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“I really don’t—”
“Now.”
She thought about arguing but one glance at the hard set of his jaw made her rethink. She wondered how she ever could have thought Jackson O’Neil friendly and approachable.
Right now he looked grim-faced and intimidating. It was obvious he was furious with her, and she didn’t blame him. She was furious with herself.
Furious and humiliated. This was a million times worse than landing flat on her back in the snow. This was her job, and she hadn’t been prepared for failure. She’d been flying high for so long she no longer even thought about flapping her wings. It just happened. But not tonight. Tonight, she’d fallen out of the sky and crashed to the ground, and now she had no idea what to do.
It hadn’t occurred to her that she wouldn’t be able to handle the Snow Crystal meeting. But it hadn’t been Snow Crystal that had been her downfall; it had been the O’Neil family. Grandma, grandpa, mum, niece, pets, food, decorations, photographs—
“Kayla—” he spoke through his teeth “—get in the damn car.”
Kayla slunk into the car, shivering like a puppy that had fallen into a snowdrift.
She expected him to drive but instead he sat there, his expression incredulous.
“What the fuck happened back there?”
She flinched. Yet another question she’d never before been asked by a client. At least no one could accuse Jackson O’Neil of not getting straight to the point. No that didn’t go quite as planned, or that could have been better.
When she didn’t answer, he spread his hands in silent question. “You’re supposed to be the best. You handle CEOs who know nothing, but think they’re experts. You’ve managed to build links with hardened, cynical journalists who won’t even pick up the phone to most PR people. According to Brett you’re the youngest associate vice president your company has ever appointed—you achieve all that and then you allow yourself to be bullied into silence by one eighty-year-old man? What is that about?”
It was about so much more than the man. “You have a right to be upset.”
“I’m not upset. I’m confused. And, frankly, disappointed.”
The word was like a blow in the gut. She’d never disappointed a client before. Never.
“Jackson—”
“I don’t want excuses. I want the truth. I want to know what the hell went wrong! What happened? Was it the people? I told you it was a family business.”
“Yes, but I didn’t expect them to be so—so—” So like a family. She couldn’t say that. It sounded ridiculous. “I expected to talk business. I didn’t expect all the cooking and the photographs and all the small talk—the personal stuff.”
“So? It’s a little distracting, I admit. Annoying on occasion,” he added under his breath, “but you’re a professional. You told me there were no difficult questions you couldn’t handle.”
“I meant business questions.” Her voice rose. “I didn’t expect to be asked if I was wearing thermal underwear.”
“Oh, for—” He broke off and leaned his head back against the seat, tension visible in his jaw. “Alice is eighty. Since my father died she worries about everything from hypothermia to avalanches. You should have just smiled and ignored her. You should have ignored all of them and said what you wanted to say.”
“I couldn’t ignore them.”
“Why? It should have been obvious to you they don’t understand public relations. They don’t understand marketing. They’ve done things the same way for the past sixty years, and they’re so terrified of change they’d rather sink like a stone than try something different. They’re scared. Confused. They can’t see the logic of spending money when we’re losing it. It was up to you to convince them. That was your job.”
“Yes.” And she’d failed. A lump wedged itself in her throat and she felt a rush of horror. Great. Now she was going to cry. Something she hadn’t done since she was thirteen. “I’ll contact Brett tonight and tell him to put someone else on the account. It’s too late to get to the airport tonight so I’d appreciate if I could stay another night and then tomorrow I’ll leave. I’ll pay for the accommodation.” She stared straight ahead. Straight into the snow and the dark, feeling completely alone. Even work, her closest and most trusted friend, had abandoned her.
“Leave? You’re going to leave just because your pride is bruised? Hell, if I walked out each time my grandfather bruised my pride I’d never be home.”
Kayla looked at him, confused. “I’m not leaving because of pride. I’m leaving because I assume that’s what you want.”
Fierce blue eyes locked on hers. “Why would I want that? If you’ve learned one thing tonight it’s that I need all the help I can get. You’re going to leave me to deal with them on my own?”
He didn’t want her to leave?
Her heart started to pound. “I thought—I assumed—”
“You’re not leaving. And I don’t want anyone else on the account.” His voice was roughened and deep. “I want Kayla Green. I mean the real Kayla Green, not the woman who turned up tonight.”
