The Boss and the Plain Jayne Bride (Harlequin Romance)

by Heather MacAllister

  Jayne was interrupted by a knock. Judging by the glassy expressions on the Charleses’ faces, this wasn’t a bad thing.

  “Coffee anyone?”

  Sylvia She started to come into the office, but Jayne’s glare kept her near the doorway. This was stretching the bonds of friendship way too far.

  “I’d like a decaf skim milk cappuccino with cinnamon,” Sasha piped up.

  “Ditto.” Sandor shifted his position and crossed his arms.

  Everyone else nodded, so Jayne said, “Decaf skim milk cappuccinos for six.” She smiled. Sylvia would have to hike through the walkway to the coffee shop in the mall to get the fancy coffees. Even if she bought the small sizes, it would still do serious damage to a twenty-dollar bill.

  Served her right.

  With a chagrined, but unrepentant expression, Sylvia backed out of Jayne’s office and Jayne prepared to continue her presentation.

  Garrett spoke first. “To summarize, Jayne is saying that our income has dropped and we need to make more money.”

  “Yes, but it’s more compli—” Belatedly Garrett’s look registered. Simplify, it said.

  After that, they fell into a pattern of Jayne barely touching on the pages in the binders and Garrett translating into elementary language until at last, James Charles held up a hand.

  “All this tells me is that we need to make more money.”

  “Yes,” Garrett said.

  “And cut expenses,” Jayne reminded them, but no one paid any attention because a flushed Sylvia chose that moment to kick the door open.

  “I hope that’s the coffee,” Sasha said.

  “Twenty-two dollars and seventy-three cents,” Sylvia murmured as she walked past Jayne with the cardboard tray.

  “You sprang for the large size?”

  “Wouldn’t want them to think you were stingy,” Sylvia said, glaring at Jayne before beaming a huge smile at Garrett.

  “Hello again,” she said in an overly bright voice that made Jayne cringe. “Coffee?”

  “Thanks.” Garrett took two paper cups and handed them to his parents.

  Sylvia, standing as close as she could with the tray, hungrily watched his every move. “What about you?”

  “Go ahead and give my sister and brother theirs.” He followed her over to the couch.

  With each step he took, Jayne’s spirits sank. Why couldn’t she flirt like Sylvia? Why couldn’t she attract men like Sylvia? Why couldn’t she—

  Sylvia stopped abruptly in front of the couch, a stunned look on her face as she encountered the twins.

  “Hey, thanks.” Sandor stood and reached across the table for the cups. After handing his sister one, he sat down and pried off the plastic lid, then sipped at the thin layer of foam, his pale blue eyes watching the immobile Sylvia. The tip of his tongue touched the edge of his mouth and Sylvia visibly swallowed.

  Jayne saw the corner of the tray tilt a fraction of an inch and Garrett held out his hands, deftly rescuing the tray before Sylvia sank onto the coffee table, her gaze never leaving Sandor.

  Garrett calmly carried the tray over to Jayne and offered her a coffee, taking the last one for himself.

  Her friend had crashed an important client presentation and now sat smack-dab in the middle of the table, right on top of Mr. Charles’s binder, if Jayne wasn’t mistaken. She glanced around to see how everyone was taking this.

  No one seemed to think anything was odd at having Sylvia stare at Sandor. Garrett’s parents exchanged a few murmurs. Sasha drank her coffee and made a call on her cell phone.

  “I apologize for Sylvia’s intrusion,” Jayne said, wondering how she was going to get her to leave without an embarrassing scene. Make that a more embarrassing scene.

  “Not a problem. Sandor affects women that way.”

  “What? Turns them into drooling zombies?”

  Garrett laughed softly. “Basically.”

  Jayne studied Garrett’s younger brother as she sipped her coffee. Full lips pouted beneath a well-shaped nose. His cheekbones were so high they almost looked like a caricature. His eyebrows were thick and dark and his eyes a paler shade of Garrett’s blue. Jayne had seen pictures of the twins at the agency, and frankly, thought they looked better in photographs than they did in person. They certainly weren’t as good-looking as Garrett.

