Chapter 17 #2
By the time the meeting was done, I was only sure of one thing: I couldn’t go back for a second round and keep a polite demeanour.
Dad, on the other hand, was all smiles. He happily posed for photos, jolly in his gesturing and generous with praise.
He made plans to meet again the following morning.
This was killing me.
“Are you okay?” Toby sidled up. He had a long task list open on his tablet.
“No.” I couldn’t lie.
“C’mon. Let’s go grab a coffee.”
“Dad will need you.” My head panged through a combination of a lack of sleep and worrying.
“Actually, no. Your father has another meeting, and I am yours for the next several hours. We’ll get brunch, take a stroll, then we’ve got an apartment viewing booked for lunchtime.”
Ah right, the apartment. I took Toby’s arm, and we slipped from the room.
Outside the hotel, a strong sun beat down on us. For a few streets, we just wandered, following the stream of traffic along the pavements between the skyscrapers. Toby had never visited this city before so was having a ball.
“It’s such a mix! Half the signs are in Chinese and half in English. And it’s weirdly similar to New York.”
“Just don’t stare directly up.” I grinned at him, the space from work doing me good.
“Whyever not?”
“There are aircon boxes hanging out of every window. This city drips on you.”
“Puppies! Look!” He dragged me over to a pet shop with an open glass window and an animal pen inside. Small dogs and cats mingled together, supremely cute and fluffy and almost within arm’s reach. “Oh my God. You can ask to stroke them. This is the best.”
Then his gaze alighted on the next shop over. “Gross! Is that deep-fried duck?”
I followed his gaze to a rack of intact, though featherless, birds, strung up by the feet. “Yep. You hungry?”
Toby shuddered and stuck out his tongue. “Not really.”
“Me neither. I have an idea.”
The same feeling I’d had landing in London last week descended again. I didn’t want to be in the city. I craved cleaner air and space. All the things Toby was clucking over held no interest for me anymore. How had that happened? I’d always been an urban woman.
“Fancy a trip to a beach?” I asked.
Within twenty minutes, we’d hopped into a cab and were winding around the hill into Repulse Bay on the far side of the island.
At the edge of the sand, we slipped off our shoes and walked out onto the flat beach.
Toby eyed me. “Gonna tell me what’s up? You weren’t at all happy in that meeting and now you are positively gloomy.”
“I am.” I sucked in a breath of salty air, gazing out over the ocean, tracing the line of the shark nets.
People swam so close to them. It had me shivering.
It might be warmer here, but at least in Scotland’s lochs there were no real monsters.
“I’ve got all this stuff I don’t know how to handle…
” Then I stopped and forced myself to be honest. “I hurt someone I love, and I’m about to do the same again. ”
“Well, that got serious quickly. Here.” He gestured to a shady patch under a tree. “Tell Toby all about it.”
I sat in my nice suit in the gritty sand and stuck my face in my hands. The truth hit me like a sledgehammer. “I’m pretty sure I’m falling in love.”
God, it was true.
“No! With whom?”
I took my phone from my bag and found the last picture Ally had sent me. Silently, I held it up. Toby held his hands around the screen to block the sunlight and gazed at the family shot. His brow creased. “He’s super handsome. Are those scars on his face?”
“He was in an accident.”
“And is that his baby?”
“He’s a single dad. And my sister’s husband’s brother.”
“Oh my! We’ll come back to that one. Where’s the baby’s mother?”
“She died.”
“Shit.” He sat back, boggling. “That’s a lot to take on board. I don’t want to judge, but isn’t it a little soon for him to be seeing someone else?”
“He and the baby mama were never a couple. It was a one-night stand, sort of.” I swallowed, trying to stop the flood of words. But I had barely spoken about this to anyone and I needed to get it off my chest. “If I want him, it’s a package deal.”
Toby pointed behind us, to the interior of the island. “Which will be a challenge if you live here.”
“I know.”
“Where does he live?”
“Scotland.”
“Ouch. Even if you work from London, that will mean a hell of a commute. You’ll miss out on a lot of family life.”
“I know!” I banged my head on my knee. “In coming here, I already missed a first with the baby, but this is the thing: I wasn’t sure what I wanted. A couple of months ago, this place was my dream. Building a brand-new career in a big city. Living a swanky, high-powered life.”
“Then you fell for a man who has commitments. Could you ask him to move with you?”
“He can’t, and he doesn’t even know how I feel about him. I didn’t know until this minute.” I shook my head, jumping to my next point. To the other person I was poised to hurt. “Okay, so there’s another thing. I need to ask you something important about Dad’s business.”
“I’m listening.”
“Why is Dad courting Jeremiah Jones so hard? I get that there’s an opportunity, but we can also go it alone. Why the urgency and fuss?”
Toby blew out a breath, twirling a curl of his fair hair in his fingers. “I’m not meant to tell you any of this.”
“If you tell me a secret, I’ll share one back.”
“Intriguing. Fine. Your dad’s original expansion proposal didn’t get the backing it needed from the board. He requires a major investor. Hence chasing Mr Jones.”
Which Dad was probably doing for my benefit. Oh hell. “Jeremiah Jones is a pervert who drugged a friend of mine. I could never work with him.”
My cool-headed and fun friend gaped at me. “Well, slap my face. You’re not joking.”
“Nope. I don’t want anything to do with him, and I don’t want to live in Hong Kong.”
Toby groaned. “This is bad. Your dad signed a deal with Jones. They held a private meeting late last night. Today was show and tell for Philip to report back to the shareholders. Your father is so sure you want this.”
“Argh! Because I told him I did.” I leapt up and paced away before whirling back around. “What kind of deal? Can we undo it?”
Toby ticked off on his fingers. “A fully supported research and development office, sans manager, which is meant to be you, a business suite, a skills and training budget. A mentorship role under Jones himself. Your dad has committed to it. One way or another, it has to go ahead.”
His phone rang, and he scrabbled in his bag. “It’s your dad. Do you want to talk to him now?”
“Not right at this second.”
Toby nodded and strolled down the beach, no doubt talking business.
I stared at the island out on the hazy horizon.
Past-me would be champing at the bit to take this deal.
I wouldn’t even want to go home. Dad would be ecstatic, a great deal would be in place for Storm Enterprises, and I’d be in the fulfilling career I’d dreamed about.
But present-me wanted to slay the dragon that was Jones, then rush home and sweep Ally off his feet.
Date him. Meet his baby. Stay over at his cottage.
At least one thing was clear: Now I realised I had fallen in love with Ally, I couldn’t go back. Which meant putting plan two in place.
I needed to speak to Dad.
I switched my gaze to Toby who was hurrying back over, his expression fraught and his fingers flying over his phone. “Booking it now. Two hours? Right.” He hung up the call and turned his panicked attention to me.
“What’s happened?”
“We’re going home. Your sister is in labour. Your father is in pieces. He’s having the bags packed, and we’re meeting him at the airport. We’ll just make the next flight but we have to go now!”
“Oh!” I grabbed our two pairs of shoes, and we took off across the beach.
This changed everything. I’d lost my chance to challenge Jones, for now.
We were heading to Scotland.