Chapter 20
Chapter Twenty
F riday evening, and Jade was in the library with Claire, making sure everything was ready for Bookish Speed Dating – find your book match .
No, not the library. That was far too dry a word for such a glorious building. She was in the Nantucket Atheneum. Even its correct name, written in regal gold lettering on the front of the building, was majestic. Nestled in the heart of downtown Nantucket, the neoclassical building resembled an historic mansion with its tall, imposing white columns framing an entrance reached by a series of regal steps, flanked either side by shrubs in giant pots. It was elegant, it was magnificent . Absolutely the perfect homage to books and reading.
‘Are we expecting Liam?’ Claire asked as they surveyed the Great Hall.
Yep, her little meeting was being held on the second floor in a room known as the frigging Great Hall . And with its high ceiling, ornate cornices and the grand gold-framed oil paintings lining the walls, she could not argue with the great .
Her gaze rested on the lines of tables, each set with two chairs, and nerves buzzed in Jade’s belly. It sounds tacky. Her stomach rolled. Please God it wouldn’t be a flop. ‘Um, I don’t think Liam will come.’ She glanced guiltily at the poster advertising the event. ‘At least I hope not.’
Claire eyed her curiously. ‘I thought the pair of you got on? It certainly looked that way at the talk I did.’
Do not blush, do not blush. ‘I don’t dislike him, if that’s what you mean. Not like some of the others.’
‘Good, because he really doesn’t deserve the bad press. Ashley sent me a letter to give to him so I was hoping to see him here. She was worried if she sent it to the resort his admin would open it, and it’s very personal.’
‘Oh?’ Had she hit the casual interest tone she’d been aiming for?
Claire gave her a knowing look. ‘I told Ashley about all the rumours circulating and she was horrified. Hence the letter to Liam, thanking him for not saying anything. She also gave him and me permission to tell people the truth, so I’ll save you having to ask the question you’re clearly dying to ask,’ she added dryly. ‘Ashley had a fling with one of the regular guests. He told her he was single but when she accidentally got pregnant he admitted he’d been lying and actually had a wife and family he had no intention of leaving. Gutted, she decided to go home to Australia. Liam was a rock throughout and let her go with a glowing reference and without having to complete her notice. He even gave her a very generous lump sum that he insisted was the bonus she’d accrued, even though he’d already paid her a bonus the previous month.’ Claire met her eyes. ‘He told Ashley he knew what it was like to be toyed with.’
‘Oh.’ She had to do better than one-syllable answers. Claire was a frigging genius with words. ‘That’s awful, poor Ashley.’ And yay, go Liam , she added silently.
‘It was a tough time for her but she’s doing okay now she’s home. Getting excited about being a mom.’ Claire’s phone buzzed and she gave Jade an apologetic look. ‘Sorry, I should take this, it’s my agent.’
Jade smiled and watched her go, her eyes connecting once again with the poster. Crap, she should have asked permission.
‘Having second thoughts?’
She startled. ‘God, you scared me.’
Jeremy laughed. ‘Feeling a bit jumpy are we? Wouldn’t have anything to do with that, by any chance?’ He gestured at the poster she’d been staring at. The one declaring proudly sponsored by Haven Resorts in big, bold letters across the bottom. ‘The proudly was an interesting touch.’
‘I figured go big or go home.’ She let out a strangled laugh. ‘And if he sees that, I probably will be going home.’
‘Um.’
She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘What’s that supposed to mean?’
‘I was just wondering if we were talking about the same he . I was talking about the man who, the moment I sent him a message about you needing advice on spreadsheets, cancelled a meeting and dashed over to you.’
‘Bollocks.’ She sucked in a breath, feeling a flutter in her chest. ‘He really cancelled a meeting?’
‘He did. A meeting with a journalist looking to give the resort some free publicity.’ He gave her an assessing glance. ‘You know I have hundreds of questions, don’t you?’
