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‘Who cares what they think?’ came his arrogantly dismissive comment. ‘And who are they?’
‘My sister for starters. She’ll think I’ve done something I shouldn’t have with your uncle to get him to leave me all that money.’
‘Really. Such as what?’
‘You know what,’ Abby shot back.
‘True,’ he said drily. ‘In that case I suggest you don’t tell her about your unexpected windfall.’
Abby gave a snorting laugh. ‘Hard to hide a brand-new car.’
‘True again. So what do you want me to do, Abby? Go against my uncle’s wishes? Forget everything?’
She looked at him with pained eyes. ‘I couldn’t do that. I don’t care so much about the new car, but I couldn’t turn down the travel fund money. It’s my dearest wish to go overseas and see the world. And I’d like to go before I get too old.’
Jake laughed. ‘You’re hardly ancient, Abby.’
‘I might be by the time I save up twenty-five thousand dollars.’
He seemed startled by this statement. ‘Do I pay you that poorly?’
‘No. But I have a house and a lot of bills.’ And the remainder of a debt for porcelain veneers.
Jake frowned. ‘You have a mortgage?’
‘No. My husband’s life insurance paid that off. But I still have a lot of bills. Maintaining a house is expensive.’
‘Tell me about it,’ he said with the first hint of a smile that day. He really wasn’t much of a smiler. Not with her, anyway. He smiled on television a lot though. Abby wished he would smile more. It really transformed his face from cardboard handsome into a likeable human being.
Unfortunately, his smile also did things to Abby which she was finding hard to process. Her stomach curled over and she found herself staring at his mouth and thinking totally unacceptable things. Like what would it be like to be kissed by him? And not just on her mouth.
Lord, but this wasn’t like her. She didn’t even enjoy sex that much, unlike her sister, who couldn’t live without it. Sex with Wayne had been okay, but nothing to write home about. She’d done it whenever he wanted, more for him than herself, because she’d loved him so much. In her mind, making love was a natural part of loving. Of marriage. She’d never been into sex for sex’s sake.
Why then was she looking at her boss and thinking that here was a man who just might change her mind on that subject?
Not that she’d ever have the chance to find out. Not only did he have a gorgeous girlfriend but he was totally off-limits. He was her boss, for heaven’s sake! On top of that, he clearly didn’t fancy her. A girl knew when a man fancied her and Jake definitely didn’t.
Her eyes dropped from his to her near empty coffee cup.
‘I’m still finding it hard to believe all this,’ she said, glancing up again once she had her wayward thoughts under control. ‘In one way it’s like a dream come true. But I still can’t get over your uncle dying like that. And all alone.’
‘Indeed,’ Jake said, that hint of a smile disappearing as quickly as it had come. ‘I’ve been thinking,’ he went on, his face very businesslike again. ‘I’ll put next Saturday aside so that I can take you to visit Craig’s grave in the morning, then we’ll go on and buy you a car afterwards. It’s not far from Rookwood Cemetery out to the major dealerships at Parramatta. Do you trust me to pick out a car for you, or do you want to choose one yourself?’
‘Well, I… I don’t know,’ she stammered, startled by how quickly he wanted to organise everything. ‘I’m not much of a car buff. But if it’s going to be mine I think I would like to look up a few possibilities on the internet.’
‘It’s a good idea to buy something that is cheap to repair,’ he advised firmly. ‘I would suggest you look at the Japanese cars. Or the Korean ones.’
‘All right,’ she agreed. He seemed to know what he was talking about, whereas she was pretty ignorant when it came to cars.
‘And what bank account would you like the twenty-five thousand put into? The same one your salary goes into, or do you want to start up a special travel fund account?’
Abby was taken by surprise when her chin began to quiver. But really today had all been a bit much.
‘Don’t you dare start crying again,’ he commanded.
Abby bit her bottom lip and blinked madly.
‘Sorry,’ she muttered through gritted teeth. ‘I’m not usually a cry baby.’ Which was true. Nowadays, Abby kept her emotions under tight control. There had been a time when she’d cried too much. And too often. But no longer.
Lifting her chin, she speared her boss with a dry-eyed and rather rebellious glare.
‘Good,’ Jake snapped, making Abby want to hit him. How on earth she could have been sexually attracted to this man—even for a moment—was beyond her.
‘You should go home,’ he went on in that same brusque manner. ‘You look tired. Ring me when you’ve decided on the brand of car and we’ll make arrangements for Saturday. You can tell me then what account you want the money put into.’
‘All right. Bye then,’ Abby went on rather sharply, gathering up her things and taking off before she could say or do something which might jeopardise her job. Or Craig’s remarkable legacies.
