The Wager. Metsy Hingle

upset her.” Yet if what Olivia had told him about Laura Harte’s reaction to the older woman’s phone call was accurate, Josh suspected that the lady might very well be upset when she discovered why he was there.

      “Then make sure you don’t. Because I’m warning you, Logan, you upset Laura and I am going to be one unhappy guy.”

      Josh narrowed his gaze. “What gives, Nick? Something going on between you and Laura Harte besides business?” For some reason, the idea of his friend being involved with the woman whose photo he’d studied repeatedly since that night at Olivia’s left a foul taste in his mouth.

      “You know me better than that. I have rules about mixing business and pleasure, remember?”

      “Yeah. But I also remember a time when you broke those rules with my kid sister.”

      Heat flashed in Nick’s eyes. He pushed back his chair and strode over to the windows that overlooked the bay. When he turned around, his expression was once more inscrutable. “That was a long time ago. It wasn’t anything serious.”

      “Tell that to Faith. She blamed me when my folks shipped her off to intern at the London hotel that summer. She didn’t speak to me for months.”

      “She was just a kid.”

      “Yeah.” For the first time, Josh wondered if maybe he’d been wrong all those years ago. Could Nick have been more serious about Faith than he’d thought? When he’d first gotten wind that his best friend was romancing his baby sister, he’d been furious. He’d been sure Nick was just toying with Faith since he knew Nick was like him when it came to women—he enjoyed them but wasn’t interested in commitment. After he’d torn a strip off of his friend, he’d gone to his father and spilled the beans. “Faith thought she was in love with you, and she blamed me for busting you two up.”

      A haunted look came across Nick’s face. He turned away, stared out the window once more. “It was for the best. Anyway, I heard she got married.”

      “Unfortunately, I wasn’t around to check out the scumbag until it was too late and she married him. But I did make sure I was around to help her pick up the pieces when she came to her senses and divorced him.”

      The hand Nick had jammed through his hair stilled. He turned around. “Faith’s divorced?”

      “Almost a year ago.”

      “I hadn’t heard,” Nick said. “I’m sorry things didn’t work out for her.”

      Josh wasn’t sure what to make of Nick’s reaction. Was it possible that his friend had actually been serious about Faith?

      “Listen, about Laura…I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. She’s a terrific lady. Smart, really sharp. She works hard and has a real feel for the business. She’s good. Someday she’s going to make a hell of a GM. But there isn’t anything personal going on between us. We’re friends. Good friends. But that’s all.”

      Before he could stop himself Josh asked, “What about a boyfriend?”

      Despite his casual tone, Nick frowned. He eyed Josh closely. “None that I know of—or at least no one serious. Laura’s career has always been her primary focus. What makes you ask?”

      Josh shrugged. “Just curious.”

      Nick hesitated a long moment. “Well, just remember what I told you. Laura’s been through a rough time and is kind of fragile right now. Her mother’s death hit her hard, and the poor kid doesn’t have any other family.”

      Only Laura Harte did have family, Josh thought in silence. It might not be a family she wanted or accepted, but blood was blood. Nothing could change the fact that Laura Harte was a Jardine. And as a Jardine, she had a family—a grandmother, three siblings—and she was his key to finally getting back the Princess Hotel.

      Four

      Laura adjusted the lipstick-red scarf around her neck, then smoothed the skirt of her black dress just before the elevator dinged and the doors zipped open.

      Exiting the elevator, she forced a smile on her lips as she approached the desk of Nick’s very pregnant assistant. Although Jennifer Simmons was only four years younger than her, the difference might as well have been forty. The other woman had not only married her childhood sweetheart, but she was also expecting the birth of her first child. Whereas he…she had yet to meet any man she could imagine a long-term relationship with—let alone marriage.

      “Hi, Jen.”

      “Thank you, God,” the other woman said, lifting her eyes heavenward before she beamed at Laura. “I was desperately in need of a break, and here you are—giving me the perfect excuse to take one.”

      “To hear your boss tell it, you don’t usually need an excuse.”

      Jen crinkled her nose. “Who are you going to believe? Me or the slave driver?”

      “You, of course,” Laura said, grinning. “So how is the little mother-to-be feeling this afternoon?”

      “Like a blimp with legs. But the champ here is doing great,” she said, smiling as she smoothed a hand over her burgeoning middle. “In fact, I’m convinced this little guy has a future as a football or soccer star.”

      “Still kicking up a storm, hmm?”

      “Do fish swim? Why I—” Jen gasped and clutched her stomach.

      “What is it?” Laura demanded, suddenly alarmed. Fearing the baby was coming, she grabbed the phone and started to punch in 911. “Hang on. I’m calling the—” She stopped at the burst of laughter.

      “I’m sorry,” Jen told her, wiping tears from her eyes as her laughter subsided. “If you could have seen the look on your face.”

      Her heartbeat once again normal, Laura primly returned the phone to its cradle. “I’m glad one of us finds this amusing. You nearly scared me half to death, Jennifer Simmons. I thought you’d gone into labor,” she accused, but had difficulty acting royally miffed when she wanted to laugh, too.

      “I really am sorry,” Jen said again, the last of her giggles fading. “Although I have to admit there is a part of me that wishes I had gone into labor.”

      “Well, I for one am grateful that you didn’t. You’d be in worse shape than Scarlett O’Hara when she went into labor, because I don’t know anything about birthing babies.”

      Jen laughed as she was meant to do. “Oh, I think you’d manage just fine.”

      “Well, I’d just as soon we not find out—especially not two months early.”

      “Don’t remind me,” Jen groaned. “I can’t believe I still have two whole months to go.”

      “It’ll be here before you know it.”

      “I certainly hope so. I can hardly wait for this little guy to arrive. I want to hold him in my arms so bad. So does Bob,” she said. “I know it sounds sappy, but we love him already.”

      “It doesn’t sound sappy at all. I think it sounds sweet.”

      “It is,” Jen confessed. “But you’ll find that out for yourself someday when you’re expecting one of your own.”

      A lump formed in Laura’s throat. Would she ever know what it was to share that kind of love with someone? To feel a new life growing inside her? At twenty-eight, she was no stranger to men. She’d dated her fair share but had never been serious about any one of them. She’d told herself it was because her career was her major focus. But deep in her heart, she knew the reason had less to do with her career focus than the fact that none of the men she’d dated measured up to the man her father was. Or at least the man she’d always believed her father to be, Laura corrected herself.

      “Laura? Are you all right?”