A Mum For Amy
- -
- 100%
- +
“I thought we were going to be talking later today.”
“I was in town anyway,” Maggie lied. “Could we chat now?”
“Sure, sure. I assume this is a business visit.”
“It is.”
He nodded toward the rear of the office. “Then you won’t mind if Will sits in.”
Maggie turned to see Will Stewart at the small kitchen counter, pouring a cup of coffee from a battered-looking pot.
She felt a jolt like an electric current turn her insides over. She hadn’t been expecting Will to be here, and considering her suspicions, she certainly wasn’t eager to speak to LaCrosse in front of him. She barely heard Teddy introduce Will as the project’s chief architect, a fact she’d already learned from the Internet.
Will inclined his head. His quick, assessing gaze played over her face, but his eyes were without depth, like polished windows with the blinds down behind them. The smile he gave her, though. She remembered that. It was no more than a tight line of acknowledgment. “We’ve met,” he said.
She wished she could think that he’d aged horribly in eight years, that somehow an overachieving lifestyle and corporate stress had whittled him down. But the truth was, the picture on her computer hadn’t done him justice. He still had that vigorous, youthful strength about him. Not a touch of gray in his dark hair. Not one inch of flab at the waistline. His clothes only accentuated his power and grace, making Maggie wish she’d opted for her best suit instead of this too-casual skirt and blouse.
She turned back to Teddy. “If I’ve interrupted anything, perhaps we could—”
Teddy waved away the suggestion and motioned for her to take one of the vinyl-covered chairs in front of the desk. “No, no. You’re here now. Sit.”
He indicated Will should do the same. That put him awfully close to Maggie, but there wasn’t much she could do about it. She lifted her chin a little. No way was she going to let him know his proximity bothered her.
“Will is involved in every phase of the project, of course, so there’s nothing he can’t hear,” Teddy said. He gave Maggie a sharp look. “Tell me what’s on your mind. You look a little flustered.”
That was the last thing she wanted either man to think. “No,” she said firmly. “I’m…I just drove up this morning. I’d like to find out where Sapphire Seas stands with this contract. Do we have it or not?”
Teddy tilted his head at her. “You don’t waste any time, huh? Okay. Not.”
Her heart swooped. Just as she’d feared. “You’ve signed with someone else?”
“Not yet, but you’re out of the running, I’m afraid. I’m sorry. It’s just a business decision. You understand that, don’t you?”
“Of course. If that’s what it really was. A business decision.”
Teddy’s brow puckered. “What are you getting at?”
Maggie’s eyes flicked toward Will. He sat utterly still, but distant, as though he could hardly expend the energy to listen. It only strengthened her resolve. “I’m a businesswoman,” she said, leaning slightly forward in her chair. “I can take bad news, Teddy. But I think I deserve complete honesty. I thought my bid on this project was fair—”
“Your bid was fine.”
“Then my designs, perhaps. Did you want something different? You seemed to like what I showed you.”
“I did.”
“Then why isn’t Sapphire Seas getting this job?”
Will spoke up for the first time. “Miss Tillman, this project isn’t right for your company.”
Maggie turned her head to give him a frank but carefully civil look. “I’d like to know why. And I’d like to hear that reason from Mr. LaCrosse, if you don’t mind.”
Teddy laughed, a loud, genuine sound of amusement that drew her attention. “That’s one of the things I admire about you, Maggie. You’re not afraid to speak up.” He shook his head. “But it’s not enough.”
“Then what is?”
There was a moment’s pause. She saw Teddy’s glance cut to Will for an instant, but she refused to check his reaction or what signals he might be sending. Then Teddy crossed his arms, a silent indication that she wasn’t going to like what he had to say. “I need a company with deeper pockets and a full-time crew,” he told her. “Your guys are strictly job-to-job. You have equipment issues. That can create inconsistencies in production and quality.”
Maggie shifted in frustration. “I told you what the company situation was when we first met and the measures I take to overcome challenges like that. That didn’t seem to be a problem then. In fact, you said you admired my entrepreneurial efforts because that’s how you’d gotten your start.”
“Sapphire Seas is young. Too young for a job this size.”
“What we lack in experience, we more than make up for in—”
“Maggie, this project is a huge investment for me, and I have to believe that an older, more experienced outfit like Coastal Communities will meet our needs more effectively.”
