“Then there’d be no need for me—”
“There’s every need.” Cornelia gave her a surprisingly stern look. “Someone who can keep things in line. And things—in this instance—would include Harry. He’s kind of a steamroller when he gets going. But you could do it.”
Shea’s jaw was slack.
“I’m not saying you should dedicate your entire life to a new goal,” Cornelia continued. “You’re going to have a baby, and that’s where you’ll be focusing all of your nurturing energies. But you can carry the role of publisher without giving your life over to it as long as you have the right team. Harvey Hightower has an excellent reputation for doing what he does well and should be part of that team as long as he’s willing and able.”
“And that all takes money!”
“Well, yes, Shea. Money. Quite a lot of it, I’m thinking, which often makes those involved rather tense. But with the right people, with the right heart,” she looked pointedly at her, “amazing things are possible.” She lifted her shoulder casually. “Or you can refuse, naturally. Things are no worse for us tossing around the idea.”
“Pax already says I work too many hours.” Shea wasn’t sure where the words came from. She couldn’t actually be considering the woman’s suggestion, could she?
“He’s right.” Cornelia crossed her legs. She was wearing peach-colored slacks and a matching twinset, with a single strand of pearls around her neck. And if Shea had ever thought the woman was a pushover for a sad story, she was suddenly getting a glimpse of the iron confidence hidden beneath the soft, gentle exterior. “So let’s say your hours should be limited to no more than five per day. Would that be acceptable?”
“I couldn’t be a publisher in five hours a day!”
“Shea. You’re guilty of what Harry is always accusing me. Not thinking large enough. You can do anything with the right means.” Her fingers lightly drummed the loveseat arm, and the stone on her wedding ring glittered. “And I can make sure you have the means.”
“And what do you get in exchange?”
“The same thing I always get,” she said calmly. “Satisfaction and pleasure.” She thought for a moment. “Though in this instance, my husband will insist on a portion of profit. But I suppose that’s fair.”
Shea’s head was whirling. “I just came here with the idea of helping Harvey.”
“And wouldn’t this be doing that?”
“What if all he really wants is to retire? Go fishing?”
“Then he retires. He goes fishing. You’ll find a job writing for another newspaper here. Or you’ll come and work for me full time because that offer is always going to be on the table. I’m in no position to force anyone to agree to something that right now is simply an idea.”
“I’m not supposed to be one of your Cindys,” she couldn’t help protesting.
“Harvey is your Cindy, dear. Is there some law that says you can’t be his very own fairy godmother and still be my very own Cinderella project?”
The day had already held too much, and it wasn’t even noon.
Shea blew out a shaky breath, hating that she felt tearful. Particularly after Cornelia had just told her she believed she could hold her own up against Harrison Hunt!
“At least I wouldn’t have to worry about you thinking there’s going to be some major romance between Harvey and me,” she muttered.
Cornelia laughed merrily. “Oh, Shea, there is already a major romance going on. You’re pregnant, after all.”
She flushed. “But you didn’t set up Pax and me in business together or anything. He just...just has an office next door. And I’d met him long before—” she waved her hand around “—all this.”
Cornelia’s eyes sparkled. “A happy coincidence. But I will expect a wedding invitation.”
Shea chewed the inside of her cheek. Her eyes overflowed.
“Oh.” Cornelia tsked and moved around the table to sit beside Shea. She covered Shea’s twisting hands with one of her own. “What is it? Hasn’t he proposed yet? I’ve known that boy for years. He will, I’m certain of it.”
“Oh, he’s proposed all right,” Shea said thickly. “More than once because of the baby.” And he loved her. He’d said it. Again and again while he’d driven her body to heaven and back again. “I don’t believe in marriage, Cornelia.” She looked at the other woman. “My mother’s done it seven times with six different men. What does it count for?”
“Hmm. We could stack up your mother’s efforts against Harry’s,” she said wryly. “He certainly tried plenty of times himself and always with the most horrible women.” She shuddered a little. “Take your mother’s experiences out of the equation, Shea. They don’t have to be yours. And I don’t even have to ask if you love him.”
Shea jerked. She hadn’t admitted anything of the sort. Not even to herself.
“It’s written all over your face, dear, every time you say his name.”
She looked down and blinked hard.
Cornelia patted her hand again and rose, returning a moment later with a tissue that she tucked into Shea’s fist. “Don’t think about marriage. Perhaps what you might ask yourself instead is whether you believe in commitment. Because that’s what it takes to make a family work.”
“Excuse me.” Phil knocked softly on the opened door, drawing their attention. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but Laurie Schaeffer is here to go over the terms of her contract. I’ve put her in the conference room.”
Cornelia glanced at the narrow diamond watch on her wrist. “I’ll be right there, Phil. Thank you.” She waited until the other woman had left the doorway and then gave Shea’s hands a squeeze before rising. “Take as much time here as you need. But please. Think about what I said.”
“The Tub doesn’t have much time for me to sit around and think.”
