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Married In The Morning
SUSAN MEIER


HONEYMOON IN VEGAS…The last thing Gina Martin expected when she bumped into the chief of operations of her father's company at a bar was that they'd end up naked together in a Las Vegas hotel room two days later! If the ring on her finger, the rumpled satin sheets and sizzling good-morning kiss were any clues, she was now Mrs. Gerrick Green.Gerrick couldn't blame Gina for having second thoughts about their hasty nuptials. He'd never thought of himself as the marrying kind, either. But the powerful executive also always went after what he wanted most. Still, after an unforgettable night of passion, was he willing to risk his heart and win a happily-ever-after with the boss's daughter?









She remembered a waitress who brought glass after glass of champagne.…


She couldn’t remember too much after glass number five. She most certainly did not remember how she ended up in a room she obviously shared with the person in the shower.

She combed her fingers through her long sable-colored hair at the same time that the bathroom door opened. She almost scrambled under the bed. Instead, she grabbed the hem of the sheet and yanked it up to her neck.

And just in time, too. As a nearly naked Gerrick stepped around the bathroom door, Gina’s heart almost stopped.…


Dear Reader,

We have some incredibly fun and romantic Silhouette Romance titles for you this July. But as excited as we are about them, we also want to hear from you! Drop us a note—or visit www.MillsandBoon.co.uk—and tell us which stories you enjoyed the most, and what you’d like to see from us in the future.

We know you love emotion-packed romances, so don’t miss Cara Colter’s CROWN AND GLORY cross-line series installment, Her Royal Husband. Jordan Ashbury had no idea the man who’d fathered her child was a prince—until she reported for duty at his palace! Carla Cassidy spins an enchanting yarn in More Than Meets the Eye, the first of our A TALE OF THE SEA, the must-read Silhouette Romance miniseries about four very special siblings.

The temperature’s rising not just outdoors, but also in Susan Meier’s Married in the Morning. If the ring on her finger and the Vegas hotel room were any clue, Gina Martin was now the wife of Gerrick Green! Then jump into Lilian Darcy’s tender Pregnant and Protected, about a fiery heiress who falls for her bodyguard.…

Rounding out the month, Gail Martin crafts a fun, lighthearted tale about two former high school enemies in Let’s Pretend…. And we’re especially delighted to welcome new author Betsy Eliot’s The Brain & the Beauty, about a young mother who braves a grumpy recluse in his dark tower.

Happy reading—and please keep in touch!






Mary-Theresa Hussey

Senior Editor




Married in the Morning

Susan Meier





www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)




Books by Susan Meier


Silhouette Romance

Stand-in Mom #1022

Temporarily Hers #1109

Wife in Training #1184

Merry Christmas, Daddy #1192

* (#litres_trial_promo)In Care of the Sheriff #1283

* (#litres_trial_promo)Guess What? We’re Married! #1338

Husband from 9 to 5 #1354

* (#litres_trial_promo)The Rancher and the Heiress #1374

† (#litres_trial_promo)The Baby Bequest #1420

† (#litres_trial_promo)Bringing up Babies #1427

† (#litres_trial_promo)Oh, Babies! #1433

His Expectant Neighbor #1468

Hunter’s Vow #1487

Cinderella and the CEO #1498

Marrying Money #1519

The Boss’s Urgent Proposal #1566

Married Right Away #1579

Married in the Morning #1601

Silhouette Desire

Take the Risk #567




SUSAN MEIER


is one of eleven children, and though she has yet to write a book about a big family, many of her books explore the dynamics of “unusual” family situations, such as large work “families,” bosses who behave like overprotective fathers or “sister” bonds created between friends. Because she has more than twenty nieces and nephews, children also are always popping up in her stories. Many of the funny scenes in her books are based on experiences raising her own children or interacting with her nieces and nephews.

She was born and raised in western Pennsylvania and continues to live in Pennsylvania.










Contents


Chapter One (#u38f6d036-aa3b-53cc-bfa0-415f81263b06)

Chapter Two (#uda69fb3e-9824-5570-94e0-ff44cfe492fe)

Chapter Three (#ua25cb7b1-0ac3-5959-a28f-3a241b1ee947)

Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)




Chapter One


Gina Martin awakened to the sound of the shower. Cool, satiny sheets caressed her bare limbs. The room smelled of cinnamon.

Cinnamon?

Her eyes sprang open, causing a spasm of pain to ricochet around inside her head, and she snapped them closed again. But not before she saw that she wasn’t in her bedroom. From the type of furniture and shape and style of the room, she knew she was in a hotel.

She was in a hotel.

Someone was in the shower.

She was naked.

Oh…

My…

Lord.

