Her Best Laid Plans

She watched him watching her as she brought the champagne hastily to her lips and took a healthy last swallow. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. Of course I trust you.’ Once again his green eyes sparked with something she didn’t understand, and quickly turned inscrutable. ‘Want to hear my plan?’ she said, aiming for some light humour.

‘Your plan?’ Jared mocked.

She tipped her head, touché. ‘Proposal then. I propose we land, settle in, you have a few deep-and-meaningfuls with the family, a board meeting is convened, you present your plan to save the company and then tomorrow? Well, I hear the shopping is fantastic.’

Jared was silent a moment. He swirled the remaining amber liquid in his glass, considering. In one smooth motion he downed the last mouthful and she distinctly heard the last piece of ice being crunched between his teeth. He grinned.

‘Do you know in all my figuring out the angles, that wasn’t the way I ended up going.’

‘It wasn’t?’ Why did she have a funny feeling? Her hand pressed gently over the butterflies flitting about inside her stomach.

‘Well for a start who said anything about saving KPC?’

The tiny air-pocket that the jet hit, causing Amanda to be lifted slightly and then set down abruptly in her seat, was nothing compared with the shock of Jared’s statement and the ruthless edge she didn’t recognise.

Chapter Three (#u781c5384-007a-569a-8ec3-aa140e6420a3)

‘You’ve gone mad.’ Amanda accused, struggling to keep up with him. She barely registered the plush private airport lounge as they proceeded towards the exit at what seemed like a hundred miles an hour. ‘You’re out of your mind.’

‘Why? For putting a failing business out of its misery?’

‘But, it’s not just any business; it’s the family business. Andit would be for all the wrong reasons.’

If she had thought for one minute he’d asked her to travel thousands of miles to help him push the final nail into an eighty-year-old family business, just because he hadn’t been allowed to be a part of it, she would never have come. There were few things she stood firm on. Family was family. ‘Jared, you are not about wrong reasons. You are about right reasons. Hey,’ she finally managed to get a half step in front of him, and as her hand shot out to stop him in his tracks it landed full square on his chest, right over his heart. She kept it there as she spoke. ‘As I was saying, you are all about integrity. Fact: the friendship you share with Mikey is based on just that—friendship and not because you feel responsible for his accident.’ She felt his heart thump solidly against his chest. Finally, she had his attention. ‘I see you struggling with that sometimes and yet you never let it get in the way. You don’t think I had to wrestle with, and let go of, the fact you paid Mikey’s medical bills and for the house to be specially adapted?’ She pushed back against his hard chest when he made to step forward. ‘If you tell me you did that solely out of guilt, I think I’ll hate you!’ He blinked and she pressed her advantage. The shutters came down but his heart was still thumping. ‘If you do this, just because you can, what does that say about you?’

‘You have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.’

‘So then, explain it to me. Family is family, Jared.’

‘Family is not always family. Family is sometimes—’ but then Jared broke off to stare ahead of them. ‘Sephy?’ he called out softly.

Frowning, Amanda followed his gaze in time to see a beautiful woman with flowing jet-black hair jog towards him. She was carrying an equally beautiful toddler.

‘Jared—’ the woman broke off; seemingly at a loss for words but then someone wriggled in her arms and a smile lit up her face. ‘This is Daisy; my daughter,’ she said proudly, offering a giggling Daisy up for inspection.

Amanda looked at the stunned expression on Jared’s face and when it became apparent he was incapable of speech, she stepped in.

‘I’m Amanda, Jared’s PA.’ She reached out to stroke a fingertip over Daisy’s chubby forearm. ‘Hello, Daisy.’

Jared’s eyes lingered on Amanda’s outstretched finger before he slowly seemed to collect himself.

‘Amanda, this is my other sister Seraphina—Sephy, and, er, her daughter.’ He shot questioning eyes to his sister and Amanda realised that he hadn’t even known he was an uncle.

Maybe he was right. Maybe family wasn’t always family as she understood it. She only had Mikey since their parents had died and they were such a unit, she couldn’t envisage being strangers, the way Jared and his sisters had so obviously become. She wanted badly to place her hand in his and offer a squeeze of comfort, but was fairly certain that PA’s didn’t do that.

‘Okay, I’m confused,’ Sephy said. ‘Nora gave me the impression you were Jared’s—’

‘No,’ Amanda hastily cut in. ‘Not at all. There was a gargantuan mix-up on my part when I met your sister. We’re strictly professional. Er, that is, we have a strictly professional relationship.’ She shot a look towards Jared that said, ‘Pull yourself together and help me dig myself out of this hole, will you?’ and it seemed to work, because from out of nowhere Jared grinned, Daisy gurgled and Sephy chuckled.