She almost slammed the front door, just getting control of her temper in time. She did slam the door on the ute and accelerated off faster than her usual sedate speed. But she soon slowed down, telling herself not to be so silly. No point risking her life because her boss was a pain in the butt.
Think about your new car, she told herself. And all that lovely money.
Abby sighed. Yes, it was sad that Craig was dead, but life went on, as she very well knew. You had to search for the positives in life or you would go mad.
Another thought suddenly came to Abby which made her wince. How much of this was she going to tell Megan? As she’d said to Jake, you couldn’t hide a new car. But perhaps it would be best if she didn’t tell her sister about the money. It might make her jealous and, yes, suspicious.
Abby pulled a face at herself in the rear-view mirror. She hated lying to Megan but she just might have to. Oh, dear. Even when things took a turn for the better, life wasn’t easy.
CHAPTER FOUR (#u76a56ca2-61b7-5606-9892-0121d0b641aa)
‘YOU HANDLED THAT WELL,’ Jake growled as he pulled a bottle of red at random out of his wine rack. ‘I love the way you kept her at a distance.’
Still, what could he do when she started crying like that? Common sense demanded he do nothing. But common decency insisted that he comfort her.
Big mistake.
The moment he’d taken her in his arms, all those good intentions of his dissolved in the face of a desire so strong it took every ounce of willpower not to pull her even closer than he had. He didn’t want to pat her damned back. Or utter soothing words. He wanted to tip up her chin and kiss the tears from her lovely face.
Thank God he hadn’t given in to that desire. Because she would not have surrendered to him as she did in his darkest dreams. She would have slapped him, then resigned as his housekeeper.
Abby didn’t particularly like him. That, he knew.
Which should have been a relief, given his resolve never to act on his secret desire for her. Instead he felt peeved by her indifference. And jealous of her obvious affection for Craig. Which was all perverse, given his own decision not to have anything to do with her on a personal level, a decision which fate—courtesy of his uncle—had now blown out of the water. Next Saturday morning he would be personally escorting Abby to Craig’s graveside, then afterwards he would be personally buying her a car.
That was all pretty personal, in his opinion.
But there was no way out, Jake accepted bleakly as he gazed down at the label of the bottle he’d pulled out and saw it was one of his favourites. A Shiraz from the Clare Valley. Good. Because he needed to get drunk. And he might as well do so on a favourite tipple rather than rubbish.
Not that he ever bought rubbish, he admitted as he poured himself his first glass. Long gone were the days when he drank rough red from casks. Hell, he hadn’t done that since his university days. And yet they had been good days. Happy days. Carefree days.
Nothing like today, Jake thought ruefully as he lifted the glass to his lips for a deep swallow. Today would not go down as good. Or happy. Or carefree. Today was…what?
He wasn’t sure how to describe it.
Dangerous came to mind. And not in a good way. Jake had enjoyed danger in his life at times. But this was a different kind of danger. This wasn’t physical danger. This involved his emotions. Intense, uncontrollable emotions.
Jake didn’t like intense, uncontrollable emotions. They made you do things which never ended well.
Jake carried the glass and the bottle out to his courtyard, where he placed the bottle on the small circular glass table he liked best then sat down in the chair next to it.
When his phone rang, he saw that it was Olivia.
He didn’t want to talk to Olivia just now. He didn’t want to talk to anyone. So he just turned off the phone and went back to drinking his wine.
CHAPTER FIVE (#u76a56ca2-61b7-5606-9892-0121d0b641aa)
WITHIN SECONDS OF arriving home Abby rang Megan, not wanting to procrastinate over the call. Megan would only be even more suspicious if she waited too long to give her the good news.
‘Hi there, kiddo,’ Megan answered, a term of endearment which often led people to think Megan was the older sister. And whilst there wasn’t much between them, Abby was actually older by fifteen months.
Abby had already decided that the best way to play this was to sound very happy about it. And she was happy. Just a bit wary about her sister’s reaction.
‘You’ll never guess what’s happened,’ Abby said brightly as she dumped her bag on the floor and plonked herself into a nearby armchair.
‘Something good by the sound of things.’
‘Unbelievably good!’ And she launched into an explanation of the day’s events. As planned, she left out the part about the travel fund money and only mentioned the new car. Naturally, she didn’t include the bit about her bursting into tears and Jake hugging her.
