“Sounds good. And?”
Nancy shot him an impatient look. “I also understand Mr. Hiramine is a golf fanatic. I’m making arrangements for him to play at your Club and at Brookhaven.”
“Tell Matthews he’ll need to be there for the golf outings. He’s good at throwing a game.” His phone rang and he glanced at it. He’d had his daily phone inquisition with Marcus, so that left either Evie or Gwen.
“I already have. And Mr. Matthews has the final sales and profit projections ready for your review.”
“Excellent. Anything else?” Evie should be with her French tutor. That narrowed it down considerably.
“Your phone is ringing.” Nancy was secure enough in her position to lob one parting shot as she gathered her notes and made a hasty exit. “I’ll just leave these reports for you to look over later.”
“Will, it’s Gwen. Do you have a minute to talk?” The easy warmth that moved through him at the sound of her voice faded at the tension he heard in her words.
“Of course.” It wasn’t an entirely true statement, but the reports could wait a few minutes longer.
“Have you read today’s issue of Dallas Lifestyles?”
“I never read that rag, but—”
“Tish Cotter-Hulme has half a column about us. I mean, about you and me and Evie, and why we’ve been spotted together. I’m so sorry, Will. Tish is making all kinds of speculations…”
“Calm down. I’m fully aware of what she had to say this morning. I don’t have to read it myself to get a full report of what she says about me. I have people for that.” Gwen didn’t laugh at his lame attempt at humor. “Just don’t worry about it.”
“Don’t worry? Have you lost your mind?” Gwen’s voice rose an octave, and he winced in pain. “You don’t realize how many phone calls I’ve fielded this morning. Between people wanting me to confirm or deny Tish’s rumors and my clients…”
“This is when the phrase ‘No Comment’ comes in handy.” Why on earth was Gwen so worked up over a gossip column? “It’s just gossip.”
“Gossip kills careers like mine, Will. You may not read Tish, but other people do. And those people don’t like the idea of a loose woman teaching their impressionable daughters.” Gwen had herself worked up into a fine fit.
“A loose woman? Seriously?”
“I’m living in your house. The implication is that we are sleeping together.”
“But we are…”
“That’s beside the point.” Gwen was practically sputtering.
“How is that—”
“I have to tell my clients something. Some reason why I’m living with you and Evie.”
“Don’t tell them anything. It’s none of their business.”
“Sadly, it is. Reputation is everything in this business, and mine is getting dragged through the mud. What am I supposed to…”
“Gwen, calm down. You can tell them you’re working for me—I don’t care about that. I just don’t want people knowing the particulars. It would be embarrassing for Evie.”
“Hel-lo, what else would I be doing other than tutoring Evie?”
“I don’t know. You do business seminars, too, right? Tell them it’s related to HarCorp.” Gwen made an odd choking sound. He assumed she objected to the small lie. “We sponsor the Med Ball, so it’s not that far from the truth.”
“And why I’m living with you?”
“That’s easy. You’re living with us so you can concentrate fully on your current project.”
“But—”
“What’s that line you told your readers to use when folks want to confirm gossip? Something about assumptions?”
“What an interesting assumption’?”
“That’s the one. If someone wants confirmation of Tish’s implications and you don’t want to go with ‘No Comment’ then use that line. Or that ‘How kind of you to take an interest’ one.”
“You read my TeenSpace page?” Amazement tinged her voice. It beat panic, hands down.
“Well, Evie lectured me on my BlackBerry usage, so I thought I should check on the etiquette laws.”
“I think I’m flattered.”
“You should be.” He smiled. At least she was starting to calm down. “Now, are you finished hyperventilating over this?”
“I guess.” Gwen sighed. “You don’t sound very upset over Tish’s rumor mongering.”
“I learned a long time ago to ignore speculations made about me and my private life. Tish just hasn’t gotten the hint yet.” Although with Evie on the scene, he should probably make clear that his willingness to ignore was very limited when it came to his sister.