“Why must you believe that?” Maggie asked, running out of patience. She jerked her hand out to indicate Will seated beside her. “Because this man advised you to go with Coastal?”
“As a matter of fact, I did,” Will admitted quietly.
That nearly took Maggie’s breath away. She hated that he sounded so sure of himself, so superior. Inside, her blood seethed, but she’d never let him see just how much he’d upset her. “I knew you would,” she told him. “As soon as I saw your name attached to this, I knew you’d do everything you could to keep me from being involved. This isn’t a business decision. This is your personal, petty revenge.” She shook her head slowly. “It’s not worthy of you, Will. In the old days, you’d never have done something so underhanded.”
The solid power of her anger left her unable to go on. They stared at one another. At least until Teddy cleared his throat and spoke up. “Would one of you like to tell me what’s going on here?”
Will looked at Teddy. “Miss Tillman and I—”
Maggie, her heart cold and hard as a jewel, couldn’t take any more. “For God’s sake,” she snapped. “Considering the fact that we slept together for almost a year, you’d think you could call me Maggie.”
She felt her cheeks go hot, but frankly, she was pleased to see that Will was momentarily speechless. Obviously annoyed as hell, but speechless.
Teddy raised a hand to catch their attention. “Hold on, you two. I love a good tussle, but let’s keep the gloves on.”
Maggie wasn’t sure Will was listening. And she didn’t much care, because she was perfectly willing to go toe-to-toe with him now, even though she could hear her own heartbeats drumming in her ears. Will swung toward her, clearly intending to…
Well, she didn’t know what he intended, and she never found out.
At that moment, the construction trailer door was thrown wide, and a small, bustling tornado that turned into a little girl came barreling in. She headed straight for Will. When she got to his chair, she threw herself into his arms. The hard hat she wore, too big for her head, went flying, and a cascade of brown curls fell down her back.
“Daddy!” she cried. “Look! I got scared, and so did my arms.”
Maggie stared, transfixed not by the fact that the girl’s thin arms were covered in goose bumps, but by the realization that this child was evidently Will’s daughter.
In all the scenarios she’d ever imagined for his future, a house bright and noisy with children had never been a consideration. Perhaps not even a wife. Silly, really, because Will, a handsome, successful man in his thirties, must surely have caught many a woman’s eye.
She watched father and daughter interact, her mind straying into new and disturbing channels. A child. Family. Something she’d longed for once upon a time.
Some queer pang stabbed her heart, and for the life of her, Maggie couldn’t explain it.
Or make it go away.
CHAPTER THREE
JOHN DENVER, rest his soul, had once recorded a song about some days being diamonds and some being stone. Will Stewart thought this was definitely a stone day.
Most definitely.
The week had started out well enough. His sister, Lisa, seemed in a great mood lately, having met a new guy in her college English class. Quarterly returns on his investments were up. Yesterday, Jacobson had taken him to lunch and actually used the word partner when talking about Will’s future at the firm. This morning he’d turned on the computer to find an e-mail from his stockbroker. And Amy, the one unpredictable component of his life, had managed to eat breakfast today without spilling a single drop on her clothes. Now there was a genuine miracle.
Then he’d made the mistake of stopping by the LaCrosse site, catching Teddy in the trailer as he spoke with his construction supervisor. Will should never have taken that offer of a cup of coffee, never stopped long enough to discuss how yesterday’s press conference had gone.
If he hadn’t, he might never have come face-to-face with Maggie Tillman.
A John Denver stone day for sure. And if things had gone downhill from that moment, they showed every indication of heading even further south right now.
He had to work hard not to stare at Maggie.
He couldn’t argue that over the years he’d grown more curious about her rather than less. He knew the basics of her life—still living in Key West, unmarried, working. When he chose to use them, he had connections enough to find out that sort of thing.
But was she happy? What kind of woman had she turned into? Did she ever think of him? You couldn’t get answers to those kinds of questions without digging a little deeper, and he had always refused to do that.
He mistrusted those rambling thoughts and was sometimes quite annoyed by them, as well. Old lovers weren’t supposed to stick around and blight your mental landscape. He had wanted the end of his relationship with Maggie to be like a heavy door closing behind him, firmly locked and impenetrable.