  “I don’t get it,” she said at last, looking at Garrett.

  He wore an unreadable expression as he searched her face. When he didn’t say anything, Jayne thought she’d offended him.

  Of course she’d offended him. Sandor was his brother and she’d just insulted—

  “Jayne, if you haven’t made other plans, will you have dinner with me tonight?”

  Since the meeting had obviously deteriorated, reconvening for dinner was probably a good plan.

  She headed for her desk. “I’m free, but let me check with Mr. Waterman. I know he’d like to be there.”

  As she set her cup down and reached for the telephone, Garrett stepped forward and covered her hand with his. “I don’t want to have dinner with Jayne, the accountant,” he said near her ear. “I want to have dinner with Jayne, the woman.”

  CHAPTER SIX

  JAYNE, the woman, was flabbergasted. “You do?”

  Garrett laughed softly. “Is that so hard to believe?”

  “Well...yes.”

  “Why? We’ve spent days working long hours together and I’d like to get to know you better.” His voice was low so the others wouldn’t hear.

  He made having dinner with her sound so logical. Jayne excelled at logic.

  “I was thinking of making reservations at Nicky V’s for eight,” he continued.

  Nicky V’s was a ritzy restaurant not too far from her office. Jayne had never been there and had always wanted to go, but it was a definite “date” restaurant. Unfortunately, her dates didn’t seem to know that.

  “Eight will be fine. My car’s in the Park & Ride, so I’ll have to meet you there,” she whispered before panicking.

  She’d just agreed to go out with Garrett! Alone. The two of them. Tonight.

  She wanted to jump up and down and attract Sylvia’s attention so she could tell her all about it.

  Except jumping up and down in front of Garrett would be extremely uncool and besides Sylvia was now on the sofa with Sandor and only a nuclear explosion would divert her attention.

  Jayne would have to keep the knowledge all to herself for now. Her knees had gone all quivery. She ought to call the meeting back to order while she could still stand. She made a move toward the group.

  “Just a minute.” Garrett stepped in front of her. “You have a little milk foam right—” he took his finger and gently touched the corner of her upper lip “—there.”

  Jayne’s heart was beating so hard, she thought Garrett must surely hear it. Her lip tingled and she was starting to see dark spots.

  But they went away as soon as she realized she wasn’t breathing and took a deep breath.

  Garrett was still standing close to her and looking at her in a way that would fuel her dreams for weeks.

  She might never have moved, except Jayne, the accountant, had taken over and had wrapped up the meeting with Garrett’s family. They truly weren’t interested in knowing the operating details of their company, and had eagerly signed over voting proxies to Garrett, which meant he and Jayne could begin putting their plan into place at once.

  And Sylvia? Sylvia had walked out clinging to Sandor, which meant that Jayne couldn’t consult with her over what to wear or how to do her hair or anything.

  Actually Jayne didn’t have much of a choice of what to wear. The only time she really dressed up was when she attended the annual Pace Waterman Christmas dinner. For this, she had a black wool suit. In deference to the festive occasion, there was black beading on the lapels and with it, Jayne wore a red silk charmeuse blouse.

  But this was June and it was ninety degrees outside.

  And this was Garrett, not Mr. Waterman an
d the Pace Waterman accounting staff.

  She wanted something pretty, not something business dressy. She needed Sylvia to come shopping with her, but Sylvia had apparently disappeared. She wasn’t at her desk when Jayne called her to see if she wanted to go to lunch. Maybe it was just as well, since Jayne still had to have it out with her over barging in on the meeting.

  Jayne decided to go shopping by herself and was promptly overwhelmed by the choices. Everything was so...bare and sheer. So un-Jayne-like.

  Finally, in the relative anonymity of a large department store, she fled to the dressing room with a suit in familiar and comfortable black—not in wool—which had quilted satin lapels. As soon as she had it on, she felt better, more in control. Calmer.

  In spite of what Garrett said, in spite of the way he’d looked at her, Jayne knew this was a business dinner. It couldn’t be anything else.

