stay. He hadn’t been here when Joe first got sick and Colin lived with that knowledge every damn day. He loved, respected and owed the man. Joe had given him a shot in life and Colin wouldn’t betray him now.
Colin wouldn’t allow anyone to destroy the paper Joe had built. He’d do anything he had to for the older man. Even if it meant using Rina Lowell.
RINA WATCHED with amusement as the head of the maintenance crew tried to hang mistletoe according to Emma Montgomery’s direction. The older woman had already hung sprigs in unsuspecting places around the Ashford Times’s offices and had taken to adding a bit more each day. Of course, she did her decorating after five, when the core staff had gone home for the day.
“A little more to the left. No, to the right. Left. No, right.” From her seat, Emma tried to choreograph everything and everyone in her sphere of influence, a mean feat for an eighty-year-old woman. At least Rina thought she was eighty. Emma never discussed her actual age.
“Geez, lady, make up your mind.” The man’s weight tipped the ladder precariously with each stretch of his arm in a different direction. “I haven’t got all night.”
Emma sniffed. “That’s the problem with today’s generation. Everyone’s in such a rush. What do you think, Rina? Come here and check it out from my perspective.”
Knowing Emma wouldn’t be satisfied unless she complied, Rina shut down her computer for the night and joined the older woman. She glanced upward at the ceiling. “Looks good to me. Want to test it out? Emma’s willing,” Rina jokingly told the maintenance man.
He glared, obviously not enjoying his role in holiday merrymaking.
Emma laughed. “You need holiday spirit,” she informed the man, then squinted upward once more. She nodded at last. “That’s it then. Leave the mistletoe there.”
Directly over Colin Lyons’s hair. Despite Corinne’s warning, his return had shocked the staff. Those who knew Colin had expected his long absences to continue. Instead, as soon as he’d arrived home, he’d come on board at the paper. Corinne had agreed to let him take over the small news department, admitting that wasn’t her forte. But even she didn’t think he’d stay. According to office gossip, he never did.
Rina glanced at the greenery over his seat and grinned. “You are one wicked woman, Emma.”
She rubbed her hands together with glee. “Tell me you wouldn’t love to get that man underneath the mistletoe.”
Of course she would. But Rina wouldn’t be admitting anything to Emma. No way would she give the queen of the “Meet and Greet” column a cause to focus on. She could handle her own affairs, thank you very much. Because if Emma discovered that Rina was attracted to Colin—incredibly attracted, in fact—she’d pull out all the stops to get them together. And the timing was all wrong for Rina to find herself on the receiving end of Emma’s renowned matchmaking skills.
With her series coming up, she had put together a plan to decipher what the opposite sex wanted. She couldn’t have Emma meddling in her social life. Not now.
Even if Colin did light megawatts of electricity inside her every time he walked into the room. Those arresting blue eyes, that thick black hair, his distinctive masculine scent all set off heavy-duty sparks of desire. Instant sexual attraction, she thought. And female intuition, plus the fact that she’d often caught him staring, told her he felt the chemistry between them, too.
Emma narrowed her gaze. “Silence is an answer in itself.” She patted Rina’s arm, rose and headed slowly back to her own desk.
“Come on, Emma. Pick on someone your own age,” Rina said.
The older woman laughed. “You’re a challenge, Rina. I thrive on challenges and I live to matchmake. What exactly do you live for, dear?”
“Until lately, not much,” she admitted. After her husband’s death, guilt had consumed her. He’d been rushing home from a business trip in the pouring rain, coming to be with her instead of sensibly spending the night at a hotel.
For a long while after, Rina hadn’t thought life had much to offer. But after some soul-searching, she sold the New York City penthouse she and her husband had shared, and decided it was time to live again. Financially secure and free to do whatever she wanted, Rina had had no desire to return to her job as a legal secretary. It had been a decent means of earning a living, but it didn’t satisfy her.
She’d asked herself what would, looking inside herself for answers. She’d always been curious about human nature, drawn to people and relationships. Like Emma, she’d even indulged in matchmaking with her brother, Jake, and his wife, Brianne. She’d decided to use her people skills and her childhood habit of writing and documenting ideas, and put them to good use.
And now she had her column. “But my outlook is fresh and new since moving to Ashford,” she said, meaning every word.
Emma nodded. “Good thing you packed up and moved on.” She studied Rina with eyes full of wisdom.
“Amen, sister.” Rina grinned and hit Emma’s hand in a high five, laughing at the older woman’s spunk.
Rina had no doubt Emma had seen a lot in the decades she’d lived, and she’d obviously learned how to get the most out of every person she met and opportunity she saw, a philosophy Rina had adopted too from the minute she’d decided to sell the penthouse and move on. So what if she’d had to pull a few strings to get this job?
Corinne’s father lived in the same retirement community as Rina’s parents. Of course, Corinne’s father was much older than Rina’s parents, but in Florida, if a man had teeth and the ability to walk upright, golfing and bridge buddies formed. When Rina learned that Corinne had taken over her husband’s newspaper, she picked up the phone, the two women hit it off, and Rina had herself a job. One she wouldn’t hold on to if she wasn’t successful.
But she would be.
“Ah. More silence. You’re thinking. That’s okay. As long as you speak wisely to yourself, that’s what counts.” Emma broke into Rina’s thoughts. “But if you should want to share your thoughts, I’d be more than happy to listen.”
“You’re so nosy.” Rina glanced at Emma with all the warmth she felt toward her. “Not to mention perceptive.”
“Live as long as I have and you’d better have learned something,” Emma replied with a wink. “Now, I want to hear more about your upcoming series. Did I mention that I admire your gumption?”
“Not lately,” Rina said wryly.
Ignoring the writing implement tucked behind her ear, Emma picked up a pencil and tapped the eraser against the desk. “Catching a man is so much more complicated today than in my youth. Instead of pinching cheeks for color, you swipe on blush, and in place of tissues, I hear the water bra is all the rage now.” She paused for an obvious inspection of Rina’s attributes. “And though you’re a natural beauty, it would help you with the competition if you used some enhancement, too.”
Rina shook her head. The older woman was unbelievable.
“What do men want? Pfft,” Emma said. “You’ll never know because they’ll never tell.” She waved a regal hand in the air, dismissing the notion out of hand.
“I
