Reluctant Date (11 page)

Carol, who was whippet thin, and who wore her dark hair pulled
back into a tight ponytail, looked both upset and worried when she saw
Beth.
 
“You haven’t come in for Mr
Marchant’s order have you?
 
I phoned the
supplier yesterday and he promised to send it but it wasn’t on the delivery van
this morning.”

“Then he’ll have to wait like the rest of us!” Beth was
unsympathetic.

“That’s all very well for you to say.
 
You don’t have to phone him up and tell him.
Last time it arrived late he spent five minutes bawling me out.” The other
woman seemed close to tears.

“Well if he does it again just cut the call!”

“I can’t do that!” She seemed genuinely horrified at the
suggestion.

“Yeah, you can, and if he doesn’t like it then he’ll have to
find another way to buy his smelly cigars. He’s a cranky old man who enjoys
upsetting everyone.
 
If more people stood
up to him, then perhaps he’d start to be a bit nicer all round.”

She turned to Claire with an apologetic smile.
 
“As you’ve probably realized by now, my dear
father-in-law isn’t my most favourite person.
 
He lost his sight a few years back and he’s been taking it out on
everyone else ever since, including Carol, whose family has been looking after
the Marchants for years.”

Carol forgot her own worries and gave Claire a wide
smile.
 
“I guess you’re the person who’s
joining Daniel’s conservation company.”

“She is.
 
And, luckily
for her, she won’t have to have anything to do with the old man because, unlike
poor Daniel, she’s not working in the family business as well.”

* * *

Claire left a grocery order with Carol and promised to tell
her if she ever wanted anything that wasn’t stocked on the overflowing shelves.
Then they left her to chase up her late orders and walked slowly up the main
street while Beth ticked off the other establishments she thought might be
useful.

“There’s the post office,” she said, pointing.
 
“It closes twelve ‘til two and it’s not open
weekends.
 
The one and only bank is next
door. And that blue building is the bookshop.
 
Only go in there if you have an hour or more to spare because Tom Cook,
who runs it, doesn’t let anyone out until he’s told them his life story! And
just across the street is the hairdresser. Not that you’re going to need to go
there very often,” she added as she looked admiringly at Claire’s thick black
hair.”

Laughing at Beth’s description of what was to be her home
for at least the next six months, Claire finally managed to ask the question
that had been intriguing her ever since they left the supermarket.

“Is Mr Marchant senior really that bad?”

“Worse!” Beth’s reply was swift and to the point. “His
mother is a love though, or at least she was until recently.
 
Now she’s just depressed. I think she’s so
worn down by the old fiend’s bullying she’s sort of given up.”

“And what about the rest of the family?”

“Oh they’ve all escaped.
 
Well the twins have because they are away at college for most of the
year, and Sarah is married and lives in Texas.
 
And as my father-in-law has made it very clear Carl and I are not
welcome, we never visit, so that just leaves Daniel.”

“How does he cope?”

Beth gave her a sharp look.
 
“You’ll find out soon enough.
 
In
the meantime, we’ve arrived.”

Not sure whether she had been reprimanded for being too
nosey, or whether Beth had merely lost interest in the conversation, Claire
followed her along a path that meandered in a haphazard fashion across half an
acre of rough grass. It ended at a low wooden building set amongst trees and
shrubs.
 
Painted a soft green, it merged
with the foliage surrounding it.
 
The
door stood wide, and all the windows were open.

“Here we are at last!” Beth announced to what appeared to be
an empty office.
 
Her words were greeted
by a moment’s silence followed by a series of bumps and thumps, and then a loud
oath as a man crawled out from beneath a desk. He rubbed his head and stood up.
He was dressed in dark shorts and a green T-shirt bearing the company logo.

He grinned at Claire and stuck out his hand.
 
“Sorry about that!
 
The computer is on the blink.
 
I’m Scott. Welcome aboard!”

Hoping that her jaw hadn’t actually dropped open, Claire
took his hand with a dazed smile because he was, without a doubt, one of the
most beautiful men she had ever seen.
 
About Daniel’s height, but broader, it was obvious he worked out
regularly. And his olive skin, dark hair, strong cleft chin and perfect teeth
made him the hero of every romantic novel she had ever read.

* * *

An hour later, logged onto a new laptop computer and
surrounded by piles of leaflets and company reports, Claire listened to Scott
making coffee in the tiny storeroom that doubled as a kitchen, and wondered
anew at her good fortune.
 
An apartment
on the beach, early morning assignations with pelicans and dolphins, and now a
work colleague whose film star looks were combined with a sweet nature and an
enthusiasm for his job that left her breathless.

His stunning looks could have turned him into the sort of
man who considered it his divine right to have all women at his beck and
call.
 
He could have been a nightmare to
work with. Instead, he was friendly and down to earth, apparently ready to turn
his hand to anything, including making the coffee. All she had to learn to do
was to stop staring at him so that he didn’t get the wrong idea. It was going
to be very difficult though, because her photographer’s eye was already
conjuring up a thousand and one poses for the company’s publicity
material.
 
If Daniel was trying to widen
its appeal then Scott was his man. Leaflets with a picture of him on the front
would draw in every female tourist within miles of Dolphin Key.

“I didn’t tell you that the job had a hidden bonus, did I?”
Beth whispered wickedly as she dumped yet another pile of papers on Claire’s
desk. “And he’s single too. No complicated past. No girlfriends that I know
of.
 
So as that date with Daniel didn’t
work out, you’re both completely fancy-free. How lucky is that!”

