‘You do realise you were about to get yourself slapped with an assault charge? It doesn’t matter whether you intend to actually harm a person or not. If the threat is there…’ His mouth twitched. ‘Even if it is a threat of attack by killer chopsticks. What would you have done? Poked her eye out with one?’
‘Dear God.’ Suddenly she wished she could sit down. ‘I can’t believe—’
‘Hey.’ The humour left his face. ‘You’ve been under stress. I seriously doubt you’d have done her any harm.’
The stress might explain the chopstick idea. It didn’t explain why she had stood passively while Nate Barrett had kissed her.
To him it had been an act, of course. A way to stop her from getting into trouble with Margaret’s lawyer.
The surprise of it had got to her. That was why she hadn’t resisted. Now resentment and anger flared afresh. She met those feelings with relief. How dared he stroll back here after years of absence and kiss his grandfather’s PA just like that, anyway? ‘Couldn’t you have stopped me some other way?’
‘I had limited time and no idea who you were.’ Chrissy Gable had asked a simple question, yet Nate didn’t have a simple answer. Nothing had been simple since he got the message that his grandfather had suffered a stroke.
Wanting Chrissy was yet another complication. He didn’t want to admit that touching her hadn’t only been for the sake of expediency. ‘It seemed the best way to get that arm away from your weaponry without drawing the lawyer’s notice.’
A casual touch. Two simple kisses that should have meant nothing. Instead, that touch, those kisses, had started a slow burn in his gut. In truth, the burn had started the moment he’d locked gazes with her. And it hadn’t stopped yet.
‘I guess I should thank you, even if you’ve given Margaret the impression that we’re close, and that I go around wearing priceless artefacts in my hair, instead of store-bought kitchen implements.’ Chrissy’s mouth pursed. ‘I couldn’t find anything else, you see, so I thought the chopsticks would do.’
He gave a cursory nod. Wondered if her lateral thinking extended to other areas of her life. Like her love life. His interest in her burned, but it wouldn’t be wise to act on it.
Relationships—the ones that mattered—didn’t work out for Nate. He had proved it first with his mother, then later with Henry. Nowadays, he preferred to be alone and to keep his involvements casual. It was the sensible choice.
Chrissy Gable didn’t strike him as the casual type. ‘Very inventive of you to raid the kitchen for hairdressing implements.’
‘Sometimes innovation is the only way.’ She toyed with the frames of her glasses.
His gaze roved over her. Nut-brown hair sat in a coronet of braids atop her head with the two chopsticks poking out at angles. A grey business suit clung to her slender body and made her eyes seem brighter.
Those eyes behind the enormous horn-rimmed glasses changed as he watched her. Chilled. She might have responded to him minutes ago, but she clearly didn’t want to accept the attraction. It was more, even, than that. ‘You’ve chosen not to like me, haven’t you?’
‘That’s true. I don’t like you.’ Attraction aside, she clearly meant it. ‘I also don’t know that I can trust you with Henry, any more than I could trust Margaret. But you’re the only hope I’ve got.’
‘You have no choice but to trust me.’ I share the attraction, Chrissy Gable, and I wonder what we’re going to do about that?
The answer should be a clear-cut nothing, but he wanted to explore further. To test out these reactions they shared. A little curiosity never hurt anyone. So maybe he would test the waters. If he felt so inclined.
It was a choice, after all, not a necessity. ‘Your distress call brought me. Did you think I wouldn’t answer it when I received your message?’
Her face told him she had thought precisely that. And had damned him for it, for the years of absence.
It amazed him that he wanted to defend himself. What could he say?
When my grandfather’s new wife turned up naked in my bed, I decided Australia wasn’t big enough for the three of us and I left?
He had made the choice so Henry wouldn’t have to know of Margaret’s behaviour. Now he was back for a short time and uncertain of his reception. He certainly wasn’t going to tell this prickly woman any of that! ‘It’s time I saw my grandfather.’
‘I’ll come with you.’ She chewed on her lip, before saying grudgingly, ‘Thank you for stopping me before. It’s appreciated, but it doesn’t mean I won’t make you sorry if you upset Henry yourself.’
‘He’s awake? Lucid?’ His heart thumped. In moments he might be speaking to Henry. Would his grandfather look at him with those same wounded eyes that had begged an explanation Nate hadn’t been able to give?
Six years ago, when Nate had made it clear he had to go and refused to say why, Henry had sold him the overseas arm of the company for a pittance. Had insisted Nate take it. Nate had tried to be generous in return, but Henry had refused to accept any money from the business Nate had turned into a multi-million-dollar concern.
Then, three years ago, Henry had asked Nate to come back. To share once more in the running of the business here. Henry had seemed almost desperate. Nate had told his grandfather he didn’t want to make that step backward. ‘You said he’d spoken—’
‘I’m sorry. No. I made that up to try to keep Margaret at bay. He’s disoriented.’ Her mouth pursed into a ferocious moue. ‘That’s temporary. He’ll be back to his normal self and tossing cryptic clues around the office again before we know it.’
‘Clues about what?’ He shook his head. It wasn’t important. The only things that mattered were Henry’s health, and keeping the company in good order. Those, Nate could work on. If Henry would trust him with them.
‘Never mind. Look, if my grandfather’s condition isn’t temporary—’
‘Of course your grandfather’s condition is temporary.’ She said it with such passion that his body hummed in response.
Unnerved, he raised an eyebrow, feigning an indifference he didn’t feel. ‘Surely nobody can be sure of that at this stage?’
‘I don’t understand why you would say such things. Henry has to get better. Completely better. I refuse to contemplate any other option.’ On those heartfelt words, she opened the door of the hospital room, and entered.
Nate followed. His grandfather looked awful. Tubes and monitors covered Henry. His long frame seemed defenceless beneath the hospital-issue linens. Henry appeared to have aged ten years since Nate had seen him, not six.
This sick, vulnerable man would never run a company again. Henry was seventy years old, should have retired years before. It hit Nate hard that he should have seen that need when Henry asked him to come back. He would never have returned here, but he should have made Henry agree to retirement.
‘Gramps.’ The word caught in his throat. Hadn’t been used since Nate was a child and Henry had taken him in when his mother opted out.
Nate reached out a hand to touch Henry’s where it lay against the covers. Without raising his gaze, he said in a low voice to Chrissy, ‘Sit down. You’re feeling the strain more than you realise.’
‘How did you know?’ She sat abruptly.
How had Nate known? He had simply intuited her feelings, had felt connected closely enough to her even at opposite sides of a hospital bed that he just knew.
‘Surprised…you…came. No…need.’ His grandfather’s voice was slurred, his breath laboured, the