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As Linc turned his attention to his work—with numerous interruptions on his cell phone, despite his desire for a clear run at the review—Cecilia refocused and settled in to finalise stock orders for Valentine’s Day.
She worked hard, but she had to admit—to herself, at least—that Linc’s proximity was corroding her concentration. He was just so there.
And she was so busy. Every time she tried to work on her orders, the phone rang again or a supplier called through directly on her cell phone. There were cancellations of previously established orders, stockists informing her that they’d oversold to other buyers and couldn’t fill her order, asking if other blooms could be substituted.
Cecilia’s answer was always the same. No, they couldn’t!
This happened every year—it was part of dealing with this particular day on the nursery’s calendar—but that didn’t make it any less busy or any less challenging for her to ensure she reached her necessary stock levels.
On top of that the floor staff came in more often than usual, with odd questions that simply couldn’t wait. The more that time passed, the busier it became.
‘Linc, I’m putting this call on speaker. I’m sorry if it disturbs your concentration.’
She tried not to let frustration colour her tone as she jabbed at the settings on her cell phone. Once she had placed it atop the filing cabinet in the corner of the room, she began to riffle through the cabinet’s contents.
‘It’s fine. I can see you’re under pressure.’
Linc’s words were calm. He had fielded numerous distractions of his own since he got here today, and he seemed quite unfazed. As though he didn’t find Cecilia’s presence and nearness at all disturbing.
Not that Cecilia felt agitated due to his presence. Certainly not in any personal kind of way. She’d had that conversation with herself earlier. She simply had to get over the nerve-racking, overalert, oh-so-conscious of him feeling.
And she was over it. She 100 per cent totally was. Her consciousness could just catch up with that attitude right now!
‘Mr Sampson, I have your previous delivery docket, your invoice and a receipt showing a nil balance in front of me.’ She gave the reference number, speaking towards her phone. ‘If funds are outstanding to your company, they aren’t owed from here.’
After a moment the man discovered a mistake at his end. He agreed to finalise Cecilia’s order for the next day and ended the call.
With Mr Sampson sorted out, Cecilia replaced the file in the cabinet and returned to her desk.
Time passed. And when a customer phoned with a special request for a particular style of repurposed item, and Cecilia happened to be able to match it, she decided to take the opportunity to head to the repurposing shed to collect the piece.
She replaced the desk phone in its cradle. ‘You’ll be okay for a few minutes, Linc? I’ll put the phone through to Jemmie, out front.’
‘Leave it. I believe I may just be able to manage without you for a little bit without having to disturb Jemmie.’
His wry smile brought out every gorgeous manly feature. It also undid every bit of Linc-ignoring effort Cecilia had put in today.
Before she could stop herself, she smiled back. A big, wide, pleased-with-the-world smile that brushed across her face and made Linc grow still before an enigmatic veil came down over his eyes.
Her breath hitched, and just like that it was all there again. The awareness. The interest.
She drew in a slightly shaky inhalation. ‘Okay. I’ll...ah...I’ll leave the phone. I’d better go take care of this.’
Before she did something she regretted for the second time since knowing him.
Cecilia exited the office and gave herself a good talking-to while she was at it. She wasn’t interested in Linc. Such an interest wasn’t something she could allow to exist. Just because her boyfriend had dumped her when her issues with her sister had hit crisis point, it didn’t mean she should try to pick up the next available—
Oh, get over yourself, Cecilia. And get over Hugh, too.
As if Linc would participate in that possibility, anyway. He was a millionaire, for crying out loud, so successful in life. And he’d already rejected her once before. Was she trying to line herself up for a second shot at that humiliation?
She wasn’t. She just hadn’t expected to feel this attraction to and interest in Linc again. It had surprised her. All she needed to do was adjust to that surprise factor and she would be fine.
In minutes she was back at the office.
‘Item retrieved and left with the front staff ready for collection.’ She spoke as she stepped over the threshold of the office space.
‘Great.’ Linc was in the process of putting down the office phone extension as he responded. ‘I’ve taken a couple of messages. You’ll know what to do with them.’