“I thought you’d be livid. Or angry. Or at least irritated.” Gwen’s outraged sails seemed to have lost their wind, and her voice lost the last of its bluster.
“Oh, I’m irritated all right. It just doesn’t do any good. That said, I try to avoid being fodder for Tish—or anyone else—as much as possible.”
Gwen sighed again. “I guess I can make do with the minimum amount of excuses. Whether anyone will believe them is a different animal entirely.”
“Good. Now can we talk about something else?” He leaned back and propped his feet on his desk.
“Don’t you have work to do?”
His e-mail pinged. “Of course, but I have a few minutes for you.”
“Now I am flattered.”
“You should be. I’m a very busy man,” he teased.
Gwen’s chuckle sent heat rushing through him and all of his blood south. It was hard to believe just a week ago, he hadn’t known this woman existed. Seven days later, he was ignoring HarCorp just to talk to her.
“Well, I happen to be a very busy woman. You may have time to chat, but I have clients to soothe and teenagers to counsel.”
Will was oddly disappointed. “Good luck with that. I’ll see you tonight.”
“Bye.”
With the phone in its cradle, he opened his e-mail. Another file on Japanese business practices and culture from Nancy. He sighed; he really needed to get Gwen to help him with his language lessons.
Gwen spoke Japanese. That sparked a memory from Gwen’s first dinner. What had she said? Something about a degree in International Affairs? Yeah, and a special interest in Asian culture.
Why hadn’t he made the connection before? Because at first you were only focused on Evie, and then you focused too much on Gwen.
He’d ask Gwen if she’d be willing to help him with this meeting with Hiramine. That would save him a ton of work. Less work also meant more time with Gwen. Plus, the time he spent working with her on this project…well, that line between business and pleasure he’d bragged about was getting thinner by the minute.
CHAPTER NINE
THE next few days passed in a blur for Gwen. Sometimes it seemed like a rainbow-colored blur, so perfect she felt she’d stepped into someone else’s much-more-exciting and perfect life.
First had been Will coming home on Monday with a business proposition for her: consulting on the upcoming meeting with the Japanese company HarCorp wanted to join with in its Asian expansion. She’d wanted to squeal with the excitement.
Suddenly there weren’t enough hours in the day to be Miss Behavior, Evie’s etiquette tutor and Will’s consultant and Japanese tutor. But both Harrisons managed to excel at whatever she threw at them.
Gwen never had a doubt Evie would shine socially, but the surprise came as Evie took an interest in the family business and quickly showed business savvy was an inherited trait. Family dinners moved from the basics of table manners and polite conversation to proper discourse on current events and HarCorp company business. Evie managed to retain her natural exuberance and charm while acquiring a polish fine enough for the most critical of society’s elite. With her good looks and intelligence, Evie was destined to set Dallas on fire.
While Will picked up Japanese with a speed that impressed her, he chafed against the strictures of Japanese etiquette, his frustration at n
ot being able to “cut to the chase” more than evident. But Will was a consummate businessman, and he didn’t need any help in that department. Aside from a reminder to put the BlackBerry on silent, of course.
Both Evie and Will would be great successes on her résumé.
But for someone who’d always measured her happiness by professional success, Gwen couldn’t deny that the best part of her day now came after Evie went to bed. Once Evie’s door closed, Will transformed from charming boss and loving big brother into a bedroom-eyed Romeo intent on charming her in every way—including in her bed.
And she wasn’t naive enough to believe Evie was ignorant of her and Will’s relationship. No fifteen-year-old went to bed that early on a regular basis. Although she and Will tried hard not to make the physical side of their relationship blatant, Gwen knew Evie intentionally gave them privacy in the evenings.
Gwen didn’t know where she and Will were headed—if they were headed anywhere at all—but she told herself she didn’t care. Will never mentioned a future beyond the end of her contractual obligations, but they were all so focused on the events of the next few weeks, she couldn’t read anything into it. She was living in the minute—enjoying what she could while she could. Gwen adored Evie, and her feelings for Will got more complicated every day, but she was taking her sister’s advice to just take one day at a time. So far, that plan was working quite well.
