Certainly Sensible (18 page)

Emily nodded assent. “I’ll just say good night then.”

Caroline turned off the light and quietly closed the door. She couldn’t help going over and over in her mind the scene with Mark at the bar earlier.
Why was Mark
so cold to Allie, and why—
why?
—was he with Misty?
Suddenly Misty’s ‘desperate’ shopping trip to Chicago made sense.

****

It was early afternoon when Caroline finally peeked into the guest room. “Allie?”

“Yeah,” Allie croaked.

Caroline opened the door and stepped inside. “You look terrible.”

“Gee thanks.” Allie lifted herself up on one elbow long enough to peer at her reflection in the dresser mirror, and then collapsed back onto the pillow. She was pale with dark circles under her eyes, hair plastered to her head, clothes wrinkled and covered in stains from spills of tropical beverages. She blinked and looked away as Caroline opened the curtains, letting in the sunlight. “I think I drank too much.”

“Ya
think?
” Caroline felt bad about the emotional state Allie was in, but she wasn’t so sympathetic about Allie’s bender. She handed her a bottle of water. “Here, drink this. You need an aspirin?”

“Ugh, no.” She twisted open the bottle and took a couple of tentative sips.

Caroline sat down on the edge of the bed. “So just how many bars did you close down last night?”

“I lost count after three.”

“All by yourself?”

“Of course not.” Allie tried to smile, but then grabbed her forehead in pain. “The bars were full of men ready to buy me drinks, and I had the company of the cabdriver, too.” She moaned. “Oh, my head!”

Caroline frowned at her sister. She always knew Allie could be overly dramatic, but last night’s bar crawl exceeded any stunt she’d ever pulled. “That’s crazy, Allie.”

Allie eased herself down onto the fluffy pillow. “I got dumped and I got stupid.”

“You ran up a huge bill with the cabdriver, too, which Emily paid, by the way.”

Allie frowned. “Sorry.”

Caroline didn’t think her sister was in any condition to make amends right now. “I’ve got to get back to Indy. I know you don’t feel well, but you need to come with me, put some distance between you and Mark Townsend.” She got up and started putting her belongings into her overnight bag.

“I can’t go home right now.” Allie moaned as she carefully shifted her head to ease the pain.

Caroline zipped up her bag. “I’m sure Emily and Sara and Brittany would be glad to have you stay, but I don’t think it’s a good idea. And please don’t tell me you’re going to try to contact Mark again.”

Allie’s eyes filled with tears as she slowly sat up. “No, he made himself pretty clear last night.”

Caroline felt terrible for her sister, but Allie had been so secretive about what had actually happened with her and Mark, and now she wanted answers. “All this started July third. You have to tell me what happened.”

Allie grabbed a tissue and blew her nose. “He told me he thought I was getting too serious.”

“That doesn’t sound unreasonable.”

Allie put the chilled water bottle to her throbbing temples
.
“I told him I was falling in love with him.”

Caroline groaned, her worst fear realized. “Love? You barely knew him, Allie.”

“But we’d spent practically every waking minute together since we met. He told me…or he let me believe…” Allie broke off with a sigh.
“He said he was too worried about his dad’s money problems to get involved in a relationship.” Allie laughed a humorless laugh. “Can you believe that? Money problems? We live in a tiny house, no money, no school…”

Caroline gave that some thought. “It sounds like a lame excuse, like he wasn’t really that into you.”

“Starving artist—that’s what he called me,” Allie said with tears streaming down her face.

“Oh.” Caroline was finally seeing the big picture, and she didn’t like the view.

“I just thought he needed more time,” Allie said with a sniffle, “but I guess what he really needed was someone to bankroll his family’s debt.”

“And when he heard the name Benedict, he thought that was you. Then he found out you didn’t have a trust fund, so he moved on to a richer woman—Misty Peterson.”

Allie wiped away tears with the back of her hand. “As strongly as we felt about each other, I still hoped…”

Caroline put up her hand to stop the rest of that thought. “I think you should’ve believed him when he said he wasn’t ready for a commitment. And even if you
didn’t
believe him, his cyber-silence spoke volumes.”

“But I
know
he felt something for me!” Allie exclaimed.

Caroline reached over and patted her sister’s shoulder. “Maybe. But it wasn’t enough.” She gave Allie a hug. “I’m sorry you got hurt, Allie, but you have to let him go.”

