A Fortune's Children's Christmas (17 page)

Joanna made no reply. She was silent so long that Ryder wondered if he’d scared her. Had he come across sounding obsessive, like a crazed stalker? He decided he didn’t care. What he’d said was true, and he wasn’t willing to play the denial game.

“There’s a way I could stay at Fortune’s Design, if you’d agree to it,” Joanna said at last.

Ryder realized that he would agree to anything she said. In a humbling moment of self-awareness, he knew that six months ago he would’ve laughed at such behavior as that of a lovelorn chump. Six months ago, he hadn’t met Joanna.

“What is it?” he asked quietly.

“Since Miss Volk is gone, I could be the receptionist. That’s a job I can do well, Ryder. You could hire a new executive assistant and pay me my current salary and—”

“Your current salary is less than what Miss Volk earned, Joanna.”

“Well, you always said she was highly overpaid.”

He managed to hang on to his temper. “I’ll pay you what I paid Miss Volk if you really want that job, Joanna. But I’m perfectly willing to keep you as my—”

“Keep me as your lover,” Joanna suggested, sliding her arms around his neck and cuddling close. “And hire me as your new receptionist.”

Ryder’s new executive assistant, Madison Worth, was exactly the type of executive assistant Joanna insisted he needed, possessing superb office skills along with substantial administrative ability. Well-educated—summa cum laude in business from Dartmouth—with the talent and proficiency that guaranteed promotion to a higher position in
any
company, at twenty-three, Madison Worth was indeed an asset to Fortune’s Design.

On a personal level Ryder found her brash, aggressive and supremely confident, driven and outspoken. Also, somewhat insufferable. He figured that her family—the Worths, who owned the Michigan-based conglomerate Worth Industries, Ltd.—was probably thrilled that their youngest member had chosen to seek her fortune elsewhere.

Joanna claimed that Fortune’s Design was lucky to have someone like Madison Worth who was brilliant, hardworking and socially and professionally well connected.

“And she’s completely loyal to you and the company, Ryder,” Joanna rhapsodized. “Madison says she’ll never forget that you gave her the chance to prove herself, while her own chauvinistic family tried to sideline her in favor of her selfish brother and her nasty cousin, who is also male. Madison said that the Worths don’t value women at all.” They’d had this conversation in June, she recalled.

Joanna got along splendidly with Madison Worth. No surprise there, she got along splendidly with everybody. Since she’d taken over the reception desk, she saw her colleagues in the company a lot more than when she’d been sequestered in Ryder’s office. Her desk had become a hangout for her pals in Marketing, though they inevitably scattered if Ryder happened to come along. Her popularity spread to other departments as well. Everybody liked Joanna.

“It’s a credit to Joanna’s interpersonal skills that nobody in the company resents her,” Madison Worth announced one day in late June.

She’d come into Ryder’s office without knocking, a practice that never failed to annoy him. He suspected she’d acquired the habit in her position as the boss’s daughter at Worth company headquarters, but understanding the origin of her behavior made it no less irritating.

On the first day Madison Worth had reported for work, back in March, Ryder had retrieved the architectural plans and hired a construction company to complete them. He’d added an incentive clause, a bonus if the work was finished speedily, which it was. The proximity he’d shared with Joanna would’ve driven both him and Madison to justifiable homicide.

And now Madison had barged into his office once again with one of her brash assertions. Ryder fumed.

“Why would anyone resent Joanna?” he demanded.

“Because of your affair, of course,” Madison replied frankly in that deadpan, no-nonsense manner of hers. If she had a sense of humor, Ryder had yet to
see evidence of it, though he had seen her actually laughing with Joanna and some of those social butterflies from the marketing department.

“Affairs within a company, particularly one involving the CEO are poisonous to corporate culture,” Madison continued dogmatically. “Most companies strictly forbid intra-office dating, particularly any relationship that involves a superior with an underling. The potential for sex harassment charges and discrimination is rife.”

“Joanna is not going to hit me with a lawsuit,” Ryder said shortly.

“Not now,” Madison agreed. “But what happens when you two break up? You could easily use your position as her boss to—”

“Joanna and I are not going to break up,” snapped Ryder.

“Oh? When are you two getting married?”