‘No problem.’ Sephy assured. ‘I have a car waiting to take us back to the house.’

‘Amanda and I are not staying at the house.’

Sephy instantly plopped Daisy down beside her and reached for her phone. She punched in a number and managed to grab Daisy before the toddler could shoot off.

‘Nora? You were right. Er,’ she looked up at Jared with a question on her face and he sighed and took the phone from her.

Amanda watched him take control with natural ease. Could she find a way to get him to at least look at the business before he waltzed in and pronounced it beyond saving? Was it really her place? He was the expert here, not her. Most definitely not her, she thought, feeling the nerves start to gather.

She glanced at Sephy and Daisy. They were watching Jared; rapt fascination on their faces and she had to smile. He tended to have that effect on people. She tuned back in and heard him say, ‘Well you’ll have to find a new plan then … I’m glad you understand. I’ll tell her.’ He snapped the phone shut, ‘She said to tell you to go ahead with Plan B,’ looking at Amanda he said, ‘We’ll be staying at Nora’s apartment in the City. She’s staying elsewhere.’

Her nervous feelings doubled as she acknowledged an underlying zing of excitement. Wasn’t the property in the UK supposed to be all small and poky? Wouldn’t they end up all on top of one another? Her eyes grew wide at the Technicolor graphic her imagination supplied. Realising Jared was looking at her oddly she rallied herself, smiling benignly when his eyebrow raised in query.

She had to get a proper grip of herself. What did she care if plans changed and she wasn’t staying in the sprawling formal country estate with space to spare? She was Amanda go-with-the-flow Gray. No sweat. No problem.

Later, travelling in the lift up to Nora’s penthouse apartment, Amanda tried to stave off the mounting apprehension as to what Jared would say to her when they were alone. Surely she’d over-stepped the mark when she’d virtually accused him of deliberately hanging the family business out to dry?

Before she could dwell too much on his reaction, the lift doors opened onto acres of creamy deep-piled carpet. Light pooled in through floor-to-ceiling windows that framed a view of the city.

‘Oh. Wow.’ Amanda walked over to stare at the London skyline, desperate to grab her camera and guide book out of her bag and run off and explore.

She turned to find Jared watching her with a soft smile on his face. Her heart missed a beat. He didn’t look as though he was holding a grudge. She crossed her eyes comically to show she realised she was being a bit gauche and picked up some of her bags to head off, she hoped, in the direction of the bedrooms.

Choosing the smaller room with its silk, champagne-coloured wallpaper and beautifully polished Venetian furniture, she set about unpacking, content to leave brother, sister and niece to some private time. After storing her toiletries in the sumptuous bathroom she crossed back to the plate-glass window in front of the bed. At night she’d be able to see thousands of artificial lights wobbling back at her from their reflection in the Thames below. Running her hand over the pane, she realised that the intricate skyline was cleverly etched onto the glass. Idly tracing it with her finger, she wondered if the window was redone as the skyline changed. Maybe they didn’t have to. Maybe nothing changed here. She shook her head at her naivety; as if London was any different to anywhere else. Everything changed sooner or later. That was why it did no good to plan. Zoning back in to the sound of stilted conversation in the living room area, she went to join them.

‘—wait till you see Dad with Daisy,’ Sephy was saying. ‘She has him wrapped around her little finger and he loves it, doesn’t he, Daisy?’ Daisy giggled back up at her mother but Amanda was more intrigued by the look of pure disbelief on Jared’s face.

‘You’ll see. You’re both invited for dinner, by the way.’

‘I’m afraid tonight’s out of the question.’

Amanda busied herself searching her capacious handbag for a notebook, but not before she saw a look of disappointment pass over Sephy’s face.

‘Of course. No rush. You probably have jet lag or something. Um, you may not remember, but Dad always holds a winter party and this year it’s on the 26th. You’re both welcome.’

‘Has he even been told I’m here or why I’m here?’

‘Of course. Nora would never have flown over to see you unless father had sanctioned it.’

‘Of course,’ Jared mimicked.

Amanda winced into her handbag and heard Sephy rush on.

‘He knows this is to be conducted on your terms—’

Jared’s laugh was tinged with bitterness. ‘Tell me, where is the real Jeremy King and what have you done with him?’

In the awkward silence, Amanda’s anxious handbag-search became more pronounced.