Allie watched as her sister slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped to the door. “You’re leaving? I’m upset here.”

“I’ve got to deal with another problem now, Allie. Richard and Misty.”

Allie narrowed her eyes. “At least I had a relationship with Mark,” Allie mumbled. “Not like you pining over Richard and never saying a word to him about it.”

Caroline’s mouth dropped open. “Maybe I don’t wear my heart on my sleeve like you do, but the situation is entirely different. I can’t tell him. He’s engaged!”

“To a woman who’s cheating on him!”

Caroline sighed. “I never did think Misty loved Richard, but until last night I had no idea how far her dishonesty went.”

“Now you know, so what are you going to do about it?” Allie demanded.

Every muscle in Caroline’s body tensed up at the thought of either confronting Misty or ratting her out to Richard. She shook her head. “I’m staying out of it. He and Misty will just have to work this out on their own.”

Allie slowly stood up and steadied herself on the nightstand. “But what if they don’t? Richard has a right to know what his fiancée’s been up to! With my boy—ex-boyfriend, no less.” Tears came to her eyes again. “Car, admit it, you’re in love with Richard.”

Caroline caught a glimpse of her steely-eyed look in the mirror, and didn’t like what she saw. “Believe me, Allison, if I thought telling him would change anything…”

Allie grabbed her sister and pulled her into a tight hug. “This sucks!”

Slowly Caroline pulled away. “I know.” She readjusted the bag on her shoulder. “You sure you don’t want to come home with me?”

Allie shook her head, so Caroline closed the door behind her and went downstairs. Brittany was flipping through a magazine, and Emily was poring over some MLS listings on her phone.

“So what happened last night?” Emily asked.

Brittany put her magazine aside. “Yeah, is Allie okay?”

Caroline shook her head and slumped into an arm chair. “The condensed version is that Mark told Allie in Indianapolis that he didn’t want a relationship with her, but she refused to believe him and followed him up here.”

Emily pointed to Caroline’s packed bag. “Are you leaving?”

“I have to be at work tomorrow, but Allie wants to stay. I told her okay, as long as she promises to stay away from Mark.”

“Allison is welcome to stay,” Emily said. “We’ll take good care of her.”

Brittany jumped to her feet. “Yeah, I’ll take her shopping, to museums, a concert, whatever. I can cheer her up! She’ll forget about what’s-his-name in no time!”

Caroline smiled. “Thanks, Brittany. She’s lucky to have a friend like you. Either Mom or I can come get her next weekend, or Allie can take the Megabus home if she’s ready before then. Maybe a few days of shopping and sightseeing will do her good.” She fumbled in her purse for her keys.

“Caroline,” Emily said, “who was that woman Mark was dancing with last night? You seemed to know her.”

Caroline rolled her eyes. “Don’t get me started on Misty Peterson.”

“Peterson? Like Peterson’s Coffee Emporium Peterson?”

Caroline found her keys and pulled them out of her handbag. “One and the same. And she’s engaged to Richard, my boss and Sharlene’s brother. One big happy, dysfunctional family.”

Chapter Sixteen

When Caroline got to her desk at work the next morning, her phone’s message light was blinking. Before she could pick it up and dial into voice mail, the phone rang.

“Richard Meadows’ office. May I—”

“Caroline, it’s Misty.”

She braced herself. “Richard’s not in yet, Misty. Did you try his cell phone?”

“I didn’t call to talk to Richard, I have something to say to you, you miserable b—”

“Misty!” Caroline was about to hang up.

“Did you tell Richard you saw me in Chicago?” Misty shouted into the receiver.

Caroline reluctantly put the phone back to her ear. “I haven’t talked to Richard.”

“And you’d better not. If you know what’s good for you.”

Caroline would have laughed at the veiled threats if it weren’t for the fact that Misty was hurting Richard. That wasn’t funny. “Richard already knew you were in Chicago, Misty, so maybe you should tell your fiancé about your ‘shopping’ trip yourself.”

“This is none of your business, Caroline. I was out with friends, dancing, that’s all.”

Caroline pulled an antacid out of her desk drawer and swallowed it. “It looked pretty friendly all right, dancing so close with my sister’s boyfriend.”

“I
said
he’s a friend!
And don’t play innocent with me, Caroline Benedict. I’ve seen how you look at Richard!”