Odd images floated around in her brain…

She and Gerrick Green, a vice president in her family’s grocery store conglomerate, Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, had met unexpectedly at a small neighborhood bar, where each was supposed to be joining a friend for dinner.…

Enough time had passed for both to realize they had been stood up. She by her friend Tammy. Gerrick by a married friend who was going to help him celebrate his new job. Until that moment Gina hadn’t known Gerrick had gotten a new job, but he had happily filled her in. He had been offered the position as CEO of an up-and-coming grocery store chain in the northeast and had already turned in his two-week notice to her father.

Though she was director of Human Resources at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and therefore the person who would have to replace him, Gina was happy for Gerrick. She remembered suggesting she celebrate with him since they were both unexpectedly free. She remembered he was reluctant. She remembered telling him this job was an enormous step on the ladder because it meant he had “made it.” And she couldn’t let a promotion so significant occur without at least some pomp and circumstance.

She remembered Gerrick finally laughing and relenting, saying this kind of job did warrant a celebration.

She remembered Gerrick taking her hand because, much to her surprise, he hadn’t wanted to stay in the small neighborhood bar where they’d met. Laughing, holding her hand, he had whisked her into a cab and to the airport for a flight to Las Vegas because he said Vegas was where the best celebrating was done.

And he was right. The city was delightfully hedonistic and decadent, and it offered celebration possibilities a person couldn’t get anywhere else. Because of the time difference from Atlanta, they arrived at about the same time they left, had dinner and saw a show before they went to separate rooms. Saturday morning they shopped for two days’ worth of clothes, returned to their rooms to change into one of their clean outfits and went sight-seeing.

But Saturday afternoon—yesterday afternoon—they hit the casino. Specifically, Gina remembered falling in love with the poker game on the slots. As she recalled, she was winning. Not just winning, but annihilating every machine she touched. They moved on to the blackjack tables and her luck held, so they never left the casino. She remembered laughing and virtually dancing for joy over her good fortune. She remembered Gerrick stealing a kiss that startled her because it was a real kiss. Not just a peck between friends, but an honest-to-goodness kiss full of passion and promise. She remembered a waitress who brought glass after glass of champagne.…

Oh, boy.

She couldn’t remember eating dinner. She couldn’t remember too much after glass number five of champagne. She most certainly did not remember how she ended up in a room that she obviously shared with the person taking a shower.

She didn’t even really know for sure who the showering person was…though she could make a darned good guess.

She combed her fingers through her long sable-colored hair at the same time that the bathroom door opened. She almost scrambled under the bed. Instead, she grabbed the hem of the sheet and yanked it up to her neck.

Just in time. Gerrick rounded the corner and Gina’s heart stopped.

Wrapped in a white hotel towel with his black hair still wet from the recent washing, he didn’t have an ounce of modesty or regret. His green eyes twinkled with happiness. Unable to hold his gaze, Gina averted hers only to find herself looking at the well-defined muscles of his arms and chest. Dark hair dusted his pectorals and rippled down his flat stomach.

Embarrassment overwhelmed her, but she didn’t get the chance to wallow in it. Gerrick walked to her side of the bed, bent down and took her by the shoulders, lifting her up for a long, wet kiss. As his mouth plundered hers, millions of sensations bounced through her. Everything from unexpected pleasure to complete shock. She smelled the soap from his shower, tasted pure passion in his kiss and her arms grew so weak they sort of fell against her sides and the sheet slid away from her.

Gerrick raised her higher, nestling her breasts against his still damp chest and Gina felt the beginnings of hyperventilation welling up in her lungs. Then he let her drift back down to the bed, but when she was settled, he held her face with his big, strong hands, and gazed into her eyes.

“Good morning.”

Gina swallowed. “Good morning,” she said, surprised not only by the sexy huskiness of her own voice, but also the warm affection in his. If she were a betting woman, and after yesterday it was plain she was, she would guess that this man didn’t just like her, he adored her.

Still smiling at her, he stepped away. “Give me your room key and after I dress I’ll go and get the clothes you bought at the hotel store to wear home. Our flight leaves in three hours, but we should be at the airport at least two hours beforehand. In fact, I thought we’d grab breakfast there after we check in.”

While he spoke, Gina continued piecing things together. Her clean clothes were in another room. He had been gentleman enough to offer to retrieve them for her, but if she went she could get time away from him. Time to think this through. Time to figure out what had happened and how she’d ended up in this room, with this man, doing who only knew what.

“How about if I just go to my room and get dressed?” she asked, struggling not to insult him or embarrass herself by sounding foolish and nervous. “This way we won’t fight over who gets the mirror in the bathroom first.”

He laughed heartily. “We’re allowed to use the bathroom at the same time now.”

“Don’t be silly.” She shifted slightly to get out of bed, but remembered she was naked. Obviously they had made love the night before, but in the light of day and cold sober she didn’t feel like prancing around in front of him. She gingerly slid back to her original position. “You’re not dressed yet, and I can throw on my clothes from yesterday, go to my room, get myself showered and dressed and meet you in the lobby in less than an hour. That way we’ll have plenty of time for breakfast at the airport.”