‘Maybe.’ She bent to straighten the already perfectly straight table in front of her. ‘But I wouldn’t have the answer to them.’
‘You might have an answer to why you chose to put his name to a meeting he doesn’t know about, designed to raise the profile of a bookstore he’s planning to shut down?’
‘Crapity crap, when you put it like that…’ The nerves in her belly stopped buzzing and began to scream.
‘Of course, it could be looked at another way,’ Jeremy continued. ‘You’re helping improve his image because he’s too bull-headed or proud or blinded by whatever feud he’s got going on with the Chases, to do it himself.’
She pressed a hand against her stomach, felt it quieten. ‘Let’s go with the second one. It also happens to be the truth, although I didn’t realise he had an ongoing feud with all the Chases. I thought it was just Henry.’
‘Maybe feud is the wrong word, but it seems more personal than the healthy dislike of a competitor.’
She recalled their discussion about her dating the wrong men. I had a similar bad habit, where women were concerned. ‘Maybe they clashed over a woman?’ At this, Jeremy let out a bark of laughter, causing Mary to look over at them curiously. ‘Shhh,’ Jade hissed. ‘Mary’s going to want to know what we’re talking about.’
‘And you don’t want her to know you’ve still got the hots for the man you hooked up with, before you realised he was the big bad wolf and you were supposed to hate him?’
‘I never said I had the hots for him,’ she spluttered, aware she was probably the colour of a tomato by now.
Jeremy gave her a smug smile. ‘Why else have you expertly weaved a question about his past relationships into the conversation?’
‘God, you’ve got a devious mind. I should just walk away.’
‘But you’re too keen to find out the answer to your question.’
‘You probably don’t even know,’ she grumped. ‘It’s not like you and he are besties. He doesn’t even have a bestie.’
‘And you’d know this, how?’
‘Oh no, you’re not getting anything out of me. I am a vault.’ She mimed zipping her mouth shut.
‘Yet you expect me to dish the gossip on our boss?’
Our boss . It was a timely reminder that the thoughts she’d been having about him, the unprofessional, at times downright carnal thoughts, were not appropriate. Even if he wasn’t also ridiculously out of her league and a moody, complicated man fixated on business who didn’t let anyone close. ‘Yes.’
Jeremy chuckled. ‘I like you, Jade Taylor. You’re a breath of fresh Atlantic air wafting across this sometimes-stale island.’
‘Yeah, I definitely don’t waft, I’m more a charge full speed ahead and fall arse over tit sort of girl.’ She turned to face him. ‘And you still haven’t answered the question.’
He pursed his lips. ‘You’re right, I’ve tried, but so far the man has stubbornly refused my overtures of friendship so I don’t have any information on his personal life that can be considered as being direct from the horse’s mouth.’ He bent closer to whisper in her ear. ‘However, the hotel grapevine is buoyant with rumours that he once dated Sabrina Ellis, heir to the international Ellis Hotels and Resorts chain for which, interestingly, our boss used to work.’
She felt her eyes grow wide. ‘He slept with the big boss’s daughter?’
‘Apparently.’ Jeremy smirked. ‘So he’s hardly going to be fazed by, let’s phrase it more delicately than I did earlier, how about “interwork non-curricular relations”?’
Even as she tried to get her head around Jeremy’s convoluted phrasing, she knew it didn’t matter. Being her boss’s booty call was not going to do her self-respect any favours.
‘Have you two come to help, or to gossip?’ Mary bustled over, giving them both a very school-teacherish look. ‘And if it’s the second, why am I not included?’
Jade laughed. Mary was one of those women who took a while to warm to you. Once she’d decided you were okay, though, a twinkle was never very far from her eye. ‘No gossip,’ she lied. ‘Just wondering if Liam Haven is going to turn up.’
‘Well you should be more worried about the line Claire tells me is building at the front door.’
‘There’s a queue ?’ Jade felt a bubble of unrestrained joy.