He didn’t break into a big smile. She didn’t, either. That earlier moment of blinding connection had passed. So why could she still not seem to be able to tear her gaze from him? And why did he gaze so intently at her? And had she not taken any notice whatsoever of her earlier warnings to herself?
Immersed in those thoughts, she was slow to realise that her cell phone had started to ring.
When she did realise it, she barely gave the caller’s identity a thought. It would be some supplier again. However, she wasn’t sure where her phone actually was.
Cecilia patted her pockets. Her gaze searched the desk. Then, without any warning whatsoever, the worst possible thing happened for her privacy, and perhaps the most heart-wrenching yet hope-inspiring thing for her emotions.
The phone’s voicemail picked up automatically, went straight on to the speaker setting she’d left it on and a tinny prerecorded message from the caller’s end began to play out into the room.
‘Are you willing to accept a call from the Fordham Women’s Correctional Centre? Your sister, Stacey Tomson, wishes to speak with you... ‘
The revealing words blared across the room as though trumpeted through a megaphone by the world’s largest elephant.
‘If you do not want to accept this call—’
She’d left the phone on the filing cabinet. She had received only two other calls like this, and questions filled her mind.
Why had Stacey chosen now to phone? Did it mean their rift might be ending or would they argue again?
So many emotions swirled inside Cecilia in that moment. Hurt. Frustration. Disappointment. Love.
Cecilia quickly crossed the room, grabbed up the phone and fumbled to take it off speaker.
One glance at Linc’s face told her it was way too late to try and hide this, but she managed to change the setting and get the phone to her ear. She wasn’t sure if he’d heard her sister’s voice or not, but when she started towards the door, to leave the room, it was to realise Linc had beaten her to it.
The door clicked shut behind his receding back, and Cecilia could acknowledge both the joy and the pain of finally receiving this call when she hadn’t known when or even if she ever would.
She said hello to her troubled, incarcerated twin.
CHAPTER THREE
‘STACEY. HOW ARE YOU? I’ve been hoping you’d call. It’s so hard not being allowed to call you. It’s been such a long time. I’ve missed you so!’
Are you still angry that I said you needed to change your direction in life? I wanted to help you, and it needed to be said!
Cecilia didn’t want the gap between them to widen even more, and yet if she hadn’t challenged Stacey, who would have?
The man who’d disappeared and left Stacey to carry this punishment alone? Who’d appeared to do nothing but manipulate Cecilia’s sister up to that point?
‘Are you okay?’
She couldn’t make herself say Are you okay in jail? Or even, Are you okay in there?
‘Have you been getting the money orders for extra food and things?’
‘Yes, I’ve been getting them.’
Cecilia thought she heard Stacey swallow hard before her sister went on.
‘Thank you for doing that.’
‘You’re my sister.’ Emotion rose in Cecilia’s throat.
‘Cee, I wanted to ask if you’d be willing to start visiting me again.’ Stacey’s words couldn’t mask her emotion. ‘I’ve missed you. I should have called sooner. I was angry, and it’s tough in here. There’s been a lot of adjusting to do—’
‘Of course I’ll visit again. I’ve been dying to see you.’ So much relief coursed through Cecilia that she wanted to laugh and cry at once. ‘We can talk about your future, when you’re finally out of there.’
Surely that would be something they could both look forward to?
‘We can.’ Stacey sounded on the verge of tears before she spoke again. ‘I don’t want to not be talking to you. I guess I felt hurt at a time when I needed you to just love me. But there’s been time for me to think, and to realise I’ve made some really big mistakes.’
‘I’m really sorry, Stacey.’
Cecilia had thought she was doing the right thing in pointing out the bad pathway that Stacey had followed. For some reason she’d thought that because Stacey had been so angry at the time her sister couldn’t possibly have been hurting. Tears sprang to the backs of Cecilia’s eyes again. How could she have been so short-sighted?
‘I should have found a better way to deal with your situation than I did.’
‘You were worried about me, and with good reason.’ Stacey sighed. ‘I can’t understand now how I was so blind. Joe seemed nice at first—a little rough around the edges, but charming with it.’
