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He looked at her quizzically. ‘You should be proud of him, Ellie, not—’
‘Here we are.’ Toby was grinning widely as he kicked the door open with his foot and came in with the tray of coffee things.
Ellie looked up at him affectionately; she was proud of him—of the way he had carried on with his plans to go to university to study law after the accident that had killed their parents, of the way he had obtained a firstclass degree, of the way he had worked doggedly in a law firm for the two years following, before applying and succeeding in getting this position with Patrick McGrath. Yes, she was very proud of him—she just wished that she had taught him to be a little less candid when it came to their own private affairs!
‘All settled?’ He sat back on his heels to look at them both expectantly after placing the tray down on the low table.
‘Almost.’ Patrick McGrath was the one to answer him dryly.
Almost nothing! Ellie was grateful to him for his praise of Toby and of the part she had played in helping to form him into the likeable young man he was—but that did not mean she was going to agree to this ridiculous plan for Patrick McGrath to accompany her to the company Christmas dinner!
‘We just have to dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s,’ Patrick McGrath assured the younger man.
‘Really?’ Toby looked pleased by the prospect as he stood up. ‘I have a date later, so if neither of you mind I’ll just go upstairs and change while you two chat. Be back in a couple of minutes,’ he added, before leaving the room.
‘You see what I mean,’ Patrick McGrath murmured softly. ‘He’s like a puppy, or a little brother that you don’t want to disappoint.’
‘He happens to be a little brother,’ Ellie reminded him frustratedly. ‘And I’m afraid this time he’s going to be very disappointed!’
‘Why?’ Patrick McGrath regarded her with cool eyes.
‘Because—because, Mr McGrath—’ she began impatiently.
‘Patrick,’ he invited smoothly.
‘Very well—Patrick,’ she bit out decisively.
‘Has something changed since Toby spoke to me this afternoon?’ he prompted interestedly. ‘Have you and the ex-boyfriend managed to patch things up after all? Because if you have—’
‘No, we haven’t managed to “patch things up”,’ she cut in evenly, her frustration increasing by the minute as she felt this situation slipping more and more out of her grasp. ‘And we never will,’ she added firmly. ‘But that does not mean—’
‘You have to go to the dinner with me instead,’ Patrick McGrath finished slowly. ‘Do you have someone else in mind?’
‘No. But—’
‘Then where’s your problem? I was asked; I said yes—’
‘You’re starting to sound like Toby now,’ she interrupted weakly. ‘Mr—Patrick,’ she corrected as he raised his brows in silent rebuke, ‘you can’t seriously want to come to a boring company dinner as my escort!’
‘Why can’t I?’
‘Because it will be boring!’ she assured him heatedly. What was wrong with the man? Couldn’t he see she didn’t want him to go with her?
His mouth twisted into the semblance of a smile. ‘Ellie, I think you underestimate yourself,’ he drawled huskily.
‘I wasn’t—’ She broke off, her cheeks fiery red. ‘Look, Patrick, Toby shouldn’t have told you any of those things about my personal life. Because they are personal. And, quite frankly—’
‘A little embarassing?’ he finished calmly, obviously having taken note of her red cheeks.
A little? This had to be the worst thing Toby had ever done to her. Honest and trustworthy were fine, candid she really needed to discuss with him!
‘Yes, it’s embarrassing.’ Ellie sighed heavily. ‘And, apart from the fact that you value Toby as your employee, I have no idea why you should even have listened to his suggestion, let alone actually contemplated going through with it.’ She was totally exasperated with both men, and she didn’t mind Patrick McGrath knowing it.
His eyes met her gaze unwaveringly for long seconds. ‘Can’t you?’ he finally murmured softly.
Ellie frowned at him. Was that a smile she saw lurking on the edges of those sculptured lips? And was that a faint knowing gleam she detected in the depths of those grey eyes?
She had an instant flashback to that scene in the garden five months ago, of her panicked grab for her top when she realized she was no longer alone, her eyes wide with dismay as she stared across the garden at the stranger standing there watching her with amused grey eyes.
The same amused grey eyes that were looking across the sitting room at her right now!