Megan exclaimed a shocked, ‘No!’ at the news about the new car, but thankfully didn’t make any sarcastic crack about what Abby might have done with Jake’s uncle to deserve such an incredibly generous gift. Things might have been different, however, if she’d mentioned the twenty-five thousand dollars as well. Though possibly not. Maybe Megan instinctively knew that Abby would never do anything sexual with a man she didn’t love. Wayne had been her first and only lover because he was the first and only man she’d ever loved.
‘Aren’t you a lucky duck?’ Megan said without a trace of jealousy in her voice. ‘A brand-new car! And you don’t even have to wait for probate to come through, since your hunky boss is buying you the car himself. This Saturday, you said?’
‘Yes. This Saturday.’
‘It’s a wonderful gift. Especially when you hardly knew his uncle. But perhaps not so much if he was filthy rich. Was he filthy rich?’
‘He must have been. Jake said he’d inherited heaps. That’s why he doesn’t mind forking out the money for me for a car.’
‘Oh, right. Still, it’s nice of him to do that. He’s not legally obliged to, I would imagine.’
‘Probably not, but he said he would never go against his uncle’s deathbed wishes.’
‘Did you see this letter his uncle left him?’
‘Well, no, but why would he lie about something like that?’
‘Maybe he fancies you.’
‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous! Why would he fancy someone like me when he has that gorgeous girlfriend? I’ve been thinking, Megan, since I’m getting a new car, would you like the ute? I know it’s done a good few miles but it goes really well. Wayne put a new engine in it not long before he died.’
‘Oh, I’d love it. Thanks, Abby.’
‘Jake is going to take me to see his uncle’s grave as well,’ she blurted out before she could think better of it.
The silence at the other end of the line was telling.
‘Oh, is he?’ Megan said at long last in one of her knowing voices. ‘And why is he doing that?’
‘Because I asked him to,’ Abby said, angry with herself. ‘And, before you jump to conclusions, we’re just dropping in at the cemetery on the way to the car yards at Parramatta. It’s hardly out of his way. And you are so wrong about his fancying me.’
Megan laughed. ‘We’ll see, hon. We’ll see.’
‘Oh, for pity’s sake.’
‘You’ve always underestimated your looks, Abby. Even when your teeth were not great, you were gorgeous. Now that you’ve had them fixed, you’re a knockout. And your figure is to die for.’
‘Oh, go on with you!’
‘No, I mean it. Your fantastic figure was one of the reasons Wayne was so possessive of you. And why he didn’t want you to work after you were married. Because he didn’t want other men lusting after you.’
Abby’s first reaction was to hotly deny what Megan said. But in her heart of hearts she knew it was true. Wayne had been very possessive of her. Right from the start, he’d wanted her all to himself. Which had suited Abby fine. All she’d wanted back then was to be Wayne’s wife, plus the mother of his children. She’d been only too happy to stop work and not have to face the world every day with her horrible teeth. Not so happy, however, as the years had passed and the nursery remained empty.
‘That’s probably the reason he wouldn’t pay for you to get your teeth fixed,’ Megan continued. ‘Because he was afraid you’d be too beautiful and he’d lose you to another man.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’ Abby protested. ‘The reason I didn’t get my teeth fixed back then was because it’s very expensive and we had a huge mortgage. Besides, Wayne already loved me, even with my horrid teeth. As for being too beautiful, please don’t make me laugh. Even if by some miracle I’d become the most beautiful woman in the world, I would never have left Wayne, no matter what. I loved him.’
‘Did you, Abby? Or did you just love that he loved you with the kind of crazy obsession which can be oh, so flattering?’
‘I did so love Wayne,’ she insisted. ‘Very much. We would have been happy together if we’d had children.’
Megan sighed. ‘If you say so, Abby.’
‘I do say so. Now, I do not wish to discuss Wayne any more, thank you. I didn’t realise how much you disliked him.’
‘I didn’t dislike him. I just didn’t think he was good enough for you. You deserved someone better.’
Abby didn’t know whether to feel flattered or frustrated. ‘Such as who, Megan? Prince Charming?’
‘Yeah, why not? And let me tell you something else, kiddo. If you bought some new clothes and put on some make-up occasionally, you would be so hot that every man you met would be drooling. And that includes your handsome hunk of a boss.’
Abby didn’t like to tell Megan that she was being delusional—about Jake at least—so she just laughed.
‘Yeah, you can laugh if you like. Just you wait and see. Speaking of your boss, did you happen to watch his show today?’
‘Hardly. I was too busy cleaning his house.’
‘He interviewed Maddie Hanks. You know, the latest Aussie actress who’s made it big in Hollywood?’
‘I know who you mean. She was in that biblical epic. Played a slave girl.’
