by Abby Gaines
Jonah settled heavily in the chair in front of her desk. “I want you to take over the running of the firm.”
The statement was so bald, so unembellished by emotion, it took a moment for Megan absorb it.
“You’re giving me the job?” she squeaked.
Her father laughed. “Sure am. You deserve it, Megan, and there’s no one I’d rather have in my seat than my own dear daughter.”
“Dad…wow.” She brushed away tears. “Thank you.” She came around the desk to hug him. “I can’t believe I actually made it.”
He hugged her, patted her back, then released her. “You were up against some stiff competition, and you can be sure I wouldn’t have given you the job if I didn’t think you were the best of the lot.”
“Have you told the others?” Travis would be so disappointed, her heart ached for him.
He shook his head. “I’ll call them all this afternoon. Jamieson knows he’s out, of course.”
“Travis? Did you talk to him?”
Her father pursed his lips. “He pulled out yesterday—told me I’d be nuts not to hire you. I already knew that,” he said severely, when her mouth opened in outrage. “That young man has a thing about speaking up where he’s not wanted.”
Travis had pulled out? Then told her dad to promote her? Megan’s mind reeled. Of course, Jonah would never appoint her just because someone else told him to, but…why had Travis done it?
“Did he say why he was pulling out?”
“He said there’s something he wants more.” Disbelief resonated in Jonah’s words. “I warned him, there’s no other firm that can match Merritt, Merritt & Finch for credibility.”
Megan started to smile. It couldn’t be true…and yet she knew it, knew it like she knew her own name. He wants me. Travis’s determination to help her win Theo’s business, his pulling out of the job…it was because he loved her back.
The right kind of love, she was almost sure.
“Megan, are you all right?” Her father eyed her.
“Dad, maybe you should hold off on calling those other guys.”
“What?” He put his hand to his chest, but it seemed more reflex than a real sign of ill health.
“There’s something that might affect my ability to take the job.”
“What do you mean?” he barked.
Her mind raced. “I hope it won’t, but just in case, I can’t risk…I mean, what if I need to make some kind of gesture, or…”
Jonah thumped the table, shutting her up. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Megan, what are you saying?”
“I don’t know. But I’ll know soon. Just give me a little, a very little while.” Megan stood and shepherded him to the door. She kissed his cheek. “Thanks, Dad, thanks so much.”
He was still complaining when she closed the door on him.
She wanted to dance for joy, but first she had to think hard about how far she could go toward meeting Travis part of the way. How they could make this work. She asked her assistant to hold her calls.
“Mr. Jamieson called three times while your father was here,” the girl said.
“I can’t talk to him,” Megan said. “Not yet.”
She dithered far more than she’d expected. She knew what she wanted, she knew what he wanted, and the gap in between terrified her.
Slowly, she started to get her head around it. Let herself get used to the idea, without rushing. Just like she’d advised Gina. She forced herself to brave the department store madness and do her Christmas shopping. She chose a gift for Travis.
Several times that day, and the next, she heard her assistant say, “I’m sorry, Mr. Jamieson, Ms. Merritt is unavailable.”
It wouldn’t hurt him to hear that, she thought, given she was about to be the most shamelessly available woman he could imagine.
Thursday morning was Christmas Eve. Most people weren’t working, but the office was open, and Megan had some loose ends to tie up. Besides, surely Travis would be sick of waiting and would find some creative way to butt into her life.
At ten o’clock, he appeared in the doorway. “Coffee delivery.” He held up two take-out cups. “Latte for me, macchiato for you.”
She got up and walked around her desk. “Macchiato? I’ve seen it on the menu, but I don’t know exactly…”
“A single shot of espresso with a small amount of hot, foamed milk, just enough to stain the coffee.”
“I love it already.” She took the cup, sampled it. “Perfect, Travis. Just what I always wanted.”
His dark eyes heated. She could have rushed into his arms right now, but she didn’t.
“Thank you for pulling out of the job. Dad offered it to me.”
“He would have anyway,” Travis insisted. “You’re the best person for it.” He nudged her paper cup with his. “Congratulations.”
“I told Dad I’d have to think about it.”
His gaze sharpened. “Why?”
“That depends,” she said, “on you.”
She was standing very close to him now. She set her cup down on the desk; he did the same.
“Tell me more,” he invited.
“I’m not exactly a great bet for a relationship, Travis,” she said. “At least, not for a guy who wants to settle down and have kids.”
Travis took her hands. “I love you, Megan. Will you marry me?”
Fireworks exploded inside her chest. “Wait,” she said, “I haven’t told you what a bad bargain you’re getting.”
“You forget,” he said. “I know you.”
