Meet Mr. Prince / Once a Cowboy...: Meet Mr. Prince

Take Tommi, for instance. The only place she seemed to feel completely sure of herself was in the kitchen.

“So what’s on your agenda now?” her mother asked. “Has Alex made any decision about where you’ll go next?”

Georgie shook her head. “God, I hope so. We’re meeting for lunch tomorrow. Aside from anything else, it’ll be nice to see him again.”

Her mother frowned. “I thought you were working at Alex’s office the past couple of weeks while waiting for a new assignment.”

“Not at the office. I’m doing research for him at home. But I’ll sure be glad to get back into the field. I like research, but not that much.”

Despite this minor complaint, Georgie loved her job, loved that Alex allowed her to have a say in what she did and where she did it. Since coming to work for him at the Hunt Foundation nineteen months earlier, Georgie had been happier than she’d ever been in her entire life.

Alex was a dream boss. One of the things about him she liked most was that he treated all his employees with consideration and respect. P.J., his wife, was one lucky woman. In fact, if Georgie ever found a man like Alex, she might even change her mind about getting married.

“What’re you smiling about?” her mother asked.

Georgie started. She’d forgotten her mother was sitting there. Not a good idea. Her mother was too sharp. She had an uncanny ability to almost read a person’s mind, to the chagrin of all her daughters. “Oh, nothing. Just thinking how happy I’ll be to get busy again.”

Georgie had come home from the Sudan right before the Christmas holiday had begun and had now been on hiatus more than three weeks. She’d told Alex she didn’t need that much time off. After all, she had no husband, children or pets to worry about. And although she was the newly proud owner of a small, loft-type condo in near downtown Belltown, the maid service and condo maintenance she paid for took excellent care of her property when she was away.

“Well,” her mother said, “I hope, if he’s sending you out to the field again, he sends you somewhere peaceful this time. It worries me when you go into countries where there’s so much civil unrest.”

“You know Alex would never put me in danger.”

Cornelia raised her eyebrows. “Afghanistan is terribly dangerous. And so was Burundi. And even the Sudan.”

“I was never in danger in any of those places.” But Georgie mentally crossed her fingers, because she wasn’t telling her mother the entire truth. Sure, she’d been in supposedly protected zones in those countries, and in all cases she’d been accompanied by representatives from the UN, along with a security detail, but still … no one was ever completely safe surrounded by warring factions, and she’d had one or two close—and scary—calls.

Cornelia nodded, but Georgie knew she wasn’t convinced. Giving her mother another kiss, she said, “I’ve gotta run, Mom. I’m getting my hair trimmed. My appointment’s at three o’clock.”

“Phone me tomorrow?” her mother said as she walked Georgie to the door.

“Why? So you can call Alex and yell at him if you don’t like where he’s sending me next?” teased Georgie.

Her mother laughed. “Don’t think I wouldn’t.”

“Oh, I know you would.” And the worst part was, Alex would probably listen. Sometimes Georgie despaired of ever leading a totally independent life. But that’s what she got for taking a job with someone so closely intertwined with her family. Although she and Alex Hunt referred to each other as cousins, they were not really related. Their fathers had been best friends as kids, and as young men they’d co-founded a company that eventually became HuntCom.

Of course, the company’s huge success came years after George Fairchild’s death, so neither he nor Cornelia had benefitted financially the way Harry Hunt, Alex’s father, had. It wasn’t for lack of trying on Harry’s part, though. Harry Hunt wasn’t perfect, but he was nothing if not generous to the people he loved. And George Fairchild’s wife and daughters were high up on that list. Harry had tried everything he could think of to give Cornelia money, and she had thwarted every attempt. He had managed to gift each of her daughters with $100,000 upon their high-school graduation, along with an honorary seat on the HuntCom board. Furious, Cornelia had refused to talk to him for months afterward.

Cornelia was proud. She wasn’t willing to take money she didn’t feel she deserved, no matter how much she could have used the help at the time. And the same applied to her daughters.

Georgie admired her mother more than just about anyone. How many women would have had guts enough and strength enough to hold their heads high after finding out, after his death, that the husband they’d trusted had gambled away every bit of their life’s savings, including their stock in HuntCom? How many women would refuse to take the easy way out that had been offered by Harry Hunt? Not many, Georgie thought.

Cornelia Phillips Fairchild hadn’t wasted a whole lot of time feeling sorry for herself, either. She’d sold the family home, the one asset George Fairchild had not been able to touch, because it belonged to Cornelia outright—her inheritance from the maternal grandmother she’d been named for. She’d bought the much smaller Craftsman-style bungalow in Queen Anne that she still lived in, and she’d taken a job as secretary at the small private girls’ school where her daughters were enrolled. In that way, with what she got for the girls in Social Security, what remained from the sale of the big house and her small salary supplementing free tuition for the girls, she was able to keep their lives as close to normal as possible.