‘Besides, Ellie,’ Patrick drawled huskily, ‘why should you be the one to feel embarrassed because some man was too much of an idiot to appreciate what he had?’
There was a compliment in there somewhere—if she could only find it.
‘That’s isn’t the reason I feel embarrassed,’ she assured him dismissively. ‘My broken relationship is—was private. I just can’t believe Toby has been so indiscreet as to ask you to be my dinner partner next week.’ She shook her head disgustedly.
‘You were going to ask me yourself?’
‘Of course not,’ she answered impatiently.
What was wrong with these two men? Couldn’t they see that it was humiliating that either of them had thought she was incapable of finding a dinner partner for herself?
‘Well, as I had no idea of the dinner until Toby told me about it, I could hardly have been the one to do the asking,’ Patrick reasoned lightly.
As if he would have asked her anyway; it was obvious he had only agreed to the suggestion now for Toby’s sake.
‘Look, Toby meant well,’ Patrick insisted when he could see she was about to protest once again. ‘He’s—just concerned for your happiness,’ he added evenly.
‘But he has no reason to be,’ she protested. ‘I’m twenty-seven, not twelve.’
His mouth quirked into a teasing smile. ‘I don’t think anyone is disputing your maturity, Ellie,’ he murmured tauntingly.
So he did remember that afternoon in the garden as well as she did!
‘If anything,’ he continued frowningly, ‘it’s the opposite, I think.’
Now it was Ellie’s turn to frown. ‘What do you mean?’
‘Nothing,’ he dismissed abruptly, standing up. ‘And if you’re absolutely sure about not needing an escort next Friday…?’
‘I’m sure,’ she said firmly.
Much as she would have enjoyed sweeping into the restaurant on the arm of this attractive and successful man, if only to see the stunned look on Gareth’s face, she knew that she really couldn’t do it under these circumstances.
‘It isn’t that I’m not grateful.’ She grimaced.
‘Just thanks but no thanks?’ Patrick mused.
‘Yes,’ she sighed.
He nodded. ‘Then I’m obviously wasting our time,’ he added briskly. ‘I trust you’ll explain the situation to Toby when he comes down? Tell him that at least I tried, hmm?’
‘The coffee…’ she reminded him lamely, belatedly realizing she had made no effort to offer to pour him a cup.
He smiled humourlessly. ‘We both know that was just a ploy to keep Toby busy while the two of us talked.’
‘Yes.’ Ellie sighed again, moving to accompany him from the room.
Patrick paused in the open doorway. ‘Don’t be too hard on Toby, hmm?’ he encouraged softly. ‘He feels a certain—responsibility where your happiness is concerned.’
‘I’ll try to bear that in mind,’ she assured him dryly.
‘Ellie…?’
She looked up, her breath catching in her throat as she found herself the focus of Patrick’s McGrath’s enigmatic grey gaze.
He really was the most gorgeous-looking man, she acknowledged weakly. All six foot two inches of him!
‘You know where I am if you should change your mind…’ he told her pointedly.
Yes, he was gorgeous, and there was no doubt that having him as her escort would have salvaged her damaged pride—just as there was no doubt she had no intention of taking him up on his offer!
‘I won’t,’ she assured him with finality.
How could Ellie have known, how could she possibly have guessed, that something disastrous would occur during the following week—something that would necessitate her not only changing her mind, but having to go to Patrick McGrath herself and ask him if he would consider coming to the company dinner with her after all?
Chapter Two
‘HOW do I look?’ She grimaced at Toby questioningly as she entered the kitchen where her brother sat eating the dinner she had prepared for him before getting ready for her evening out.
‘You look great,’ he assured her enthusiastically. ‘New dress?’ he observed teasingly.
Of course it was a new dress; she couldn’t go out with Patrick McGrath wearing the old trusty little-black-dress that she had worn to last year’s company Christmas dinner. No, as Patrick’s dinner date she wanted to wear something much more stylish. And noticeable.
She had known as soon as she saw the knee-length figure-hugging red dress in the shop that it would ensure, once and for all, that Gareth was no longer under any misapprehension concerning her having fully got over him. Especially with Patrick McGrath as her dinner partner!
‘Do you like it?’ she asked her brother uncertainly.
