Her Best Match: A Romantic Comedy (The Best Girls Book 1) (36 page)

“I feel better. And the secretary work?”

“I’m afraid you’ll have to cover that as well until we get some help.”

“Katie’s gonna flip out. She’s already been through heck trying to get you to agree on a secretary—I mean, personal executive assistant.”

‘I’ll just let you and Ms. Carson pick someone for me, and I’ll give the final approval.” He caught her hand and narrowed his eyes. “And you’d better find me a secretary and not a potential wife.”

She blushed furiously. Especially since her thoughts had indeed been heading in that direction. He released her hand and leaned back on the couch, stretching out his arms along the back. She was acutely aware of the lightest contact of his arm against her shoulder. That familiar tingle began where she felt his touch and spread downward causing her heart to flutter. Her breathing became shallow with anticipation. What was wrong with her? What was she anticipating? Nothing was going to happen.

Gherring leaned across her to set his wine glass down on the end table, sending thousands of alarms throughout her body.

“Anne.” His voice seemed deeper, slightly raspy. Or maybe it was her imagination. “Anne, you know, we’ve spent—”

A loud rapping sound on the door interrupted his speech. He looked puzzled. “Excuse me. Let me see who’s at the door.” Anne watched from the sofa, but couldn’t see the person.

“Steven!” said a soft feminine voice. “I hope I didn’t come at a bad time. I really needed to see you. We really need to talk. You see, I’ve been thinking a lot about my feelings. You’ve always been the one that understood me, the only one. And I know I can talk to you about anything. And your idea, the one about trying again, giving it another shot. I think I’m ready. I just need to be more selfless and understanding—”

“Wait, Michelle. Actually, this is kind of—”

“I was just leaving,” said Anne, slipping through the doorway. “Thank you, Mr. Gherring. I’ll see you at the office. Michelle—it was good to see you again.”

Monday morning, Anne left early for the office. She wanted to get a head start on the administrative work so she’d have time to begin training for her new workload, whatever that might be. Meanwhile, she wrestled with her feelings about Michelle’s appearance at Gherring’s apartment the previous night. On one hand, this could be an answer to her problems. Her arrival had certainly put a damper on Gherring’s escalating lure. But she worried Michelle was too fickle for him. Hadn’t she been crying about Henri just the week before? In Anne’s experience, you couldn’t love one person one week and another the next. She didn’t want Gherring to be caught in a bad marriage. Especially one based on Michelle’s chameleon emotions.

Steven Gherring didn’t arrive until almost ten o’clock. And when he came, he came with a vengeance.

“Ms. Best,” he said as he breezed by her desk. “In my office please.”

She meekly followed him inside and he shut the door. “I’ve gotten caught up a little. I’ve already returned the phone calls from last week. We’ve had a few schedule changes, but nothing major—”

“Ms. Best, what are your plans for the Thanksgiving holidays?”

Anne swallowed hard. He wanted her to work during the holidays. And she was going to be in Paris. She’d simply have to lie and tell him she’d be in Texas.

“Well, I’m flying out tomorrow night, but I could be available to work by phone and Internet if you need me.”

“You’re going to see your family for Thanksgiving?”

“Well, the girls and I always get together with my dad for Thanksgiving.” So far, so good. She hadn’t actually lied yet.

His eyes narrowed. “So you’re flying to Fort Worth tomorrow night?”

“My plane leaves at six thirty. I was planning to leave work a little early. I hope that’s okay?”

This time his voice was strained. “Ms. Best. Are you flying to Texas tomorrow night, or are you flying to Paris?”

Her throat constricted. “Who… Who told you?”

“Michelle told me, but that’s quite beside the point. The point is, why didn’t
you
tell me?”

Anne’s temper rose. “Because I didn’t think it was any of your business where I went for Thanksgiving.”

“So on one hand you want to know everything I do in this company and work with me on every business transaction and investment. But on the other hand, you don’t think it’s my business if you have an affair with the head of another company?”

“First, it’s not an affair. And second, I thought you had a cooperative agreement with La Porte. Doesn’t that make him sort of a part of your company?”

“Exactly! I think I need to know what’s going on between my employees.”

Anne’s wrath came bubbling to the surface. “Well, in that case… Mr. Gherring, sir. Please let me inform you I’m flying to Paris tomorrow to spend four days with Henri. And I plan to tour Paris and visit a very sick little girl in the hospital. And I’ll be sleeping in my
own
room at Henri DuBois’ house.”

Now passionate tears began to spill onto her cheeks. “And I’ll probably hug him frequently, and I might let him kiss me. And maybe you’d also like to know I haven’t let anyone else kiss me for the past fifteen years. So maybe I’m a weak person to let him kiss me, but it feels nice. And maybe it’s just something I need right now.”

He’d taken a few steps back as her frantic tirade began. Now he came toward her and held out his hands in supplication. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”

“Will there be anything else, sir?” She backed away from him and looked away, swiping at her tears.

“Anne… I didn’t want—”

“I’m afraid I need to visit the ladies room. I’ll be at my desk if you need me for anything else of vital importance.” She walked out the door without closing it behind her.

Gherring didn’t bring up Henri or Paris again, but their conversations were tense and stilted. Both made an effort to talk only about business. He acted as though their exchange had never occurred, discussing her new job responsibilities and how to inform the other employees.

“I’ve decided to name your position as a new department in the company. I’ll call it Coordination, and you’ll start out as the only team member. Then if we don’t think it’s successful, we’ll just dissolve the department. At that point, would you be willing to move to CMA?”

“Sir, I’m willing to move to CMA at any time. It’s entirely up to you,” she replied without emotion.