Only one small problem flawed her otherwise halcyon existence—Tish’s innuendos. She hadn’t mentioned the column to Will or Evie since Monday night, but the fallout from Tish’s gossip hadn’t been pleasant. Two clients had backed out of their contracts already—one for a series of classes at a private elementary school and the other for a military wives’ event. It took fancy footwork on her part to calm the sponsors of two of the debutante clubs that formed the backbone of her deb business. Half-truths and cajoling—and a little questioning of Tish’s sanity and sources—managed to pacify the most conservative of her clients, if only temporarily.
She’d taken the opportunity to instruct her TeenSpace readers on the inappropriateness of speculation and evils of spreading gossip. She was also ignoring Tish’s e-mails outright.
By Friday, the furor caused by Tish’s column had calmed for the most part. Life was good. And when Evie returned from her afternoon swim with an enormous smile and an even bigger favor to ask of Gwen, she just couldn’t say no.
At seven forty-five—the first time Will had worked late in two weeks—Gwen finally heard the front door open and close and the rattle of Will’s keys as he dropped them on the hall table.
“Anybody home?”
“In here,” Gwen called from the den where she’d been nursing a glass of Merlot for the last half hour and watching TV.
Will rounded the corner looking slightly disheveled and completely adorable. Her heart skipped a beat at his smile. “It’s awfully quiet. Do I want to know?”
She laughed. “No drama.” Yet. “Mrs. Gray needed to leave early, so your dinner is warming in the oven. Evie is in her room.”
“Really?” One eyebrow raised with the question. “Then I can do this.” Without warning, Will leaned down and kissed her. A simple “Honey-I’m-home” kiss that seemed perfectly right at the moment and sent a happy little thrill through her. “How was your day?”
“Great. And yours?”
He grunted.
“That good, huh? Can I get you a drink?” He nodded, and Gwen went to the bar feeling oddly domestic at the Ozzie and Harriet scenario as Will loosened his tie and got comfortable on the couch.
Will rubbed his temples. “Is Evie sick?”
“No. I’m pretty sure she’s on the phone.” That was almost a given, considering. “Why?”
“Then I’m not sure I want to know why she’s in her room this early. Do I even want to ask?”
Perceptive man. She took a deep breath. “Evie wanted me to talk to you about something.”
“Uh-oh.” He took the glass she proffered and nodded his thanks. “I’m not going to like this, am I?”
“Why would you think that?”
“Because she’d be in here otherwise, pestering me to death if it was something simple like a new phone or clothes. Instead she’s put you up to it.” He cut his eyes sideways at her as she sat. “She’s smart, you know. You can talk me into almost anything. Plus, she figures if you’re on her side, I’m bound to give in to whatever it is.”
Gwen shrugged. Good Lord, she was picking up Evie’s bad habits.
“You might as well hit me with it. I promise not to shoot the messenger.”
Gwen mentally crossed her fingers. “Evie met a boy—a young man, I mean—at the pool today. He’s asked her to the movies tomorrow night.”
Will sat his glass down carefully and rubbed his eyes. “And?”
“And?” Gwen wanted to hit him with something. “There is no ‘and.’ Evie’s been asked on a date and she wants to know if you’ll let her go.”
“Who is this kid?”
“Peter Asbury. Evie says he’s sixteen and lives two floors down.”
He nodded, but his expressionless face kept Gwen from figuring out how he felt about this new turn of events. “I know his father. He’s the head of something at the university.”
“Dean of Students.” Gwen supplied automatically. “Well?”
Will swirled his drink in his glass. “She’s too young to be dating.”
“She’s fifteen. It’s not out of the ordinary or anything.” Will’s dry tone bothered her. Evie expected him to go through the roof at the thought of her dating, which was why she’d conned Gwen into being the one to broach the subject. Gwen hadn’t expected fireworks, but Will could be discussing the weather for all the lack of emotion in his voice. The idea of hitting him sounded better by the moment.
