you?”
There it was. The perfect opportunity to get out professionally, even if it meant taking a pay cut. She’d already indicated she was leaving. Now all Lindy had to cement it was say, “but only until I find another job.” She opened her mouth, but the words finalizing her break with Shane refused to come.
“Monday morning,” Lindy agreed with a nod. She couldn’t look him in the eye, and instead stared at the floor.
The door clicked when he shut it behind him. Then—and only then—did Lindy look up. She stared at the door to her apartment. It desperately needed a fresh coat of paint.
“I’m thinking about paint.” Tears watered her eyes and rivered their way down to wet her cheeks. The opportunity had presented itself, but she hadn’t walked away. Would she ever be able to let Shane Jacobsen out of her life? Fool! Fool! Fool! She again resolved to seriously look for a new job come Monday.
Her home phone rang and Lindy picked it up. “Shane?”
“Is this Lindy Brinks?”
Disappointment mixed with relief. “Speaking.”
“I’m calling about your pizza. We’ve had some oven problems and it’s going to be at least another half hour before we can deliver it. We’re very sorry for the inconvenience. We’ll include a coupon for a free pizza the next time you order. You still want it, right?”
“Sure, send it.” She hung up the phone, a dark depression settling over her. Shane was like the pizza. She still wanted him, but it certainly wasn’t worth the trouble anymore. Too bad she was still hungry.
Chapter Two
“So where’s Lindy?”
“Greetings to you, too,” Shane said as he stepped through the front door of his grandfather’s massive Ladue manse. “Lindy sends her regrets. She can’t make it.”
“Why?” Grandpa Joe’s eyes narrowed and he stroked his white beard thoughtfully. “With her parents on opposite coasts, she doesn’t have any family here. Did she go out of town?”
“Lindy’s in town and I don’t know why she didn’t come,” Shane replied. “She said she had other plans. Besides, I’m her employer, not her keeper.”
Grandpa Joe’s snow-white eyebrows arched. “It sounds like you two have had a spat.”
Was that what had happened yesterday? A spat? Shane considered Grandpa Joe’s antiquated word. In all honesty, even though he’d been thinking about it nonstop, Shane still didn’t know quite what had happened. Even writing in his journal about the weekend’s events hadn’t given him any perspective.
Lindy, good old Lindy who had never once complained about her job, had suddenly hit him between the eyes with what she would and would not do. She was his employee, she’d declared, not his friend. If she’d remain his employee at all.
That still stung. And yes, he’d had to admit to himself in the past twenty-two hours that perhaps he had taken her for granted, that he’d considered her a friend, a sounding board. Perhaps he’d been wrong to have been so free with his confidences and personal requests. But he and Lindy had worked so well together, and never once had she complained.
Shane shifted his weight and followed his grandfather into the huge great room. The rest of the family had already arrived. “Shane!” His half sister Bethany came over and gave him a quick kiss on his cheek. “How are you? I feel like I haven’t seen you in ages.”
They probably hadn’t talked in ages, Shane thought. Older than him by five years, Bethany, his mother’s daughter from her first marriage, was busy with her successful pediatric practice, her own two children, and her husband.
“So did you have a good birthday? Twenty-five now.” Bethany shook her head. “I can’t believe that in a few months I’ll turn thirty and that Olivia and Nick will hit that three-o mark just a few months after me.”
Shane glanced around the room, seeing his cousin Harry, his wife Megan, and Bethany’s clan. Shane’s half brother, his dad’s son by his first marriage, though, was strangely absent. “Speaking of, where is Nick?”
“He stayed in Chicago,” his half sister Olivia said as she approached. She leaned toward her younger sibling and said conspiratorially, “Word has it that Grandpa Joe isn’t too pleased with my twin brother. And Claire’s in Aruba on a much-needed vacation so she’s forgiven. But Nick’s not.”
“Ah, then maybe the heat will be off me for once,” Shane said.
Olivia’s blue eyes twinkled mischievously. “I doubt that. You know how gossip runs in this family. It’s all over that you had a pretty good party Friday night. Glad it was you and not me. So tell me, have you recovered?”
“All but my memory,” Shane admitted. Thankfully it was a cool night and the turtleneck he wore hid the telltale mark. “I even cleaned up some so that Cleo won’t throw a fit.”
“A wise move,” Olivia said. “Did Sara and Dad ever call?”
“Yeah, this afternoon. Of course it was like 7:00 a.m. Australian time, and of course Monday there.”
“Ooh,” Olivia said. “Did they even try to give you an excuse?”
“You know. New secretary. It was Easter weekend. That type of thing.”
“Cocktail, sir?” James, the family butler and groundskeeper of over twenty years, approached.
“Water is fine,” Shane answered. “And how is Cindy?”
“She’s fine, sir. I’ll tell her you inquired.”
“He’s so funny,” Shane said to Olivia after James had moved away.
“Unlike Dad and Sara, I can’t imagine a family event without James and his wife,” Olivia replied.
“True.” Besides being the family cook, Cindy had also been Shane’s first nanny. They were practically family. Of course, Lindy wouldn’t agree, Shane thought as he reached for the water James was handing him. She’d say they were employees.
The ringing of a knife tapping a glass interrupted Shane’s momentary bitterness. His attention diverted, he turned to see his cousin Harry holding up a champagne glass. “Everyone, before we go into dinner, Megan and I have an announcement to make. In eight months you’ll be welcoming the newest addition!”
Shane saw his grandmother Henrietta clasp her hands together and hug her husband. Then she went and hugged both Harry and Megan. “I think we need champagne,” Grandpa Joe told James.
“On its way, sir.”
“Congratulations,” Shane said later to his Aunt Lilly, Harry’s mother. His hand still clutched his water instead of the expensive bubbly. Lilly, however, was on her second glass.
“Isn’t it wonderful? First Darci, and now Harry. I’m so thrilled. My dad and mom are so thrilled. Look at them.” Lilly gestured toward Grandpa Joe and Henrietta. “New great-grandbabies
