by Annie Dyer
“If she touches the bump on her head it hurts, but it will for a few days. Apart from that, she’s back to normal. How was your gym session?”
It was the smallest of small talk.
His grin was shit-eating, smug and charm rolled into one irresistible smirk. “Have you seen Max today?”
I hadn’t, preferring to stay well away from anyone related to Joseph Callaghan this morning just in case they recognised a mouth that had been devoured by him.
“He has a black eye.” The smugness didn’t fade.
The door to our office opened and Payton stood there. His twin. I wondered if I’d broken some unspoken rule of girl code by kissing her brother.
“Our mother is going to kill you.” Her hand cupped the neat bump that was becoming ever more prominent.
Seph preened.
“Seriously, Max sent her a photo. She’s on her way. That shiner you gave him, be prepared to have double that yourself. You’ve maimed her favourite son.” Payton shook her head. “And she’s on her way.”
“She was always coming in today to meet Brona Harris to get her to sign some documents. She told me at the weekend.” Seph’s eyes narrowed.
Payton shrugged. “And when she phoned me because you’ve been dodging her calls, all she said was that you were about to lose some of your prettiness. There may have been a few choice words and… don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Quick footsteps that definitely came from high heels echoed down the hallway outside.
“Payton. I’ve left a bottle of that tonic downstairs for you. Best to have a drink of water after as it’s effing vile and don’t let Owen drink it, else you’ll end up doubly pregnant.” The voice was tinged with a slight American twang.
“I’m not sure that’s possible, Mum.” Payton frowned.
“How do you think I ended up with twins?”
Marie Callaghan appeared through the doorway, bustling Payton out of the way. She was a neat woman, dressed in a suit, her hair tamed back into a pleat and her make-up immaculate. She looked every inch the professional businesswoman and had a glint in her eye that was somewhat scary.
“It’s lovely to meet you, Georgia. How’s your daughter? Seph told me she fell and banged her head.” The smile she gave me was Seph all over, the happy and kind one he’d shared with Rose so much yesterday.
“She’s much better, thanks.” I smiled back, feeling a combination of being at ease and wanting to check my lipstick in case it was smudged. “Seph was a big help.”
The look she gave Seph was not affectionate. Murderous would be a better description, and I wondered if I needed to leave the room so I didn’t witness a crime.
“He banged his own head a few times as a child. By the third time I realised his head was too hard for it to do any damage. Now I wonder whether I should hit it harder myself.” She turned to face him. Payton edged closer to me and looked as if she just needed a bowl of popcorn for this.
“Joseph Evan Callaghan, what have you done to your brother?”
“Oh shit, she’s middle-naming him. This isn’t going to be good.” Payton murmured as she moved even closer to my desk.
Seph looked unflummoxed. “He should’ve dodged. Not my fault if he’s distracted.”
I saw a neatly manicured finger poke at his chest from over his desk. “If you’re training, that’s fine. Train. Why you have to box I do not know, but you stay away from faces and heads, although like we already know, there’s nothing in there that can be damaged.”
The swipe to his head was swift and sharp, followed by fingers grabbing onto his hair and giving it a quick tug.
I suspected the hair pull hurt more than the slap, but what I knew would hurt even more was his twin sister absolutely wetting her sides laughing next to me.
“Now, you need to do something to make it up to him. A bottle of whisky or a meal. He looks a mess.”
Seph sat up a little straighter and was rewarded with another poke to the chest.
“Stop it. Else that face won’t look so pretty.”
He had the sense not to say anything.
Marie glared for a couple more seconds then turned around to look at me and Payton, her shoulders now relaxed and her demeanour calm. “I have to meet my client, but I’d love to grab a coffee with you after, if you have time, Georgia. It’d be nice to find out more about Rose.”
I was surprised she knew her name, realising it must’ve come from Seph or one of his siblings. Warmth seeped through me. At my previous firm, they’d acted as if Rose didn’t exist, preferring to gossip about the ‘scandal’ behind my back. This was different and it surprised me.
“Just find me when you’re done.”
She nodded. “I will do. See if you can knock some sense into my son before then. It’ll save me doing it.”
“What’s the soonest we can get this done? I need to move on with everything else and this is just going to hang over my head like a big sharp dagger until then.” David Hartford tapped the side of his coffee mug, his second since he’d been there.
Seph had made the first while I’d made uncomfortable conversation about the weather, David reluctant to discuss anything about the case until Seph was back. As soon as he’d drank the coffee, he’d tapped the mug and pushed it towards me, a dismissal as if all I was capable of was making him a drink.
I’d resisted adding an additional ingredient to it.
“Like I said, we can go to mediation fairly quickly. That avoids court and the costs that’ll bring.” Seph retained the same calm, relaxed pose he’d started the meeting with.
“I’m not sitting in that room with him. Not after what he’s done to me.” David crossed his arms, his fists clenched. “He shouldn’t even be entitled to any of it! He’s already taken his share out – without even mentioning it, asking, coming to an arrangement...”
For a moment, I felt sorry for him. To feel betrayed by your brother in such a way after so many years of working together must be horrific, and I did have sympathy for that, but David Hartford wasn’t a man easy to empathise with.