‘No, I’m just making it up to get you back for not including me in your little tittle-tattle.’ Mary must have seen her bubble burst, because she patted her arm. ‘Actually, the queue isn’t just outside the entrance, it’s winding round the side of the building.’
‘Oh, my God.’ Jade squeezed her hands together, feeling a kick of adrenalin. This was happening. ‘We have real people wanting to come and talk books.’
‘Better hope one of those real people isn’t you-know-who,’ Jeremy whispered. ‘Or you’ll have some explaining to do.’
She watched as he made his way elegantly across the room, bestowing smiles to everyone who looked in his direction. A good friend to have, she mused. How sad that his boss didn’t have the sense, or was too burned by past experience, to see it.
Would Liam turn up? She shook off the worry. He’d only be annoyed if the evening was a failure, and how could it possibly fail when an army of book lovers were chomping at the bit to talk to each other about their specialist chosen subject?
* * *
Liam had a business to run and three resorts to oversee; Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, and the newest in Provincetown. He was also managing the Nantucket resort until he chose a replacement from the so far very unappealing list of candidates the agency had supplied. Despite that full-on workload, he knew exactly which meetings his company had agreed to sponsor.
Bookish Speed Dating was not, and would never be, on the list.
So why was he currently staring at a poster for the event, with ‘Haven Resorts’ splashed across it in awful purple font?
He yanked out his phone and called Jeremy. ‘Why the fuck am I sponsoring a fucking speed-dating event at the fucking library?’
There was a pause on the other end, followed by the sound of footsteps. ‘Can you repeat that please? I couldn’t quite hear what you were asking between the f-bombs.’
He pinched the bridge of his nose. ‘Why is “Haven Resorts” plastered all over a poster advertising an event I have no knowledge of?’
‘Maybe the email asking your permission slipped into your junk mail?’
‘I check my junk mail twice a day.’
‘Ah.’ He couldn’t be sure, but he thought he heard Jeremy mutter, ‘ Should have guessed’ . ‘Maybe you should go to the library and see what the meeting is all about before you jump to inappropriate conclusions. You might find it was something you would have agreed to put your name to had you not missed the request which I’m almost certain would have been sent to you.’
‘I’m almost certain you have direct knowledge of what’s happening here,’ he retorted. Just like he was almost certain Jade and her merry band of Haven haters were behind the poster and the meeting.
Damn it, he had enough on his plate with his grandma right now. He did not need a public confrontation.
But you’ll get to see Jade . He hated that he felt a bump of pleasure. Hated too that his legs began to propel him towards the library before he’d started to consider the pros and cons of turning up.
The sun was low in the sky as he wound his way through the cobbled streets of the historic district towards the Nantucket Atheneum. As he always did, he took a moment to admire the building, and another to wonder why it wasn’t used for a higher purpose than housing books.
Thankfully, once inside, he didn’t have to ask the way to the event– it was painful to say the words bookish speed dating in his head, never mind out loud. The sound of lively chatter guided him straight up the stairs towards it.
Lined up on the highly polished wooden floor of the Great Hall were small tables– he hazarded about fifteen of them. At each table pairs sat opposite each other, having animated conversations.
He’d barely had time to take it all in before a buzzer sounded.
‘Time to swap!’ Jade, cheeks flushed, blonde hair tied back in a ponytail, creeping loose at the sides, waved her right arm in a circular motion. ‘Clockwise to the next table please.’
His pulse rocked up a few beats as he stared at her. Was it okay to be angry and yet mesmerised at the same time? Because he couldn’t take his damned eyes off her. Nor could he fail to spot how easily she talked to people, a smile here, a press of an arm there. Exaggerated horror, followed by laughter, the other person– a guy, he noticed with a flare of jealousy– joining in on the joke.
He was torn between stalking over to her and dragging her away, or retreating to his yacht to have the argument another day. One when he didn’t feel exhausted, drained from all the research he’d been doing on AMD. A day when he didn’t desperately feel the need to talk to someone about it all.