“You’re sure?”

“Yeah. Absolutely,” she said, amazed at how calm, casual and even sophisticated she sounded. “You go ahead and get ready and I’ll meet you in the lobby as soon as I can.”

She said the last assuming he would return to the bathroom. God only knew why. Instead he dropped his towel and walked to the closet. Her heart stopped again, and her mouth fell open because he was gorgeous. His shoulders were broad. His butt was tight. The muscles of his legs were well defined. In short he was perfect.

However, he also wasn’t shy about being naked in front of her and he apparently didn’t expect her to be shy about being naked in front of him.

Okay. Now what?

Planning the fastest way to get dressed, Gina quickly glanced around to locate her clothes. Red sandals sat by the door. A red blouse perched over the back of a chair. A pair of taupe slacks lay in a puddle on the floor. A red bra was…oh, boy…slung across a lamp. Bright red panties hung from the pleat of a curtain. Whatever they had done the night before it had to have been…well, wild. She managed to suppress the shiver that wanted to race through her, but couldn’t stop herself from swallowing. Not only were the red bra and panties more than out of character for her, but she couldn’t remember how her underwear got caught on a curtain.

Deciding that the cool, calm, collected charade was impossible to continue, she dragged the sheet from the bed and wrapped it around herself before she walked to the lamp and grabbed her bra. She saw Gerrick watching her reflection in the mirror, but paid no attention as she snatched up her blouse and slacks. Unfortunately, when she walked to the window and peered up at her panties, which were really more like two scraps of lace, looped over a curtain pleat, she realized she couldn’t reach them.

A little voice told her that for the five minutes it would take her to go to her room, she could forgo the underwear. She was just about to listen to that sage advice when Gerrick ambled over to the window, reached up to retrieve the scraps of red lace and handed them to her with a smile.

The heat of embarrassment shivered through her. Mortification froze her lungs. But Gerrick dropped a quick kiss on her lips as she took the panties. Then he mercifully disappeared behind the bathroom door.

Gina heaved a sigh of relief and dressed faster than she had ever dressed in her entire life. She found a little red clutch bag, assumed it was hers and rifled through it finding both her wallet and room key. But as she rummaged a flash hit her eyes and she felt an unusual weight on the third finger of her left hand. She flipped the purse over so quickly, most of the contents spilled onto the floor, and when she saw the three-diamond wedding band on her finger she fell to the bed. Literally. Her knees buckled and her muscles grew limp. She was lucky to be standing beside something that could catch her.

She hadn’t just slept with Gerrick Green. It appeared she had married him.

Not wasting another second, Gina scooped up the contents of her purse and raced out the door. In the elevator, she tapped her foot as the car ascended to her floor. She shoved the key card into the door of her room, stripped even faster than she had dressed and jumped into the shower.

With the water noisily tumbling around her, beating off the tile walls and porcelain tub, she let herself scream.

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

As Gina said her greeting, Gerrick slid his arm around her waist and pulled her to him so he could kiss her, confirming the only solid conclusion she had drawn sorting through this mess.

Gerrick was not sorry they had slept together, and he was not sorry they had married. He probably did not know she didn’t remember marrying him or making love. And she didn’t know how she was going to get out of this situation gracefully.

She didn’t know if she could get out of it gracefully.

“Let’s get a cab,” Gerrick said, taking the tote bag she had purchased to carry home her changes of clothes and new toiletries, and ushering her through the hotel casino and registration area and into the hot Las Vegas sun.

A line of taxis sat waiting and Gerrick and Gina were directed to the first one by the doorman. Gerrick pushed their two small bags onto the back seat of the cab, helped Gina in, and then tipped the doorman before sliding in beside her.

Gina smiled at him, but the hotel they had chosen was less than fifteen minutes away from the airport and she needed more time to think. So she turned her face to the window as if she was sight-seeing and began processing the facts.

She met Gerrick when she was sixteen. He was twenty-two, fresh out of college and going to work for her dad. She, of course, thought he was cute. No self-respecting sixteen-year-old could not think he was cute. He was the epitome of tall, dark and handsome. But he was also six years older than she was. An important six years since he was an adult and she was still a schoolgirl. And that had been the end of that.

At twenty-two she had joined her father’s company. She was immediately put on the executive fast track, because she was the daughter of the chairman of the board and majority shareholder, and therefore the person most likely to take over someday. A few of the other executives had resented her. Gerrick had welcomed her. For that she had immediately liked him. But she also knew she would someday be his boss, so she kept her distance.

So had he.

Over the past six years they had worked together, exchanged pleasantries about weekends and vacations, but never shared a long, detailed personal conversation until Friday night.

And now they were married.

Surprisingly, part of her wasn’t sorry. First, she was attracted to him. Second, he was a good person. She had known him for twelve years. In that twelve years he had proven himself to be generous, honest and hardworking.