Instead, here she was again, popping back into his life with all the fire and fury that was pure Maggie. Aware of her sitting stiffly beside him as he listened to his daughter chatter, Will didn’t think for a minute she was done with arguing yet. Tenacious. Passionate. That had been Maggie, too, and she didn’t look like she’d changed much over the years. He needed to keep that fact uppermost in his mind.
He needed not to panic.
But, most of all, he had to find the quickest way possible to get Amy out of this trailer.
Amy’s words ran down to nothing as her interest was drawn to the stuffing peeking out of his chair arm. He loved her so much. Being a father was tough, time-consuming. But every moment he was with his daughter, Will felt as though he had trapped sunlight in his hands. How could you ever let anything mess with that?
He touched her cheek, drawing her gaze up. “So you liked the tour Aunt Lisa gave you?”
The child nodded. “It was kind of scary, though. My stomach felt funny when we went up in the elevator with no walls. Aunt Lisa says nobody ever fell out and got squished on the ground, but I said I bet it happens sometimes. I didn’t like that part.”
He smiled at her with tender amusement. His fault, probably, but Amy sometimes tended to be more fearful and cautious than the average seven-year-old. Lisa said he was overprotective, too restrictive with the child, but what was really wrong with that? The world was a tough place, and you had to look out for the people you loved.
The trailer door opened again, and this time it was his sister. They were going to have lunch today, but first, Will had wanted to talk to Teddy. Lisa had volunteered to keep Amy occupied while he was busy.
“Aunt Lisa shouldn’t have taken you up in the elevator,” he said.
Hearing Will’s admonition as she came in, Lisa grimaced at him. “Really, Will. Don’t you know that going up in an open elevator is the best part of visiting any construction site? Did you think she wanted to watch them pour concrete?”
As she approached, she removed the hard hat she wore so she could shake out her hair. His sister was going to be twenty-one in a few weeks, and Will couldn’t believe so much time had passed. She’d been ten when their parents had died. He could still clearly recall the fear that had clenched his gut when Ernie Becker, a family friend and the executor of the estate, had told him he was legally responsible for her. The same fear that had gripped him the day Amy had been placed into his arms.
Lisa, remembering her manners, gave Maggie a vague smile. “Hello. I’m sorry to interrupt.” Then she did a double take. “Oh, my gosh! Maggie. Is it you?”
Maggie turned farther in her chair. “Lisa?” Her eyes traveled up and down his sister. “I can’t believe it. Look how big you’ve grown!”
Lisa laughed. “Not too big, I hope. It’s so good to see you again. What have you been up to all these years? Where have you been?”
“I live in Key West now. But we must get together and catch up. I’d love to hear all about what you’ve been doing.”
Will felt Amy lean into him. She was always hesitant around strangers. The movement caught Maggie’s attention, and she smiled down at Amy. “And who are you?”
Nerve centers within Will had begun to register swift alarm when Amy had come into the trailer. Now they went into overdrive. He didn’t want Maggie interacting with her. The woman could be mad at him, come up here to fight whatever battle she chose for the sake of her business. But he didn’t want her within a hundred miles of his daughter.
“I’m Amy,” the child said shyly.
“My daughter,” Will added, though he supposed it was quite obvious.
“You’re such a pretty girl.” Maggie reached out to touch one of Amy’s dangling curls. “Your hair’s like mine. Just wavy enough to be a challenge. I’ll bet your mommy has her hands full trying to get it to behave.”
Amy wiggled against Will. “Aunt Lisa does my hair every morning.”
“Does she?”
Maggie’s eyes seemed glued to Amy’s face, and Will felt a sudden tightness in his chest and a vague feeling of vulnerability. His fingers clumsily straightened the collar on his daughter’s blouse. Then, fighting off panic, he stood and set the child away from him, guiding her toward Lisa. “Ladies, I hate to interrupt,” he said in his calmest tone. “But Mr. LaCrosse and I still have business to discuss. Lisa, will you and Amy meet me at the restaurant at noon?”
Lisa agreed immediately and offered Maggie a quick goodbye. Much to Will’s displeasure and chagrin, they made promises to be in touch. He suddenly wished that Lisa had not turned out to be such a good-natured, friendly young woman.
