best to talk herself into a more positive frame of mind as she got ready to go out. Perhaps Bella was right. Perhaps a fabulous hunk of manhood was going to walk into her life tonight and sweep her off her feet. It had to be her turn sometime soon, surely?
Just in case, she dressed carefully in a flounced dress whose plunging neckline showed off her best assets. At least there were some advantages to having a figure like hers. It was just a shame that a curvaceous bust came with equally curvy hips and thighs and tummy.
Wriggling her feet into high heels, she felt instantly taller and therefore better. Kate had often thought that life would be so much easier if only she had slightly longer legs. An extra couple of inches wouldn’t have been asking too much now, would it? And a couple less around her hips, which would have balanced her out nicely.
She studied her reflection in the mirror. Amazing what a bit of make-up could do. In a dim light she might even pass for exotic. The warm red in her dress gave her a vaguely gipsyish look that went quite well with her tumbling brown curls and vibrant lipstick. Would the widower be into gipsies? Somehow Kate felt not. Perhaps she should have gone for a rather more demure look?
Could she carry off demure? Kate wondered, unaware that she had lost track of time. It was only when Will arrived to pick up Bella that she thought to look at her watch, and gave a yelp of fright. How could it be eight o’clock already?
It was little comfort to know that Bella wasn’t ready either. Will was reading the paper resignedly in the kitchen, and he raised a laconic hand in greeting as Kate teetered down in her heels to ring for a minicab.
‘It’ll be another twenty minutes,’ said the bored voice at the other end of the phone.
Oh, God, now she would be really late. Punctuality was another of Kate’s New Year resolutions that didn’t seem to be working out as planned.
‘Sorry, sorry, sorry,’ Kate gabbled when she finally arrived at almost quarter to nine, practically falling in the door when Phoebe opened it. ‘I know I’m late, but I really didn’t mean to be. Please don’t be cross with me! It’s just been one of those days.’
‘It’s always one of those days with you, Kate,’ said Phoebe, trying to sound severe as she gave her friend an affectionate hug.
Kate hung her head. ‘I know, I know, but I am trying to get better.’ She lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Is he here? What’s he like?’
‘A bit stiff—no, reserved would be a better word,’ Phoebe corrected herself. ‘But he’s very nice when you get to know him, and he’s got a lovely smile. I think he’s quite attractive, too.’
‘Really?’ A hot widower after all! Kate perked up. Things were sounding promising. ‘No beard?’
‘No.’
‘Beer belly? Wet lips?’
‘No!’ Phoebe was laughing now. ‘Come and see for yourself.’
Maybe her luck had changed. Smoothing down her top, Kate took a deep breath and followed Phoebe into the sitting room.
‘Here’s Kate,’ she heard her say, but Kate had already stopped dead as she saw who was standing by the mantelpiece with Gib and Josh. He had turned at Phoebe’s words, and she had a nasty feeling that his expression of horror only mirrored her own.
It was Finn McBride.
Then he was blocked from her view temporarily as Gib came towards her, grinning. ‘Kate!’ he cried, sweeping her up into a warm hug. ‘Late as usual!’
‘I’ve already grovelled to Phoebe,’ Kate said returning his hug and hoping against hope that she had been mistaken and that when Gib moved she would see that the stranger wasn’t Finn at all, but just someone who looked like him and either didn’t care for the gipsy look or disapproved of unpunctuality. Or both.
But no. Gib was turning with his arm still around her to face the others and there was no doubt about it. There stood Finn, looking as if he had been turned to stone to match the granite of his expression.
Clearly not enjoying discovering that he had been set up on a blind date with his own secretary.
Mortified beyond belief, Kate considered her options. Wishing that she had never been born came top of her list, closely followed by that old cliché, a bit tired but effective nonetheless, of wanting the ground to open up and swallow her.
Could she get away with pretending to faint? Probably not, she decided regretfully. She wasn’t the fainting type.
Which just left brazening it out.
CHAPTER TWO
‘HELLO.’ Plastering on an artificially bright smile, she stared Finn straight in the eyes, daring him to acknowledge her. Finn looked back at her with a glacial grey gaze.
‘Kate, this is Finn McBride,’ said Gib. ‘We’ve been telling him all about you.’
Great, thought Kate. Now Finn would know just how sad her life was.
She stuck out her hand and Finn didn’t have much choice but to take it. ‘Kate Savage,’ she introduced herself in a brittle voice, trying not to notice the feel of his fingers closed around hers. In spite of his obvious reluctance, his clasp was firm and warm, much warmer than she had expected, and she snatched her hand away, oddly unsettled.
‘You’re being very formal, Kate,’ said Gib amused. ‘At least I don’t need to bother introducing you to Josh.’ He turned to Finn. ‘Josh practically lives with Kate.’
‘Oh?’ said Finn coldly.
‘Kate shares a house with a very good friend of mine,’ Josh explained, and the quick smile he gave Kate was sympathetic. He had obviously been told that he was there to make it less obvious that this was a blind date, although his presence wasn’t fooling Finn one little bit. ‘How are you, Kate? I haven’t seen you for a while.’
‘I’m fine.’ Apart from wanting to die of embarrassment, that was.
Phoebe handed Kate a glass of wine. ‘Finn’s just been telling us about his disastrous experiences with temps in his office,’ she said cheerfully. ‘We thought you could give him a few tips on how to handle them.’
Oh, yes, Gib and Phoebe had built her up into a topflight PA, hadn’t they? As if her humiliation wasn’t complete enough!
‘Really?’ Kate produced an acidic smile. ‘It does seem to be difficult getting good secretarial staff these days! What’s wrong with the temp you’ve got?’
‘She doesn’t seem to have any idea of time-keeping for a start,’ said Finn with a sardonic glance at the clock on the mantelpiece. No doubt he had been here on the stroke of eight, long before Phoebe and Gib would have been ready for him. ‘She’s completely unreliable.’
Unreliable, was she? Kate took a defiant gulp of her wine. ‘It doesn’t sound as if she has much motivation to work for you. Why would that be, do you think?’
Finn shrugged. ‘Sheer laziness?’ he suggested. ‘She seems to have a very vivid fantasy