Cornelia tsked again. She caught Shea’s chin in her hand as if she were five. “The Tub is just a business, Shea.” Her eyes were kind but as serious as Shea had ever seen them. “I’m talking about your life. I’ve known Harry since we were children, but it took us nearly a lifetime before we finally got it right. You’re still young. Spend your lifetime with the one you love. Don’t let that opportunity pass you by just because you’re afraid.”
Chapter Fourteen
Shea sat in the Audi, her hands clenching and unclenching around the steering wheel, and stared at the enormous building in front of her.
She’d driven the short distance from Cornelia’s office to Merrick & Sullivan Boat Works and everywhere she looked, there were boats. In the water. Out of the water. But through the yawning, industrial-sized doorway that was wide open to the day, she could see only shadows.
She hadn’t called Pax to tell him she was coming early. Hadn’t called to say a word about her conversation with Harvey. Or the truly mind-boggling one with Cornelia.
She just needed to see him. Talk to him. Find out if he thought the plan was as crazy as it had to be.
As for everything else Cornelia had said—
Her mind shied away from it.
She blew out a breath, parked the car next to Pax’s SUV in the lot and walked toward the building. The closer she got, the larger it became, reminding her oddly of an airplane hangar. There didn’t seem to be any sort of regular office entrance, so she entered through the gigantic doorway and was immediately surrounded by noise and the scent of wood.
A few men stood beneath the skeleton of what someday would be a truly immense sailboat. They wore hard hats and tool belts and held ropes that reached over pulleys high in the metal beams near the roof, then back down again to the massive wooden pieces being slowly inched into place by a crane. It, too, was dwarfed by the structure.
Her fingers actually itched for a camera, so impressive was the sight.
Then a figure appeared
on the inside of the framework. Pax was well over six feet, but even he looked small in comparison to the behemoth surrounding him. He was gesturing broadly with outstretched hands at the crane and beam overhead, and she could hear him yelling but didn’t understand the terms. She only knew she was watching something magnificent and wondered why on earth she hadn’t asked him to show her the heart of his and Erik’s operation earlier. And then, as if he sensed her, he suddenly turned on his heel and smiled across at her.
And everything in her went still.
And calm.
She lifted her hand in a silent wave and he pointed to the metal stairs off to one side that led up to a catwalk. She realized that was where the office was and nodded, heading that way.
She stopped partway up, her hand wrapped around the metal pipe handrail, and watched them again, trying to imagine what the various angles and shapes would end up forming on the finished product.
“Come check out the photos,” an amused voice came from above, and she looked up to see Erik leaning over the catwalk rail. He was dressed in work clothes, too, minus the hard hat. He gestured at the walls behind him. “If you want to see more of what we do.”
She eagerly ascended the rest of the stairs and saw a series of offices, all lined with windows that overlooked the production area below. Not unlike Harvey’s window that looked out on the newsroom, she thought whimsically. “Sorry to come by unannounced,” she said a little breathlessly when she reached the top. She gazed out over the view. “This is incredible.”
Erik’s eyes crinkled. “Makes coming to the office pretty enjoyable. And you hardly need to worry about announcing yourself. Pax told me the two of you were going house hunting today. About time he grew up and got a backyard of his own.”
She laughed. “I think he’s pretty grown up even without the yard.”
Erik grinned and jerked his head. “Come on. I’ll show you Pax’s office.”
She followed him through one of the doorways toward the center of the catwalk and he gestured at the pearl-gray wall, where dozens of black and white photographs were mounted, showing boats under construction. “Those show most stages every M & S boat goes through,” he said.
“I’ve only been on Honey Girl once,” she admitted, moving over to study the blown-up images more closely. “She’s so beautiful, but it’s hard to imagine the steps that went into creating her.”
“He used to say Honey was the only girl he loved.” Erik sat on the corner of the metal desk that took up much less floor space than the large drafting table next to it did. “He never said it again once you came along.” He picked up a framed photograph on the desk and turned it so she could see.
She frowned and took it out of his hands. It was a snapshot of her and Pax from Erik and Rory’s wedding reception. Pax was holding out his hand to her when he’d asked her to dance.
His expression was caught clearly and her heart squeezed.
She slowly set the frame back on Pax’s desk. “The most obvious things are right in front—” They both jerked when there was a loud crash.
Erik bolted toward the catwalk rail, looking down. And then he swore. “Stay here,” he ordered tersely and ran toward the stairs.
Shea’s heart climbed into her throat as she followed, stopping at the rail to look down from the dizzying height.
Shouts and curses floated up from the production floor and her eyes anxiously sought out Pax amid the cloud of dust that was rising right along with the shouts. But she couldn’t see him.
Not even aware of moving, she was suddenly racing down the steps, the flat heels of her boots clanging against the metal, but when she reached the ground and would have tried to go closer to the skeleton of the boat, an arm came around her waist, hauling her back.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
She looked up into Pax’s face.
Below the hard hat, dust caked his cheeks and jaw, and his clothes were nearly white with it. “God,” she cried, relief like she’d never known making her weak. She clamped her hands on his face and hauled him down to her, pressing her mouth to his, feeling the graininess covering his lips. “I was so afraid,” she mumbled against him.
