‘A masked ball in the middle of a plant maze is ambitious.’ One side of his mouth kicked up. ‘But I’m sure if anyone can carry it off it’ll be you.’
‘The Silver Bells organisers have put their faith in me, so I have no choice now.’ She said it laughingly, but the importance of it was never far from her thoughts.
She wouldn’t have had the opportunity if Linc hadn’t agreed to let her take the risk.
‘It’ll pay off, Linc. Your whole chain of plant nurseries will get good attention out of our participation in the Silver Bells event.’
Linc owned a dozen nurseries across the city, along with bucketloads of real estate and a commodities trading portfolio that, on its own, probably ran into millions. He truly was the quintessential millionaire bachelor, with the world at his feet. They were more than poles apart, which had made her faux pas of throwing herself at him six years ago even more embarrassing.
He hadn’t been interested. She’d mistaken his charming way for something it wasn’t, and then—moments after he’d let Cecilia down as gently as anyone possibly could have—a woman had arrived for her lunch date with him. A sophisticated older woman.
Old news, Cee. Linc played the gentleman that day, apologised that he’d given the wrong impression and went off on his date with Ms Socialite while you went back to digging around in potting mix. And you got over it.
Cecilia had worked hard to impress him professionally since then, and she’d dated. Then she’d found Hugh, and that relationship had lasted almost two years. Linc had no doubt dated lots more versions of Ms Socialite, too, though Cecilia had not heard of him ever being in a serious long-term relationship since she’d known him.
‘I appreciate you coming in for the business review. I know you’re busy. Actually, I thought you might have sent someone to do it for you.’
‘You’ve earned this opportunity, and I felt I owed it to you to undertake the review myself.’ Sincerity rang in his tone. ‘I want to grant you that twenty per cent share in the nursery if I can, and no one else will understand your work here and your vision the way that I do.’
That was true. Even though the bulk of their interactions were over the phone, she’d always reported regularly to Linc.
And she’d negotiated—refusing bonuses over the years in favour of building up to this: a chance to own a share in the nursery. One day she wanted to open her own business.
‘I hope the review proves my efforts worthy of your time.’
Linc might have rejected her overtures, but he had been her example since he’d first taken her on and let her manage one of his nurseries six years ago, with no experience and only her determination to get her through. He was proof that a person could achieve anything if they wanted it enough.
What would he be now? Thirty-four? Thirty-five? Still with the same deep timbre to his voice, the same way of wearing his work boots, jeans and chambray shirt with an authority overlaid with a deceptive dose of casual charm.
With a strong chin, short-cut dark hair, those gorgeous shoulders and a way of carrying himself that shouted, Look out, world! Linc MacKay was in all ways a force to be reckoned with.
Linc would be making the nursery his base while he undertook the review. They’d be spending quite a bit of time in each other’s company. It couldn’t be a worse time for that old awareness of him to resurface. Whatever had brought it back, she needed her interest in him gone. Now, if not sooner.
Cecilia began the return walk towards the equipment shed and the front office.
‘I know I’ll see good results here, Cecilia. With each new nursery you’ve managed, you’ve improved on the last.’ Linc fell into step beside her in the maze. ‘I have taken it all in, you know—including the way this one has exceeded all expectations. Bringing coach tours in on a daily basis, gaining that whole new layer of tourism clientele...that has shown real vision.’
His words made every moment of her hard work feel doubly worth it. Cecilia couldn’t help smiling as she quietly thanked him.
‘Our social media presence has made a difference, too. I’m blessed to have Jemmie here, with her skills in photography and videography. Her plants-growing-and-bursting-into-flower videos get a lot of attention online.’
‘You found a good asset in her.’
His compliment pleased her, but it was his simple gesture for her to precede him through a narrower section of the maze that brought back that earlier flutter to Cecilia’s pulse. It felt intimate to her. As though they’d met here for a morning tryst and were returning now to their ‘real’ lives.
How silly.
Planning for this masked ball must be messing with her brain. Cecilia couldn’t come up with a more feasible explanation for her sudden case of hyper-Linc-awareness.
Or perhaps you’ve simply been out of your relationship with Hugh long enough to open your eyes and look around you?
If so, she could cast her attention in some other direction, thank you very much. Because Linc was not for her and she’d accepted that fact and got over caring about it a very long time ago.
She had, right...?
‘Thank you, Linc, for the commitment you’ve made to do this review.’
If the words were a little stiff and formal, that couldn’t be helped. Surely that was better than falling all over him, even if only inside her own thoughts.
‘I know it’s time away from the other demands of your life.’
‘I suspect some of those demands will follow me here, but I’ll do my best not to disrupt you.’ A teasing smile came and went.
Cecilia ignored how that smile made her tummy flutter. It had to be the kind of smile that one friend might share with another, or a person who’d known another person for years, or a boss who felt comfortable with his employee. And Cecilia fell into the latter category. Yes, she’d known Linc for years, but they were work associates with a lot of professional ground walked over in that span of time.
Therefore his smile must be a perfectly normal one that meant nothing whatsoever outside those bounds. He couldn’t help it if he was cute.
Great avoiding of his appeal, Cee.
He went on. ‘I don’t want to make a painful time out of this for you.’
‘I’m sure it will be fine.’ No matter the outcome, she knew Linc would be fair in his assessment. Whether she could eliminate the painful knowledge of her reawakened awareness of him was another challenge altogether.
But it was one that she had to achieve, and she could not let the rest of her life mess with her head, either, while she got through the review. That would be easier said than done, when one part of it gnawed at her ceaselessly and she was still stinging over another part.
Well, no-longer-interested-and-nothing-could-keep-me-here-now Hugh could go and trip over and fall into a duck pond, for all she cared. And the other thing just...was.
Cecilia drew a breath.
Her personal life might not be as calm as she would like, but she could manage—and Linc didn’t need to know about any of it.
She detoured to leave her plant cuttings and basket in the potting shed, and then led the way to her office. ‘Come on in. How long do you think the review will take?’
‘Depending on how much I get interrupted, it shouldn’t take more than a few days.’
His gaze searched hers just a little bit too keenly for her comfort.