And she liked him. She had always liked him.

Silly as it sounded, she could become a giddy bride with only the slightest push.

Gerrick took her hand, squeezed lightly and smiled at her, and Gina felt herself tumbling over the edge into giddiness.

Could she do this?

Could she be a bubbling bride with a man she didn’t really know, but with whom she was clearly infatuated?

Oh, God, she wanted to! She wanted it so much it scared her.

They arrived at the airport, checked in and immediately found a restaurant. The entire time Gerrick held her hand. She felt young and beautiful and on the verge of a brand new life with a wonderful man. For the first time since her fiancé Chad had dumped her the year before, she felt happy.…No, what she felt was hopeful. Life had meaning and purpose again. She had things to do other than be Hilton Martin’s daughter.

“Okay,” Gerrick said the very second their waitress served their breakfasts and indicated she would let them alone unless they waved her over. “I think we have some talking to do.”

“Yeah, I guess we do,” Gina said, still not sure how to handle this. Even if she decided to stay married, she knew she would have to confess that she didn’t remember getting married or making love. That was the fair, appropriate thing to do. And, once she confessed that she didn’t remember making love or getting married, Gerrick might not want to stay married to her. Which effectively took the decision out of her hands, and also saddened her. If she told him she didn’t remember marrying him or making love and he told her that he couldn’t stay married to a woman who hadn’t made a real commitment, then all this wonderful fun would be over.

Still, she had to do the right thing.

“Gerrick, I don’t know how to tell you this but…”

“The first thing we need to discuss is how we get you from Atlanta to Maine in less than two weeks.”

“Excuse me?” Though they had spoken at the same time, Gina hadn’t missed what Gerrick said. It awakened her like a glass of water splashed into the face of a sleeping person, and her eyes widened.

“Gina, you can’t stay in Atlanta if you’re married to a man who lives in Maine,” Gerrick said, with a chuckle.

Gina sat back on her seat. Okay. Here was reason number one why their being married might not work. She had spent her life being groomed to take over her family’s company. In her head, she saw herself as an executive. Now, she was an executive’s wife. She didn’t know if it was a promotion or a demotion. She didn’t know if she liked it. She didn’t even know if she could do it.

“You’re still going to Maine?” she asked.

“This job is the biggest thing that’s ever happened to me. I can’t turn it down.”

“Some people might think getting married is the biggest thing that ever happened to you.…”

Gerrick reached across the table, took her hand, brought it to his lips and kissed it. “They would be right.”

Oh, boy. The pit of her stomach went soft again. Tears filled her eyes. He was so darned romantic. He even looked romantic. His dark eyes were warm with affection. His beautiful mouth held just the hint of a smile. Wearing jeans and a simple polo shirt he should have looked rumpled and unkempt. Instead, he just looked cute.

How could she give him up?

“So maybe then it would be appropriate to absorb one big change before making another?”

“Don’t be silly. We’re two of the smartest people I know. We can handle this transition in our sleep.”

It bowled her over that he so easily, so casually called her smart. A lot of people believed she was only in her job because of her family status. Hearing Gerrick acknowledge her intelligence and readily accept it proved he knew more about her than the simple surface things everyone else saw or assumed.

She licked her dry lips. He seemed so sure, so happy. He seemed to know her. He seemed to love her. His love made her long for things she never thought she would have and made her eager to abandon everything for the chance to grab the life he could give her.

“But I have family responsibilities.”

He looked her right in the eye. “Do you?”

She wasn’t a hundred percent sure what he was asking, but if he was hinting at what she suspected he was hinting at, she needed time to think about that, too.

Luckily, he smiled. “You know what? I think we’ve just jumped into the ‘too much too soon’ category. So what do you say we enjoy our breakfast, enjoy our flight and then talk when we get home?”

Because that sounded very good to her, Gina nodded. She had never been so confused in her entire life, but one thing was clear. Gerrick Green knew her. He anticipated her moods. He didn’t push too hard or too far. He respected her. Somehow even tipsy—or maybe because she was in a freer, more open state of mind—she had recognized all this more quickly than in real time. And that was probably why she had married him.

They made small talk waiting for the plane, then chatted about inconsequential things during the flight, and it soon became evident to Gina that this man really did love her. She could see it in his eyes and hear it in his voice. She might not yet be able to say she “loved” him, but she knew him, respected him, liked him.

And something kept nudging her into believing that she shouldn’t throw this away. Something was telling her that this was the chance of a lifetime. That if she didn’t stay in this marriage she would miss out on a once-in-a-lifetime love.

By the time they reached Atlanta, she knew what she was going to do. Roll the dice. She wasn’t sure how or why she had become such a gambler of late, but she had. She didn’t have a clue how she would break this news to her father, but she was going to do that, too. She might be the person in line to replace him, but he was only in his late fifties. Nowhere near retirement. He was spirited enough and healthy enough to run this company for another fifteen or twenty years. By that time, she and Gerrick could have raised a family.