He could’ve sworn he saw the young woman smirk. Ryder nearly cracked the pencil he was holding in half. The subject of marriage was a sore one with him. He wanted to get married. He wanted it completely. He would’ve announced his engagement to Joanna yesterday—hell, he would’ve announced it way back in March!—except she wouldn’t go along with it.

He well remembered the first time he’d proposed to her. It had been the night she’d told him about her near-fatal accident and the severe injuries she had suffered in it. Thinking about how close he’d come to losing her still caused his hair to stand on end. He had nearly lost her before he’d ever had the chance to find her.

He tried to tell her how meaningless his life would’ve been without her in it. He tried every day and every night to show her how much he cared. Still, Joanna seemed to remain unconvinced.

It frustrated him endlessly.

Along with proposing to her, he had also told her he loved her that same night, the night she had finally shown him her body. It had been in their hotel room in Washington, D.C., on the trip to meet with the patent examiner. Joanna had flatly refused to share the luxurious Jacuzzi with him, without even giving a reason why. She’d also insisted on making love in the dark, despite the absence of track lighting that Ryder had agreed ruined the romantic ambience in his own bedroom.

He finally realized that she was hiding something from him. So much for his heralded insight, his terrific power of perception. Until that night he hadn’t intuited that she was hiding the sight of her body.

Ryder suspected some kind of easy-to-resolve post-virginal hang-up but should have known Joanna would not be so predictable. She had finally, reluctantly allowed him to see her in full light, visibly bracing herself for…what?

He still wasn’t sure what she had expected from him. Revulsion? Rejection?

The very idea incensed him. “I love you, Joanna. For crying out loud, why would you think, even for a minute, that I would be turned off by a few scars? They’re barely noticeable, anyway.”

“You’re being tactful and that’s terribly dear of you, Ryder, but you don’t have to pretend with me,”
she’d said wearily. “I know my body looks like a map of the interstate highway system. Hardly the stuff of male fantasies.”

“You are every fantasy I’ve ever had, Joanna. My current fantasy involves marrying you. Marry me, Joanna.”

She had kissed him and told him that she loved him, too—and refused to marry him.

They’d played out similar versions of that scenario several times a week since, but Ryder was not about to give up. He was a Fortune, and inevitably he would get what he wanted. Joanna, whom he loved beyond reason, would be his wife.

But it was so damn frustrating, waiting for her to realize it.

A fact he did not care to have his efficient, officious executive assistant remind him of. No question that her “When are you two getting married?” had hit a raw nerve.

“Exactly what brings you into my office at this particular time, Madison?” he asked, not bothering to disguise his displeasure with her presence.

As ever, Madison was undaunted. She waved a large document at him.

“Here is the new-product-design plan, Ryder. I took all of the reports from each of the divisions, compiled them, tabbed them and provided an executive summary. I also figured that while I was at it, I’d do a complete time line from conception through development to market.”

She laid her project down on his desk. “Now I’m going to arrange to have all of our paper files scanned
into the computer system. We’re way overdue on that, I think. Unless you have something else for me to do?”

“No, nothing right now, Madison.” Once again, his executive assistant had impressed him. Madison Worth carried the definition of
self-starter
to new heights.

He remembered Joanna’s foray into executive assistanthood. There could be no comparison between the two young women, just as there could be no comparison between Joanna and the dragonish Miss Volk. When it came to receptionists, Joanna, with her sweet friendly manner and winning smile, was beyond compare.

Just thinking about her fueled his need to see her.

“Thank you for this, Madison.” He nodded at the detailed report she’d given him. “If you’ll excuse me, I have a question to ask Joanna.”

Instead of leaving, Madison stood in front of his office door, eyeing him curiously. “You’ve certainly made no secret that you’re crazy about Joanna. You’re together constantly. You two practically live together. Why don’t you marry her?” she asked bluntly.

R
yder was aware that only the progeny of business aristocracy, someone possessing the unfaltering confidence born of money, class and smarts would dare to ask her boss such a question. An apt description of Madison Worth.

“I don’t see how my relationship with Joanna is any of your business,” he said tightly.

He decided he was within his rights to fire Madison for impertinence, except it would be an ill-advised enactment of the old “cutting off his nose to spite his face” cliché.