She wondered what he’d say if he knew that the woman who had turned up tonight was the real Kayla Green. “I can’t, Jackson. Even if I wanted to, there is no way I’ll be able to persuade your family to take anything I say seriously after what just happened. I was unprofessional.”
For the first time in her whole career, she’d walked out of a meeting.
“My grandmother knitted her way through the meeting, my mother was cooking and my brother was looking at your legs—” There was an edge to his voice. “So when it comes to unprofessional we are way ahead of you. I don’t care about that. I care about getting the job done. We’re just a family, Kayla. A family in crisis.”
“I know nothing about dealing with a family in crisis.” She heard desperation in her voice and knew he heard it, too, because those dark brows locked together in a frown.
“I’m asking you to focus on the work, that’s all. You need to filter out the personal stuff. They don’t understand the business and they help in the only way they know—by being there.”
Being there. His words confirmed what she already knew. That the O’Neils were a family who stuck together no matter what life threw at them.
“They don’t want my help.”
“Welcome to my world. My grandfather resists all suggestions because he thinks he knows best. If he had his way he’d still be running Snow Crystal himself. I admit he can be difficult, but you feast on difficult, don’t you?” The sardonic reminder of their conversation in New York made her wince. She made a mental note to strangle Brett when she saw him next.
“Your grandfather doesn’t want me here.”
Jackson’s mouth tightened. “He doesn’t want me here, either, but that doesn’t mean I’m leaving.”
“That’s different. You’re family.”
“Which is why he dismisses me. He still sees me as the skinny kid he taught to ski. You’re a professional, which is why you are going to make him listen to you.”
“All I’ve done is convince him what a waste of money it would be to employ someone like me.” The cold had penetrated her coat and she started to shiver. “You saw me in there! I am not the right person for this.”
“Yes, I saw you in there, but I also saw you in your shiny corporate headquarters in New York. I have no idea what happened today, but I do know you’re the right person. I’ve seen what you’ve done for other companies. I’ve seen what you’ve achieved. I’ve seen how passionate you are about your work. I want that passion working for Snow Crystal.”
“But—”
“We’re in trouble, Kayla.” He sounded tired. “Serious trouble. I’ve ploughed as much into it as I can, but we’re at the point where it has to start paying its way or we’ll lose it.”
“Lose it?” She absorbed that. “You mean lose the business?”
“Yes. Only it isn’t just the business, it’s their home. It’s been their home for generations. If we’re forced to sell, Alice and Walter will have to move out of the house they’ve lived in all their lives, and so will my mother.” His fingers gripped the wheel, his knuckles white. “When my father died, I came back to support my family and help run the company. I didn’t expect to have to save it. I had no idea how desperate things were. When I started to dig through the numbers, it was like a horror story.”
She stared at him. “How much of a horror story?”
“Stephen King crossed with Hitchcock?” The corner of his mouth flickered, and she felt a rush of admiration that he could retain his sense of humor in the face of so much pressure.
She felt an inexplicable urge to reach out and offer comfort, and the urge shocked her because she wasn’t a tactile person. She’d trained herself to keep her distance. She didn’t form bonds.
To make sure she didn’t do something impulsive like touch him, she clutched her laptop bag. “You didn’t suspect?”
“I had no reason to. Whenever I asked how things were, I was told they were fine. I didn’t question it. Why would I? The business has been going forever.”
“Do you know what went wrong?”
“My father made some bad decisions. And then there were the decisions he should have made but didn’t. And the ramifications of that weakness on his part are huge.”
Kayla thought of Alice knitting at the same table all her life. Of Elizabeth who had come here and never left.
An old wound ached deep inside her. “Do they know?”
“They know things are bad. They don’t know how bad, or maybe they do know and just can’t face the truth. They’re scared. Afraid to make changes in case the whole thing comes tumbling down. My grandfather is looking for someone to blame, and right now he blames me for building the spa and the log cabins. Throwing away money when we needed every dollar.”
“Those are the things that make Snow Crystal special.”
“You know that. I know that. But they don’t know that because right now we don’t have heads on beds, so it looks as if I was wrong. I tell my grandfather they were a good investment, and he asks me to show him the bookings.”
“If they’re not booked it’s because people don’t know about them.”
“So tell me how to make that happen.” His tone was urgent. “Tell me what we need to do to get the sort of exposure you got for Adventure Travel. If this goes south, I lose everything my family built. And I’m not going to let that happen, so don’t sit there and tell me you’re leaving.”