He watched them leave, and felt enough relief to melt his bones. No disaster in the making here. No danger.
He leaned against a beat-up file cabinet. Teddy was looking at him curiously, but Will managed something like a smile. “So. Where were we?” He turned toward Maggie. “Ah yes, I believe you were in the middle of an accusation.”
A dangerous light kindled in Maggie’s eyes again. Good, he thought. He wanted her mad and concentrating on him. Angry enough to keep her distance. So much safer that way.
She tapped the edge of the file she carried, and he saw her bite her lip, possibly trying to make up her mind as to the best approach. “Teddy, I’m sorry,” she said at last. “I’m not trying to be difficult. I just want to be sure that the reasons you’re going to sign with Coastal are legitimate. Not based unfairly on the history Will and I share.”
Will opened his mouth to object, but Teddy cut him off with a raised hand. “Hold on, Willy-boy. Let her finish.”
In a voice full of quiet, precise anger, Maggie said, “Eight years ago, Will and I…had a relationship. It ended badly and we haven’t spoken since. Now I discover that you’re going with Coastal Communities. I can’t help but think that—on some level—the decision was made in their favor due to circumstances that are unrelated to my ability to carry out the job.”
Teddy’s eyes were guarded, but not hostile. “I would be very foolish to ignore the opinion of my chief architect.”
Will spoke up. “I advised him against you for specific reasons that have nothing to do with our past. We’ve already talked about your lack of experience and that of your construction team. Frankly, knowing you as I do, I was also concerned about maturity. My firm can’t afford to take chances—”
Maggie had gone rigid. Will knew he’d struck a nerve.
“How dare you talk to me about maturity?” she flashed out. “How mature is it to judge me after an eight-year gap? I was nineteen when we were together. You don’t know me at all now. I’ve worked hard to develop Sapphire Seas into a respected operation I can be proud of.” She swung a glance back to Teddy. “I’m not asking for a handout.”
“Good, because you won’t get one,” Teddy replied.
As though sensing some small window of opportunity, Maggie leaned forward again. “If you’ll reconsider, I can promise you results that will knock your socks off. I’m not talking about a few pretty aquarium backdrops, Teddy. I’m talking about living works of art. If you’re not one hundred percent satisfied…” She opened her folder on the desk, turned it upside down so he could see it and jabbed a finger at the bottom of the page where a column of figures ended. “I’ll eat my costs. Every one of them.”
Will barely disguised a sharp breath. He knew Teddy, and saving money always got him to sit up and take notice. Damage control was in order. He said quickly, “That’s a ridiculous promise to make, and even suggesting it shows—”
“I like it,” Teddy said.
Maggie blinked and then smiled, clearly thinking she’d won. “I’ll even—”
Teddy held up a hand again. “Stop. Remember the salesman’s creed. Once you get your yes, stop talking. You’ve made your point and caught my interest.” He lifted a brow at Will, who managed to stifle any hint of emotion. “I don’t know if what Maggie says is true or not, but as long as we’ve done business together, I’ve never known you to be unethical.” He grinned. “But I’ve also never seen you this agitated, and that makes me curious as hell. So I’m asking you to reconsider your advice. Make sure your motives are legit. I’ll abide by your decision, but I liked Maggie’s designs a lot, and I want her to have a fair shot at this. Will you agree?”
The moment stretched interminable and a few seconds beyond. Finally, Will made a sound full of disgust. “This is a foolish waste of time. I’ll admit it occurred to me that working with Maggie would be difficult given our history. But I advised you to go with Coastal for the right reasons. I don’t reach conclusions based on personal prejudices.”
Teddy laughed and gave him a smile that was wide and full of sly humor. “Son, take my word for it. Whatever happens in the bedroom always messes with what goes on in the brain.”
CHAPTER FOUR
AS SOON AS Maggie left the construction trailer, she called Zack. Her nerves still sang with tension from her confrontation with Will in front of Teddy LaCrosse, but at least she felt some small measure of relief that she hadn’t been completely shot down. Sapphire Seas had a chance—a slim one, especially if Will refused to be fair and found fault at every turn, but a chance all the same.
She asked Zack to start lining up the oven team who would be responsible for pouring acrylic molds for the tanks. He might be terrible with paperwork, but her business partner had a real knack for handling her part-time construction crew.
