dipped his head. ‘My interest right now is in securing your services if the opportunity arises to do so.’
‘That’s very flattering, though I’m not sure why you would want me “sight unseen”, so to speak.’ A few short steps took her to her desk. She plopped into the seat and laid her hands on the familiar wood surface.
‘I like to keep my eyes and ears open. I’ve heard Banning mention his satisfaction with your skills.’ The man murmured it as though in enticement.
All Molly heard was that her boss had praised her. Her heart suddenly churned with all sorts of silly feelings, the greatest of which was a completely out-of-proportion pleasure that Jarrod had mentioned her at all.
Settle down! So what if Jarrod talked you up at some point? Maybe you’d done a good job of picking up his dry cleaning for him that day!
A light disappeared on the new interoffice phone-system, indicating her boss had ended a call. Another light came on.
Molly didn’t recognise this light. She and Jarrod had installed the phone system less than an hour ago. It still needed to be properly coded and labelled, but nothing was ringing…
Allonby came forward. He drew a business card from his pocket and dropped it onto her desk. ‘I know Banning would demand a lot of you in this working environment, and I feel you’d be an asset to my company. Consider my offer.’
Molly lifted her gaze from the business card. ‘I’ll consider what you’ve said.’ Right after she got rid of him and asked Jarrod what the heck was going on.
Allonby smiled politely and left the office a moment later. Molly slumped in front of her computer. Yes. Brave thoughts. Just march up to her boss and start hammering out questions about his finances.
She wanted to contact her mum, or Aunt Izzy or Faye. They worried her sometimes. In fact, they all but drove her demented with their disregard for the future, but they were also her nearest and dearest.
Well, Molly couldn’t ring or text any of them. Not now. Not about this. She should stop relying on them so much anyway.
Jarrod’s office door opened, and he strode out and caught her eyes with a blazing gaze of grey and green and yellow. His face was tight, his dark hair ruffled as though he’d run his hand through it. A muscle twitched at the base of his jaw.
‘Get your bag.’ His brows drew down as he waved his hand towards her desk drawer. ‘We’re going to lunch early. We need to talk.’
‘All right. I guess there’s nothing here that can’t wait.’ It was a little early, but her boss was rather irritable, and Molly didn’t want to think his need to ‘talk’ might have something to do with business troubles. Even so, she asked, ‘Was—was your phone call with Mr Daniels problematic?’
Molly grabbed her purse, and almost had to trot to keep up with him as he locked them out of the office and strode towards the building’s lift.
‘Did Daniels’s call trouble me?’ He gave a bark of unamused laughter as he jabbed the lift’s button for ground level. ‘You could say that, among other things.’
They had the lift to themselves. Molly watched him from the corner of her eye.
A powerful businessman, in tailored beige trousers and a white shirt with the sleeves rolled halfway up his forearms. His mind for figures and investment strategy amazed her. He was aggressive sometimes, that was true, but when he gave himself to something that mattered to him he did it utterly, and Molly…
Well, it didn’t matter how that made her feel, did it? But it made it hard to believe he could get his finances into horrible trouble. She fiddled with the catch of her purse until they disembarked and hit the busy central business district street.
‘I heard your discussion with Allonby through the intercom on the new phone-system. His offer of a job.’ Her boss bit out this announcement as they made their way through the crowd.
‘You did?’ She squeaked the words and had to clear her throat. ‘I guess I know what that particular red light means on the phone now.’
‘Quite.’ Jarrod took her elbow to guide her to the entrance of a waterside café. ‘Did you—?’
‘No.’ No. She would never simply agree to leave him. ‘I wanted him to go so I could ask you what’s going on, but I wasn’t sure how to tackle it. “I’ve been offered a job out of the blue” somehow didn’t seem the right opening line.’
Nor did blabbing out her internal monologue on the topic, but it was too late for that now, wasn’t it?
His fingers squeezed her elbow, and a reluctant huff of grim laughter passed through his lips. ‘Perhaps not.’
The squeeze of his fingers was merely an impersonal touch. He wasn’t even in a good mood, so there was no need for her to feel all tingly and warm. She should be feeling chilled to the bone and worried.
Actually, she was those things, too. ‘Sorry. I babble when I’m uneasy. Mostly I don’t, because usually I have good control over the things that impact on me, though I do it sometimes because of Mum, Izzy and Faye. If they’re causing me more hassle than usual. But you don’t need to hear about that. It’s boring family stuff.’
‘Your job is safe, and I don’t want you leaving the company.’ He spoke as she finally wound down. ‘How about we start there and work our way through the rest?’
Good idea. ‘Thank you. I was worried about that a little, though not hugely, because I couldn’t see how you could be in trouble, but I’m relieved.’ She was babbling. Again. ‘Anyway, I didn’t accept Allonby’s offer.’
‘You won’t need to.’ Jarrod gave his order. Molly quickly added hers, and her boss paid for the food with cold politeness.
‘This table, I think.’ He led her to a table away from the others that was partially obscured from diners by a bank of potted plants, but with an unobstructed view of the river.
‘So, if everything is okay, why did Mr Allonby come to try to headhunt me?’ Other than Jarrod talking her up to the man at some point?
Dry cleaning. It could have been about dry cleaning.
‘There are rumours circulating. They’re widespread, very recent, and they’ve been placed for maximum effect to try and damage me financially.’ The words were pushed through his teeth as his gaze bored into hers. ‘Daniels’s call was my first knowledge of this. He wanted to withdraw his portfolio from the company. I had a hard time convincing him to change his mind, despite refuting the rumours utterly.’
‘So you’re not in financial difficulty.’ She nodded. That was as she’d expected. ‘But someone wants you to be?’
‘Apparently so.’ His fist clenched on the table.
Who would do such a thing to him?
‘Molly, things could get rough for a little while.’ His gaze held hers as he uttered the words. ‘Whoever started these rumours apparently has influence in the social circles I mix in.’
‘And