Pressure added to stress. Kayla felt as if she were swimming through thick mud. “I—I’m not experienced with family businesses.”
“But you know how to get your message out there in a noisy media world, so do it.” His gaze held hers. “I need you to do what you do best, Kayla.”
Despite the mess she’d made, he still wanted her help.
Kayla clenched her hands in her lap. Her fingers were so cold she could no longer feel them.
It would mean staying.
It would mean getting to know his family. This job couldn’t be done without getting close to them. Without understanding them. Without winning them over.
How the hell was she going to do that?
The thought of walking back into that kitchen and being confronted by the O’Neils made her want to run. “If I stay, I’d need to talk to them individually. It might be easier to win them round that way.”
“That makes sense. One on one. And you need to know more about Snow Crystal. Spend time as a tourist.”
“Fine.” She closed her eyes. This was madness. She should be handing the account over to someone else. Someone who loved Christmas and families. She wasn’t the right person for the job, but Jackson already had his phone in his hand and was texting someone.
“We’ll start first thing tomorrow. I’ll pick you up at nine.”
“I’m awake at five.” She spoke without thinking and saw his eyebrows lift. “I’m a morning person. I never sleep late. I don’t like lying in bed.”
His brief glance changed the atmosphere in the car.
Kayla turned her head away quickly, wondering how chemistry could exist in the middle of so much tension.
He was the sexiest man she’d ever met, and the fact that she kept noticing scared her. When it came to her heart, her instincts were as sophisticated as any virus software, detecting a possible threat and deleting it before it could threaten her or do damage.
Right now those instincts were flashing up red warning lights in her head.
“It’s still dark at five.” His voice was husky. “We’ll make it eight, and I’ll buy you breakfast in the forest. The Chocolate Shack serves the best hot chocolate and maple waffles in Vermont.”
It sounded more like a date than a business meeting, and she felt a dangerous curl of heat low in her belly.
She sat still as Jackson eased the car forward and drove up the snow-covered track that led to the far end of the frozen lake and her cabin. Then he pulled in and switched off the engine.
“Thanks for the lift.” Desperate to escape, she reached for the door handle, but his hand closed over her shoulder.
“Wait. You haven’t eaten. Get rid of your laptop and I’ll buy you dinner.”
“No, thank you. I’d rather go back to the cabin. I have work to do.”
The thought of eating dinner with this man terrified her.
And he knew.
She could see it in his eyes. Knew he could see right through the layers of protection she’d spun between herself and the world.
She was about to open the door and escape when he lifted his hand and touched her cheek. “You still haven’t told me what happened back there.” His voice was soft, all trace of anger gone. “Why did you run? You could have slipped and broken something.”
She could have told him she was already broken. She could have told him that Kayla Green had shattered into a million tiny pieces at the age of thirteen, and when she’d stuck herself back together she hadn’t looked anything like the original version.
She could have told him that, but she didn’t, because she knew that when a person bought something, they didn’t want to know it was damaged. She looked good as new on the outside, and that was what mattered.
He wasn’t interested in the real Kayla Green.
“I thought it best to leave. Thanks for the lift. I can walk from here. I’ll see you in the morning.” She slid out of the car, keen to put as much distance between herself and Jackson as possible. The moment her feet touched the snow she felt the cold ooze through her already-soaked shoes, but she knew the icy feeling inside her didn’t come from the freezing temperatures or the thick layer of snow that blanketed the forest around her. The source was much deeper than that.
Pressed up against feelings she normally avoided, Kayla felt a flash of panic.
Who would have thought that a sleepy little resort in Vermont could have ripped at her like this?
Jackson appeared in front of her, his powerful shoulders blocking her escape. “Surely you’re not planning to walk this path alone after what happened last time?”
“I’ll be fine.”
His muscular physique formed a sold barrier between her and her forest sanctuary. “You’ve suffered enough punishment for one day. I’ll walk you to the door.” He took her hand, and Kayla felt the warmth and strength of his fingers as they closed over hers.
“This is definitely breaking the client-agency code.”
“There’s a code? Damn. You probably should have mentioned that earlier.” His tone was light and he tightened his grip. “On the other hand, I’ve never been big on rules and codes.”
It was all too easy to believe that. He was a man who knew what he wanted, his toughness concealed under layers of velvety charm. She’d seen it in her offices that day in New York, and she’d seen it a moment ago when he’d refused to let her leave.
