smiled at that, and once again his hand came out and touched her cheek.
‘Very wise. Okay, Miss Farr. I’ll see you tomorrow at nine. Take care of your hand. And your frog.’
And with that he was gone, leaving everyone in the office staring after him.
‘Molly, can I come? Please, can I come? You’ll need help and I can help you. I won’t even cramp your style.’ Jackson was no sooner out of the door than Angela’s clutch on her arm intensified. ‘I’d make a great chaperon.’
‘Thanks, but I’ll find my own chaperon.’ Molly managed a smile, albeit a weak one.
‘I need to go with you,’ Trevor told her. ‘This is my real estate firm.’
It might be, but it didn’t seem like it. The family firm had been handed down to this, the third Trevor Farr, and under his expert guidance it showed every sign of heading for bankruptcy. Trevor’s father had spoken to Molly at her sister’s funeral and persuaded her to give the place a try.
‘If you need a job in the city then I’d be grateful if you could join the family firm. Work under Trevor for a while as you get used to the city. You can learn the city trade from him—and he can certainly learn things from you. You’re the best.’
Until then she’d worked selling farms from her base on the south coast. Selling city property was a very different thing, she’d discovered, and her cousin was proving to be a millstone around her neck. Weak and ineffectual, he’d resented her competence from the start.
‘I can cope on my own,’ she told him now. She gave him a sympathetic smile. ‘I have a strong feeling that Mr Baird doesn’t want you or Mr Francis involved, and if his preferences mean a sale… How much did you say Mrs Copeland has on the place?’
Trevor swallowed. ‘Three million.’
Molly practically gaped. Three million. Whew.
‘Don’t mess it up.’
‘I won’t.’
‘Do you have someone respectable to take as a chaperon?’ Trevor might be a dope but he wasn’t completely heartless. Or he knew he’d have his father to answer to if anything went wrong. ‘The man’s got a reputation a mile long. Angela’s not suitable.’
‘Angela’s definitely not suitable,’ she agreed, managing a twinkle at her friend.
‘You have someone in mind?’
‘I do.’
Trevor paused, baffled at her lack of communication. ‘I suppose it’s all right, then.’
‘I suppose it is.’
‘Your hand’s not too sore to keep working? You’d better get moving if you want a Section Thirty-Two prepared.’
‘I’ll do it now.’ She flexed her fingers and winced, but Trevor was the only other person here capable of sorting the paperwork for such a property, and help from Trevor was the last thing she’d get.
‘Right,’ she said. ‘Let’s get on with selling Mr Baird a farm.’
CHAPTER TWO
THANK heaven Lionel wasn’t dead.
Sam was stoic, as Molly had known he would be. He’d been stoic for six months now. He’d taken every bit of dreadful news on the chin. Now his face was pinched, but blank, and when Molly tried to hug him he held back. As always.
‘I shouldn’t have kept him in the first place,’ he said miserably.
No. But then there was a no pets rule in their highrise apartment, so Sam had had nothing. They’d found the frog while they’d been crossing a busy Sydney street. It had been raining, there had been traffic everywhere, and Lionel had been sitting right in the middle of the road. He was a suicidal frog if ever there was one, and when Sam had pocketed him Molly hadn’t protested. Where he’d been, the frog would have been doomed.
May he not be doomed now, she thought, looking at the intricate arrangement of ponds Sam had rigged up on the bathroom floor.
‘I’ll have to clean all this up when he dies.’ The little boy put his hands in his pockets and tucked his chin into his chest. Molly knew there were tears waiting to get out. They’d wait a while. Molly cried. Sam didn’t.
‘He won’t die. Mr Baird said so.’
‘I guess frogs don’t live very long anyway.’
Darn, it was so unfair. If Molly had her way, frogs would live for ever. But she had to be truthful. ‘I guess they don’t,’ she agreed, and laid a hand tentatively on his arm. But, as always, he pulled away. He was such an isolated child. It was as if losing his parents had made him afraid to trust.
And why should he trust? Molly thought bitterly. She couldn’t even keep a frog safe.
‘We’ve been asked to go to a farm for the weekend,’ she said, trying to divert him. ‘We’ll take Lionel. It can be a convalescent farm.’
‘A farm?’
‘Yes.’
‘I don’t like farms.’
‘Have you ever been to one?’
‘No.’
‘Then—’
‘I don’t like them. I want to stay here.’
Sure. And lie on his bed and stare at the ceiling as he did in every spare minute. ‘Sam, Mr Baird has invited both of us.’
‘He doesn’t want me.’
‘I’m very sure he does.’
‘I don’t want to go.’
‘You’re going,’ Molly said with more determination than she felt. ‘We’re both going and we’ll enjoy it very much.’
A weekend with Jackson Baird. Could she enjoy it?
There was a dangerous part of her mind that was telling her she could enjoy it very much indeed.
‘Cara?’
‘Jackson. How nice.’ Cara might be on the other side of the Atlantic but her pleasure was tangible. ‘To what do I owe the pleasure?’
‘I think I might have found a property that could suit both our needs.’
‘Really?’
‘Really. It’s been used as a horse stud in the past. It’s in a magnificent location and it sounds wonderful. Do you want to get on a plane and come and see it?’
Silence. Then, ‘Darling, I’m so busy.’
When was she not? Jackson grinned. ‘You mean you’ll leave it to me?’
‘That’s the one.’
‘And if I buy it and you don’t like it?’
‘Then you’ll just have to buy me another one.’
‘Oh, right. Cara—?’
‘Darling, I really can’t come. There’s something… Well, there’s something happening that’s taking all my attention, and I daren’t say anything about it yet in case it evaporates in the mist. But I trust you.’
He grinned again. Another scheme. His half-sister always had schemes, but he trusted her implicitly, as he knew she trusted him. ‘Millions wouldn’t,’ he told her.
‘But you’re one in a million. And don’t you know it?’
‘Yeah, and I love you, too.’
A chuckle and the line went dead, leaving Jackson staring down at the receiver.
Was this really