A look of dawning comprehension was spreading across Madison’s face. “Oh, I get it now. Joanna won’t marry you. You’ve already asked her, and she said no.”

“May I repeat, this is none of your damn business, Madison!”

“I don’t know why she would refuse.” Madison frowned, trying to puzzle it out. Being unable to comprehend anything was not acceptable to her. “Joanna is madly in love with you, she’s very open about that. So why wouldn’t—”

Her brows narrowed shrewdly. “Do you suppose it
has anything to do with Joanna thinking that she isn’t smart enough for you?”

“Not smart enough for me?” Ryder was enraged. “That does it! You’re fired, Madison!”

“I am not. Calm down, Ryder. I didn’t say Joanna
wasn’t
smart enough for you, I said
she thinks
she isn’t. She’s made a lot of jokes about being your idiot former assistant, but I never thought she was serious about the idiot part. Till now.”

Ryder swallowed hard, his eyes widening.

“You didn’t actually call her an idiot, did you, Ryder? You wouldn’t say anything so cruel, not when she’d suffered such a terrible head injury in that car accident.”

Ryder stared at her. “When did Joanna’s accident and injuries become common office knowledge?”

“It’s not, but she’s mentioned it to me a couple times. Maybe she knew
I
wouldn’t call her an idiot,” Madison added severely.

Ryder jumped to his feet and began to pace the office. He’d acquired the pacing habit from Joanna and found it tension reducing. Right now tension was fast building within him, and pacing wasn’t helping at all. Not as he remembered…

“I think you might be on to something, Madison.”

“So you did say it?” Madison glared at him. “Why, you’d fit in with the men in
my
family with your tactless, thoughtless, inexcusable male arrogance!”

“God, I’d forgotten all about what I said. I mean, it was irrelevant. I was just sounding off.” Ryder
groaned. “I never even knew about her accident back then. But taken in context, Joanna could think—Of course, she would think…” His voice trailed off as he started for the door.

“If you plan to rush out there and apologize to Joanna for calling her an idiot, don’t expect an instant yes to your next proposal.” Madison’s words stopped him cold.

“Why not?” Ryder demanded impatiently. “If I’ve identified and rectified the problem areas to the satisfaction of both parties, then a favorable result is to be anticipated.”

“Maybe in a business merger.” Madison sniffed disdainfully. “But if you ask Joanna to marry you immediately after apologizing, she’ll assume you’re proposing out of a sense of guilt, and refuse. What woman with any pride wouldn’t? And a woman’s pride is as strong and worthy and valid as a man’s,” she added, daring him to refute her declaration.

Ryder didn’t. “I know. What I don’t know is how to get past her pride,” he admitted dejectedly.

Perhaps he had been humbled or saddened enough to quell Madison’s sense of outrage. Whatever, her expression visibly softened. “I’m currently having a brainstorm, if you’d care to hear it,” she said in her usual can-do tone.

“At this point what have I got to lose?”

“Exactly.” Madison nodded. “As you well know, Joanna worships her sister, Julia. She would rather be tortured than to cause her sister and brother-in-law any pain.
Or
embarrassment. I suggest you play that card.
Team up with the sister. How about a party where the Fortunes announce your engagement to Joanna, you produce the ring in front of everybody and slip it on her finger? Do you think Joanna would make her beloved sister—now a Fortune herself—look foolish by publicly refuting your announcement right then and there in front of everybody? Of course not. She’d play along. So there you are, engaged. It’ll be up to you to get her to the altar, of course, but you can do it. After all, you’ll be operating from a position of strength.”

“The Ambush Theory!” Ryder loved the plan. “Well done, Madison. You’ve taken a classic business technique and applied it to life. Those classes you took at Dartmouth definitely paid off. You’re a credit to your professors.”

“Tell that to my family,” Madison said darkly. “They think I should be socializing like a postdeb airhead trying to trap a husband, instead of climbing the corporate ladder of success.”

“That would be a true waste of talent,” Ryder said, meaning it. “With a few modifications, I think this plan will work. I want to thank you in advance, Madison.”

