Expecting at Christmas

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Cringing, Loretta wished she could crawl into a hole right there in the middle of the driveway. But when she met Griffin’s furious gaze, she knew that even a hole dug all the way to China wouldn’t be deep enough to protect her from his righteous anger.

Her only choice was to do a whole lot of fancy talking. And do it in a hurry.

Chapter Three

Griffin couldn’t believe he’d allowed himself to be talked out of having Roberto arrested for assault and battery on his Mercedes. Reckless mayhem, at the very least.

Worse, he’d permitted the incompetent fool to tow his prize car away. Probably to the nearest metal shredder, he thought grimly.

It had been Loretta’s tears that had done him in. That and her crazy insistence that he was upset only because his yin and yang had gotten out of balance. What he needed was megadoses of vitamins B and E, she assured him between quivering lips.

Now, how could any reasonable man argue with a combination like that? Particularly when he was scared spitless if she got too upset she might have her baby right there on his driveway.

He pulled into his parking spot at the headquarters of Compuware, and Loretta’s ancient relic of a car lurched to a stop. He turned off the ignition. For several beats the old Datsun kept on chuffing. Grimacing, he hoped no one had seen him drive up. If he had any sense, he’d park it a block away and hope somebody would steal the damn thing. It wouldn’t do much for his image as a corporate executive and playboy millionaire to be seen driving this crate around town.

Not that he cared a whole lot, he thought with a grin, thinking about his imp of a butler. He couldn’t remember any woman who’d been so unimpressed with his wealth, much less that he was also her employer. Family was the only thing that counted with her—in this case, her brother, her long-suffering mother, Tía Louisa and a half-dozen other relatives who were counting on Roberto to help support them with his fledgling auto repair service. A virtual army of loved ones Griffin hadn’t been able to fight.

He didn’t suppose he had that many relations in the entire universe.

The one he did have—Uncle Matt—wasn’t high on his list of people he owed favors. Ten years ago Matt and Griffin’s father had had a falling out. A feud had started, eventually ending in Matt breaking up the Compuware partnership to start his own company. In the process he nearly bankrupted the firm. The rivalry was still bitter.

Even so long after the split, Griffin felt a sense of betrayal. Matt had been his favorite uncle—his only one on his father’s side of the family. He’d had to remain loyal to his dad but dammit all, neither one of them had given a darn about him. And he’d loved them both.

Griffin used his key to let himself in the door of Compuware’s headquarters building, which fronted on Washington Boulevard with the warehouse in back. His footsteps echoed across the empty lobby, and he took the stairs to the third floor.

Almost the moment he’d set foot in his office, Ralph Brainerd showed up.

“Have you seen this, Jonesy?” His executive vice president tossed a copy of an early edition of the Saturday LA. Times on his cluttered oak desk. It was folded open to an advertisement for Compuworks, the competition.

Griffin scanned it quickly. “They’re beating our prices by twenty to fifty dollars on almost every item. How can they do that and make any money?”

“There’s worse news.”

“On a day like this?” A day when he’d watched his Mercedes practically being bent in half? “Why am I not surprised?”

“One of our delivery trucks took a header off an overpass in Simi Valley. Turned about two hundred computers, monitors and printers into scrap.”

He swore under his breath. “How’s the driver?”

“Battered but okay. He’ll be off work a couple of weeks. The truck’s totaled. I’ve called the insurance people.”

“Right.” Griffin sat down in his swivel chair, tilting it back. The springs squeaked. “So tell me how come Compuworks undercuts us every time? They can’t be buying from the suppliers any cheaper than we are.”

A wiry man with the physique of a cross-country runner, Brainy-Brainerd hooked a hip on the corner of Griffin’s desk. They’d gone to high school together, Ralph the brains of the duo. Later they’d worked side by side in Compuware’s warehouse, sweeping floors and running forklifts. “Maybe the old man isn’t interested in making money anymore.”

An unlikely possibility, given the way Griffin’s father had ranted on about Uncle Matt being so greedy. “It’s like they know what our bottom-line prices are going to be and knock off just enough to make it a better deal.”