He did. He had always seen her, known her, the way no one else did. Better, she could only hope, than she knew herself.
“I bought you a gift.” She pulled the wrapped package out of her file cabinet. “Merry Christmas.”
He flexed it experimentally. “It’s a book. A mystery?”
“You could say that.”
He tore the snowman-themed paper off. When he saw the gift, he stilled. “Megs.” His voice choked.
“Name Your Baby.”
He could barely speak.
“Travis, I can’t promise just now to have your babies. I’m not saying I won’t ever have them,” she assured him. “I’m saying I need to be a different kind of person before I make that decision. The book’s a promise that I’ll try to be that person, that I want to be. But I don’t know for sure if I can.”
“You can,” he said confidently, lifting first one of her hands to his mouth for a kiss, then the other. “You can be anything you want. I love you, Megan. Will you marry me?” He grinned. “Is it time to say that now?”
“Not yet.” She planted a kiss on his chin, as a down payment. “About my new job. I want it, but if it means you and I aren’t going to work, then, well, I can stick with what I’m doing now.”
“I want you to have the job,” he said. “I love you, Megs. Will you marry me?”
“I love your family,” she said. “I want to be a part of it.”
He kissed the tip of her nose. “Answer the damn question.”
“I love you, Travis. I will marry you.”
Joy swept over his face. “You have no idea how good it feels to hear that.” He folded her into his embrace and kissed her passionately, walking her backward so she could perch on the edge of her desk. His fingers combed her hair, pulling it from its loose knot so it fell around her shoulders.
Megan gloried in the taste of him, in the tenderness of his touch, in his unspoken but crystal-clear promise of forever.
When they surfaced, she was shaking.
“I got you a gift, too,” he said. The shape of the little package was a dead giveaway.
Megan tore the paper off and opened the crimson velvet box. The ring was magnificent. A princess-cut topaz, surrounded by diamonds. “I love it,” she said.
“It matches your eyes.” Travis slid it onto her finger. “There.” He gazed at the ring, a proprietary gleam in his eyes. “Now we’ve nailed it.”
“There�
��s just one more thing,” Megan said. “I hope it’s not going to be a deal breaker.”
“I won’t let it be.” But visibly, he braced himself. “Go on.”
“Absolutely, definitely, no prenup allowed,” she said.
Travis whooped and punched the air. “Megs, my darling, you just got yourself a husband.”
EPILOGUE
“THANK YOU for your time, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes our meeting.” Megan closed the folder in front of her and smiled around the boardroom table, ending with her husband at the far end.
The atmosphere relaxed immediately, and Merritt, Merritt & Jamieson’s partners broke into less formal discussions in twos and threes.
“One thing my co-managing partner forgot to mention…” Travis’s voice, full of laughter, brought them back to attention.
The sound of a loud gurgle was followed by a belch. All eyes turned to Megan. “Excuse me,” she said, and pushed her chair back so she could look beneath the table. “What do you want, little one?”
Her six-month-old daughter blinked in her infant seat, still waking up from the nap that had mercifully lasted the length of the meeting. That was the problem with part-time babysitters—occasionally, when she and Travis were both required to attend a meeting, Megan had to bring Sophia into the office.
“I forgot to say, Travis and I will be on vacation next week,” she announced. “It’s our third wedding anniversary. You can reach us on our cells in an emergency, but otherwise, we’ll see you in a week.”
The team filed out in a cloud of congratulatory murmurs. At last only Travis, Megan and baby Sophia, her seat now elevated to the boardroom table, remained.
Travis took Megan in his arms. “Did the sitter not show up, or are you already grooming our daughter to take over the firm?”
She grinned. “She just missed her daddy. I should never have agreed to job-share with you. You’re much better with Sophia, she loves her days at home with you.”
He laughed, and Sophia gurgled in delight. “You fight me tooth and nail every time I get near her,” Travis teased Megan.
She shrugged. “That’s just maternal instinct. Even the most unlikely women have it.”
He snared her with an arm about her waist, pulled her to him and took her mouth with a kiss that left her breathless. “You, my darling, are not unlikely. You’re an exceptionally loving and giving person.”
She kissed him again. “I love you, that’s for sure.”
“And you always will,” he said with satisfaction.
Megan chuckled against his chest.
“What’s so funny?”
“I can’t afford to give up on this marriage,” she said. “I figure it’s going to take another fifty years to knock those chauvinist tendencies out of you.”
He kissed her long and hard. “Bring it on, Megs. I’m all yours.”
ISBN: 978-1-4268-4331-0
HER SECRET RIVAL
Copyright © 2009 by Abby Gaines.
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