by Lulu Pratt
“Well, Freya, I’ve got to work tomorrow – this might be an awkward excuse for being late,” he smiled. “You’re lucky you are freelance – you can sleep late.”
“Yeah, about that,” I grimaced. “I’m not exactly freelance…”
“No?”
“No,” I squeezed his hand. “You are looking at the assistant of Keegan Callahan of Clover House.”
“What?” Drew looked horrified, and then he laughed.
“I’m serious,” I said, realizing I was quite proud of my achievement so far. “I’m on a secret mission to get to the bottom of what’s happened – I’ve infiltrated the top ranks already.”
For a second, Drew stared at me open-mouthed. “You are incredible.”
“You don’t think I’m crazy?” I laughed.
“I… I gotta be honest, I don’t think it’s a good idea.”
“I know, I know, no one is very happy about it, but what are our options?” I shrugged.
He left soon after, and I hadn’t been able to resist messaging Beatrix. As predicted, she was dying to know the details. I was happy to offer her some distraction; she had plenty to worry about. She and Stan had decided to postpone their baby-making plans until things were more secure at Dynasty Games. Trying for a baby while dealing with all the stress and uncertainty was just too much. I knew how much she wanted to start a family and how difficult it was for them to put off these plans. It made me even more determined to use my time at Clover House productively. When I had finally hung up the phone from chatting to Beatrix, it was past three. I crept into bed, setting my alarm early enough that I would have time to shower and get fully caffeinated before it was time for work. Between dreading trying to work alongside Keegan after the disastrous meeting with the virtual reality guys and what happened with Drew, I was surprised to find that I fell asleep easily.
Waking up wasn’t so easy. I had only had a few hours rest, and as I made my way into the office, the excitement of the previous night was overshadowed by trying to decide how I should play it at work. Should I apologize for saying what I thought after I was asked? Everything in me resisted it, but I knew that if I wanted to continue at Clover House, I was going to have to grovel. I had plenty of work to get on with, and for the first couple of hours I sat at my desk glancing up to see if there was any sign of Keegan’s shadowy form inside his office. It wasn’t until late morning that Taylor put me out of my misery.
“You know he’s not in today, right?” she asked innocently.
“For real?” I asked, not even trying to hide my hope.
“Yeah,” she laughed. “You sitting there waiting to be summoned was making me nervous!”
“I might have made things awkward,” I said, grimacing.
“Oh?” Taylor looked shocked. “Well, it’s always the quiet ones! You’ve seen him in those bike leathers then?”
“No! Not awkward like that!” I blushed. “I pissed him off – and Sean too – at the virtual reality meeting thing.”
“Let me guess, money?”
“Yeah, kind of, I just said it was too expensive…”
“Girl!” Taylor acted as though I had broken some taboo. “Clover House doesn’t talk money!”
“But…” I began.
“Those boys have never known what it means for something to be too expensive. They work hard, sure, but only because they have to do their time before they can inherit. Money is not an issue to them.” She shrugged, nodding her head to the office entrance where Sean had appeared and was making his way toward us.
“Ladies!” he beamed, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Taylor’s visible shudder. “A word – Effie – in Keegan’s office?” He continued to walk, and I had to follow.
“I want to apologize for any awkwardness I may have caused…” I began reluctantly, but he stopped me with a wave of his hand.
“Forget about it. I wanted to say that while I was frustrated at the way the cost issue was raised, you had a valid point, and Keegan had no right to be so dismissive of you,” he said, and for once the grin faded and I saw something genuine in him.
I was completely taken aback and stuttered. “Okay, thanks, I…”
“We got off on the wrong foot, and I haven’t done anything to fix that. It’s no secret that I have kind of an ego,” he smiled sheepishly. “I wanted to make things right, and thank you for your work. It’s good to have someone in here. Keegan means well, but he doesn’t always… make good decisions.”
“Thank you,” I said, blindsided. “I don’t want to cause trouble.” I shut out the voice inside my head that was reminding me that causing trouble was exactly what I wanted to do.
“You won’t,” he reassured me. “This is a family company. We are trying to do good things, and if I sometimes find it hard to trust my brother’s input in that, then that is my issue, not yours. I want you to be comfortable working here.”
I struggled to find honest things to say, and I must have been scarlet faced. “I can see that you care about the company, and I appreciate you coming to talk to me.”
Sean eyed me suspiciously. “Effie… you know, if anything about the work – or about Keegan – doesn’t seem right to you, I want you to know you can talk to me. If you notice anything happening that doesn’t sit well with you.”
“Thank you, that’s good to know.” I smiled at him, trying to look appreciative and thoughtful even though I had absolutely no clue what was going on.
Whatever he was worried about Keegan being up to, I had a feeling it was connected to my reasons for being at Clover House. I had never felt so close to the truth and yet so confused about where to go from here. Sean was looking at me as though I might have something to disclose, and for one moment of madness, I was tempted to confide in him. Shaking off the crazy notion, I simply held out my hand to shake his, and he took it gently and gave it a squeeze. I don’t know what I expected when I walked into the office, but as I walked out I reflected that the last thing I had expected was for Sean to become my newest ally.