Yes, her mother was a remarkable woman, and Georgie thought the world of her. Even so, she mused as she drove away from the family home, she was no longer a child who needed her mother’s guidance, especially when it came to her love life … or lack thereof.

Georgie hoped they’d settled that subject today and that Cornelia wouldn’t be raising it again. Then she grinned. Of course her mother would raise it again. Her mother wasn’t the type to give up easily.

Well, I’m not, either. No one was going to talk her into doing anything she didn’t want to do—absolutely no one.

Zachary Prince was ready for the weekend to begin. Although he really liked his job, today he was tired of being cooped up in the office, tired of all the problems associated with too much work and too few people to do it since his assistant had quit, and he just wanted to go home and spend time with his children.

He often felt guilty because he didn’t need to work. He could stay home and be with the kids full-time. After all, he didn’t need the money. He and his twin sister, Sabrina, had inherited a stock portfolio worth many millions from their grandfather, McKinley. But Zach liked his work as director of the New York office of the Hunt Foundation. And he was wise enough to know that as much as he loved his children, he would go crazy at home all day, especially now that his two oldest, Katie and Jeremy, were in school.

He was so lost in his thoughts that he jumped when his phone buzzed. The CID showed Alex Hunt’s name.

“Hey, Alex.”

“Hey, Zach. I’ve got some good news for you. I think I’ll be able to send some help your way.”

“Really? Who? Anybody I know?”

“She works for me, but you haven’t met her because she’s been in the field the past year and a half. Her name is Georgianna Fairchild.”

Fairchild. Weren’t the Fairchilds close friends of the Hunts? And weren’t some of them on the HuntCom board? No matter how badly Zach needed help in the New York office, he didn’t think having a friend of the Hunt family there was a great idea. But before he could think of a tactful way to say so, Alex continued talking.

“In addition to her experience in the field, Georgie’s a whiz at research. She can take over that part of the work easily … and anything else you want her to do. You can trust her, Zach. She’s totally dependable … and she’s got good judgment. I think she’ll be a real asset to you.”

Because he couldn’t think of any other rejoinder, Zach just said, “She does sound good. Um, when is she coming?”

“I haven’t discussed this with her yet, so I don’t want to commit until I do. We’re having lunch tomorrow and we’ll talk about it. I need her here at least another week, and since this will be different from the kinds of assignments she’s had in the past, in that she’ll be staying in New York until we can find a permanent assistant for you, she may need more time after that to make arrangements. For now, let’s say she’ll be there by the fifteenth of next month.”

Zach listened as Alex continued to extol the virtues of Georgie Fairchild, but despite her vaunted capabilities, Zach had a bad feeling about this. No matter what Alex said, Zach didn’t think having a Hunt family friend on staff was a good idea. What if they didn’t like each other? What if she were one of those strong-willed women who thought she knew everything and didn’t take orders well?

After they hung up, Zach sat there, staring into space and thinking. And the more he thought, the more uneasy he felt. Was it possible that Alex was sending this Fairchild woman to New York to spy on him?

Maybe Alex was unhappy with the way things were going in New York. Maybe he’d decided he’d made a mistake when he’d hired Zach, especially considering the special deal Zach had negotiated. Maybe he didn’t think Zach was carrying his weight. But hell, if that were the case, why didn’t Alex just say so? Zach had always believed Alex was a straight shooter, that he’d never do anything underhanded.

But maybe Zach had been wrong.

He guessed only time would tell.

Time, and this Georgie Fairchild.

Chapter Two

Georgie always loved lunching with Alex. It used to be the highlight of her week during the brief period she’d worked in downtown Seattle. Lord, she’d hated that first job at the ad agency. Why she’d taken it, she still couldn’t fathom. But it had served its purpose because she’d quickly realized she wasn’t cut out for the business world and she’d gone back to school and gotten her master’s in sociology.

Once she had that degree in hand, she’d gone to work for a large women’s hospital. Idealistic when she began, four years later she was burned out. One day she’d admitted to Alex that her job had become depressing and that most days she felt she was spinning her wheels and getting nowhere.

“My hands are tied by lack of money and facilities,” she’d said, “And it’s getting worse all the time. Besides, I really want to work with kids. I may not think I’d make a good mother, but I still prefer being around kids to being around most adults. Kids are honest, and they appreciate everything you do for them. I want to do something that makes me feel as if I’m really making a difference.”

“Then,” Alex had said, “it’s time for you to come to work for the foundation.”

Georgie couldn’t believe how much she loved the work she did now. Her job satisfied every part of her. She felt she’d finally found her niche in life. She loved the travel, she loved learning about different peoples and their culture, she loved the children she met and helped and she didn’t even mind the fundraising because she was asking for money for a cause she believed in passionately. But most of all, she loved that she was making a difference. Everything about her work was rewarding.

Of course, there was still the problem of money. Trouble is, there was never enough money for all the things that needed doing. But that was minor compared to the way she’d felt before coming to work at the foundation.