CHAPTER ONE
‘ALL RIGHT, MISS FIRTH. You have ten minutes to convince me why I should invest in your company.’ Jamie Wallis leaned back in his chair, unsmiling, and looked at her.
Sophie caught her breath.
This was it.
The next ten minutes could change her entire life.
She needed to be more professional now than she’d ever been. And she really needed to ignore the fact that Jamie Wallis was one of the most beautiful men she’d ever met. The photographs she’d seen didn’t do him justice. And Eva hadn’t warned her that you could practically drown in his dark eyes.
Focus, she told herself. Because everyone’s counting on you to get his backing. And you don’t do relationships any more. Not since Joe. You finally learned your lesson: focus on your business.
‘Thank you,’ she said. ‘I’m assuming you’ve gone through the accounts I sent you, so you’ll already know our company’s bottom line is solid.’
He inclined his head, still unsmiling. ‘So why exactly are you asking me to invest in your company?’
She took a deep breath. ‘Because as well as you owning several resorts, your company offers specialist holidays to travellers, so Plans & Planes—being a travel agency and event planning service—fits in very well with your business. Especially as we’re introducing a new service which merges both sides of our company—something you don’t offer at the moment.’
‘Which is?’ he asked.
‘A planning service for people who want to get married abroad. We can organise everything from the wedding ceremony and reception through to the honeymoon, plus accommodation for the guests, and we’ll deal with all the paperwork.’ It had been her brainchild and she’d been so looking forward to developing the new service.
Until Eva had dropped her bombshell.
‘And your approach to me has nothing to do with the fact that your former partner is my late wife’s cousin?’
Sophie had expected that question and worked out her answer in advance. ‘Eva suggested you as a potential investor, I admit. But I researched your company before I decided to approach you. I’m not looking for nepotism. I’m looking for someone who sees a good investment that fits in with their own business plans.’
‘I see.’ He steepled his fingers. ‘What about the fact that Eva’s leaving the company? How do I know that everything at Plans & Planes isn’t going to take a massive nosedive without Eva at the helm?’
It was a fair question and Sophie wasn’t going to take it personally. ‘The impact of Eva’s departure on the business is mainly financial.’ The impact on her was another matter: Eva was Sophie’s best friend as well as her business partner and she’d miss Eva hugely. ‘Eva’s deputy, Mara, has worked for us for the last three years and she’s ready to step into Eva’s shoes on the travel agency side,’ she explained. ‘Mara has the experience, the knowledge and the capability to take that part of the company forward. I’m staying to manage the event planning side and the new weddings abroad service, so there’s continuity of management.’
He made a couple of notes. ‘If the business is flourishing, why do you need an investor?’
‘Because, as I’m sure you’re aware, Eva is moving to New York with her fiancé.’ Aidan had been headhunted by a top New York advertising agency and the opportunity was too good to turn down. ‘So she needs me to buy out her half of the business.’
‘And you have no savings you can use to buy her out, Miss Firth?’
She had, until two months ago. She took a deep breath. ‘No.’
‘Why?’
Telling him the truth would make it sound as if she was trying to manipulate him. Plus it was between Sophie, her brother and her sister-in-law. She wasn’t going to break their confidence. ‘Personal reasons,’ she said.
‘Won’t your bank give you a loan?’
She winced inwardly, knowing how bad her answer was going to sound, but she wasn’t going to lie. ‘No.’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Because your financial management isn’t good enough?’
‘There’s nothing wrong with my financial management,’ she said patiently. ‘The business is doing well.’
‘Then why don’t you have savings, Miss Firth?’
‘Personal reasons,’ she repeated.
‘That, Miss Firth, is tantamount to telling an insurance company that you’re a businesswoman. It’s too vague. They’ll need to know precisely what business you’re in so they can assess the risk.’
‘I’m not asking you to insure me, Mr Wallis. I’m asking you to invest in the business.’
He gave her a cool, assessing look. ‘Miss Firth, if you want me to invest in your company, you can’t hide behind “personal reasons”.’
Maybe she could tell him some of it. Broad brush rather than details. ‘All right,’ she said reluctantly. ‘Since you ask, I lent my savings to someone I love very much.’
‘Then surely you can ask that person to return the money, now you need it for yourself?’
‘No.’
He frowned. ‘Why not?’
Because the money had been spent, and her brother and sister-in-law were already under enough pressure. This was their fourth attempt at IVF, and she didn’t want to make it any harder for them than it already was. ‘I can’t explain more without breaking a confidence.’
‘So you’d rather see your business go under?’
‘Of course not. We have four staff and a roster of reliable temps, and I want them to have job security.’
He shrugged. ‘Then ask for the money back so you can buy out Eva’s share of the business.’
They were at stalemate. Or maybe there was another way round this. ‘Do you have siblings, Mr Wallis?’ she asked, already knowing that he did but not knowing how close he was to them; not every family was as close as hers.
He inclined his head. ‘Two.’
‘If they needed you, would you hesitate to help?’ she asked.
‘Of course not.’
Just what she’d hoped he’d say. ‘Then I can safely say you would’ve made the same decision I did, in those circumstances,’ she said.
‘Given that I don’t know the circum—’
His mobile phone shrilled, cutting him off mid-word. He glanced at the screen, as if about to hit the button to decline the call, then frowned.
‘I