He sighed. “Ms. Best, if we’re going to work closely together, you’ll find I have more than a few imperfections. I get stressed and irritable. I may sometimes get a little testy. I might say things that offend you.”

He caught her eyes. “I need to know you’ll be able to overlook an occasional lapse in my demeanor and comportment.”

Anne’s eyes softened. “I’m sorry. I know I have a temper. I’m usually able to control it, but with you… I don’t know. You just seem to push my buttons sometimes, just like my kids. But I can forgive your slip-ups, if you can forgive mine.”

“It’s a deal.” His eyes crinkled in the corners.

“Oh… and one more thing.”

“Yes, Ms. Best?”

“I’d appreciate it, if you’d forget most of what I said earlier today.”

He chuckled. “I’ll try. But you do make an impressive speech when you’re angry.”

As predicted, Katie was not pleased at the prospect of searching for another secretary for Gherring.

“I can’t believe I have to find you a
new
executive assistant. Do you know how long it took me, how much work I had to do to get you to hire Ms. Best?” She was on a rampage.

Gherring said, “Ms. Carson, you seem to be a bit more outspoken than you used to be—”

“I just want you to know if this is a trick to make me stay here after I’m married, it’s not going to work.”

He commented to Anne. “I think perhaps you’re rubbing off on Ms. Carson. I’d better keep you far away from my next secretary.” Anne started to protest, but he let out a chuckle.

“Katie, please. I promise to make it easy this time. I’ve finally accepted you’re leaving me. You and Ms. Best can choose someone for me from the candidates we’ve already interviewed. Just set up one quick interview appointment with me. It will be on a three-month trial period.”

Anne said, “You mentioned that one girl, Lana something…”

“Yes, do you remember, Ms. Carson? Lana Stewart?”

“Her name was Lana Seward. She was extremely qualified and experienced, attractive, well-spoken.”

“How old is she?” Anne asked.

“I think she was about thirty-five,” Katie replied.

“She sounds perfect,” said Anne, already contemplating the possibilities.

“And I do believe she’s married,” he said with a sideways smile at Anne.

“Oh,” Anne replied. She turned her head and stuck out her tongue at him.

He chuckled and said, “Score one for Gherring.”

“What?” asked Katie.

“Nothing,” said Gherring and Anne in unison.

“Will you mind if I read all your business email?” Anne asked Gherring. “I know it won’t make any sense at first, but eventually it’ll all fall into place.”

“Yes, and just sit in on my meetings. But that’ll need to come later. First I need you to meet with Jared and get an understanding of your responsibilities with the Swiss companies. These first few weeks are really critical. They could still back out of the deal. I’ve already sent out an office-wide memo and spoken to HR about the new department. And I’ve set up for you to meet with Jared this afternoon.”

“What did Jared say about my new job?”

“Why would he say anything about it?”

“I just thought it might bother people for me to get some sort of promotion when I don’t have education and experience.”

His face darkened. “No one here would dare to question my decisions.”

“No, of course not.” But Anne had her doubts. “Okay, I’ll go meet with Jared.”

Working with Jared was even more entertaining than she’d expected. His constant jovial attitude, funny stories, and clever quips made the time pass quickly. But Anne was surprised both at the amount of work they accomplished and the knowledge she gained in a single afternoon.

“Let me ask you something, Jared. Will you be honest with me?”

“Sure thing. What’s up?”

“I just want to know if you think I can do this job. Almost everyone here has an MBA and, I don’t know…”

He smiled. “You can do anything. I’ve never seen any other employee with the b—, I mean gumption to chew out Mr. Gherring.” He laughed. “And then you end up with a promotion.”

“Yes, I’m trying to learn to control my temper,” she said, averting her eyes from his curious inspection.

“But seriously, you catch on to everything really quickly. I didn’t even understand some of the stuff you talked about on Jeff’s part of the presentation.”

She smiled gratefully. “Thanks, Jared. You’ve got a really encouraging personality. Do you have a younger, single brother I could fix my daughter up with?”

“Ha! Nope, I’ve got five, count ‘em, five older sisters. That’s why I laugh about everything. In my house you had to learn to laugh to survive.”

Gram called just as Anne was about to leave for the day. “I’m picking you up for dinner. We need to talk.”

When she climbed into the back seat with Gram, she noticed Gram appeared to be upset.

“It’s about Michelle,” said Gram. “She’s back in town again… And I think she’s set her sights on Steven again.”

Anne swallowed. “Well, I guess that’s good, isn’t it? Didn’t you want them to get married?”

Gram frowned. “I’m not sure I trust her anymore. Last week she was going on about Henri DuBois.” She spat out his name like it tasted bad. “And I know you like Henri and you think I’m misjudging him, but there’s no comparison between him and my Steven.”

Gram was obviously waiting for her to agree, so she nodded her head in response.

“She’s a manipulator, that one. Oh, I’ve loved her since she was a baby, but I’ve always known her parents spoiled her rotten. She’s always had her daddy wrapped around her finger so tight he’s still bent when she lets him go. And she always gets her way.”

“So you don’t want Steven to marry her?”

Gram squinted. “I think he can do better, don’t you?”

She had to agree. She felt like Michelle was using Steven to fill a void left by Henri. “I guess I concur.”

“So what do you think we should do?” Gram asked.

“Well, I’m leaving for Paris tomorrow…”

“Steven’s a grown man who hasn’t had much female company in the last few years. I’m afraid if she offers herself, he won’t be able to resist. She’s beautiful, you know.”

She knew just how beautiful Michelle had looked when she visited Gherring last night. And she sounded so needy. Gherring was a sucker for a woman in need. And she was unscrupulous. She’d told Steven about Anne’s trip to Paris after promising she wouldn’t. Maybe she’d already offered herself to Gherring. Maybe she’d spent the night with him last night.