“Seems that way.” He weighed a letter opener in his hand, rolling it back and forth in his palm.

“So how do they find out, Brainy? Who’s telling ’em?”

Brainy shrugged. “You figure we’ve got a spy?”

“It’s possible.” Griffin only knew for sure that he’d cut about as much waste as he could from Compuware’s operation, and he still wasn’t meeting Uncle Matt’s prices. Any more cuts, and he and Brainy would be back working shifts in the warehouse themselves.

“You want me to have advertising gin up an ad for next week to meet these prices?”

“That would almost be too late in the season to do any good.” Leaning forward, he studied the newspaper spread in front of him. Instead of an array of computers and accessories, he saw Loretta’s impish face and innocent brown eyes staring back at him. Her knowledge of computers was limited to playing Nintendo with a nephew. Even in this day and age, a lot of people didn’t know computer basics. That thought sparked an idea that would advance his company over the competition.

“Compuware and Compuworks are like two dogs fighting over the same bone. What we need is to develop a new market, people who never thought they would buy a computer. They’re scared of the technology, and they don’t have much money.”

He looked up at his buddy. “I want them to come to our stores to buy everything they need to enter the twenty-first century. We’ll offer no down payment, extended credit and hands-on help getting started. If they’ve even been thinking about getting a computer for their family for a Christmas gift, they won’t be able to resist our deal.”

“We could lose our shirts doing that.”

“Or it could give us an edge over Uncle Matt.”

He and Ralph talked about the idea for a while, finally deciding to get an advertising campaign rolling in a hurry. With luck, they could draw business away from Compuworks and entice new customers at the same time.

“So how’d it go with Aileen last night?” Ralph asked after they’d concluded their business. He waggled his eyebrows suggestively. “Tell me all, boss man. Is she as good in the sack as she looks?”

“I wouldn’t know,” he grumbled. “My butler discouraged her from sticking around.”

“Rodgers?”

“No, my new butler. Say, you wouldn’t know anything about that would you?” Griffin was still having trouble believing the agency would have sent Loretta to him, though once she set her mind on something she was a hard person to discourage.

“Not me. I didn’t even know Rodgers had quit.”

“He hasn’t. He’s on vacation.”

Ralph gathered up the newspapers from Griffin’s desk and the notes he’d taken. “So the new guy sent Aileen away?”

“It’s a gal, not a guy.”

“Your butler?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re kidding.” Ralph laughed. “Some guys have all the luck. Is she a looker?”

Griffin contemplated the question for a moment. Certainly Loretta wasn’t as willowy as Aileen or most of the women he dated. Not as sophisticated, either. She’d probably never been to one of the hot, upscale nightclubs in town. He doubted she’d ever attended theater openings or the Emmy Awards. Yet something about her striking features, dark liquid eyes and easy smile suggested her unique beauty went more than skin-deep.

But she was pregnant with another man’s child, he reminded himself. Hell, with another woman’s child, for that matter. And that made her off limits even if he might otherwise have been interested.

Griffin Jones was a long way from wanting to be tied down with a family, particularly a family with aunts, uncles, cousins and siblings that appeared to multiply faster than a computer virus.

“Let’s just say I’m planning to mend some fences with Aileen today,” he said. “If I can get her up to my place again, the results will be different this time.”

Ralph grinned knowingly. “Good luck, boss man.

When he left, Griffin picked up the phone. If he could convince Aileen to have dinner with him, he’d consider that he’d turned a miserable day into a successful one.

Loretta had just finished cleaning up the kitchen when the phone rang. Drying her hands on a paper towel, she answered in her most professional voice. “Jones residence, the butler speaking.”

“Hey, Lori. How’s it going?”

“Oh, hi, Brenna,” she said, smiling as she recognized her cousin’s voice. Stretching the cord across the kitchen, she opened the cupboard under the counter and tossed the paper towel in the trash compactor. “How’d you find me here?”

“Your mom said you had a new job. Is it true what they say about your boss?”