They disembarked and made their way to the row of taxis. This time when Gerrick kissed her, Gina kissed him back. She didn’t merely allow her lips to slacken under his to accept his kiss. She returned his kiss, and when he caressed her lips with the tip of his tongue, she opened her mouth to him. She twined her tongue with his, enjoying every exquisite sensation, almost unable to believe that this wonderful man was hers, but more than willing to accept it as yet another stroke of the good luck she had acquired in Vegas.

And Gerrick almost relaxed. Almost, but not quite. He hadn’t exactly tricked Gina into marrying him, but he hadn’t let the opportunity pass him by, either. When she proposed, he jumped on it, ushering her to the hotel chapel where they found an official who was in between services and more than happy to perform their ceremony. The waitress who had been providing their champagne and to whom Gina had given a three-hundred-dollar tip was thrilled to be her maid of honor. One of their blackjack dealers acted as Gerrick’s best man. It was the most important, most exciting moment of his life, but he wasn’t so dumb as to miss that in the light of day, Gina was having second thoughts.

He could handle that. He might have been head over heels in love with her for the past few months, but he recognized all this was new for her because until this weekend she had been at the very end of getting over her last romance. In fact, his feelings for her began with his worry over her upset about the man who had thrown her over for a co-ed with whom he was having an affair. That caused Gerrick to make time to talk to her every morning, eat lunch with her at least once a week and walk her to her office after meetings. Ultimately, concern grew into genuine affection, and before he knew it he found himself absolutely crazy about her. But he didn’t think Gina had noticed him as anything other than a co-worker at Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods until Friday night. Still, once she had begun the process of seeing him as a person, a man, she seemed to catch up to his level of feelings with leaps and bounds.

And besides, she was the one who proposed to him.

Plus, he was leaving Atlanta in two weeks. Unless he married her he had no way of coercing her into moving with him, and no reason really to even keep in touch, except that they had had a fun time gambling in Vegas. That wasn’t much of a foot in the door and in his mind the marriage was a necessity.

On the flight home, the time difference worked against them, and it was already late afternoon when they arrived. They took a taxi to the bar where they had met on Friday night and each drove his or her car to her father’s mansion. She got there first, punched in the security codes that opened the big black gate and left it open. He drove through, then punched in the codes that locked the gate again. He wound his way up the long, tree-lined lane, taking his time, rehearsing in his head the speech he would give to his boss, searching for a way to describe their weekend without using the words tipsy or aroused. As he approached the house, he watched Gina pull her imported sports car behind the black sedan Gerrick recognized as belonging to Ethan McKenzie, head of the Legal Department of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and family friend of Hilton Martin.

Great. That meant they might have to wait hours before they actually told Hilton they were married.

Gerrick groaned. No, they wouldn’t. He had bought Gina a platinum band with three one-karat marquise diamonds. Nobody was going to miss that. Especially not eagle-eyed Ethan. They weren’t going to get to announce this to Hilton privately unless Gerrick did something fast.

He jumped out of his car and rushed toward the front entrance attempting to get to Gina before she walked in and flashed her ring, but he was too late. As if he had been waiting for Gina, Ethan opened the door and plowed forward before she reached for the knob. He took her by the shoulders and, if the look on his face was anything to go by, said something very serious to her.

Gerrick saw Gina gasp and crumple in Ethan’s arms, then both Gina and Ethan scrambled from the doorway to Ethan’s car.

Approaching from the other side, Gerrick was almost to the doorstep when they dashed away, ignoring him as if he wasn’t there.

He stopped.

Ethan drove up beside him, and lowered his car window. “Gerrick, I’m sorry. Hilton’s had a heart attack. He was in Pennsylvania promoting a golf tournament he’s helping to sponsor this summer. I’ve got Gina booked on the next flight out. Josh Anderson is already in Pennsylvania,” he said, referring to Hilton-Cooper-Martin Food’s PR director and Gina’s cousin. Undoubtedly, Josh had been pressed into service as next of kin, since no one had known where Gina was. “Right now, we need somebody to hold down the fort. I think that should be you.”

“Actually, Ethan,” Gerrick said, glancing at Gina who was dabbing her eyes with a white tissue. “I think I should go with Gina to the hospital.” He noticed the ring he had given her was conveniently hidden by her paper hanky and though that struck him as coincidentally lucky, he didn’t question it.

Only now realizing they had been away together for the weekend, Ethan looked from one to the other then said, “Oh.” He faced Gina again. “The second seat is booked in my name. Gerrick might not have time to get it changed and make the flight. We’re late as it is.”

“Then let’s go,” Gina said, urgency evident in her voice. “Gerrick, you’re going to have to come up on a later flight.”