The iron band of his grip turned gentle and he slipped his palm up her back. He kissed her softly. “Been there,” he said once he straightened again. Then he made a face. “Dammit, don’t do that.” He brushed his thumbs over her cheeks. “You know I can’t take it when you do that.”
She hadn’t even known she was crying. Her hands shook as she did her own touching. Over his chest, swiping away dust. Over his wide shoulders, his hair-roughened forearms and his face yet again. “You’re not hurt?”
“No. I’m not hurt.” He thumbed back his hard hat, revealing a band of clean, suntanned skin, and raised his voice. “No thanks to Jake,” he yelled loudly, “because he still hasn’t learned how to tie a bloody knot! A kindergartner could’ve done better!”
A chorus of laughter and jeers rose through the cloud of dust that was still rolling outward.
Shea pressed her head weakly to the center of his chest, trying to ignore images of that huge wooden beam crashing down from the crane. He’d been standing beneath it when she’d arrived. “I would die if something happened to you.”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” He lifted her chin and his brown eyes searched hers. “Nothing’s going to happen to me.”
“But if something did—”
“But nothing did. Or will. Not until I’ve had a lifetime with you.”
Her heart was smashed into dust finer than the cloud beyond him. “I love you.” The words burst out of her. “I love you, and I don’t care if you only want to marry me because of the baby. I don’t care that it’s the only reason you fell in love with me or—”
He hauled her off her feet and pressed his mouth to hers. Long and hard and well.
And when he finally set her back on her feet, she realized that his crew was hooting at them now.
He waved his arm dismissively and tugged her out into the sunlight and away from their view.
“Pax, I—”
“Be quiet.” He pressed his hands on his lean hips and looked around at the parking lot. “This is a helluva place,” he murmured, then grabbed her hand again. “Come on.”
“But I need to—”
“Just wait. Okay? Humor me for a few minutes. This is not what I planned.”
Confused, she had to trot behind him to keep up with his long strides as he pulled her with him past the building and down to the maze of docks. And finally, she realized their destination. Honey Girl sat gently swaying at the end of a floating pier. “Her mainsail’s under repair or I’d take her out,” he said when they reached her. He lightly hopped across to the deck and hauled on the rope tying her to the pier, closing the gap of water by several feet.
She knew it wasn’t as easy as he made it look, simply because she could see the tendons in his forearms standing out. But he stayed steady and set one foot back on the pier, straddling the water below. “Put your foot there.” He gestured, then held out his hand. “Take my hand and just step across. I won’t let you fall.”
She slid her hand in his and felt his fingers close around it. The pier was narrow and moved far more than she was used to. But she put her foot where he said. And stepped across. Because he wasn’t going to let her fall.
Then he pushed away from the pier and stepped into the boat, lifting her beyond the rail and onto the deck.
“Pax—”
“Just hold on.” He flipped open a bench and pulled out a cushion that matched the upholstery she remembered from the cabin bunk and set it on the bench. “Now. You can sit.”
She sat.
“You want a life vest? I’ve got plenty of them.”
Feeling strangely lightheaded, she shook her head. “
I’m not exactly in danger of falling overboard from here,” she said faintly. “Besides, you’d catch me.”
“Yes,” he said quietly. “I would.”
It was nowhere near as noisy as it had been in the boat works, but there was still plenty going on. Birds cawing, horns blowing and water slapping against the sides of the boats. But when he looked at her the way he was, his eyes warm and gentle, the only thing she really heard was her heart beating inside her head.
“How was Harvey?”
It was the last thing she expected him to ask. “Fine. Really much better than I expected him to be.” She searched his eyes. “Cornelia seems to think she has an idea how to help him keep the Tub afloat.”
“Good for her.”
She pushed nervously to her feet. “Well, it kind of involves me, too. She...she thinks maybe I could be publisher.”
His eyebrows rose.
“With a lot of help,” she added rapidly, “from, you know, experts who would know what to really do. And her husband. Because he’s the real money.”
“Is that something you’re interested in doing?”
She chewed the inside of her lip. “I don’t know. Maybe.” She realized she was pressing her hands to her belly. “Is it...crazy? To think about something like that when we’re going to have a baby in September?”
“It’s only crazy if you end up doing too much. I told you once that you didn’t have to work if you didn’t want to.”
“I know.” Which just brought her around to what she needed to say. “I never wanted to love anyone, Pax.” Her eyes suddenly burned. “Certainly not the kind of man I’d convinced myself that you were. But you’re not what I thought. You’re not who I thought.” She moistened her lips. “You’re kind. And you’re decent and honest. A lot more honest than I’ve ever been, and I meant it when I said I didn’t want to hurt you. If marriage is what you want so this baby has your name, then I’ll marry you. Because I love you. And I—” she swallowed and sniffed “—I just want to be with you. However that happens.”
ONCE UPON A VALENTINE Page 19