Caroline gulped. Had she been that obvious? “Look at him? He’s my boss.” True, but who was she kidding? Certainly not Misty.

“Listen, Miss Smarty-Pants with the fancy college degree, just do your work and keep your eyes to yourself, because he’s engaged to me!”

Caroline held the receiver away from her ear as Misty spewed verbal bile. When she thought she could get a word in, she said, “Really, Misty, why do you care? You can’t tell me you love Richard, especially after dancing cheek-to-cheek with Mark Townsend!”

“Stay out of my business, Caroline! Richard could never love someone as mousy as you anyway, so don’t even think about trying to break us up.”

If only I
could
break you two up
. But she cringed at the thought that she hadn’t kept her feelings for Richard better hidden. She didn’t care in the least about offending Misty, but she would never dream of making Richard uncomfortable.

Caroline reverted to her business tone. “Is there a message?”

“The message is, if you tell Richard about seeing me in Chicago, I’ll see to it that Sharlene has you thrown out of that office so fast it’ll make your head spin!” And with that she slammed down the phone.

“Nice talking to you, too,” Caroline said into the dead line.
Could Misty have Sharlene fire me?
Or worse yet, could she convince Richard to end their friendship? Maybe.

The office phone rang again. She picked it up and checked the caller ID, and then with a sigh of relief said, “Good morning, Mrs. Meadows.”

Richard arrived a couple of hours later and stopped by her desk. “Any calls?” he asked.

Caroline thought about the nasty call from Misty and nearly gagged, but said as professionally as possible, “Misty. And your grandmother.”

“Thanks. Anyone else—like business? I’ve already spoken to Grandmother, and Misty can wait.”

“I sent you an email with the rest of the messages.”

“Can I talk to you a minute, Caroline?”

She followed him into his office, feeling her pulse race.

Richard closed the door and sat down on the edge of his large mahogany desk to face her. “Did you accept that other job offer yet?”

Caroline felt herself sway, so she quickly sat down in the nearest chair. “No. You asked me to wait so I, uh, was waiting…” She stopped a minute to clear her head. This was the moment she’d been dreading. “I’m going to have to respond soon or lose out on the opportunity.”

Richard nervously clicked and un-clicked a ballpoint pen. “Well, I know we had an agreement to re-evaluate your position and salary, and I’m ashamed of myself for not doing this sooner like I promised, but what with the wedding…” Richard threw the pen on his desk. “I had a long conversation with Grandmother last night.”

Caroline liked Adele Meadows. She appreciated her common sense approach to life, and they had a mutual dislike of Misty Peterson. “Okay…”

“You probably know that Sharlene and I each own forty percent of this company, but Grandmother owns the other twenty percent.”

Caroline didn’t know that. Her pulse quickened, but her throat went dry and all she could do was nod.

“Caroline, you’re such an asset to me—uh, well, to the company—and I just don’t want to lose you or have to train another assistant. So I went to Grandmother, and between us we have enough stock to overrule Sharlene.”

Caroline could barely contain the butterflies in her stomach. “Overrule her? On what?”

“Personnel issues, finances, that sort of thing. Anyway, I’d like to finally offer you that raise and benefits that I promised you a year ago. I—we—hope you’ll agree to stay on here at Meadows Advertising.”

Caroline’s mouth dropped open, and for a moment she couldn’t say a word as her eyes welled up with tears of joy. Then she realized Richard was waiting for an answer and she hesitated. This was what she truly wanted in her heart, but her head was telling her she was asking for trouble. Unrequited love for one’s soon-to-be-married boss was not conducive to a good working relationship. But Caroline’s heart overrode her head. “
Yes!
Yes, of course, I’d love to stay.”

“I can offer you a salary competitive to what Charing Cross offered, full benefits and a 401K. And a real office. Sharlene’s empty one.” His eyes twinkled. “Feel free to redecorate it.”

Caroline wanted to hug Richard, but she remembered what Misty had just said—her feelings were too obvious—so she restrained herself in an attempt to appear professional. “Thank you, Richard. When do I start—officially?”

Richard smiled the smile that Caroline found so irresistible. “Next week, at the beginning of the pay period on Monday. You’ll be doing most of the same things you’ve been doing, but there may be a few added responsibilities to go along with the title of Executive Assistant to the CEO. Okay?”