“I heard Dick Iverson moved back to Wisconsin after the last hurricane, so he’s out,” Zack told her as she sat at one of the constant stream of traffic lights on Collins Avenue. “Are you coming back tonight? We can have dinner and talk about who else might be available.”
“I think I’ll stay a couple of days. There’s a huge homebuilders’ convention in town. Maybe I can drum up some business. Since you’re coming up tomorrow to do the installation on the Blue Reef job, we could talk then.”
“Okay,” Zack said. “But if you show up at the Blue Reef, I’m putting you to work.”
The Blue Reef Bar and Grill was one of their latest clients, an upscale watering hole that had contracted for a large bi-view tank that would separate the restaurant from the bar area. Nothing too difficult or exotic, and on those kinds of jobs Maggie seldom got involved in setting the end product in place.
“Fine,” Maggie teased back. “I’ll show you boys how it’s supposed to be done.”
Zack laughed. “Just don’t run up a big hotel bill while you’re there. No room service.”
“I know what the budget will tolerate. I’m going to ask Alaina if I can stay at her place. In that big house of hers, she’s bound to have room.”
There was the slight hesitation that Maggie always got from Zack at the mention of her sister’s name. Then he said easily, “All right. I’ll talk to you tomorrow, then.”
Although Zack couldn’t see her, Maggie shook her head in disgust. Ten years had passed since he and Alaina had broken up—too long to let the heated, passionate turmoil of those young days still bother him. Alaina had been married for ages, presumably for keeps. Zack, on the other hand…He dated, but he never seemed interested in settling down.
What was he waiting for? Did he think Alaina would change her mind? It seemed silly for a great guy like Zack Davidson to let an old love continue to affect him.
But as Maggie hung up from Zack and dialed her sister’s number, she scolded herself. Who was she to tell people how they ought to deal with their emotions? Sometimes, didn’t those early relationships do enough damage to last a lifetime? After all these years, coming face-to-face with Will Stewart had certainly set her blood on fire, hadn’t it? Thank goodness, though, it had been for an entirely different reason than unrequited love.
Maggie was relieved when Alaina seemed delighted at the idea of having an unexpected visitor. It had been at least a year since they’d last seen one another, two since she’d visited her parents.
Years ago, when Maggie had left Miami for Key West, she’d been furious with all three of them, but she hadn’t been able to stay angry at her sister for long. Alaina could seldom stand up to their parents, but she didn’t have a mean bone in her body. She would have done anything for her younger sister, including raise Maggie’s illegitimate baby as her own—an idea Connie and James Tillman had unbelievably considered the best solution for everyone.
A solution that Maggie had hotly refused to consider.
The moment Alaina opened the front door of her huge home in North Miami, Maggie found herself swallowed in a tight, welcoming hug. It surprised her a little. Alaina was reserved and not much of a “hugger.”
Alaina had always been delicately beautiful, articulate and poised, everything that Maggie had never been and never would be. Just shy of thirty, she had an elegant sophistication now. She looked trim and spotless in white shorts, with long, bare legs that were sun-gilded to a rosy gold. There wasn’t a blond hair out of place, in spite of the fact that she looked like she’d just come off the tennis court.
Maggie had to hide a secret grimace. Any time she had played tennis, it had strictly been baggy pants and sweat marks at the armpits of her T-shirt.
Alaina drew back, still holding Maggie’s arms. “I’ve missed you so much!”
“You have?” Maggie replied in a stunned tone, without thinking. She wasn’t used to this kind of effusive greeting from Alaina. Her sister tended to welcome you like a queen inviting a television crew into the palace.
“Of course,” Alaina said. “Come on, I have your room all ready. It’s Delia’s day off, so the place is a mess, but a little clutter never used to bother you much. Close your eyes if you can’t bear it.”
Maggie kept her eyes open as she followed her sister through the house. She made a mental note to look up the word clutter in the dictionary when she got home. Alaina’s definition must be an iced tea glass sweating on the coffee table without a coaster and a tennis racket tossed onto a chair. Everything else looked model-home perfect and boring—from the impressive baby grand piano placed artfully by the floor-to-ceiling windows, to a massive piece of modern sculpture that soared skyward in the foyer.