Their eyes met and they both dissolved into giggles, which
they struggled to hide as Scott came out of the kitchen carrying three mugs of
coffee. Taking hers, Claire thanked him without daring to look at Beth.
 
Even though they had only met that morning,
they already understood one another perfectly.
 
Sisters under the skin, she thought, and she was suddenly very glad she
had made the move to Florida.
 

It
was
time she
got out more, did something with her life.
 
Like Wendy in Peter Pan, which had always been her favourite childhood
story, it was time she learned to fly. If she got shot down by an arrow to the
heart, then so what?
 
The wound would
heal and she would just have to get up and try again.

Chapter Ten

Claire spent the rest of the day either being briefed by
Scott or forced to concentrate on various administrative functions by Beth.

“I know I can’t compete but this stuff is really important,”
she complained when Claire’s attention was diverted yet again by Scott dropping
another report onto her desk. “You need to know where I file everything, how
the expense system works, who you need to talk to if there’s an emergency, all
that sort of thing, or you won’t be able to function on the days when I’m not here.”

Scott hastily retrieved the report from Claire’s desk and
shoved it into his top drawer. “Sorry! Sorry! Sorry! She’s right. I’ll grab
some sandwiches for us while you two discuss all the boring stuff!”

Beth threw a screwed up ball of paper at his retreating back
and then turned to Claire.
 
“I don’t come
in on Wednesdays or Fridays because that’s when I help Carl at the print shop.
All the major stuff can wait until I’m here of course, but there will still be
things you’ll have to deal with such as queries from the public, or where to
find a particular document.”

Claire gave Beth her full attention. “I didn’t realize. I
guess I just thought you worked here while Carl ran his own business. I didn’t
know there was an overlap.”

“That would be far too simple and straightforward for the
Marchant family,” Beth told her.
 
“No,
Carl runs his own print design business, and I share my time between him and
Daniel, that’s when I’m not acting as a buffer between them and their father!”

Remembering her bitter remarks earlier in the day Claire
decided to steer the conversation towards Carl rather than his father. “What
sort of design work does he do?”

“All the basic stuff, letterheads, leaflets, posters, that
sort of thing. Most of the local businesses use him now although it took us a
while to persuade them.
 
And Daniel uses
him too of course, so you’ll be working with him once you start to revamp some
of these leaflets with your photos.”

She saw the panicked expression on Claire’s face and
grinned.
 
“Don’t worry. He won’t mention
THAT date!
 
Not if he knows what’s good
for him anyway.”

Claire gave a relieved laugh.
 
“He seems to have dug himself into a deep
hole with you as well as Daniel over that.”

“You better believe it!
 
Now are you going to let me take you through the admin system or not?”

“I’m all yours,” Claire assured her as she turned her back
on the stuff Scott had given her and moved her chair across to Beth’s desk.

* * *

The rest of the day passed quickly, especially when, after a
hurried lunch of shared sandwiches, Scott took Claire through the program of
events he had penciled into the calendar for the forthcoming year. Fascinated
by such items as
Horseshoe Crab Bonanza,
Down Upon the Suwanee River
and
Runway
Osprey,
none of which meant anything at all to her, she realized that she
had a great deal to learn about the place that was to be her home for at least
the next few months.

She and Scott were still discussing some of the details when
Daniel finally turned up.
 
Not aware she
had an audience, Claire was making a robust case for a change to one of the
puzzle books that had been produced for children.

“Photographs would make it so much more interesting.
 
These line drawings are good but they don’t
have the punch of an actual picture. Children are fine with drawn illustrations
in story books but when it’s factual stuff they want real pictures of the
things they’re learning about.”

“Told you she knew her stuff!” Daniel walked across the room
and picked up a copy of the booklet they were talking about, chuckling as he
did so.

Scott nodded.
 
“It’s
exactly what I need.
 
A challenge.
 
No more
do
what you think is best Scott, because we are all too busy to listen to you.
”

“Are they really that bad?” Claire joined in with the
banter.

“Worse!” Scott told her.
 
Then he cleared his desk by scooping all the papers into his drawer with
one sweep of his arm. “They’re quite good drinking companions though. Who’s for
a beer?”

“Not me, I’ve got a house to run,” Beth had tidied her own
desk and now she picked up her bag and made for the door.
 

“As if!” Scott jeered at her retreating back.
 
“Everyone knows Carl does all the ironing and
the cooking.
 
You’re probably going home
to drape yourself across the sofa and watch him stir saucepans.”

“Ah yes but I’m going to drape in a very supportive way,”
she grinned at them all, blew a kiss, and was gone.

“How about you Claire?” Scott asked as he pushed back his
chair, stood up and stretched. “Can we welcome you to Dolphin Key with a
celebratory drink.”

Claire glanced at her watch.
 
“I don’t really have the time.
 
I
promised Carol I would pick up my groceries before the supermarket closes.”

“Not a problem, we can do that on the way.
 
In fact I’ll even carry them home for you as
long as you don’t tell Beth. I don’t want her to think my male chauvinist
tendencies have softened.”

“In that case…”

“I can do better than that. I have transport or, to be more
precise, Claire has transport,” Daniel interrupted, suddenly wondering if
putting Claire and Scott together had been such a good idea after all.
 
It was one thing for work colleagues to get
on well, entirely another when they got on too well. He hoped that wasn’t about
to happen here before he made a move of his own. Surely Claire would see Scott
for what he was. A great guy, a good worker, but emotionally on the shallow
side. Someone who appeared to want a good time without any responsibilities,
and someone whose looks and physique ensured that he usually managed to get it.

Banishing such uncharitable thoughts, he smiled at Claire’s
questioning look. “Come and take ownership of your company car,” he said.