Christmas Bride For The Boss

Sophie left Jamie’s office, sat down on one of the chairs and closed her eyes.

The bank had already said no. It was pretty clear that Jamie Wallis, her plan B, was going to turn her down. So now she needed to work out a plan C.

Crowdsourcing? No. It’d make her look as if the business had run out of money. Which it hadn’t.

Offering shares in the business to the rest of the team? But Mara was about to get married and the other three were saving up the deposit for a flat. None of them had any spare money, much less the ability to raise a loan to buy out part of Eva’s share in Plans & Planes.

And Jamie’s suggestion of asking Matt and Angie to return the money was completely out of the question. Her brother and sister-in-law had been eligible for one free cycle of IVF treatment; it hadn’t worked and they’d already used up all their own savings and taken out a loan to pay for the next two cycles, which had also failed.

OK, so there were no guarantees that the fourth cycle would be the lucky one, and if it had been purely a business decision Sophie probably would have decided that the risk was too great. But this wasn’t a business decision. How could she possibly have stood by and watched their hearts break when she could do something to help? So she hadn’t hesitated on offering to fund another cycle of treatment. She’d said it was a loan that Matt and Angie could repay whenever, but she’d always intended to quietly forget about the money. If the IVF worked and they had the baby they so desperately wanted, it would be the best repayment she could ask for.

* * *

‘So let me get this straight,’ Jamie said, scowling at the phone. ‘You’re telling me that Cindy broke her leg skiing yesterday, so she won’t be able to walk, let alone work, for at least another two months. And you can’t offer me a temporary replacement for her because the nanny who took over while she was on holiday is already on another assignment, and everyone else on your books is already either on an assignment and can’t possibly be moved, or has gone down with a virus.’

‘I’m afraid so, Mr Wallis. I know it sounds like a feeble excuse, but it’s quite a nasty virus. It takes a couple of weeks to get over it. I’m so sorry,’ Felicity, the agency manager, said.

‘Effectively you’re leaving me in the lurch.’ Was there anyone in his staff he could ask to switch roles temporarily? He could hardly ask one of the resort team to move to London for two months, especially with Christmas coming up. There was nobody suitable in his London team, either. Those with children already had enough on their plates and he couldn’t expect them to neglect their own children for Sienna. The ones without children didn’t have the relevant experience. Short of asking his mother to help—and he knew from first-hand experience that his mother preferred to parent at a distance—Jamie knew he was stuck.

‘I wish it wasn’t the case, but I’m afraid the situation’s completely out of my hands, Mr Wallis,’ Felicity said.

He could try another agency, but he still wouldn’t be able to guarantee having a new temporary nanny in place by the end of today—or that she’d be able to stay until Cindy was back at work. He didn’t want to dump his daughter on a string of women she didn’t know. Sienna needed continuity.

‘How soon do you think you’ll be able to get me a nanny to replace Cindy until her leg’s healed?’ he asked.

‘I really don’t know, Mr Wallis. It depends how quickly my staff recover. It might be a week, or it might be a fortnight.’

Although Jamie really wanted to shout at Felicity in utter frustration, he knew that would be counter-productive. Fran had always said you caught more flies with honey. His late wife had always been more patient with people than he had; he found it hard to be charming in the face of sheer incompetence. ‘This is going to be very difficult for me,’ he said, resisting the urge to twist the guilt by reminding Felicity that he was a single father and didn’t have anyone to take up the slack. ‘But could you please call me as soon as someone’s available?’

‘Of course, Mr Wallis. Thank you for being so understanding.’

He forbore to comment, not trusting himself to stay polite.

And now he had a problem. A big one. An unspecified time—anything between a few days and a couple of months—without a nanny, and even when someone became available it might not be for the whole period that Cindy was away. He was in the middle of setting up a new resort, so he simply couldn’t take the best part of the next few weeks off work to look after Sienna. He’d trusted the agency to deal with any situation like this, and they’d let him down. Badly.

What the hell was he going to do?

It was rare that he found himself in a situation where he wasn’t in complete control, and he hated the feeling of being helpless.

Sophie Firth was sitting in the reception area outside his office. Right now, they were both in a mess. She needed someone to invest in her business quickly so she could afford to buy out her partner; and he needed a nanny for the next few weeks.

He could maybe help her—especially as Eva was his late wife’s cousin and he ought to support his family—but right now he needed to focus on sorting out his immediate problem. He was going to have to turn her down.

He took a deep breath and went out to the reception area. ‘Miss Firth, I’m sorry to have kept you waiting.’

‘That’s fine,’ she said.

He raked a hand through his hair. ‘I’m sorry—I can’t help you right at this minute. Something’s cropped up and I need to deal with it.’

* * *

Just as Sophie had expected. She needed Plan C. Disappointment still flooded through her. He wasn’t even going to be honest and say he wasn’t interested.

Something’s cropped up.

And to think he’d called her on being vague.

Then again, there was something akin to desperation in his eyes—as if something had happened and he didn’t have a clue how to deal with it. From the research she’d done on his company, she knew he was a shrewd businessman; his company had grown from strength to strength in the last few years, and even the death of his wife hadn’t affected the business. What could have happened to throw him like this?

Before she could stop herself, the words came out. ‘Are you all right?’

He looked at her in shock. ‘How do you mean?’

‘You look,’ she said, ‘as if someone just dropped something on you from a great height.’

‘You could say that.’ He sighed. ‘It’s my problem. I have to deal with it.’

But he sounded as if he didn’t have the faintest clue where to start.

This was none of her business. She had enough of a problem herself. She should just walk away. Instead, she found herself asking, ‘Can I get you a cup of tea or something?’

She cringed even as the words came out. It was his office, not hers. What she was saying was totally inappropriate.

But he smiled at her. The first real smile she’d seen from him. And it made her knees weak.

‘That’s kind,’ he said.

‘And inappropriate. Sorry.’

He shook his head. ‘That’s kind,’ he repeated. ‘But at the moment tea isn’t going to help.’ He looked at her. ‘Given your business, you must know people in lots of different career areas. I don’t suppose you know any nannies, do you?’

‘Nannies?’

‘That call just now was from the agency which supplies the nanny who looks after my daughter. Cindy—our nanny—broke her leg last week when she was on a skiing trip. And the agency has nobody available to stand in for her right now.’

So he needed childcare help?

Maybe she could turn this into a win-win situation.

‘So I need someone to invest in Plans & Planes, and you need a nanny.’

He looked at her. ‘Yes.’

‘Maybe,’ she said carefully, ‘there’s a solution that will work for us both. A business solution.’

‘You know a nanny?’

‘Not exactly.’ She took a deep breath. ‘What type of hours are we talking about?’