‘And then the charm wore off.’ Cecilia understood that. She’d been there herself with Hugh. At least in this she could try to rebuild some solidarity with her sister. ‘We’re not very good at finding great men, are we?’
Stacey agreed, and then sounded a little troubled and vulnerable as she went on. ‘I need to tell you that if you start coming to see me it will help my chances of gaining parole, because I’ll be demonstrating that I have a sound relationship with someone reliable. I want you to know that before you come in, so you don’t think I asked just because of it. I’ve missed you and I’m longing to see you.’
‘I believe you, and I want that sound relationship again.’ Cecilia had longed for it over the past months. ‘I’m so glad you phoned, Stacey.’
‘I am, too. I’m allowed to have a sister.’ Stacey’s words were firm, almost defiantly so. ‘And to see you and have a relationship with you. I should have stuck up for that from the start.’
‘Of course you are.’ Cecilia frowned. ‘Who’s told you otherwise? Surely not the authorities there?’
‘Joe did—constantly throughout my relationship with him and again quite recently before I finally woke up.’
Cecilia clamped her teeth together so she wouldn’t speak without thinking first. Finally, she said carefully, ‘I thought that after the armed robbery he’d gone underground. Wouldn’t he be detained and taken in by the police if he visited you?’
‘He found a way to get messages to me in here through another inmate who was about to be released.’ Stacey admitted it in a low voice. ‘At first I was happy. I thought there must be some explanation for Joe dragging me into what happened that day and then leaving me to pay for being an accomplice to something I didn’t even understand was going to happen until it was too late.’
‘I’m guessing that’s not what happened?’ Cecilia wished she could give her sister a hug.
‘No. He wanted me to tell him if I had any secret money stashed anywhere outside of here or any valuable jewellery.’ Stacey made a disgusted sound. ‘I sent a message back telling him never to contact me again.’
‘That was horrible of him, Stacey.’ Cecilia could only be glad that Stacey had cut the man off. ‘I love you, sis. We’ve got through life up to this point, and we can keep getting through it.’ Cecilia struggled not to choke up again. ‘I just want to see you. When can I come?’
‘Let me talk to the officers here and find out.’ Relief filled Stacey’s tone.
‘You’ll ring again?’ Cecilia wanted that assurance before Stacey hung up.
‘I will. As soon as I know when you can come.’
They said their goodbyes then, and Cecilia slowly placed the phone into her pocket. They’d never been cut off from each other before. At least now she could see Stacey. Relief and gratitude tugged even further at her teetering emotions.
But right now, somewhere on the other side of the door, Cecilia had to face Linc. What could he possibly think?
Stacey had been unhappy since they were teenagers, but this was the first time she had done anything actually against the law. No one knew about the jail sentence. In fact, no one here had even met Stacey. The sisters had tended to meet up after work, and then when Joe had come on the scene, Stacey had kept contact with Cecilia to a minimum. Cecilia understood why now.
The guy hadn’t wanted anyone else to have influence in Stacey’s life. Thank goodness her sister had finally sent the man packing.
Cecilia wanted to undo Stacey’s history and get her out of there because she’d been tricked. Those wishes were unrealistic, and she knew it, but she hated it that Stacey’s life had been impacted so deeply by this whole situation.
Well, for now it was time to face Linc. Cecilia didn’t feel ready, but she had no choice.
She forced herself to open the office door and to speak to Linc, who lounged with pseudocasualness against a pillar partway across the courtyard.
‘I’ve finished my call. Thanks for giving me privacy for that.’
‘It was no problem.’ He started towards her.
Cecilia didn’t know what else he might have said. Anything, or nothing at all. But suddenly she couldn’t stay there to find out. Not right now. Not until she could get her emotions under better control. If he was sympathetic she might fall apart. She couldn’t let that happen.
‘I need to do a few things in the repurposing shed.’ She blurted the words and turned on her heel. ‘I’ll be back in a bit.’
She couldn’t even speak to him about getting Jemmie to come out of the retail section and cover the office during her absence. Cecilia couldn’t say anything more at all. But she had her back turned before Linc reached her, and she walked herself quickly far enough into the rear of the nursery that no one would see her until she could blink back the well of emotion that threatened to overcome her.
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