“We can mediate with you in separate rooms. It’s likely that the judge will suggest mediation first if we haven’t tried it already and that’s to avoid costs, so if we don’t do it now, we’ll likely have to come back to it anyway, which will prolong everything further.” Seph sounded matter of fact, merely stating what would happen.
David didn’t look pacified. His stare went from me to Seph and back again. “When’s that accountant coming back with evidence of Ron stealing the money?”
I resisted the urge to look at Seph and communicate what we both knew. David was placing too much hope on the withdrawal of funds, but from what we knew so far, he was clutching at straws. His brother was too clever to leave himself open to criminal charges, and creative accountancy could find enough legal loopholes to thread money through. In simple terms, as Ron wouldn’t sell to David, the quickest solution was for the company to be sold, and David to take a bigger share of the profits, but both Seph and I knew, every penny was going to be fought over, going back to who put initial investments into the first jewellery store forty years ago.
“We should get his report in another couple of weeks,” I said, knowing this wouldn’t be good enough for David. “In the meantime, we should prep for possible mediation.”
“I’ve said I don’t want to do that, or weren’t you listening?” His tone was sharp.
Seph stood up immediately. “And that’s the last time you’re going to speak to Georgia like that.” He said the words quietly. “You either trust us to guide you through this and take our suggestions, or you find other representation.”
David looked like a child who’d just been scolded. “I’m sorry.” He directed the apology at me, but it didn’t sound sincere. “This is a very stressful time for me.”
I gave a nod and looked at Seph. “If we don’t prepare for a mediation, David, we’d be negligent.”
“I understand.”
&n
bsp; He didn’t, but he wasn’t going to embarrass himself in front of Seph any further.
“I have another matter I need to discuss with you. I want to transfer part ownership of the industrial estate to my son, Edward, but I’m wondering how we do it without incurring any additional tax.”
David looked away from me, focusing on Seph who was still standing.
“Send the details over and we’ll look at it. We’ll have to leave it for today as we’ve another meeting to get to.” Seph was expressionless, his arms still folded, his biceps bulging in the sleeves of his shirt.
I pulled my gaze away from him. He was hard to look at when he was like this, semi-seething because I knew David Hartford had just royally pissed him off with how he’d spoken to me. His body was tense, his back rigid and his jaw clenched.
I itched to touch him. I wanted David to go and then I could put my hand on Seph’s chest, run it up to his shoulder and ease the muscles there. Between my legs started to burn and I ached.
This was not how it should be. It was my second week at a new job, and I’d been through enough shit where I worked before to know office relationships or flings or even one night stands were never simple.
David got up, not looking at me, and offered his hand to Seph. “Make this same appointment for next week and we can catch up, but I’ll speak to you tomorrow. If anything comes in from the other side today, make sure you give me a call.”
“Will do.” Seph kept the handshake brief and then opened the door for David to leave the meeting room.
The silence between us was loaded with heavy, unspoken words while we waited for the door handle to click and David’ footsteps to fade away. I got to my feet, feeling off balance with Seph still standing.
“I wish I’d said no to this case.” He moved so his back was resting against the door, stopping anyone from entering.
I shook my head. “Seph, how he spoke isn’t that unusual. One of the partners where I worked before was even worse with the women who worked there. He was either trying to fuck them or ignore them.”
He looked at the floor. “Yesterday…”
“When we kissed.” We had to talk about it. There was no way I was forgetting it any time soon, and I suspected it was the same for him.
“When we kissed. You’re fucking gorgeous and I’m really attracted to you, but we probably shouldn’t do that again. I want to, fuck, Georgie, I want to, but…”
He looked at his feet and I saw that his hands were clenched.
“You’re right. We need to just be colleagues.”
I felt a weight leave my shoulders. Seph could star in my fantasies, but that would be it. Maybe it was time to date a little more, get rid of the sexual frustration I was pretty sure I was being eaten up with, and find something that wasn’t plastic to relieve it.
“Friends. I want to be friends too.” He looked back at me.
“Friends. Let’s try that.”
I wasn’t sure that was going to be a good idea.
Marie Callaghan didn’t look as tidy when she found me in my office an hour later, and I knew I was similarly unkempt. Her hair was looser, some of the tendrils having escaped the pleat, and her lipstick had vanished.
She sat down at Seph’s desk. He’d found an excuse to escape when one of the secretaries had tapped on the meeting room door to tell him that another client had arrived, and after one look that lingered far too long, he disappeared.
I had enough reading and advices to write to keep me busy through till Christmas, so I’d buried myself in them, forgetting that Marie was going to look for me after she’d finished herself.
“How’re you finding it? Settling in?” She started to tidy Seph’s desk as if it was second nature, which I suspected it was.
I’d seen him try to organise himself only for it to descend back into chaos a few hours later. It’d been frustrating in a cute kind of way.
I nodded, glad of the distraction from my work and from my thoughts. “Everyone’s been really welcoming.”
“Even Sandra in accounts?” She frowned and raised a brow, just the one, unlike Seph.
“Maybe not Sandra. But every office has a Sandra.” It was a fair point.
