The Ex Who Hired Her

Jordan knew he deserved the rebuke. Either or both of them could’ve acknowledged that they knew each other. But they hadn’t. For exactly the same reason: one that he wasn’t planning to share. He sighed. ‘The middle of an interview’s hardly the place for a reunion.’ Not that he wanted a reunion with her. He’d moved on. And he didn’t have any plans to go back.

‘Her CV doesn’t say she was at your school,’ Harry pointed out.

‘She wasn’t at my school. I met her at a party—a friend of a friend of a friend. Actually, I was at university at the time.’

Harry shrugged. ‘So you didn’t know her that well.’

Well enough, Jordan thought, to make her pregnant. Except, when his mother had refused to pay her an extortionate allowance, she’d cold-bloodedly terminated their unborn child without even so much as discussing it with him. She hadn’t even told him she was pregnant, and he couldn’t forgive her for that.

And then she’d vanished to avoid any fallout. He’d spent weeks trying to find her, to no avail. When he’d finally tracked her down, he’d been gutted to discover that she was married … to someone else. He’d had to face how little he’d really meant to her—otherwise how could she have married another man so quickly after getting rid of his baby?

Not that he was going to tell Harry and Gina about that. It was something he never, ever talked about. To anyone. He’d buried the anger and the hurt, and they were staying buried.

‘She’s what we need,’ Gina said. ‘She can think on her feet, she’s full of ideas, and she’s straight-talking. And she was the only one to mention a budget—she’s grounded in the real world.’

Jordan couldn’t deny any of that. But could he cope with having her back in his life?

Harry clearly sensed the younger man’s reservations, because he asked, ‘Did you clash badly with her, or something?’

Or something. She’d been the first girl Jordan had really fallen in love with. She’d charmed him utterly. To the point where he’d even planned to spend the rest of his life with her.

How stupid he’d been. It would never have worked. Then again, neither had marrying someone he’d been friends with for years, someone who had the same kind of background that he did. He’d failed there, too. So, as far as he was concerned, relationships were best kept short and sweet—and ended before they started to sour.

‘Jordan?’

He made a noncommittal murmur, not wanting to explain.

‘Whatever happened—and I for one won’t pry—you were both a lot younger then and still had a lot of growing up to do. People change,’ Gina said.

Jordan didn’t think so. Alexandra had been incredibly ambitious—expecting their unborn child to give her an entry into his world and a hand up from her own—and he’d bet that she was just the same, now. That kind of personality trait didn’t change.

‘Let’s go through the candidates and see who we’re going to bring back for a second interview,’ he said, wanting to shift back onto safe ground.

On three of the final candidates, they were agreed; on the fourth, there was no way he could explain why he didn’t want her without dragging up too much of the past.

Just as they finished, Jordan’s PA knocked on the door. ‘I’m so sorry to interrupt, Mr Blake. I’m afraid it’s a matter that can’t wait,’ she said to Harry.

‘Go,’ Jordan said. ‘You too, Gina. I know you’re both up to your eyes. I’ll do the debriefs,’ he said.

‘Are you sure?’ Harry asked.

‘Absolutely.’ It meant he’d get a word with her on his own—and then maybe he could find out what she was really up to.

As soon as his colleagues had gone, Jordan spoke to the candidates in the order he’d seen them. He commiserated with the ones who didn’t get through to second interview and explained why, so they could work on their skills for the future; and he gave a briefing pack to the three candidates who’d got through to the next round.

And finally it was time to face Alexandra.

All the candidates had been seen in order. Most had come out looking dejected; three had come out looking pleased. And, as the last one to be interviewed, Alexandra was the last one to be debriefed.

She had thought about leaving quietly, so she didn’t have to see the expression in Jordan’s eyes when he told her that she was rejected. But that would be the coward’s way out, and she wasn’t a coward. Plus the debriefing was going to be useful for her next interview. Even so, her nerves were strung so tightly that she stumbled as she walked through the door.

‘Ms …’ He paused, looking her up and down. ‘Bennett.’

Then she realised that Jordan was on his own. Oh, no.

This was going to be really bad. He wouldn’t have to hide the fact that he was gloating when he told her that she hadn’t got the job.

Well, they did say that attack was the best form of defence. She lifted her chin. ‘You could’ve just sent a message via the agency that I didn’t get the job. You didn’t need to bother telling me personally.’

‘Actually, you made the list for second interview.’ He handed her an envelope. ‘And this is the briefing pack for the situation we want you to think about and discuss with us tomorrow.’

It was so unexpected that it silenced her. He was actually giving her a chance?

Then, when he spoke again, she wished she’d just said thank you and made a run for it.

‘I wasn’t expecting to see you today,’ he said coolly.

‘I had no idea you worked here.’ Much less that he was the CEO.

He scoffed. ‘Come off it. You know exactly who my family are.’

She frowned. ‘No. All I knew was that they were posh.’ In a different league from her own family. The ground floor of their entire house could’ve fitted into the Smiths’ living room.

He didn’t look as if he believed her. ‘Let me refresh your memory. My great-grandfather started the store,’ he said. ‘My grandfather took over from him. And then my father.’

So it was his family business. ‘And now you’re the CEO. Following in their footsteps.’ That much she could work out for herself. ‘But it doesn’t quite add up. Since it’s a family business, why isn’t your surname Field?’

He shrugged. ‘It’s my middle name. My father refused to change his surname when he married my mother.’

Oh. So the store belonged to his mother’s family. With a heritage like that, no wonder Vanessa Smith had been so confident. And maybe she could understand now why Vanessa had made that accusation when Alexandra had gone to her for help—an accusation that even now made a red mist swirl in front of Alexandra’s eyes because it had been so unfair and so unjust.

Jordan looked at her. ‘Speaking of names, I notice you’ve changed yours.’

Was that a roundabout way of asking her if she was married? Under employment law, he couldn’t ask her; marital status was nothing to do with someone’s performance in their job. On the other hand, it wouldn’t hurt if he thought she was still married. Just in case he was under the very mistaken impression that she wanted anything from him other than this job. ‘It’s my married name.’ And she’d kept it after the divorce.

‘Even your first name’s different,’ he mused. ‘I knew you as Alex.’

When she’d been a very different person. Naïve, believing that she’d been lucky enough to find her soul mate at the age of seventeen. Except she’d kissed her handsome prince and he’d turned into a slimy toad. She shrugged, affecting a cool she definitely didn’t feel—even thinking about kissing when Jordan Smith was sitting right in front of her was a mistake. ‘Xandra is a perfectly valid diminutive of Alexandra,’ she said crisply.

‘Very “marketing”.’

Which was what her tutor had told her when she’d started doing the evening class. Look the part, sound the part, act the part, and you’ll get the part. She’d followed that to the letter. ‘Is that a problem?’

‘No.’ He paused. ‘I told Harry and Gina I knew you.’

Knew her. Yeah. He’d known her, all right. In the Biblical sense. ‘Didn’t that put me out of the running?’

‘They liked you.’