“And I’ll return home and hold the fort,” Ethan said as he began to drive away.

Gerrick felt as if a truck had hit him. He had been employed by Hilton Martin his entire career. In some ways he loved Hilton like a father. That might even have been part of the reason he had been so casual about getting involved with Gina. But he also loved Gina. And he wanted to be with her. As her husband he should be the one with her. But Gina very clearly didn’t want him. Or didn’t care…

He was worried about Hilton. Fearful for Gina. Upset for himself. And insulted. But he ignored the stab of offense recognizing that Gina’s first impulse was to get rid of him, not lean on him, because being offended had no place in a situation where a man’s life hung in the balance.

Unfortunately, that still left him with intense worry, fear over Gina’s pain and his own upset about Hilton. He didn’t know which emotion to deal with first. So he got into his car and pulled out his cell phone to make reservations on the next available flight to Pittsburgh. Then he phoned Hilton’s secretary to get directions to the hospital where Hilton was being treated. As he expected, Joanna had the information he needed.

Gerrick went home, packed a small suitcase, and drove back to the airport. Though his concern for Hilton was overwhelming, he couldn’t help but remember the things he and Gina had done in this airport less than two hours ago. He saw the place where they had kissed. He saw the gate at which they had arrived laughing, full of happiness and hope. But when he walked down the tunnel to enter the plane, he also remembered that she had been having serious second thoughts during their flight home. It had taken hours to get her accustomed to the fact that they were married. And in seconds, in one announcement, they were back to square one.

He knew there was a very good possibility he would lose her tonight, if he didn’t get to Johnstown, Pennsylvania before she completely changed her mind, succumbed to grief and fear and decided their marriage had been a mistake.




Chapter Two


Gina didn’t know who the woman in Vegas had been, but she did know it wasn’t her. She was Gina Martin, daughter of Hilton Cooper Martin. She was destined to become CEO and chairman of the board of her family’s grocery store conglomerate because she was the only child of the widower who had started the company and owned controlling interest in the stock. She didn’t gamble. She didn’t wear red bras and red lace thongs. She didn’t marry a man on a whim, no matter how gorgeous. And her relatively young, very strong father did not have heart attacks.

As far as she was concerned, the entire universe had gone awry over the weekend and now she had to fix it.

Getting off the bone-jarring commuter flight she had taken to Johnstown, Pennsylvania, Gina slipped her three-karat diamond wedding ring into her trouser pocket, glad she had bought this pantsuit while shopping in Vegas. She not only had warm slacks and a blazer, but also a blouse. It wasn’t much protection against the freezing temperatures of February in the Appalachian Mountains, but she was dressed warmer than Ethan was.

“The hospital is a short drive from here,” Ethan said as they entered the rental car he had acquired at the one-man counter in the nothing-but-the-basics terminal. Wearing jeans and a T-shirt, dark-haired, dark-eyed Ethan looked like a man who had been unexpectedly yanked from enjoying a sunny Sunday afternoon with his wife and new son. He didn’t even have a jacket. But worry about her father seemed to take precedence, because he made no comment about how cold it was. He simply started the car and turned on the heater.

“I got directions from the pilot.”

Gina grimaced. “Small cities are awfully casual.”

“But convenient.” It was already close to eight, and it was dark. Ethan flicked on the headlights. “You probably couldn’t get directions this good from anybody in Atlanta.”

As if taking off her wedding ring had magically transformed her, Gina stopped agonizing over her foolish weekend. She knew she couldn’t dwell on how stupid she had been or even how sick her father was. She had to get her mind in gear to make sure their company didn’t fall apart in her dad’s absence.

“So when Gerrick gets here you’ll be going back?” she asked Ethan as he drove down a nearly empty four-lane highway.

“Yes, I think one of us has to be there.”

She sighed. “No offense, Ethan, but you’re in the Legal Department. You’re not really up on the day-today business dealings.”

“Then Josh Anderson’s not a good choice to go home either, because he’s our PR man,” Ethan said, referring to Gina’s cousin, the third person of the trio of Josh, Ethan and Gina, who were slated to take over the company when her father retired. Though Gina would be CEO and chairman of the board, it was already common knowledge that Josh would head Operations and Ethan would continue to lead the Legal Department. Because Hilton Martin was only in his fifties, and no one knew what role Gerrick would have played had he not left the company, her father had not begun transferring responsibilities or even training them for their future roles. Though Ethan could completely handle his own area of expertise, none of them could step into Hilton’s shoes.

Particularly not Gina. It was her father’s idea to put her in Human Resources so she could get to know all the employees and become familiar with their strengths and weaknesses. After that, she assumed he would begin showing her the ins and outs of the business in general. She even guessed that eventually she would move into an office by her dad, serve as his assistant and ultimately get the reins. But as of this time, all she had done was manage the employees.