  Turning, she looked at the back of the skirt in the mirror. It was shorter than she was used to wearing and the slit was at least eight inches long, instead of a more conservative two- or three-inch slit.

  The jacket was meant to be worn without a blouse. Jayne stared at the white V of her throat and pulled the lapels closer together. As soon as she let go, the lapels settled back into their original position.

  On the plus side, when she spread her arms and wiggled her shoulders, the lapels didn’t pull apart very far.

  For anyone else, the suit would be conservative. For Jayne, revealing her throat was daring, not to mention the slit in the back of the skirt.

  She bought the outfit, feeling quite pleased with herself.

  As soon as she got back to her office, she called Sylvia, who still wasn’t there. After that Jayne didn’t call anymore since she didn’t want to draw attention to Sylvia’s continued absence with a ringing phone. Yes, she was angry with Sylvia, but she didn’t want to get her fired.

  Jayne spent the rest of the afternoon concentrating on the business plan for Garrett’s company. This way, she knew she’d have something to talk about should the dinner conversation lag. She still wasn’t entirely ready to accept that this was a social occasion and not a business one.

  With the upcoming dinner foremost in her mind, Jayne had thought she wouldn’t be able to concentrate this afternoon, but the hours evaporated. It was obvious to her that Garrett would need to hire a business manager at some point. Right now, he was acting as both booking agent and business manager, but one of their plans was to increase the list of models they represented. Jayne could handle the business part, but her own regular client list, which Mr. Waterman had temporarily assigned to Bill Pellman, was extensive. She didn’t have an extra four hours a day to spend on Garrett’s business. Besides, at the hourly rates Pace Waterman charged for their services, it wasn’t going to be financially feasible for long.

  Jayne made a note to suggest that he hire a parttime accountant, such as a mother who wanted to work from her home while her children were small. Jayne knew several of her former colleagues who wanted to keep up with the industry, but weren’t willing to put in the long hours being an associate of an accounting firm required. In the past, she’d had success matching several of them with smaller businesses. Everybody won in those instances.

  Speaking of long hours... Jayne looked at her watch. Today, she planned to leave at the nominal quitting hour of five-thirty. Since her car was in the Park & Ride lot, she planned to take the bus out west to retrieve it and meet Garrett at the restaurant.

  She was packing up her files when the intercom on her phone buzzed.

  “Jayne?” It was Mr. Waterman’s secretary. “He’d like to see you in his office if it’s convenient.”

  Which meant now, unless she was meeting with a client. “Be there in a few minutes,” she said, hoping this wasn’t going to take long. She wanted plenty of time to prepare for dinner with Garret. If she gave it some attention, her hair was actually not too bad these days.

  Mr. Waterman wasn’t alone. An extremely smug Bill Pellman sat in one of the plush leather chairs next to the desk.

  “Jayne, I’m aware that you’ve taken an interest in young Bill’s career, so I wanted you to be the first to know that I’ve promoted him to executive accountant.”

  “Executive accountant?” Jayne repeated dumbly. Bill had only been with Pace Waterman a year and a half.

  It had taken Jayne five years to reach that level. In fact, she’d only been senior executive accountant for just the past six months, and that was after putting in thousands of hours of overtime.

  “Yes.” Mr. Waterman had an unlit celebratory cigar in his mouth.

  So did Bill.

  Jayne wasn’t offered a cigar. She wouldn’t have accepted one, but it would have been nice to have been asked.

  “Bill has handled your client list quite admirably lately.”

  “I’m glad the past week hasn’t been too difficult for him,” Jayne said, making sure she emphasized “week.” Anybody could handle anything for a week.

  “And I’m especially pleased with his work on the Magruder report. He found an error that had been perpetuated for three months.”

  Which was how long Bill had been responsible for the Magruder report. Jayne suspected the error had been his in the first place. She leveled a look at him. “I’m glad my memo on the subject was of help to you.”

  Bill only grinned around his cigar.

  “Yes, that and the six new accounts he brought in after teaching only one course of the accounting seminars, and I knew we were looking at executive accountant material.”

  Six? Six? Jayne had brought in dozens over the years. Besides, hadn’t those accounts come after her lectures this last session? And she’d found the Magruder mistake.