Trying the dress on in the shop and actually putting it on at home were two different things, she had realised a few minutes ago. Seen in this homely setting, the dress was much more revealing than anything Ellie had ever worn before, clinging to her slenderness in a bright red swathe, the low neckline and sleeveless style showing arms and throat still lightly tanned from her holiday in the summer.
Her hair was swept up loosely from the slenderness of her neck and secured with two gold combs. The change in hairstyle seemed to enlarge her eyes and the dark sweep of her lashes. Blusher highlighted her cheeks, and the bright red gloss on her lips was the same colour as the dress.
Ellie had noted all of this in her bedroom mirror a few minutes ago, sweeping out of the room and down the stairs before she had time for second thoughts and settled for the familiar black dress after all.
‘You look wonderful, sis,’ Toby told her, sitting back to look at her admiringly. ‘You’re going to knock him off his feet!’
She frowned. ‘Toby, the idea isn’t for me to attract Patrick McGrath—’
‘I was referring to Gareth,’ he murmured pointedly.
‘Oh…Gareth,’ she acknowledged weakly, feeling the colour warming her cheeks at her mistake. In all honesty she had totally forgotten about Gareth as she prepared for her evening out. Which was ridiculous when he was the reason she had gone to all this trouble in the first place.
The reason she had swallowed her pride and gone to Patrick, and told him she had changed her mind after all!
To give the man his due, he hadn’t batted an eyelid when she had turned up at his office three days ago—without an appointment—and asked him if he was still agreeable to going out with her on Friday evening.
She had acted instinctively, knowing that if she gave herself time to think about whether or not she should go and see him she would change her mind. Although she had been a little thrown by his opening comment!
‘I’ve been expecting you.’ He put his gold pen down on top of the papers on his desk before smiling across at her as she stood just inside his office, his secretary having closed the door behind her as she left.
‘You have?’ Ellie frowned; how could he possibly have been expecting her when until half an hour ago she hadn’t expected to be here herself?
‘Call it a hunch.’ He nodded. ‘You can sit down, you know, Ellie,’ he added mockingly. ‘There’s no charge!’
He seemed different today, Ellie realized, more the thirty-eight-year-old successful businessman that he was. He was dressed formally too, in a dark grey suit with a white silk shirt, a light grey tie knotted meticulously at his throat.
She made no move to sit in the chair he indicated, knowing that she had made a mistake in coming here today, that she should have taken the time to think after all, that—
‘I still have Friday evening free, if you’re interested,’ he told her huskily.
Her eyes widened. ‘You do?’
He nodded. ‘Are you interested?’
She swallowed hard, wishing she could say no but knowing that, after what she had learnt today, she badly needed this man’s presence at her side on Friday evening—for moral support if nothing else.
‘Ellie…?’ he prompted at her continued silence.
‘I’m interested,’ she admitted abruptly.
‘Has something happened?’ he asked shrewdly.
Had something happened! Gareth, that selfish, unthinking, uncaring—
‘Something’s happened,’ Patrick acknowledged ruefully, standing up to pour her a cup of coffee from the hot percolator that stood on the side. ‘I’m sorry it’s nothing stronger,’ he apologised dryly as he handed her the cup and saucer. ‘You look as if you could do with a double whisky!’
‘I don’t drink whisky,’ she said vaguely, taking a sip of the hot coffee. Not because she thought it would make her feel any better, more for something to do with her shaking hands.
Cold hands, she realised belatedly as she wrapped them about the cup; the snow that had been threatening to fall all week had finally come tumbling down this morning. And in her agitation Ellie had completely forgotten to collect her outer coat and gloves before leaving the office earlier.
‘Is it anything I should know about?’ Patrick gently urged.
‘Anything…? It isn’t Toby, if that’s what you’re worried about,’ she hastened to reassure him.
‘I didn’t think for a moment that it was; as far as I’m aware Toby is in York today, with—with another of my employees,’ Patrick dismissed lightly. ‘I wish you would sit down, Ellie,’ he said softly.
Of course. He wouldn’t sit down if she didn’t. Ellie sat, the cup rattling precariously in the saucer as she did so.