“He might understand the stores,” Ethan continued still talking about Josh. “But I don’t think he can run them.”

“So what we’re saying is Gerrick needs to go home.”

“He is vice president of Operations.” Ethan sighed. “It’s too bad we can’t call him and tell him not to come up at all.”

“He has to come up.”

“Oh?” Ethan said, stealing a peek at her.

“Don’t make a bigger deal out of this than it is,” she said. Her business tone of voice came back so quickly and naturally that Gina was shocked she could have forgotten who she was for a second let alone an entire weekend.

Neither Gina nor Ethan said anything for the rest of the trip. He dropped her off at the sliding door entrance of the hospital, then drove away to find parking. She ran to the information desk, was given directions to the cardiac care floor, and proceeded to find her father. She knew Ethan would get the same information she had, the same way she had gotten it and wouldn’t expect her to wait for him.

By the time Ethan arrived, Gina had been greeted by Josh and Olivia Brady—Josh’s fiancée and one of Gina’s best friends—had spoken to the doctor and was by her father’s bed, where he lay sleeping. Because Ethan wasn’t family, he wasn’t allowed to come into the room. After her short visit was over, she joined Josh, Olivia and Ethan in the waiting room.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Josh said immediately, while Olivia slid her arm around Gina’s shoulders and helped her to a chair. Like Ethan, Olivia and Josh were dressed in jeans and simple T-shirts. Olivia’s long blond hair was pulled into a bobbing ponytail. Josh’s black hair was rumpled, as if he’d combed his fingers through it in frustration.

“Yeah, I know.”

“And Ethan explained your plan about sending Gerrick home to run the company while you’re up here.”

“I think you all should go home.”

“But…”

“No buts,” Gina said, shaking her head. “I’m fine. But Dad’s recovery will take weeks, and with all of us up here, the company will not be fine.”

“The company will be fine without me,” Olivia disagreed. “I quit last week, remember?”

“You quit to plan your wedding.”

“Which is next month. Besides, everything’s under control. I can spare some time away. Before you got here the doctor told us your dad could be transferred to a hospital in Atlanta as soon as he’s able to travel. So it’s not like you’ll be here forever.” She paused, caught Gina’s gaze. “I’m staying.”

Gina nodded. “Okay.”

“Good,” Olivia said, then removed her arm from around Gina’s shoulders. “Now, when was the last time you ate?”

“Breakfast.”

“You haven’t eaten since breakfast!”

“Well, breakfast in Vegas was your lunchtime. So it wasn’t that long ago.”

“Vegas?” Ethan and Josh said simultaneously, before they exchanged a speculative look.

“Let’s leave that alone,” Gina said, then bit her quivering lip. For all her toughness about making sure the company would run smoothly, she suddenly wished Gerrick were here. But as quickly as she had the thought she stopped it. What they had done was wrong. Leaning on him was wrong. Leaning on anybody was wrong. She had to depend on people for business things, but that was simply letting them do their jobs. But she would not, could not, depend on anybody personally. She might not be in a position to take over this company today, or even next year, but by God she had to be someday and that meant she had to start being strong now.

Because there wasn’t another direct flight to Pittsburgh, Gerrick had to endure a layover, then rent a car and drive from Pittsburgh to Johnstown. He didn’t arrive at the hospital until almost midnight that night. When he stepped off the elevator onto the cardiac care floor, Gerrick didn’t see Ethan McKenzie or Josh Anderson and assumed they were already on their way back to Atlanta. Olivia Brady, dressed in blue jeans and an old shirt, as if she’d dropped everything when she got the call about Hilton, was sleeping on a blue plastic sofa. Gina stood by a floor-to-ceiling window, gazing out at the lights of the city.

“I got here as soon as I could,” Gerrick said, rushing over to Gina. He took her shoulders so he could turn her around and pull her into his arms. She accepted his comfort, but stiffly.

“Thank you, Gerrick, but I’ve thought this through…and talked about it with Josh and Ethan and you’re actually the person who should be home, running the company.”

“But I…”

“You’re the only one of us who’s in Operations. Actually, you’re the only one of us who is a vice president. Josh and Ethan aren’t that high on the corporate ladder yet, plus Ethan’s in Legal and Josh is in Public Relations.” She looked up at him, her pale-blue eyes blank and distant. “You’re the only one who knows how to run the business.”

Gerrick licked his dry lips. “Yes. You’re right,” he said, remembering that Olivia was in the room, remembering that they hadn’t yet told anyone they had gotten married, and realizing that as they had never dated, the marriage would be as much of a shock to Olivia as Hilton’s heart attack.

“How is your dad?”

“Resting.”

Frustrated that they couldn’t really talk, Gerrick glanced around. With the exception of sleeping Olivia, Gina and Gerrick had the huge waiting area, which was actually a wide corridor banked with chairs and fronted by little alcoves that also held chairs, all to themselves. He directed Gina to one of the cubbyholes and helped her sit. Continuing to hold her cold hands in his, he took the chair beside her.