Chapter 14
KEEGAN
A LONG WEEKEND was exactly what I needed, and yet the strain that had slowly melted away as I built up some distance between myself and the office was quick to return on Tuesday morning. I made sure I was in early and ate breakfast at my desk before anyone else arrived. I had barely been indoors in the four days I had been off. My skin felt tight from the sun, and I was uneasy in my tailored suit. I made myself comfortable on the couch in my office and looked over the photographs I had taken.
God, I had needed a break. Things with Lucy were going okay, but there was no future in the relationship. She was nice, but lacked spark, and I found myself bored in her company. I had packed a few things and headed out early Friday morning, the bike easily covering mile after mile of road as the sun shone brightly. The air was fresh, and the first warmth from the morning could be felt. Last time I had ridden out of the city there had been snow melting at the roadsides. I had to calm my rising annoyance at how much of my time Clover House ate up these days. I resented every day I spent in that office, telling people what to do, managing problems, and arranging meetings so that things I didn’t care about could be discussed. I was kept well away from where anything interesting or important might be happening. That was all Sean’s domain.
I put work out of my mind and concentrated on the road. I had a long way to go, and I was looking forward to the prospect of a long journey and falling into a comfortable hotel bed at the end of it, properly tired for once. I hadn’t slept well in months. Hell, I hadn’t slept well in years, if I was honest. A guilty conscience will do that to you. I tried to put all my reasons for not sleeping out of my head and focus on the road and the bike as the city shrunk behind me and I headed out into more open land. I had met so many people in Boston who never ventured out of the city far enough to see what the rest of the state had to offer. It didn’t even take long before you could feel the earth under your feet and breathe in some clean fresh air
. The one thing I loved about America was how open and vast it felt. There were places where you could ride for hours and hours and hardly see a soul. It wasn’t like that back home in Ireland. Sure, there were isolated spots, but it always felt small. Even so, I missed home. Again, I pushed the thought out of my mind and pushed on a little faster.
I spent the weekend moving from place to place. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was looking for, but I had a feeling I would know when I saw it. On Sunday afternoon I met up with Chris Mercer, a man I had been trying to arrange a meeting with for months. I apologized for having to keep putting it off and rescheduling numerous times as we walked the long path that led between fields towards his farmhouse.
“I don’t want you to think I’m not serious. I am, but work has been a killer lately,” I explained.
“I understand – but if you are serious about your plans, you’re going to have to make sure you have the time to pull this off,” he smiled.
“I know, but things will be easier soon, less pressure, more time,” I reassured him, trying not to take his tone personally. I knew what I was doing, but he didn’t know enough about me to know that.
Chris showed me around his place, and we talked business for a while. He ran a tight operation, and I was impressed with what I saw. When the talking was done, he saddled up two beautiful horses, and we rode out over his land towards the sea. Moving along at a brisk pace with the thin line of the gray Atlantic up ahead getting bigger and bigger until it filled my vision and I stood on the low rolling cliff overlooking the rocky shoreline, I could almost have been back home. It had been so long since I had ridden, and I instinctively bent down to wrap my arm around my mount and rub his soft muzzle, feeling the heat of his breath. After a break, with the cool air moving in from the sea, we turned back at a more leisurely pace. The entire day had been a total escape from reality. Chris and I had hit it off, and as we talked business, I got the impression that although he said little, he had good instincts. I bid him goodbye, promising him that I was on the cusp of making a decision about everything we had talked about, and with the promise of a good seafood dinner in the nearby town where I had planned to stay the night, I swapped the saddle for the bike and tried to ignore my aching back. It had been too long since I had had a day on horseback.
The town was a quiet affair, and the local hotel was pretty useless. I barely saw the faded décor as I sat down to eat. My appetite, much like my sleep, had been terrible for as long as I could remember, but I finished the food in minutes, and when the waitress brought me more bread, I ate that too. I couldn’t remember the last time I had actually enjoyed a meal so much. My room, with its broken lamp and creaky bed, felt like a palace, and it was all I could do to take off my clothes and fall into bed. My head was reeling with decisions to be made, different versions of my future laid out before me. I thought over the past that I wanted to escape, and the string of bad choices that had led me to where I was. Was I about to make another one? No answer came; I was asleep in minutes.
When I woke up on a blissfully sunny morning with birds singing outside my window, I felt refreshed. In fact, I felt great. I stretched out in the bed, sinking down into the mountain of blankets, and called Lucy. I felt a sudden desire to have company, to have someone there to share the warmth and sunshine with. I called her, but it was impossible to get a conversation going with her. She answered in as few words as possible. She had been at a fashion show, and even asking her about that only elicited the barest of replies. I felt frustrated by trying to drag a conversation out of her, and then I realized that she was always like this, but usually it suited me, because long conversations were the last thing I wanted. I said goodbye and told her I would see her soon, but she pointed out that I was busy in the coming week so that was unlikely. She was right, so we said goodbye again, and she hung up. Sitting at the table in the dining room I realized, I had had a more friendly interaction with the woman who brought me my breakfast than the woman I was in a so-called relationship with.
