victory. “Are you sure?”

  Was she? Jayne never made impulsive decisions and this was about as impulsive as they got. She’d been with Pace Waterman her entire working career.

  And if she stayed there much longer, she’d probably end up working for Bill Pellman. “I’m sure,” she said firmly.

  “Yea!” Micky cheered.

  “Mom, you and I are gonna go get us some models.” Sasha tossed the envelope with the day’s applications onto Micky’s counter, and linked arms with her mother.

  Rebecca Charles looked thoughtful. “Your father and I heard from Gustav that bot
h Brynn Francis and Darnia Vanderhoff are unhappy with their representation.”

  Sasha looked at her in surprise. “You’ve got gossip and you didn’t share?”

  “At the time it didn’t seem important,” Rebecca said as they left the room.

  Garrett had been studying Jayne. “Let’s talk.” He took the files from her and gestured for her to follow him. He led the way to George Windom’s former office.

  “Surprised you, didn’t I?” she asked when they were inside.

  “Yes.” He stacked the files on the credenza. “But I’ve discovered several surprising things about you lately.” He leaned against the desk and scorched her with a look.

  The suddenness of it stole her breath.

  Now is a good time to take me in your arms, Jayne thought.

  And it was a lovely thought, except for the fact that he’d just become her boss and they were at the company in full view of anyone walking by—including his mother, for Pete’s sake.

  “I enjoyed last night,” he murmured.

  “Me, too,” she admitted shyly.

  He hesitated then said, “You do know that’s not why I offered you the position here.”

  “You do know that’s not why I accepted the position here,” she shot back.

  “Good.” His smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. “Still, you can take more time to decide before you quit your job.”

  Jayne didn’t want more time. “Have you changed your mind about hiring me?”

  “No.”

  “Then I hope you aren’t going to try to talk me out of this.”

  “No way. I’ve wanted to hire you since the beginning, but I didn’t think we had a chance. Pace Waterman is a prestigious firm.”

  “And you’re wondering why I’d give that up.”

  “In a word, yes.”

  Jayne looked at him and knew she couldn’t admit that her decision was based in part by a desire to be near him. She wasn’t even ready to admit that to herself. “They’re an old, staid, conservative firm. And I was becoming old and staid right along with them. I’ve been...restless, I guess you could say. I couldn’t figure out what was wrong and then yesterday...” She could still see Bill’s smug face and Mr. Waterman’s expression this morning as he blamed her for Bill’s mistake. She squared her shoulders. “I realized that I’ve gone as far as I can go with that company. I’m ready for a change.”

  “I hope you’re ready for a challenge.”

  “That, too.” She should be impulsive more often. It felt good. “Shall we talk terms?”

  “Yes, I guess you would want to know your salary.” He laughed and rubbed the back of his neck. “How about paying yourself what we were paying Pace Waterman?”

  Jayne laughed. “Very generous. You can’t afford that.”

  “Then split the difference. Can we afford that?”

  She knew it would be less than the salary George Windom had drawn, yet it was a substantial increase over her current salary. “Yes, with me working for you, you can.”

  “So, are we all set?”

  “Let’s see, I’ve already analyzed your benefits package, so I’m familiar with that...what’s my title going to be?”

  Garrett spread his hands. “Whatever you want.”

  Jayne looked around the plush office. “Goddess has a nice ring to it.”

  Garrett laughed. “All right, accounting goddess, when can you start?”

  Giving two weeks notice to Mr. Waterman was almost as satisfying as showing Bill the workload he’d inherit.

  Mr. Waterman was genuinely surprised at her resignation. He didn’t try to persuade her to stay, which was disappointing, but watching Bill’s face drain of color completely made up for it.

  “When—when did you get all this done?” he asked as she showed him her client files.

  “Oh, I put in a lot of evenings and weekends,” Jayne said cheerfully. But she wasn’t giving Pace Waterman free overtime any longer.

  Only Sylvia was despondent over her leaving, but brightened when she realized visiting Jayne meant seeing Sandor, if he was in town.

  But the Charleses, with the exception of Garrett, had gone to New York and elsewhere to talk with models. Garrett was swamped with work. He and Jayne barely saw each other.

  Jayne didn’t mind, in fact she preferred it—for now. As part of their self-improvement campaign, she and Sylvia had joined a health club, though how someplace that made a person feel so bad could be called a health club escaped Jayne.

  When she tried to get out of bed the first morning after her complimentary session with the fitness trainer, her stomach muscles screamed and she joined them. It was worse when she ate her breakfast of half a grapefruit and dry toast. The food lasted about thirty minutes, then she was hungry again. Then her stomach hurt both inside and out.

