the wind had changed. No one could have saved Jodi and his son.
‘I know you were a brilliant father in the little time you were granted with Liam. Everyone told me that.’
‘I did my best.’
The four words echoed with sudden truth.
He deserved a second chance. Another son. A daughter. A baby who would grow into a child, like Amy, and then a teenager like he and Sandy had been when they met. It would not diminish the love he’d felt for Jodi and Liam.
‘I want a family again, Sandy, and I want it with you. We’ll be good parents.’
Exulting, he kissed her—a long, deep kiss. But there was more he needed to talk about before he could take her back home with him. He broke the kiss, but couldn’t bear to release her hands from his.
‘How did your interview go?’ he asked.
‘The Melbourne store is mine if I want it.’ She was notably lacking in enthusiasm.
‘Do you want it? Because if your answer is yes I’ll move to Melbourne.’
Her eyes widened. ‘You’d do that?’
‘If it’s what it takes to keep you,’ he said.
She shook her head. ‘Of course I don’t want it. I want to buy Bay Books from Ida and knock through into the space next door to make a bookshop/café. I want to have author talks. Cooking demonstrations. A children’s storyteller.’
The words bubbled out of her—and they were everything he wanted to hear.
‘I want to ask Ida to order matching carvings for the café from her Balinese woodcarver.’
‘That can be arranged. I own the café. The lease is yours.’ He ran his finger down her cheek to the corner of her mouth. ‘Will you come back to Dolphin Bay with me?’
* * *
Sandy was reeling from Ben’s revelations. But he hadn’t mentioned marriage—and she wanted to be married before she had children.
She’d feared he was too damaged to love again—and look what had happened. What was to stop her proposing?
‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I want to come back to Dolphin Bay. Be with you. But I—’
He silenced her with a finger over her mouth. ‘One more thing.’
‘Yes?’ she said.
‘Life is short. There’s no time to waste. We could date some more. Live together. But I’d rather we made it permanent. Marry me?’
In spite of all his pain and angst and loss he’d come through it strong enough to love again. To commit.
But she didn’t kid herself that Ben’s demons were completely vanquished. He’d still need a whole lot of love, support and understanding. As his wife, she could give it to him by the bucketload. Ben still had scars—and she’d help him to heal.
‘Yes, I’ll marry you. Yes, yes and yes.’
He picked her up and whirled her around until she was dizzy.
They were laughing and trying to talk at the same time, interspersing words with quick, urgent kisses.
‘I don’t want a big white wedding,’ she said.
‘I thought on the beach?’
‘Oh, yes! In bare feet. With Amy as a flower girl. And Hobo with a big bow around his neck.’
Her fairy notebook would be filling up rapidly with lists.
‘We can live in the boathouse.’
‘I’d love that.’
‘Build a big, new house for when we have kids.’
Maybe it was because her emotions had been pulled every which way, but tears welled in her eyes again. Ben had come so far. And they had so far to go together.
She blinked them away, but her voice was wobbly when she got the words out. ‘That sounds like everything I’ve ever dreamed of...’
She thought back to her goals, written in pink.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
* * * * *
Keep reading for an excerpt from DARING TO TRUST THE BOSS by Susan Meier.
CHAPTER ONE
“I’M OLIVIA PRENTISS, here for my first day in Accounting.”
The gray-haired Human Resources director glanced up with a smile. “Good morning, Olivia. Welcome to Inferno.” She happily flipped through the files in a box on her desk, but when she found the one with “Olivia Prentiss” written on the tab, she winced. “I’m afraid there’s been a change of plans.”
Vivi’s stomach dropped to the floor. “I’m not hired?”
“No. No. Nothing like that. You’ve been reassigned temporarily.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Tucker Engle’s assistant was in an accident last week.”
“Oh. I’m sorry.” She knew Tucker Engle was the CEO and chairman of the board of Inferno. Before she’d interviewed for this job, she’d researched the company and his name had popped up. But the company’s annual statements had said little about the reclusive billionaire. When she’d searched the internet, she’d only found an interview with the Wall Street Journal and a Facebook rant by a former employee who had called him the Grim Reaper because the only time he came out of his ivory tower was to fire someone. Still, none of that information gave her any clue what his assistant’s accident had to do with her.
“As the newest employee in the company, it falls to you to stand in for Betsy.”
Her already-fallen stomach soured. She had to work directly with a guy called the Grim Reaper by his staff?
She gulped. “An accountant stands in for a personal assistant?”
“You won’t be a personal assistant.”
Following the sound of the deep male voice, Vivi swung around. A tall, dark-haired man leaned against the door frame. Her gaze crawled from his shiny black loafers up his black trousers and suit jacket, past his white shirt and sky-blue tie to a pair of emerald-green eyes.
Wow.
“Or even an administrative assistant. You’ll be an assistant.” He pushed away from the door frame and walked over to her. “The assistant to the chairman of the board. The assistant who must be able to read financial reports and change things I need to have changed. An assistant who has to be able to keep up.” His lush mouth thinned. “Do you have a problem with that?”