The weekend had flown, and yet this Tuesday morning was dragging. Gradually the office filled up and I felt glad of the background hum of noise from printers, computers, and people chatting. The unfortunate meeting with the virtual reality guys seemed like months ago, but I knew by Effie’s face that things weren’t okay. I usually preferred to ignore staff disputes until they had been forgotten, but with Effie in and out of my office all day long, that wouldn’t be possible. When she came in to give me some mail, I asked her to stop for a moment.
“I want to apologize for last week. I hope we can move past it?” I said, not wanting to get into the detail of it all over again.
“Sure”, she said. She was weighing me up, judging me, and I hadn’t the energy to care what she thought. How could I explain the situation I was in? The pressure I was under? And why should I? She was only my assistant, and her superior attitude was beginning to piss me off.
“I won’t put you in that position again. That was my mistake,” I said, realizing as I said it that I was undermining my own apology.
“Sure,” she smiled, and I was almost disappointed that she didn’t pull me up on my bullshit.
“We have a lot to get through before the Ireland trip, so I want us to be on good terms,” I added.
“Of course, I understand,” she nodded, her face open and friendly. Maybe she didn’t even understand that she was being treated unfairly. There was no trace of the attitude she had had when I had first hired her.
“Very good,” I smiled, and looked back down at my laptop, hoping she would leave because the atmosphere was unbearable.
“Ah, Keegan?” she asked. “Can I just check how you back up your files?”
“It all happens automatically,” I said, actually not entirely sure of the answer but wanting to save face.
“I just thought it might be good to fully back up everything before the trip,” she said, a flicker of uncertainty passing over her face. “I don’t mind doing it.”
“If you have time,” I nodded, grateful but confused.
I gave up trying to figure this girl out. Most of the time she got on with her job with all the efficiency – and personality – of a robot. Then every now and then I’d see this touch of fierceness in her, like she couldn’t give a fuck about me or Sean or what we thought. Yet now she was not only accepting my admittedly unfair treatment of her, but she was also volunteering to take on more work. My phone was beeping, and she took this as her cue to leave. I was relieved. She made me uncomfortable. I checked my phone. It was Lucy saying that she had found the ring that she thought she had left at my place. I tried to remember when I had last seen her, and couldn’t. That wasn’t a good sign. I knew where things were headed, but I wondered if one of us would actively break it off or if things would just dwindle away. It felt like I was wondering how a relationship in a movie would end, rather than my actual life. I despaired of ever understanding women, opened my laptop, and took a deep breath before downloading the latest shitload of spreadsheets that Sean had sent over. This week was going to drag.
Chapter 15
FREYA
THE WEEK FLEW by. I had been at Clover House for less than a month, but already I had access to Keegan’s files. It meant that either he trusted me, or he was too arrogant to believe I posed a threat to him. Either way, by the Thursday of my fourth week at the office, I had backed up Keegan’s files twice. One copy for him, one copy for Dynasty Games. While I was working in his office legitimately backing up his files, I realized that as long as I was working using his computer, I had access to tons of company files and reports, including the minutes of private meetings and draft copies of accounts. He had been sitting on the couch in his office reading over notes for a meeting when I worked out that I had access to it all, and I felt a hot flush of excitement and terror spread through me. Luckily, he didn’t like sharing an office for long, so I knew all I had to do was wait and I would be left alone long enough to properly dig through the files.
<
br /> It was hot in the office, and Keegan had taken off his jacket and tie. Sitting where he was in the light of the window, I could make out the outline of tattoos on his arms and what seemed to be a long Celtic knot design along his arm underneath his crisp tight white shirt. I was surprised – he hadn’t seemed like the tattoo type – but then I thought back to when I met him in his motorcycle gear and felt a flush again, whether for embarrassment for how I had acted that day, or something else. I wasn’t sure.
“Keegan, would it be okay if I took an early lunch today?” I asked. He looked surprised.
“Yeah, of course,” he nodded, then added, “Hot date?” before looking like he wished he hadn’t said it.
“Hmmm,” I gave him what I hoped was a patronizing smile, stood up and tidied the desk where I had been working.
“Sorry,” he said. He looked exactly how I wanted him to – as if he felt pretty stupid.
“A little bit more when I come back, and your backup will be done,” I added as I left.
I felt a pang of guilt. This was so unlike me. But then I thought about Dynasty Games going down the drain, and I shook the guilt off. I walked away, closing my eyes in a silent hope that I had made him feel awkward enough that he would find some excuse to be out of the office for long enough to allow me to browse his files. In the meantime, an early lunch would mean I was in his office when he was out for lunch, and that was a start. Drew sprang to my mind, and I decided to call him. I had been holding him a little at arm’s length while I tried to figure out how I felt about recent developments between us. I knew he was eager, and I made up my mind to go with the flow and be less resistant to the idea. Beatrix was right, I needed to get laid. I sent him a text and he responded instantly. He wasn’t far away and would love to meet for lunch.