“What did you say when she asked you?”
“I didn’t say anything.” That wasn’t entirely true. She’d shared Evie’s teenage glee like Sarah had shared hers years ago. “You’re the one who has to okay it, not me.”
“I’m asking for your opinion, though. Do you think she should go? This is new territory for me.”
Get used to it. Evie’s going to have the boys eating out of her hand and you’ll be beating them off with a stick for the rest of your born days. “Do I think she’s old enough? Probably. Do I think she’s ready? It’s hard to say. Do I think she’s dying to go? Yes, definitely.”
Will sighed, the sound of a man who had resigned himself to the grim reality of a teenage sister teetering on the edge of boy-crazy. “I guess it was bound to happen eventually.”
Gwen hid her smile behind her wineglass.
“I want to meet him first, though,” he grumbled.
“Why don’t you invite him to dinner tomorrow night before the movie. You can grill him on his intentions and put the fear of God in him before they leave.”
Will perked up at her last statement. “Oh, I like that idea. Fear is a good thing. Anything else I need to know about before I talk to Evie?”
“Nope.” Gwen wanted to do a little happy dance for Evie. Finally Evie could make some friends her own age.
“Evie! Get in here!”
Shocked at the heat in his voice, Gwen stared at Will.
Will winked at her. “No sense letting her think this is going to be easy.”
She rolled her eyes. “Then I’ll leave you to it.”
Evie stuck her head around the door frame. “Yes, Will?”
“The Asbury kid?”
Gwen slipped past Evie and whispered “Good luck” as Evie fumbled for words. She repressed the urge to giggle as Evie straightened her shoulders but still seemed to slink in to the room to get Will’s permission for something she desperately wanted. In the privacy of her room, though, she succumbed to the urge to both giggle and do her happy dance.
Feeling like the champion of teenagers everywhere, she logged in to her Miss Behavior e-mail, ready to sort out all the angst-ridden adolesc
ents of the world. It kept her busy for the next half hour until Evie knocked on her door.
“He said I could go!” Evie’s ear-to-ear grin was infectious.
“I’m so glad, sweetie.”
Evie wrapped her in a hug. “Thanks, Gwen. I’m going to go call Peter and figure out what I’m going to wear tomorrow. G’night.”
“Night.”
Chuckling at Evie’s obvious glee, Gwen started work on her next column—about first dates in honor of Evie—and didn’t look up until she heard another knock on her door.
She half expected Evie to come in with an armload of clothes, but seeing Will there wasn’t exactly a surprise, either.
He closed the door and leaned against it. “You didn’t come back out.” She’d never heard him so disgruntled.
“Sorry. I didn’t know you needed company.”
“Evie disappeared to her room to call that boy back and you’ve been in here all night. I’ve been bored. And I had to eat dinner by myself.”
This time she did laugh at his grumbling, and he looked at her sharply. “You find that funny?”
“For someone who ate either alone or in the company of his BlackBerry until a few days ago, you’ve certainly set up camp on the other side now.”
He shrugged. He and Evie had so many of the same mannerisms that it had to be genetic. “What can I say? I’m getting domesticated.”
Her heart flipped at the word “domesticated.” It sounded so hearth-and-home and Will didn’t sound the least bit upset with the idea. When he smiled at her and crossed the room to pull her into his arms, that little warm spot in her heart she’d been keeping alive but carefully corralled blossomed into something she could no longer deny.
Her rational brain argued it could be the biggest mistake of her life, leading only to heartache and regret. But rationality couldn’t hold back the knowledge that raced through her with such clarity it couldn’t be anything else.
God help her. She was falling in love with Will Harrison.
Intimidating the Asbury boy proved immensely enjoyable. Will didn’t doubt for a second Evie would be home by curfew. Evie was shooting daggers at him by the time she left, and his shins would be covered in bruises tomorrow from Gwen’s well-aimed kicks every time she felt he crossed a line at dinner.
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