LITMIR.BIZ

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stay for ever she would prefer that to a party any day.’

      Where on earth had that come from? Holly clamped a hand to her mouth to stop any further recriminating rubbish from slipping out.

      ‘Would she now?’ His voice whispered down the phone line silky smooth. The insinuation in his question clear.

      Holly rubbed her suddenly throbbing temples. ‘Ask her, Jacob,’ she said, pretending she had no idea what he had implied, ‘and see what she says.’

      ‘I am sure you are right,’ he said, his voice mercifully back to normal. ‘I guess I’ll wait to hear from Ana, then, to see how it’s all going.’

      ‘I would appreciate that. And Jacob?’

      ‘Yes, Holly.’

      ‘Thank you.’

      ‘Don’t thank me yet,’ he warned her before hanging up the phone.

      Holly put the phone down more slowly. Lydia was peering through the glass door with a big expectant grin on her face. Holly waved her into the room.

      ‘So?’ Lydia asked, her eyes bright with excitement.

      ‘It may soon be safe to dummy up a press release saying we’ve landed the Lincoln Holdings account.’

      ‘Yippee!’ Lydia spun around in glee before slumping down on the chair she had been standing on earlier, the important swathes of fabric temporarily forgotten.

      ‘You had no plans day or night for the next few weeks, did you?’ Holly asked.

      Lydia waved a ‘no worries’ hand. ‘The Klingon can wait.’

      Holly thought it better not to ask. ‘The sooner we ready our other projects, the sooner we can reel in Jacob Lincoln.’

      ‘You mean Lincoln Holdings, don’t you?’

      ‘Of course I do.’ Holly swiftly changed the subject. ‘Now, up you get, back on the chair so we can sort out these fabrics before lunch.’

      Lydia grumbled as she stood back up on the chair and stretched out her aching arms, ‘Sometimes I feel highly unappreciated.’

      ‘I can’t believe you just did that,’ Ben said from Jacob’s office doorway.

      Jacob knew from Ben’s smug expression he had been listening for long enough. ‘Believe it, Benny boy. It’s become too big for me and I’ve been contemplating outsourcing for some time.’ For three whole days, in fact.

      ‘This is the first I had heard of it.’

      ‘This is the first you needed to hear of it. That’s why the company is my namesake and not yours.’

      Ben sauntered into the room, and then lay back on a lounge chair against the far wall. He nonchalantly flipped through a magazine on Jacob’s coffee-table. ‘She didn’t go on any dates this weekend, you know. I had a couple of men lined up, including the new Accounts guy, Matt Riley, the one who tried chatting her up at the greyhound track. But she baulked.’

      There is no reason why that should concern me, Jacob thought, then realised he had stopped breathing.

      ‘And young Matt’s quite the looker, I am told by the girls in Accounts,’ Ben continued. ‘Babeliscious I think was the most common turn of phrase. Modelled his way through college, you know? But … still she said no.’

      Ben’s eyes left the magazine and zeroed in on Jacob, who hoped his face showed none of the curiosity he felt.

      ‘You wouldn’t happen to know why she has suddenly backed off, would you?’ Ben asked.

      Jacob merely shook his head, uncertain what state his voice would be in considering his suddenly dry throat. Maybe she had given up the hunt and had decided to become a normal single woman, capable of organising her own social life. Now that would be an interesting turn of events.

      Then Ben said, ‘Maybe she just needed to recharge her batteries. Ready herself for next week’s multitude of contenders.’

      ‘Maybe,’ Jacob conceded, thumping briskly back to earth.

      ‘Well, it’s been easier than I thought it would be. She really made an impression on the bunch at your welcome home thing at the track. Once word got around she was open to being set up, I’ve hardly had to do a thing.’

      ‘Lucky you.’

      ‘Yep. I’ve met all sorts of great guys this last week. I had to cancel one guy’s date but we got on so well I booked him in for a conciliatory lunchtime squash game.’

      Jacob was determined not to give Ben the satisfaction of knowing that his comments were surprisingly hitting the mark. He was actually feeling pangs of something akin to jealousy.

      ‘Was there something else I could help you with?’

      Ben looked to the ceiling for inspiration. ‘Nope.’

      ‘I can find work for you if you’re bored. I don’t think my blinds have been cleaned in the years I’ve been gone.’

      Ben looked at his watch. ‘Sorry, Link. I’ll be late for squash with my new friend.’

      He stood and ambled back to the door before looking back with an easy grin. ‘Just think, if Holly had not been run down by that oaf in the street the other week and been so turned off by him as to go on this husband hunt of hers, I would be eating lunch alone in my office right now. You’ve got to love the girl!’

      ‘Who’s an oaf?’ Jacob called out but Ben had already gone.

      So, Holly had been turned off by the ‘oaf’ in the street, had she? Jacob fumed. He grabbed a stick of gum and chewed it furiously as he swung sharply back and forth in his office chair.

      No wonder she had begged him not to tell Beth they had met before. Turned off! She had been practically undressing him with her eyes that first morning, he was certain of it. The little fraud. She deserved to be found out for twisting that incident to suit her.

      Unless she really had found him repellent from their first meeting. Every time he had seen her since she had been edgy and had made it clear she would rather be anywhere than in his presence. And she had flung the ‘not her type’ line in his face with convincing vigour.

      All the better for him if that was the end of it. No use wasting time struggling to bat down his growing attraction to the woman if he held no appeal for her in the first place.

      And then he stopped, mid swing, his feet planted firmly on the carpeted floor, and his hands grabbed his desk as he realised what Ben had unwittingly revealed. The one detail that made all of the above possibilities irrelevant.

      He was the reason behind Holly’s whole husband hunt.

      ‘That’s great Holly! What a coup,’ Beth said over the phone later that night. ‘And you’ll love Ana.’

      ‘Please tell me you can come.’

      ‘Of course. Unless the baby makes other plans we’ll be there with bells on.’

      ‘Bells will not be necessary. Evening wear will be fine.’

      Holly sat on her bed in her shortie pyjamas and thick socks, assuming the lotus position. She held the cordless phone to her ear, and rocked her neck back and forth easing out the niggling Monday-itis tensions.

      ‘Ben tells me you cancelled on two of your hopefuls on the weekend.’

      ‘Hmm. I needed a break.’

      ‘Really? No other reason? No one take your fancy yet from the hundreds Ben has supplied?’

      Holly heard the doubt in Beth’s voice loud and clear. ‘No one.’

      ‘Not even Jacob?’

      ‘Beth—’

      ‘Come

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