every shade from creamy white to deepest violet and blue. But then he turned back and took in Cecilia, too, from the top of her honey-blond hair in its high ponytail, over her face, lingering on each feature, and quickly sweeping over the simple strappy sundress that showed off her curves to perfection.
She rarely dressed in her best girly attire for work but, knowing that today she’d be inside most of the day in the office, Cecilia had let her most feminine side have its way.
‘It’s stunning,’ Linc finally said. ‘The...ah...the maze.’
‘Thank you.’ She drew a slightly unsteady breath. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t up front, ready to greet you.’
Cecilia glanced at the trimmings in the basket over her arm and hoped by doing so she would disguise her swirling thoughts from him.
‘This is a never-ending job.’
‘And a very important one at the moment, I can imagine.’
Why, oh, why did she have to feel suddenly oh-so-conscious of him? She had much better control than this. Usually...
Wasn’t it enough that she’d mistaken his interest once before, years ago?
‘The maze needs to look good. Fantastic, in fact.’
She forced the words out and told herself to concentrate on matters at hand. The Fleurmazing plant nursery was the third and most recent of Linc’s Sydney plant nurseries that she had managed over the six years she’d been in his employ, but this one was different.
It was her brainchild—a holistic nursery that required greater upkeep but offered an enhanced experience for its visitors. At least in this aspect of her life she had it together!
She should keep her focus on that. Now, of all times, Cecilia needed to ‘sell’ the nursery’s virtues to Linc at any opportunity she got. Noticing his character traits or wondering if his attention was caught on her wasn’t part of that plan.
‘We’re logging hundreds of people every day, who all come here specifically because they want to experience the maze. Sales out of that alone are fantastic. And the maze needs to be perfect in time for the part we’re playing in Sydney’s Silver Bells charity flower show, so I’m giving it a lot of attention at the moment.’
‘A masked ball in the middle of a plant maze is ambitious.’ One side of his mouth kicked up. ‘But I’m sure if anyone can carry it off it’ll be you.’
‘The Silver Bells organisers have put their faith in me, so I have no choice now.’ She said it laughingly, but the importance of it was never far from her thoughts.
She wouldn’t have had the opportunity if Linc hadn’t agreed to let her take the risk.
‘It’ll pay off, Linc. Your whole chain of plant nurseries will get good attention out of our participation in the Silver Bells event.’
Linc owned a dozen nurseries across the city, along with bucketloads of real estate and a commodities trading portfolio that, on its own, probably ran into millions. He truly was the quintessential millionaire bachelor, with the world at his feet. They were more than poles apart, which had made her faux pas of throwing herself at him six years ago even more embarrassing.
He hadn’t been interested. She’d mistaken his charming way for something it wasn’t, and then—moments after he’d let Cecilia down as gently as anyone possibly could have—a woman had arrived for her lunch date with him. A sophisticated older woman.
Old news, Cee. Linc played the gentleman that day, apologised that he’d given the wrong impression and went off on his date with Ms Socialite while you went back to digging around in potting mix. And you got over it.
Cecilia had worked hard to impress him professionally since then, and she’d dated. Then she’d found Hugh, and that relationship had lasted almost two years. Linc had no doubt dated lots more versions of Ms Socialite, too, though Cecilia had not heard of him ever being in a serious long-term relationship since she’d known him.
‘I appreciate you coming in for the business review. I know you’re busy. Actually, I thought you might have sent someone to do it for you.’
‘You’ve earned this opportunity, and I felt I owed it to you to undertake the review myself.’ Sincerity rang in his tone. ‘I want to grant you that twenty per cent share in the nursery if I can, and no one else will understand your work here and your vision the way that I do.’
That was true. Even though the bulk of their interactions were over the phone, she’d always reported regularly to Linc.
And she’d negotiated—refusing bonuses over the years in favour of building up to this: a chance to own a share in the nursery. One day she wanted to open her own business.
‘I hope the review proves my efforts worthy of your time.’
Linc might have rejected her overtures, but he had been her example since he’d first taken her on and let her manage one of his nurseries six years ago, with no experience and only her determination to get her through. He was proof that a person could achieve anything if they wanted it enough.
What would he be now? Thirty-four? Thirty-five? Still with the same deep timbre to his voice, the same way of wearing his work boots, jeans and chambray shirt with an authority overlaid with a deceptive dose of casual charm.
With a strong chin, short-cut dark hair, those gorgeous shoulders and a way of carrying himself that shouted, Look out, world! Linc MacKay was in all ways a force to be reckoned with.
Linc would be making the nursery his base while he undertook the review. They’d be spending quite a bit of time in each other’s company. It couldn’t be a worse time for that old awareness of him to resurface. Whatever had brought it back, she needed her interest in him gone. Now, if not sooner.
Cecilia began the return walk towards the equipment shed and the front office.
‘I know I’ll see good results here, Cecilia. With each new nursery you’ve managed, you’ve improved on the last.’ Linc fell into step beside her in the maze. ‘I have taken it all in, you know—including the way this one has exceeded all expectations. Bringing coach tours in on a daily basis, gaining that whole new layer of tourism clientele...that has shown real vision.’
His words made every moment of her hard work feel doubly worth it. Cecilia couldn’t help smiling as she quietly thanked him.
‘Our social media presence has made a difference, too. I’m blessed to have Jemmie here, with her skills in photography and videography. Her plants-growing-and-bursting-into-flower videos get a lot of attention online.’
‘You found a good asset in her.’
His compliment pleased her, but it was his simple gesture for her to precede him through a narrower section of the maze that brought back that earlier flutter to Cecilia’s pulse. It felt intimate to her. As though they’d met here for a morning tryst and were returning now to their ‘real’ lives.
How silly.
Planning for this masked ball must be messing with her brain. Cecilia couldn’t come up with a more feasible explanation for her sudden case of hyper-Linc-awareness.
Or