“I confess to a selfish motive in all this, Ryder. Since I’ve hitched my career wagon to your star, so to speak, I want to see you with a wife who’ll make you happy and be supportive of your dedication to Fortune’s Design. A wife who isn’t demonic to the employees, who understands the pressures and demands of building a company. If you were to end up with a narcissistic socialite or a paranoid witch, ev
erybody in Fortune’s Design would be adversely affected, including me. Joanna fits the bill.”

“Yes, she does.” Ryder smiled. “Your self-serving interests are duly noted, Madison. And definitely appreciated.”

The few modifications in Madison’s plan involved
not
directly involving Julia and Michael Fortune in the ambush engagement. From observing the sisters together, Ryder knew that Joanna’s sisterly devotion was returned in full measure. Julia would never countenance ambushing Joanna with anything, no matter how well-intentioned the cause.

Guilt was a factor, too. He simply couldn’t face telling Julia Fortune that he’d called her adored, brave little sister an idiot. It didn’t matter that he had never meant for his words to be taken to heart;
he’d
been the idiot for ever uttering them.

Remembering how he had railed at Joanna made him cringe. If Julia and Michael knew he had wounded her so, Ryder had no doubts they would loathe him. And rightfully so. He would keep them in the dark along with Joanna, still counting on his brand-new fiancée’s unwillingness to embarrass
her
Fortune relatives in front of all
their
Fortune relatives by publicly calling the engagement announcement a hoax.

Which meant he needed another Fortune ally to stage the scene. And who else would he ask but Aunt Kate? She could understand and accept that sometimes
one said things in a temper, things which were not meant to be taken seriously. Or literally.

Ryder made an appointment to visit his great-aunt at her mansion one warm summer afternoon, where he confessed his thoughtless insults, his regrets and his plan.

Kate was understanding, although she did offer some advice against careless, caustic venting, which Ryder solemnly promised to heed. Sterling Foster was present at the meeting, observing and listening in silence with a poker face that revealed none of his thoughts.

“We’ll have a big family picnic here on Labor Day,” Kate enthused. “That will give us time to plan the party and for everybody to arrange their schedules to attend. We’ll want as many here as possible to celebrate our announcement.”

“
Our
announcement,” Sterling repeated, speaking at last. “So you consider yourself a full-fledged coconspirator in the lad’s scheme, Kate?”

“It’s all in the name of love, Sterling.” Kate smiled. “Remember another bogus engagement several years ago that resulted in a wonderful marriage?”

“Aunt Kate, I can’t thank you enough.” Ryder breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief. “You’ve come through for me again and I—”

“You
are
thanking me, Ryder. By succeeding in business
and
falling in love,” Kate said, patting his hand. “I believe we have another Fortune success story here, don’t we, Sterling? Congratulations are definitely in order.” Beaming, Kate lifted her glass of
chilled Chardonnay. “To Ryder and Joanna and Fortune’s Design.”

“Congratulations are premature at this point, Kate,” warned Sterling. “Furthermore, overconfidence can lead to carelessness. I suggest we postpone this toast until the wedding is a done deal and Fortune’s Design breaks even.”

“You sound like a lawyer, Sterling, not a fond great-uncle,” Kate chided him.

Ryder thought Sterling sounded most of all like a dire pessimist, and he didn’t dare let himself succumb to that view. Better to direct his energy to making Aunt Kate’s rosy outlook for the future come true.

“Both are going to happen, Aunt Kate,” he promised earnestly.

“I have no doubts, my dear. I have great faith in you.”

Since the party was to be held at the Fortune estate, Kate offered Kelly’s services to plan it all.

As soon as she mentioned Kelly’s name, Ryder sensed something was wrong. “Aunt Kate, you didn’t sound like yourself just now,” Ryder said bluntly. “What’s going on?”

“Oh, heavens, Ryder, I’m sorry,” Kate responded. “No, I’m not sick, dear. I’m just upset about Kelly. She’s pregnant. I empathize with the girl, I really do…” Her voice trailed off.

Was Chad Fortune the father of Kelly’s baby, and how was she coping with the situation? Ryder wondered, as he went to meet the young woman after his
visit with Kate and Sterling. Would asking her be considered an invasion of her privacy?

Although their discussion centered solely on plans for the Labor Day Ambush/Engagement Party—Kelly was enthusiastic and very helpful—Ryder decided he would be remiss if he failed to at least acknowledge her condition.

