righteous about having put her in her place, she added quietly, “I guess I thought the face of a woman being married solely for the purpose of producing a baby might reflect a less than joyful expression as she walked down the aisle. There should be something blue at every wedding, but it’s not supposed to be the bride.”
Smart-mouthed and quick. Not necessarily desirable qualities in a woman. Particularly when he couldn’t think of a comeback that wasn’t rude.
Then Caroline came to his rescue.
“So I explained that I was doing this willingly,” she said, squeezing his arm, “and that there was no problem.”
“Thank you, Carrie.” He turned a look on Anna intended to intimidate. “I assure you I’m not a villain, Ms. Maitland. But I realize you know nothing about me. Perhaps you’d prefer not to…”
“I know a lot about you, Mr. Cahill,” she said, clearly unaffected by his glare. He must be losing his touch. “You went to Harvard on a scholarship and hold a master’s degree in business administration. You’d made a million dollars in the hotel business by the time you were thirty and added mall development to your ventures, along with a few odds-and-ends companies like…” She narrowed her eyes as she obviously worked to recall a name. “Gordon Maps and Books,” she finally said with a little smile of triumph, “and Bronson Builders. Today you are the head of a multibillion-dollar company, Cahill Corporation, and—” she sniffed the air and smile devilishly “—your fragrance is Brooks Brothers.”
He was more fascinated by her knowledge than annoyed by her one-upmanship. “You read Forbes?” he asked. The magazine had done a piece on him several months before.
“My son does,” she replied. “You’re his idol.”
The compliment took him by surprise. “Me?” he asked incredulously.
She nodded, a soft light coming into her eyes. “Will is ten, and he isn’t into athletes or rock stars, but business moguls. He intends to be one himself one day.”
He had to laugh. “Good for him. I had a lucrative lawn and garden care business going when I was ten.”
“He takes care of my sisters’ and my stock portfolios,” she said, “and has formed a Fuzzy Buddies clearinghouse for his friends so they can buy, sell or trade to keep their collections complete.”
“Fuzzy Buddies?”
“Those little plush toys everybody’s collecting,” Caroline said in clarification. “I’ve got the flamingo hanging from my rearview mirror.” She turned to Anna, her eyes bright. “That’s so cute! You should meet Anna’s son, Austin. The little guy would probably love that!”
Austin tried to imagine a ten-year-old boy being as enthused about business as most kids that age were about sports, but couldn’t. Anna Maitland was flattering him for the sake of his business.
But she did know all about him. Maybe she’d read the Forbes article?
“There’s a lot going on while we’re here, Carrie,” he said. “And I am trying to run a business by remote control.”
“But you can make time.” Caroline frowned at him.
He tried to usher her toward the door. “I’m sure I’d prove to be a disappointment in person.”
“Austin…”
“So you can work with us, Ms. Maitland,” he asked, pulling the door open, “even while offended by the reason for our marriage?”
Anna followed them to the door, and Caroline stepped into the hallway. “I wasn’t judging, Mr. Cahill,” she said. “I was just offering an opinion. And if you’re offended by that, you might want to hire another consultant.”
“I have no problem with other people’s opinions,” he said, “when they relate to business. But I don’t like interference in my personal life.”
She held the door while he passed through it. “It was an opinion on Caroline’s life. She is the bride, after all, and seeing that the bride has everything she wants on her special day is my job.”
“Good,” he said. “You take care that she has everything she needs for the wedding, and I’ll worry about her mental and emotional well-being.”
No large undertaking, he knew. Caroline had shut off her deepest feelings long ago, and her mental well-being was just fine because she skimmed along the surface of her emotions fearful of rekindling the ones she’d disconnected.
He could see from the expression in Anna Maitland’s eyes that though she might not know the details, she’d already grasped the obvious about Caroline.
With a patronizing subservience he didn’t trust for a moment, she inclined her head.
“You’ll have a wonderful wedding,” she assured him, stepping back through the doorway as Caroline led him toward the elevator. “And Caroline will be a beautiful bride.” She waved at Caroline, then closed the door to her office.
He wanted Caroline to be the bride all women dreamed of being so she would never feel that she’d sacrificed anything to give him his baby.
They stopped to wait for the elevator.
“My word!” Caroline exclaimed with a shake of her head. “Are you two going to argue until the moment I walk up the aisle? Why is her opinion so important to you?”
“It isn’t. I just didn’t want her upsetting you.”
“Oh, we were just talking, one woman to another. Don’t worry about it. I know what I’m doing.”
“But are you happy about what you’re doing?”
She shrugged noncommittally. “I’m never happy, you know that. But I agreed, didn’t I? I have nothing going on for a year or so. We may as well make a baby.”
He felt that pinch again and gave the down button an impatient jab. Why did he want her to be happy, he wondered, when they didn’t love each other? It didn’t make sense.
“And I’m not upset,” Caroline went on. The light over the elevator blinked its arrival and a buzzer sounded. The doors parted on an empty car and they stepped inside. “In fact,” she said as the doors closed, “I’m pretty excited about the prospect of a medieval wedding.”
She smiled at him coaxingly. “You can ride a horse, can’t you?”
Austin forced himself not to shudder.
CHAPTER TWO
“MOM! WHERE ARE YOU?”
Will always came through the office door shouting for her, just as he did at home. The school bus dropped him off outside the building, and he did homework in a corner of her office until they went home together.
She sat behind her desk, in plain sight, not ten feet from the doorway in which he stood. She’d often wondered if his father’s absence made him want to keep close tabs on her.
“Right
