Memo: Marry Me?. Jennie Adams
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he knew was a great deal, just as Zach had predicted he would.
Lots of things had happened, but this was the first time Lily had seen a child in the offices. The boy should have seemed out of place, yet somehow he didn’t.
‘Oh, hi. I didn’t see you there. Is Zach ready?’ He turned fully to face her, slung his backpack onto one of the chairs and pushed his hands into his pockets in a gesture she had seen Zach use countless times. ‘He said we’d have to go by four o’clock.’
‘And it’s almost that now, isn’t it?’ Slowly, she returned to her desk as she tried to assimilate what she was seeing. This boy was the image of the man on the other side of the closed office door. The same thick-fringed hazel eyes, same hair. Same mannerisms, same frown. Everything. It was all there.
Zach’s son?
The possibility hadn’t occurred to her until now. Faced with it, she felt…unnerved. Her mind leapt immediately ahead. Where was the mother of this child? What relationship did Zach have with her? Why didn’t the boy call his father ‘Dad’?
And what game had Zach been playing with her? He was a well-known and, it was assumed, carefree bachelor, and had been sending out ‘attracted to you’ signals since they’d met. Those signals had only grown stronger on both sides, she had thought, even though Zach had been clearly fighting them all the way.
She’d had no intention of acting on them, either, of course. Had intended to put a stop to her side of things just as soon as she worked out how. Hadn’t she?
Of course she had! But what had Zach been thinking?
‘Um, your fath—Mr Swift—is taking a phone call.’ The boy shouldn’t be made uncomfortable because of her surprise and shock. And she was shocked. ‘I’m sure he’ll be finished his call in a moment.’
The boy nodded. ‘I’ll just wait, then.’
‘Yes. Make yourself at home.’ She pretended to go back to work, but all that showed up on her screen as she typed was meaningless gibberish.
At times recently, she had wanted to yield to Zach’s interest, and to her own. To step forward instead of stepping back, just once, and see what happened. She shouldn’t have wanted that. She was living a deception. He wouldn’t want her if he knew her secrets, and she needed to protect herself, too.
But it appeared he also had secrets.
Zach opened his door and came out. He glanced at her, and his eyes flared with familiar heat.
Then he turned and spotted the boy. His face softened in affection and pride. In two strides, he had the young man in a headlock, ruffling his hair as he hugged him close. ‘Dan. Good lad, you’re right on time. You didn’t have any trouble with the buses?’
The boy wrapped wiry arms around the man, pushed his head into his chest and put all his effort into getting loose. He grinned when he broke free. ‘Nope. I’m ready to go. You’re getting weaker, you know. You barely held me that time.’
A bittersweet smile touched Zach’s face. ‘You’re the one getting stronger. You’re growing up too fast.’
Zach made a show of getting his briefcase, but Lily saw the tenderness he tried to hide and, despite her confusion, her heart softened. Zach clearly loved this child.
He rattled off a few instructions to her before he turned back to Daniel. ‘Did you two meet? This is Lily. She’s filling in while Maddie is away. The other secretary…’ he cleared his throat ‘…didn’t work out, so Lily has taken over.’
Lily finished jotting his instructions into her diary. She closed it and looked at the boy. ‘Hello again.’
‘I’m Daniel.’ He shook her hand, mumbled, ‘You’re prettier than the last one,’ and turned a little red in the face. ‘I mean—’
‘Thank you.’ She turned back to her desk to save him from further embarrassment. And to avoid having to look at Zach. ‘I won’t keep you both. You clearly have somewhere you need to be.’
A slight frown between his brows, Zach nodded. Then the boy drew his attention.
‘Mum said you’re invited to dinner again tonight, if you want. She’s running errands this afternoon, but she’ll bring home something nice.’ Daniel gathered his school bag and slipped it over his shoulders. He gave Zach a bit of a glare. ‘I could go to the orthodontist by myself, you know. If I can manage a couple of buses, I can manage—’
‘All the buses. Yes, but I promised when you first got the braces on that I’d take you to every appointment.’ Zach ruffled the dark hair again. ‘And I always—’
‘Keep your promises, I know. But I’m not a baby. You don’t need to mollycoddle me.’ The boy sighed, and made for the door.
Lily watched him, and tried to contain the anger and dismay that had filled her at Daniel’s innocent words. Zach was still involved with the mother of his child! He had been toying with Lily. She felt stupid for not having realised his interest wasn’t sincere. Felt second-rate, as she had when Richard had ended their engagement.
‘I’m not mollycoddling.’ Zach waved Daniel off. ‘Go on ahead. I’ll catch up with you at the elevators.’
As the boy left, Zach turned back into the room. ‘Is everything all right? You seem agitated.’ A rather ferocious expression closed in on his face, and he said without any inflection at all, ‘Don’t you like children?’
‘No, it’s not that. Everything’s fine.’ His protectiveness of the boy made Lily ache for things she didn’t have, for family to stand by her. But it didn’t change the fact that Zach was now clearly and utterly out of bounds to her. And, right now, she really didn’t like him very much. At all!
She busied herself putting a dictation tape into the machine, fiddled with the wishbone earpieces, then placed her hands in readiness against the keyboard. As she did so, she realised the child’s name had slipped from her memory. She sought for it, but didn’t find it. Darn it! ‘It was nice to meet your son, but shouldn’t you be going?’
‘Ah.’ His eyes narrowed as he studied her. ‘I think you’ve just explained the sudden chill in the air. If there’s a child, there’s got to be a mother, and therefore—’
‘You’re having dinner with that mother. You’re clearly very close.’ Oh, couldn’t he just go? She didn’t want to have this discussion. ‘It’s got nothing to do with me.’
‘Hasn’t it? You and I have been—’
‘Hurry up, old man. We’ll be late!’ The warning floated down the corridor, affection wrapped up in the cheeky words. A moment later, the boy poked his head back into the room. ‘Are we leaving some time this millennium, or what?’
Zach hesitated, gritted his teeth and strode to join the boy. ‘Yes, Daniel. We’re leaving. Let’s go.’
Daniel, Daniel, Daniel. His name is Daniel. Lily pretended not to watch their exit. As soon as they left, she wrote the boy’s name down, although she suspected it would now stick firm for her. Usually, if she could get a piece of information beyond that short-term memory area, it stayed with her for good.
An hour later, after swinging from chagrin to anger and back again, she was doing her best to force Zach Swift out of her mind. She would go on doing that until she crushed every memory of the attraction she had experienced towards him. Utter rejection should have been her response from the start.
As she began to pack up her desk, a middle-aged woman stepped into the room. ‘I hope I didn’t startle you, dear. Are you about to leave?’
‘Hello. Yes, it’s almost closing time, but is there some way I can help you?’ Lily pushed the last of the folders into the drawer and gave the woman her full attention.
‘There is, I hope, but this isn’t really a business matter.’ The