Marie nodded. ‘It would’ve worried me if Sandra had been nice. She’s worked here since the sixteenth century, I think, and I don’t believe she’s smiled in all that time.”
I laughed, totally getting what she meant. Sandra had eyed the form I’d filled in with my bank details as if it had been dipped in vomit and catarrh. The look she’d given me had only been slightly worse.
“How’s Seph? He’s been working like a maniac since before Christmas and I was hoping that having someone else senior in the department would level him out a bit. I never thought I’d be worried about him stopping partying like I am.” It was a mum-thing to say and I understood. Seph was about the same age as me, an adult and definitely a full-grown man, but I knew full well that no matter how old Rose was, I wasn’t ever going to stop worrying about her.
“He’s been really helpful. He was amazing on Monday when I needed to take Rose to hospital.” He was amazing in the kitchen yesterday too, with just one kiss, but that wasn’t something his mother needed to hear about.
Marie beamed. “He’s good with kids. Probably because he’s still one himself.”
I shook my head, feeling the need to defend him. “Actually, when we worked from my house yesterday he kept an eye on Rose and he put the right boundaries in place. He was pretty firm.” I’d been really impressed with them both. Rose could be shy with new people, especially men, and I hadn’t been sure of what Seph was going to be like with a little girl. They’d taken to each other straight away and he’d been sweet enough with her to make my ovaries purr.
Marie’s expression changed to one of curiosity. “He’s been around his nieces and nephew enough, I suppose. How’s your daughter settling in after your move?”
“Better than I thought. I was really worried, but it’s like she’s been here forever.” I told her about Elspeth and the nursery, and she asked how I was finding motherhood and working full time.
I relaxed, breathed. This wasn’t an interview; I already had the job, and this wasn’t someone who was going to judge me for being a working mother. She wasn’t going to guilt me for having someone else look after my daughter so I could go to work, and she wasn’t going to question my commitment to my career.
“It’s hard. If I didn’t have Rose, I’d be working later here, in the building, but I can’t. So I leave here to pick her up, make her dinner, do the whole bedtime routine, then when she’s asleep, that’s when I start working again, and it doesn’t matter if I’m tired or not. I have to.” It felt good to say the words, a release almost. “My mother lived near us until she moved to Spain, and my sister is with us at the moment, so she helps when she can with picking her up from Elspeth’s.”
“But it’s difficult, especially if you’re a single parent. Grant – the kids’ father – was a workaholic and it took me a couple of years to get him to realise that he needed to parent too. By the time Ava came along and I went back to work, he knew how to be more involved and realised that I had my career too. Thankfully, none of my boys have the same old-fashioned ideas. Does Rose’s father have much to do with her?” She loosened her hair completely from its pleat.
I wondered if she’d heard of Rose’s father. He was a solicitor too, the son of one whose firm had been acquired by another company, so if Marie hadn’t heard of him, she would no doubt have heard of the old law firm.
“No. We broke up when he found out I was pregnant.” There was more to it than that, but wasn’t that always the case?
“His loss, lovely. Seph told me that your little girl’s an absolute gem. That’ll be all credit to you.”
My heart burst a little bit. Any praise for my daughter was better than a first-class degree from Oxford for me, and that Seph had said that polished it even more. I was trying not to think about that kiss, or that
there would be no more replays of it, only the ones in my head.
“Thank you. She’s a really good kid. Loves books more than electronics, so I can’t complain.” I smiled at Marie. “I still don’t know how you managed to bring up seven kids and hold down a career.”
“I don’t think I did sometimes. They dragged themselves up at times. Max and Jackson and Claire helped out with the twins when they were toddlers, so I did have help. And I relied on child minders and babysitters. Occasionally Grant – although I left him one evening to sort the kids’ dinners out without leaving him written instructions and came back to total carnage.”
The office door swung open at a speed I recognised. Seph came in, fully suited, his glasses on, hair mussed as if he’d been running his fingers through it in frustration.
“Take over my desk while you’re here, why don’t you?” His grin at his mum was huge. “I have a ton of filing you can do if you’re bored.”
Marie stood up. “Forget that. Your ironing last week was enough.” She shot me a sly look. “Georgia was saying that you struggle with your time management, that you’re having to stay late just to catch up. Do you need me to help you organise yourself?”
Seph’s eyes flickered to me. I swallowed a giggle.
“I think Georgia knows I’m very organised. And professional.” There was a glint in his eye and a tang to his tone that made every nerve in my body stand up.
He said we had to be just friends.
He didn’t want to be just friends.
That kiss had affected him just as much as me.
As a kid, I’d had a stubborn streak as long as the Nile. As an adult, it was only slightly shorter.
You could have a relationship with someone you worked with and still be professional, Seph’s parents were proof of that.
And I wanted more of those kisses.
Chapter Twelve
Seph
It seemed that I was a masochist.
I’d spent the last week sharing an office with a woman who’d apparently cast a spell on me. I dreamed of her hair wrapped around my fingers, felt the touch of her lips on mine while I slept and the only image I could find to focus on when I jacked off in the shower, was of her and the way her blouses clung to her tits, or the glimpse of cleavage that I swore she was torturing me with when she bent over.