out.
She stifled a yawn and decided to take her morning break a little earlier than usual. Maybe a shot of caffeine would help her get through to lunchtime. In the staff lunch room she grabbed her favorite cup from the shelf and headed for the coffee machine. One of the office staff sat at the table, nursing her own cup of coffee and scanning her laptop screen. As Anna passed by she caught a glimpse of the page the girl was on and smiled. The anonymous celebrity-gossip column in the print and online newspaper usually made for a humorous read.
“Anything good in there today?” she asked, sitting down at the table with the other girl.
“The usual, mostly. Oh, wait. Look at this!”
She swiveled the computer around so they could both view the screen. Anna scanned the text, when her eyes were suddenly arrested by a name—Nicole Wilson. The comments about Nicole focused mostly on her being seen letting her hair down in one of the city’s bright spots the night before and, in particular, with a certain extremely eligible and wealthy Auckland businessman who was newly returned to town to take over control of a major company. While his name wasn’t mentioned, there was only one person that Anna knew fitted the carefully worded description. Nate Hunter. A photo accompanied the article. While her partner’s back was to the camera, there was no mistaking Nicole in fine form on the dance floor.
Somehow Anna managed to say the right things to the other girl and made her way back to her office, her rapidly cooling coffee clutched in her hand.
What on earth should she do? she wondered. She had to get a hold of Nicole and find out what she was up to—but how? She did a quick search online, and found the number for Jackson Importers. Maybe Nate Hunter might be able to shed some light on where Nicole was.
Five frustrating minutes of being stonewalled later, Anna replaced the receiver on her phone. Mr. Hunter was unavailable until further notice. What that meant, exactly, Anna had no idea, but she had the sinking feeling that wherever Nicole was, it was very possibly with him. And given her mood last night and her tendency to be outrageously impulsive, it didn’t augur well.
Darn Judd Wilson, she thought, and darn Charles, too. This was all their fault. Anna clenched her hands into fists and fought back the urge to scream. One by one she uncurled her fingers and released her fury on a pent-up breath, then reached for her phone and dialed Judd’s number. They needed to swing into damage control before all this blew up in their faces. He’d know what to do.
“It’s preposterous. What on earth is she thinking?”
Anna winced as Charles raged through the office on Monday afternoon after what had been an exceptionally stressful and long weekend waiting for his prodigal daughter to return home. She knew all the anger and tension couldn’t be good for him, but there was nothing she could do to calm him down when the bad news about Nicole kept pouring in. The latest update—that she’d turned up for work at the offices of Jackson Importers late that morning—had gone down like a lead balloon.
He continued his rant. “She isn’t thinking, that’s what. And she wonders why I gave the controlling interest in Wilson Wines to Judd.”
“She’s hurting, Charles. Give her time, she’ll come back.” Anna tried to soothe his anger but it was useless.
“Come back? I wouldn’t have her back. Not now that she’s working for that insufferable miscreant! I’ve a good mind to cut her out of my will completely after this.” Anna wanted to believe he was just blowing off steam, but she had a sinking feeling that he meant every word. Nothing made Charles angrier than what he perceived as disloyalty. No matter what excuse she offered, Anna was pretty sure that Charles wouldn’t be forgiving Nicole in a hurry.
“And what are we supposed to do in the meantime, hmm?” Charles continued. “We needed her here to help transition Judd into his duties. Now he’s dropped in at the deep end.”
“I’m sure I’ll cope.” Judd interrupted his father’s tirade. “I’m not completely unaware of how a business should be run nor am I unfamiliar with the wine industry.”
Anna looked at him and felt that familiar tug of attraction she’d fought all weekend to ignore. It was hard enough to resist him under normal circumstances, but over the past weekend, when Anna had felt that her whole world was collapsing around her, Judd had been a rock—stepping right in to make sure everything was taken care of. While Anna had been busy keeping Charles reined in and ensuring that his riled temper didn’t prevent him from keeping up with his medical treatments, Judd was the one who’d handled the reporters’ phone calls, coordinated with the company’s PR team and ensured that all Wilson Wines employees, particularly those who reported directly to Nicole, were reminded of the nondisclosure agreements they had signed.
He’d single-handedly kept the disaster from spiraling out of control. While Anna couldn’t help but be grateful to him, she was forced to admit to herself that it was entirely unfair how attractive he was when he was coolly, competently in charge.
Today he looked every inch the high-powered executive, wearing a navy suit and crisp white shirt with a patterned tie. He could have stepped off the pages of a men’s fashion magazine, and yet despite the polish, there was still that edge of visceral male that hovered about him.
“Anna?” Charles’s voice. “Are you paying attention?”
“S-sorry,” she stuttered. “I was woolgathering.”
Charles sighed heavily. “I need you to be on your game, young lady. Without Nicole here, I’m appointing you as Judd’s P.A. He’s going to need the support of someone who knows Wilson Wines from the ground up. You’re the only one I trust for that role.”
“His P.A.?” Her heart gave an uncomfortable lurch. “But what about you?”
“I’m sure you can draw on one of the girls from marketing to help me when I need it. That redhead who covers for you when you’re on holiday, she’ll do. It’s not as if I’m in here for full days, anyway … although I suppose that will have to change now Nicole’s gone.”
He suddenly slumped in his chair, his face gray. Anna rushed to his side.
“Are you all right? Do you need the doctor?”
Charles shook his head. “No, don’t fuss, Anna. I’m not sick. Not physically, anyway. It just isn’t right. I finally get Judd back and I lose Nicole.”
Anna fought the urge to tell him she’d tried to warn him that what he was doing would drive a wedge between himself and his daughter. She found consoling words instead to replace the ones that hung bitterly on the tip of her tongue.
“You haven’t lost her, she’ll be back before we know it, I’m sure.”
“In the meantime, you have us,” Judd commented. “And speaking of which, I think you should head home and rest and leave the running of the office to Anna and me. We can call you if anything arises that we can’t manage.”
Anna felt a burst of cold panic at the thought of her and Judd alone together in the office, but still, she found herself agreeing with him. Anything to see to Charles’s comfort. After the older man had been driven home by his new temporary P.A., Anna showed Judd into Nicole’s office. Charles had stipulated that he should work from there, and while a little voice inside of her had objected vociferously, she accepted the practicality of it. If Judd was to assume Nicole’s duties quickly, he needed information to be at his fingertips. Where better than in Nicole’s office?
It was lunchtime when he came out and over to Anna’s desk.
“I see Nicole had a trip planned to Nelson, leaving on Thursday. I thought Wilson Wines primarily imported from overseas markets.”
“We do, but Nicole campaigned to introduce several wines from New Zealand to our catalogue as well, with