And when he didn’t feel so raw from seeing the woman he couldn’t get out of his head, using his name to further her own ambition.
He was about to take the retreat option when a pair of big blue eyes clashed with his across the room. He watched as she blinked, even saw her draw in a breath. Then she smiled apologetically at the young guy she’d been talking to and walked purposefully towards Liam, drawing the eye of every male, and some females, in the room.
Even those supposed to be fascinated by the books, he thought waspishly.
‘Hi.’ She bit down on her bottom lip, and his blood temperature rose a few degrees. ‘Good to see you here.’
‘Is it?’ He nodded towards the poster. ‘Or were you hoping I wouldn’t attend the meeting I’m apparently proudly sponsoring?’
‘Ah. You noticed.’ She gave him a cute little smile. ‘I may have forgotten to ask your permission.’
Mary shoved a tray of food for tiny people– he freaking hated canapés– under his nose. He waved her away, annoyance humming through him. ‘I presume I’m paying for those?’
‘Well, the bookstore is, so technically, I suppose yes, but according to your precious spreadsheets ,’ the way she emphasised the word told him he wasn’t the only one now irritated, ‘there is money for promotion.’
‘You used my name and money to promote an event designed to save a bookstore I own and want to close down?’ She couldn’t have made him look more stupid if she’d tried.
Her cheeks reddened. ‘I realise it sounds a bit off when you say it like that, but if you’d just let me explain. It’s true the goal of the event is to persuade you to keep the bookstore, but?—’
‘There you are.’ Liam’s hairs stood up on the back of his neck as Adam slid up to Jade and kissed her on both cheeks. ‘I see we’ve got a great turnout.’
We? Liam’s annoyance turned to anger, reinforced as Adam smirked.
The screech of the buzzer sounded again and Jade gave him one last, worried glance before ducking off to announce another rotation.
‘She’s quite a woman.’
Liam snapped his gaze away from Jade’s ravishing figure and back to Adam, who was giving him a calculating look. ‘She’s an employee.’
‘Hasn’t stopped you in the past, by all accounts.’ He gave him a sly smile. ‘It must hurt to know the woman you’re clearly obsessed by, is doing her best to rally the island against you.’
The barb pierced but Liam kept his body relaxed, his voice steady. This was familiar territory. ‘Do I look like I’m hurting? Because it feels like I’m running a highly successful multi-million-dollar business.’ He gave him a sardonic smile. ‘How are you doing?’
Adam’s face flushed a fiery red. ‘How do you think? You stole my business from under me.’
‘I bought your business for a fair price,’ Liam corrected.
He turned to walk away, but was stopped in his progress towards the exit by two women who gave him a tentative smile. ‘Mr Haven?’
He eyed them warily. Usually when he was accosted, his accuser wore a scowl, but these two seemed more curious than angry. ‘Yes?’
‘I thought so. We just wanted to thank you.’ The older one with curly hair looked at her companion, but when she didn’t say anything, just kept staring at him like she was trying to work out what species he was, she spoke again. ‘We had a fabulous time tonight. Met so many like-minded people and we’ve come away with a long list of book recommendations.’
‘Which we’ll buy from Little Bay Book Shack, obviously,’ her companion piped up. Apparently now finding her voice.
‘I hope you can put on another evening like this. Maybe make it a regular feature.’ The curly-haired woman smiled. ‘It’s such a great way to meet new friends. Plus, of course, it brings the locals and tourists together, which is lovely.’ She glanced at her friend, who nodded vigorously.
‘What Anne said.’
They both laughed, and the older of the two patted his arm– yep, actually touched him. ‘We won’t keep you, but thank you again. It’s been wonderful.’
They drifted off, leaving Liam staring after them, an emotion he couldn’t identify settling in his chest. As several more people stopped to thank him for helping put on an evening he’d done nothing towards, it was quickly superseded by an emotion he did recognise. Guilt.
Jade hadn’t made him look stupid. She’d made him look generous, benevolent .