  The second session was devoted to a cardio workout, which made a new set of muscles sore before the old ones had calmed down.

  “Just by hanging around Sandor before he left, I’ve lost five pounds!” announced Sylvia when she came by at ten o’clock several mornings later. “Think how much I’ll lose when he gets back!”

  Jayne’s stomach growled at the sight of the white bag she carried. Sylvia set a cup on her desk, opened the bag and tossed her a plum.

  Jayne caught it. “Oh, goodie. I was just thinking of how hungry I was and how much I wanted a plum.”

  “We have to be strong for each other,” Sylvia told her and virtuously bit into her own plum.

  Jayne took the lid off her cup. There was a pale amber liquid inside. “What happened to the coffee?”

  “That’s herbal tea. It’s better for you.”

  Jayne put her head on her desk and whimpered.

  By the end of the week, Sylvia had lost seven pounds and Jayne had lost half a pound, but only if she stood on the edge of her scales.

  “Don’t worry about it. I’m taller and it’s probably all water weight,” Sylvia consoled her when they met at the gym.

  “I wouldn’t mind losing water weight,” Jayne grumbled and stepped on the treadmill.

  “Or, I know. You’re building muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat.”

  “You mean I might gain weight going through all this torture?” Jayne wailed.

  “Garrett, in addition to Brynn and Darnia, we’ve found several rising stars who are interested in signing with us.” Garrett’s father read their names. His mother was on the extension phone and added comments about each.

  “If you think they’re worth signing, then go ahead,” he said. After so many years in the business, his parents could instantly tell whether a model had potential or not.

  “We think you should come here and talk to the girls. They’re nervous about being represented by an agency based outside New York,” his father said.

  This was a perception problem they’d had before. “You did tell them that they don’t have to leave New York?”

  His mother spoke. “Yes, but it would be best if you reassured them in person. It would also give you a chance to explain Jayne’s services.”

  “You know I’d fly up if I could, but right now isn’t a good time.”

  “Jayne starts on Monday, doesn’t she?” his mother asked.

  “That’s why now isn’t a good time.”

  “She seems very capable of running things in your absence.”

  “Mom, she can’t book models.”

  “I don’t expect her to.”

  “It’s only for a few days, Garrett,” his father added.

  Garrett closed his eyes. The dinner he’d had with Jayne seemed a very long time ago—because it had been a very long time ago. And now he was supposed to leave on her first day at the agency? Apparently so. “I’ll see you Monday afternoon,” he told his parents.

  Jayne had bought a new outfit for her first day at Venus, Inc. Unfortunately she didn’t get to buy it in a smaller size.

  And, in spite of Sylvia’s protests, it was a suit. But it was a suit in pale blue, wh
ich was a start. It had a flat knit shell in the same shade, which left Jayne’s neck bare, so she bought a heavy gold choker and matching earrings to wear. She’d even experimented with a little blush and mascara and was spending lunch—or what passed for her lunch these days—with Micky. They were trading makeup tips for Jayne with budget help for Micky.

  As soon as she walked through the door, Micky beamed at her. “Oh, go look at your office!” She came out from behind the high reception desk. “I want to watch.”

  With Micky following her, Jayne turned the corner in time to see Garrett fastening a brass name plaque to her door.

  Jayne felt a thrill go through her. Her new position was official. “Garrett, thanks. That’s so—”

  Grinning, he’d stepped back and she read the plaque:

  Jayne Nelson

  Accounting Goddess

  “Garrett!”

  “Isn’t that the title you said you wanted?”

  Jayne laughed. “Well, yes, but I can’t believe you actually put it on a sign!”

  “Isn’t that great?” Giggling, Micky practically danced her way back to the reception area.

  Garrett opened the door and gestured Jayne inside.

  A large sophisticated arrangement of tropical flowers sat on the desk. Pleased, she read the card, already guessing that they were from Garrett.

  “Welcome to Venus from the Charles family,” read the card and Jayne felt a prick of disappointment that Garrett hadn’t written something more personal.

  He made up for it a moment later.

  “I’m very glad you’re here,” he said in a low voice that made her shiver. “I’d intended to take you to lunch today as a celebration, but we’ll have to postpone it. I’ve got to catch a plane to New York.”

  New York? He was leaving? On her first day? Be professional, Jayne. “That’s okay. Micky and I had made plans for lunch.” She was pleased with the casual tone in her voice.

  Maybe it was too casual.

  Disappointment crossed Garrett’s face. “Oh. Good.” He seemed at a loss for words. “Well, I know it’s rotten to leave you on your first day, but I’ve got a noon flight.”