and look at our five-year plan unless Seth has human resources run background checks. So you’re cleared.”
“No.”
“I’m not asking you to take the job permanently,” Ty angrily retorted as if she were the one being unreasonable. “I only need you for a few days, maybe a week. Just until I have time to properly interview and investigate a few candidates.”
“It will take more than a week to interview and investigate candidates!” Madelyn gaped at him. “Do you know what you’re asking?”
“Yes.”
“No, you don’t!” Madelyn emphatically disagreed as she leaned against the desk again to finish feeding Sabrina. “Babies get up in the middle of the night! I’d have to stay at your house!”
“I’d pay you well….”
“It’s not a question of money!”
“Okay, then. How about this? I won’t simply rehire you to do the PR job, I’ll do absolutely everything you want me to do to prepare for the Wall Street Journal interview.”
That stopped her. And she knew he’d done it on purpose. A sharp negotiator, he’d let her get out all of her objections before he went in for the kill and offered the only things she wanted. The job and his cooperation. “Are you kidding me?”
“No. Do this favor for me and I will do whatever you feel needs doing to make myself look nicer to the reporter,” he said, back to sounding like the in-control executive who had fired her, and Madelyn’s business instincts shot to red alert. Sure, he made it appear that they were on even terms, but this was the kind of guy who always kept the upper hand. There was a catch here somewhere.
So handsome he could have posed for GQ, Ty Bryant strolled closer and didn’t stop until he was mere inches in front of Madelyn and Sabrina. “Can I take her?”
Madelyn nodded and eased the nearly sleeping baby into his arms. He nestled the little girl against his chest as she sleepily suckled her bottle, but he didn’t move away from Madelyn.
Holding her gaze with his hypnotic brown eyes, he said, “I have something you want. A job. You have something I want. The ability to care for a baby. I’m offering you a simple deal. Take it or leave it.”
Feeling mesmerized by his magnetic gaze, Madelyn blinked, but it didn’t help. His nearness had caused her heart rate to triple. Her breathing had become feathery and light. She desperately wanted to swallow, but couldn’t because she knew he would see and take it as a sign of weakness.
Forcing herself to think his proposition through, she tried to come up with a downside and knew there wasn’t one. He might believe he could bully her out of his agreement once he had her commitment, but that wasn’t true. His inability to care for Sabrina gave Madelyn a weapon that she wouldn’t hesitate to use. Until he hired a nanny, any time he refused to do anything she asked, she would simply leave him alone with the child that he clearly couldn’t care for. Then he would either adhere to the terms of their deal, or be miserable. Of course, once he hired a nanny that leverage would be gone, but by then her advance work for the Wall Street Journal reporter would be done.
She still didn’t trust him.
“Even give away thirty thousand dollars worth of playground equipment and deliver a sappy speech?”
He grimaced but said, “If you honest to God think I need to do that, I will do it.”
For all practical intents and purposes, she had a deal. But she couldn’t force her mouth to form the words of acceptance. She’d seen his real temperament and demeanor when he fired her. She also remembered all the complaints his employees had made about him. There was a lot of damage to be repaired here. Though confident in her own abilities, she recognized that unless she could figure out a very solid way to get Ty Bryant to look, sound and behave like a totally different guy before the Wall Street Journal reporter arrived, she was going to fail. Because, the truth was, he could do every darned thing she said and still come across as an ogre.
Or, more realistically, Madelyn thought, he would come across as a powerful, distanced executive so wealthy and clueless about the real world he was heartless.
And if an employee got that opinion into the Wall Street Journal article, it would be all over.
The bottle slipped out of Sabrina’s mouth, a sign that she was asleep and Ty set it on the desk, passing within a millimeter of Madelyn’s shoulder as he did so.
Madelyn suppressed a shiver, as the room grew unbearably hot. What the hell was happening to her?
“Excuse me, Mr. Bryant?”
At the sound of Neil Ringler’s voice, Madelyn and Ty looked at the mailroom employee, who was at Ty’s door.
“What is it, Neil?” he asked quietly, obviously not wanting to awaken the sleeping baby.
“I’m sorry, but Joni’s not here.” Neil very cautiously stepped in the room, virtually shaking in his shoes. “And you got this package from a special courier. I…I was just about to leave when it arrived. But I stayed…” He gulped. “You know, so you’d get it. But I can’t sign for it. I’m not on that level yet.”
“Let Ms. Gentry sign for it.”
Again, Ty’s voice was quiet and the previously shaking mailroom employee not only gave Ty a baffled look, he also relaxed a bit.
“Here,” Neil said, handing the fat envelope to Madelyn along with the delivery log to be signed. As Madelyn put her signature on the appropriate line, Neil faced Ty. “Whose baby?” he whispered.
Ty said, “Shhh!” indicating Neil should lower his voice even more, then very quietly added, “Mine. Sabrina was the daughter of my cousin who was killed. I got custody today and I don’t want her to wake up, so grab that log and leave.”
Even though Ty’s command was straightforward, with his voice softened, it didn’t come across harshly, and Neil grinned.
“Okay,” he stage-whispered, then snatched the clipboard and left the room.
Madelyn stared at Ty.
“Did you see what you just did?”
Ty faced her. “Don’t lecture me on yelling at my employees.”
“You didn’t yell. You…” She stopped her explanation because if she came right out and told Ty that the soft voice he used while holding the baby made his demand more palatable, he would tell her that was liberal elitist crap. But his quiet tone had changed the entire dynamic of his exchange with Neil.
She took a quick breath as an idea began to form. She couldn’t have Ty hold a baby until all his employees saw what Neil saw. But as Ty cared for Sabrina over the next few weeks while he looked for a nanny, she probably could teach him to speak more softly. She might even be able to get him to laugh once or twice. Time alone with him and a baby had endless possibilities for inching him toward lightening up.
And any changes Ty made wouldn’t be questioned. Neil would quickly spread the news that Ty had taken in his deceased cousin’s baby, and before long every employee in the building would ascribe kindness to their scrooge boss,
