Not Strictly Business!: Prodigal Son / The Boss and Miss Baxter / The Baby Deal. Victoria Pade

for her potential humiliation.

      “Hi, Jack,” she began, before starting her prepared speech. “I wanted to stop by and—”

      She came to a stop in the center of the room and stared at him.

      He sat at the conference table, the speakerphone in front of him, notes spread out. He looked as if he’d received horrible news.

      She hurried to the table. “What happened? Are you all right?”

      He shrugged. “I’m fine. I had the phone call with several investors and some people from the street. It didn’t go well.”

      Of course. The problems with Hanson Media Group. As if he weren’t dealing with enough from that, she was torturing him on weekends. How spiffy.

      “I’m sorry,” she said, sinking into the chair across from his. “I’m guessing they had a lot of questions.”

      “Oh, yeah. Plenty of suggestions, too. None of them especially helpful. But this is why they pay me the big bucks, right? So I can take the heat.”

      Maybe. But Jack wasn’t interested in the money or the job. “Talk about a nightmare,” she murmured.

      “One I can’t wake up from. But that’s not why you stopped by. What’s up?”

      “I wanted to tell you I’m sorry about what happened on—”

      “Stop,” he said. “No apologizes required.”

      “But I want to explain. It’s not what you think.”

      He raised his eyebrows.

      She sighed. “Okay. Maybe it is what you think. I’m having some trouble making up my mind about what I want. I’m working on that. The thing is, I don’t want you to think it’s about you. It’s not. It’s about me, and well, who you are. Which isn’t the same as it being about you.”

      He smiled. “None of that made sense, but it’s okay. Let’s just forget it and move on. You didn’t like what happened and I’m okay with that.”

      She started to tell him that she had liked him kissing her, but stopped herself. That wasn’t the point … at least she didn’t think it was.

      “You push my buttons,” she admitted instead. “You have some qualities in common with my ex-husband.”

      Jack winced. “Not the good ones, right?”

      “Sorry, no.”

      “Just my luck.” He glanced out the window at the view of the city. Rain darkened the horizon and made the lights sparkle. “Life would be a lot less complicated without relationships.”

      “Not possible. Then we’d be nothing but robots.”

      “Or just very sensible people. Like Vulcans.”

      She smiled. “I’m not sure we should aspire to pointed ears.”

      “But their philosophy—no emotion. I understand the appeal.”

      “Too much pressure?” she asked, already knowing the answer.

      “Too much everything. I remember when I was a lot younger. My brothers and I really got along. My father was busy with work, so there was just us and whatever nanny worked for him that month.”

      “I’m guessing the three of you were a handful.”

      He grinned. “Full of energy and imagination. It was an interesting combination. What I can’t figure out is when we stopped being a family. That’s David’s big complaint and he’s right. We don’t pull together. I want to blame my father, but that only works so long. The three of us are grown-ups. We need a new excuse.”

      “Or maybe a way to change things. Would you like to be close to your brothers now?”

      He nodded slowly. “Maybe together we could figure out how to fix this mess. But I can’t get Evan and Andrew to return my calls. When it’s time to read the will, I’ll have to drag them back here. It’s crazy.”

      “But they will come back,” she said. “You could talk to them.”

      “I don’t know what to say anymore. How sad is that?”

      She had to agree it was pretty awful. If she had a brother or sister, she wouldn’t ever want to lose touch.

      “Maybe if you talk to Helen,” she said without thinking. “She might have some ideas.”

      Jack looked at her. “No, thanks.”

      Samantha felt herself bristle. “What is it with you?” she asked. “Why won’t you even give the woman a chance? Name me one thing she’s done that you don’t approve of. Give me one example of where she screwed up big time.”

      “I don’t have any specific events,” he said.

      “Then what’s the problem? You said you trusted my opinion of her and were going to stop assuming the worst.” He made her crazy. Jack could be so reasonable about other things, but when it came to Helen, he refused to be the least bit logical.

      “I don’t think the worst,” he said.

      “You certainly don’t think anything nice. She’s pretty smart. Why don’t you talk to her about the business?”

      “My father wouldn’t have told her anything.”

      “How do you know?”

      “He didn’t talk to anyone about the company.”

      “To the best of your knowledge. Did it ever occur to you that he might have married her because she’s smart and capable? That maybe when things went bad, he talked to her.” She held up both hands. “I’m not saying I know anything. But neither do you. You treat Helen like she’s a twenty-one-year-old bimbo your father married because she had big breasts. It’s crazy. You have an asset there you’re not using.”

      He looked at her. “You’re a very loyal friend.”

      “Helen makes it easy to be. Will you at least think about what I’ve said?”

      He nodded. “Promise.”

      She was fairly sure she believed him. Jack had never lied to her. But why was this an issue in the first place? Why didn’t he already know his stepmother’s good points? Every family had secrets, but this one seemed to have more than most.

      “It was just my mom and me,” she said. “I can’t relate to problems inherent in a large family.”

      “Want to trade?” he asked, then grimaced. “I’m sorry. I know you and your mom were close. You must still miss her.”

      She nodded, thinking she’d missed her most during the last few months of her marriage. When she’d wondered if Vance was really what she’d thought or if she’d been overreacting.

      “We’d always had a special relationship,” she said, “but we got even closer after my dad left. There was something about worrying about our next meal that put things in perspective.”

      “The man was a first-class bastard,” Jack told her. “You haven’t talked to him since?”

      “He never wanted to talk to me. When I got older, I tried a few times, but eventually I gave up. He just wasn’t interested. I heard he passed away a couple of years after my mom.”

      “I won’t say I’m sorry. Not about him.”

      “I always think that things could have been different. I wasn’t interested in him for what I could get. I just wanted a relationship with my father. But he never understood that. Why do relationships have to be so complicated?”

      “Not a clue.”

      She stood. “Okay, I’ve taken up enough of your time. I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry.”