“If there is anything I can do to help you and the, uh, the baby, please give me a call, Kelly,” he murmured as he rose to leave.

Uncertain and uncomfortable, he pressed his business card into her hand. Was that too impersonal? Or too intrusive? He wished Joanna were here to lend a more empathetic touch. She dealt so well with people.

Kelly’s face was a smooth mask, although she was unable to conceal the pain that flickered in her eyes. “Thank you, but I’m fine,” she said quietly.

“One more thing, and if this is none of my business, please feel free to say so.” Ryder paused uneasily at the door. “Is the father my cousin Chad?”

Kelly nodded her head but volunteered no further information. Ryder felt totally out of his element dealing with such a delicate matter. He understood the young woman’s desire for privacy, yet was unable to simply walk away without trying to do
something.

“Kelly, would you like me to talk to Chad about…things?” he offered. Ryder tried to envision such a conversation with his cousin and frowned. Beating Chad the Cad to a bloody pulp seemed so much more satisfying and effective.

“No!” Kelly exclaimed, as if she could read his
mind. “Thank you for your concern, Ryder, but I—I’m handling this in my own way.”

“I understand,” said Ryder, though he wasn’t sure he did. She looked so young and defenseless. He couldn’t just leave her to her fate, especially when she was being so helpful in aiding him with his!

“Kelly, you don’t have to face this alone, you know,” he blurted. “We can rally some of the Fortune cousins to use their clout to
make
Chad do the right thing.”

“Please don’t!” Kelly’s voice was firm and resolute. “Promise me that you won’t do or say anything, especially not to Chad, Ryder.”

“So I promised I wouldn’t say or do anything and I left,” Ryder said, recounting his conversation with Kelly later that evening to Joanna, as they walked hand in hand along a well-lit path that followed the dark, fast-flowing waters of the Mississsippi River. “I still wonder if I shouldn’t get a cabal of Fortunes together and—”

“Break Chad’s kneecaps? Put a financial lien on everything he owns?” Joanna shook her head. “I think you should respect Kelly’s wishes, Ryder. It seems to me that what you’d consider help, she might consider interference.”

She stood on tiptoe to place a quick kiss on his cheek. “But it’s wonderfully sweet of you to be so concerned about Kelly and her baby, Ryder.”

“Wonderfully sweet,” repeated Ryder, sucking in his cheeks. “There was a time when I would’ve
jumped off a bridge if a woman had described me that way. But not when you say it.”

He put his arm around Joanna’s shoulders, drawing her close. “So you’ll come to Aunt Kate’s Labor Day picnic with me? She’s really enthused about it. And of course Michael and Julia and the children will be there, along with as many other family members who can make it.”

Ryder was pleased with his cover story, that the picnic was strictly a Kate-inspired holiday get-together for the clan. Joanna wasn’t suspicious in the least.

“I’d love to go,” Joanna said, slipping her arm around his waist. “I always have a good time at Kate’s parties.”

“Hard to believe that we never met at any of them over the years,” Ryder mused aloud.

“Well, you were out of the country for nearly ten years, and for a long time I wasn’t around much, either,” she reminded him. “And even though we were both at Kate’s eightieth birthday party, we weren’t there at the same time.”

“You’d left early for a date before I arrived.” Ryder frowned. They’d discussed Kate’s party and how they had failed to even glimpse each other there. “Well, I’m your date for Labor Day, Miss Chandler,” he added possessively.

“You’re my date every night, Ryder,” she affirmed.

“Then let’s make it official, Joanna. Let’s make it every night for the rest of our lives. Marry me, Joanna.”

“Ryder, things are so good between us just the way they are,” she said softly. “Why can’t we keep it this way? We don’t have to get married to—”

“All right, never mind,” Ryder said, cutting in, not caring to hear her standard rejection speech. “Forget I even mentioned it.”

At least he wasn’t swamped with the frustration and gloom that normally followed his rebuffed marriage proposals to Joanna. Now he had a plan to implement his dream. He silently thanked the unlikely triumvirate of Madison Worth, Aunt Kate and Kelly Sinclair. And began to think about the requisite engagement ring he would produce at the picnic.