  Mr. Waterman stood to shake Bill’s hand. “I see a senior executive in the not-too-distant future.”

  “Would that be to fill a vacancy caused by someone’s promotion to vice president?” Jayne asked more to put the idea into Mr. Waterman’s head than because she thought that was the case.

  He chuckled. “Vice president has a nice ring to it. Right, Bill?”

  Bill mimicked Waterman’s chuckle. “Sure, but, Jayne, I’m not quite ready for a vice presidency.”

  “Oh, I know,” Jayne said, biting off her words. “But there are others of us who are.”

  Mr. Waterman all but patted her on the head. “If they work as hard as Bill has, then we’ll see.”

  Like that would be a challenge. Jayne wanted to snatch that cigar out of Mr. Waterman’s mouth and stomp on it.

  Unfortunately she understood. She’d always understood, but until now, she’d believed she could overcome Mr. Waterman’s prejudice with outstanding work.

  But she was a woman. Bill was a man—and a weaselly one at that. She had a feeling that he’d be promoted to senior executive before she made vice president. If ever.

  It was time to remind Mr. Waterman of all she’d done for the company lately. “Congratulations, Bill. I know you’re pleased.” Turning to Mr. Waterman, she said, “The meeting with the Charles family went well today. They gave preliminary approval to our business plan. I’ll write up a status report for you after I meet with Garrett Charles this evening.”

  “Perhaps Bill should sit in on the meeting,” Mr. Waterman suggested.

  Jayne froze. No! Bill was not going to horn in on her dinner with Garrett! Her mind raced. “Since he’s covering my other clients, Bill’s workload is much too heavy to take on the Venus account.”

  “But I should familiarize myself with the account.” Bill leaned back in the chair and watched her as he toyed with his cigar. He’d figured out that she didn’t want him along.

  “You’re absolutely correct,” Jayne said, surprising him. “You should familiarize yourself with all the accounts in our department.”

  His fingers stilled.

  “It will have to be off-hours, you know, evenings and weekends, since Mr. Waterman can’t, in good conscience, bill the clients for your time.”
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  Bill’s eyes darted to Mr. Waterman who was nodding in agreement.

  Jayne smiled. “I think we can give Bill a break tonight, can’t we, Mr. Waterman?”

  Mr. Waterman waved his cigar magnanimously.

  “Thanks,” a subdued Bill managed to say.

  “Come see me in the morning,” Jayne said and left the office feeling that she’d gotten a little of her own back.

  She had only herself to blame for creating Bill, the accounting wonder boy. She could hardly fault him for taking advantage of her help and accepting the offered promotion.

  He was going to be a problem, but she would deal with that tomorrow. Right now, she had to hurry, or she would be late for her dinner with Garrett.

  Garrett saw Jayne before she saw him. He’d been sitting on a stool at the edge of the bar where he could see the doorway and he watched her hurry toward the outer glass doors from the parking lot. Her curls bounced and gleamed in the sunlight and she wore a black suit that immediately reminded him of a curvy forties movie star. He unconsciously reached up to straighten his tie, but he’d gone the collarless shirt route tonight.

  He was looking forward to the evening even more than he looked forward to the days she worked at the agency. He’d always known that he wanted to concentrate on the business aspect of his family’s agency, but George Windom had sapped his confidence and made him doubt his abilities.

  Jayne had restored his self-assurance and more. After working with her the past week, he knew he had the capability to run the agency. All he lacked was experience dealing with the financial aspects, but Jayne’s business plan compensated for it.

  She was brilliant, capable, numerically selfassured... and was possibly the one woman in the entire world who was immune to Sandor.

  Garrett liked that in a woman.

  It must have been a trick of the setting sun, but Jayne saw Garrett’s eyes light up when he spotted her. She glanced behind her to see if he’d seen someone else, but only found the parking attendant. When she looked back, he’d walked down the pink marble steps to meet her and she decided that his blue eyes held a polite pleasure, nothing more. Just because he’d invited her to dinner didn’t mean he was romantically interested in her.