A Fortunate Arrangement. Nancy Robards Thompson
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in his chair, raking his hand through his hair.
She wasn’t even bothering to sneak peeks at him now. She was full on staring, greedily watching him delight at whatever it was that this Macks had to say. Of course, Austin was oblivious that she was watching him.
What kind of a woman called herself Macks?
Felicity’s phone chirped Maia’s text tone. Reluctantly Felicity dragged her gaze off Austin to see what her friend needed.
Are we still on for tonight? Just wanted to make sure you’re able to untangle yourself from the Beast.
I’ll be there.
ETA?????
6 p.m. as planned
By the time Felicity put her phone in her purse and looked back at Austin, he was off the phone and on his computer.
She needed to borrow a page from this woman and start being more of a Macks—not a Mackenzie. Mackenzie sounded prim and proper, like a rule follower. Macks sounded like a woman in charge of her destiny.
Felicity pulled up the interoffice messaging system on her computer and typed, Do you have a moment? She pressed Send before she could change her mind. It was twenty minutes until five o’clock.
She was going to channel her inner Macks and march in there. First, she was going to tell him she was leaving at five because she had plans. Then she would ask him if he’d talked to his dad. She was not going to sit around and wait for him to come to her. She was going to be proactive.
Austin had been out of the office all day, which meant he would be pulling a late night tonight. Usually, she stayed as late as he did. She didn’t mind, as it gave her time to get a jump on future projects such as the FI charity ball. She was single-handedly organizing the ball. It was a big job and took a lot of extra time. But tonight, she had promised Maia she would come to the salon so her friend could practice for the hair show. She said she’d be there at six o’clock. That meant she needed to get a move on if she was going to go home and grab a bite to eat and change out of her work clothes and into something more comfortable before she went to the salon.
She jumped at the sound of the chime notifying her of Austin’s reply.
Sure, come on in.
She looked at him, but his head was bent over his desk and he was busy writing something.
Felicity’s stomach bunched, then fell as she realized in a matter of minutes, she would know whether or not Miles Fortune was on board for keeping her on board. The sooner she knew, the better. She gathered her courage and closed the short distance to Austin’s office.
“Hey, what’s going on?” He leaned back in his chair, laced his fingers together and cradled the back of his head. His biceps pushed at the boundaries of his shirt sleeves. Her gaze lingered. She couldn’t help it.
He motioned for her to sit on one of the chairs in front of his desk. She chose the opposite chair from where she’d sat when she’d given her notice.
“What did your father say? I’m dying to know.”
His blank stare made her wish she could retract the question.
“What did he say about what?” Austin asked, leaning farther back in his chair, but not looking nearly as relaxed as he had when he was talking to Macks.
“Really, Austin? You don’t remember?”
He blinked once. Twice. Then he tapped his head. “Oh, my God, right. I’m sorry. It’s been a crazy day.”
I’ll bet. Macks must be occupying a lot of real estate up there.
“I’m sorry, Felicity. I haven’t had a chance to bring it up with him. The other night when we were at dinner I intended to talk to him, but it ended up not being a good time. We had some family business to discuss and Belle was pushing his buttons. She got him a little riled up. You know how he can be.”
Felicity didn’t answer.
It was the stupidest thing but suddenly she felt a hot, stinging sensation behind her eyes. God, she was not going to cry. She couldn’t cry. Why did she want to cry over this?
So, he hadn’t remembered right off the bat. The guy had a lot on his mind. But suddenly it was crystal clear to her that she really didn’t want to leave. She wanted to stay.
Obviously, Austin wasn’t so devastated by the thought of her leaving. It was ridiculous, but it hurt her feelings.
Needing to get ahold of herself, she bit her bottom lip hard to keep the tears at bay. It worked.
“No problem,” she heard herself saying. Maybe after he’d initially thought up the possibility of creating a position for her, he’d realized it wasn’t feasible. Or maybe he had mentioned it to Miles and his father had shut down the idea. Maybe Austin was trying not to hurt her feelings.
“It’s five o’clock,” she said. “I need to leave. I have plans tonight. I’ll call Derek and ask him to bring your dinner to the office. What time do you want him to deliver it?”
“Anytime is fine.”
Derek was Austin’s personal chef. Usually, Derek left Austin’s dinner in the oven of Austin’s condo, which was around the corner from the Fortune Investments offices, and Felicity would pick it up and bring it to the office. Tonight, Derek would have to deliver it.
If she was leaving at the end of the month, Austin would need to learn to fend for himself until he got his new assistant up to speed.
It hit her that having someone else deliver Austin’s dinner wasn’t exactly making him fend for himself, but it was part of the weening process for her. She enjoyed taking care of him. It was a point of pride. Moving on would be a loss for her, too.
She felt his eyes on her. “Are you okay?”
“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?”
“Something’s wrong.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry I haven’t had a chance to talk to Miles. I will as soon as I can. I promise. Okay?”
“It’s fine, Austin. Really.”
She stood to leave, feeling a little better that he’d noticed that she was upset and had said he would speak to his dad. If Miles had already shot down the idea, Austin wouldn’t have said that. She knew him well enough to know that.
“Don’t leave me, Felicity. Okay?”
Her mouth went dry at his words.
Dear God, if you only knew.
But he didn’t. This was strictly business. It would always be about business when it came to them. That was the problem. Her taking care of Austin was so personal, sometimes her heart crossed the line. She needed to make sure her mind and better judgment stayed in complete control. Because her heart could only lead her astray.
Still, it didn’t help that the look on his face was so earnest it made tears sting the back of her eyes again. God, she was a mess. Her emotions were up and down like a roller coaster. One minute she was ready to walk out the door, and the next minute his don’t leave me had her wanting to withdraw her resignation and dedicate her life to him... Well, to being his personal assistant. And that was no kind of life. Especially when she felt like this for him.
“Before you leave for the day, would you do me a huge favor? Will you call a courier to deliver this?”
She nodded and reached out, taking the large white envelope he held.
It was addressed to Mackenzie Cole. Felicity recognized the lower Garden District zip code. The name Mackenzie was crossed through on the package. Austin had rewritten Macks above it in that script that was so achingly familiar to Felicity. For some stupid reason, seeing Macks’s name written by Austin’s hand felt so personal. It was a punch to Felicity’s gut.
No.