“So, what’s up?”

“Gerrick, I can’t deal with this right now.” She pulled her hands out of his, fished into her trouser pocket and retrieved his ring. She handed it to him.

Pain flooded Gerrick, but he ignored it. “I know,” he said, taking the ring and sliding it into the pocket of his jeans. He didn’t think she was breaking up with him, but giving him the ring for safekeeping. With three one-karat diamonds, it had been very expensive and it wasn’t wise to have the ring rolling around in her pocket.

“So, I guess we’ll talk when you get home.”

Looking at her entwined fingers, she nodded. “The doctors say it will be at least a week before he can travel. I’ve made arrangements for a cardiologist friend of his to fly up from Atlanta tomorrow. He’ll check Dad out and make a decision.” She peeked up at him. “I won’t know anything concrete until tomorrow.”

He nodded.

“So there’s no point in you hanging around.”

“I can stay until…”

She shook her head. “I wish you wouldn’t. Olivia’s getting a hotel room and has agreed to keep me company. Josh and Ethan have already gone home.” She paused, drew a quick breath. “It looks better this way.”

“Your father and I are friends, Gina,” Gerrick argued desperately. “Won’t it look odd if I…?”

“Josh is my father’s nephew and he’s gone. It won’t look odd if you return to Atlanta, but it will look odd if you insist on staying.”

“Especially since I’m the one who should be at home minding the store,” Gerrick conceded quietly because it was clear she wasn’t going to budge, and he knew he had to let her handle things in the way that was easiest for her.

“Exactly.”

“Okay,” Gerrick said, rising. “Can I see him?”

She shook her head. “Only family can…”

“Gina, I am family.”

Gina swallowed and nodded, then glanced over at Olivia, Gerrick guessed, to make sure she was still sleeping. Then she led him down the hall to the nurses’ station and whispered that he was her husband and he would like to see her father. They were given orders to be out of the room in five minutes. When they slipped in, Gerrick got a full dose of seeing his idol, his mentor, his friend, attached to life support and breathing through tubes. Then he pressed his lips together and motioned to Gina to leave.

She nodded and followed him to the door.

“Walk me to the elevator?”

The relieved look on her face sent another shaft of pain through Gerrick, but again he ignored it. Seeing Hilton had impressed upon him that Gina had plenty to deal with handling the situation with her father. She shouldn’t be sorting through the complications of an unexpected marriage, too. Yes, he knew that leaving her was risky. That she could talk herself out of their marriage in the few days they were apart. But if he didn’t leave, if he insisted on staying, if he insisted they announce this marriage, he would not only be an insensitive clod, he knew with almost absolute certainty, the marriage would be over.

He held Gina’s hand as they walked to the elevator. To an onlooker it was simply a friendly gesture, but Gerrick realized how quickly, how easily he had fallen into the role of her lover, her husband. They had been romantically involved less than forty-eight hours, yet he knew if he lost her it would kill him.

He pushed the elevator button and pulled her into his arms. She came willingly, resting her head on his shoulder. So, he pressed his luck and gave her a soft kiss before he stepped inside the car. She smiled briefly and waved as the doors closed.

But Gerrick wasn’t happy with the smile, or the wave. Just like in their hotel room that morning in Vegas, she hadn’t kissed him back.

Gina took only one of Gerrick’s calls in the days that followed. In that conversation, she explained that because of the severity of her father’s heart attack, Hilton’s cardiologist friend had agreed that a catheterization should be done in the cardiac facility at the Johnstown hospital rather than waiting until Hilton could be moved to Atlanta. Josh and his mother, Hilton’s sister, went to Pennsylvania to be with Gina during the procedure, which went very well. Josh returned to work Friday reporting Hilton’s prognosis was good. He would be transferred to Atlanta in about a week, but he would ultimately need bypass surgery.

With the news that Hilton was stable, Gerrick decided to fly to Johnstown for the weekend. He didn’t expect Gina to announce their marriage, and he didn’t plan to play the role of husband. He just wanted to see her. He wanted to be sure she was okay. He wanted to be sure Hilton was okay. He wanted to do whatever he could because these people were his family. He felt it as surely as if he and Gina had dated for years instead of hours. And he couldn’t stay away.

When he arrived in Hilton’s private room, he found Gina and Hilton’s friend, Dr. Brown, laughing and talking with a tired, but wide-awake Hilton Martin. His white hair was pillow-ruffled but his blue eyes were clear and bright.

“Gerrick, come in!” Hilton called as enthusiastically as an obviously weak man could. “Come in! What the devil possessed you to fly up here?”

“I came to see you,” Gerrick said, smiling broadly with relief at seeing Hilton looking like he was on the road to recovery.

“And I’m fine. How’s the company?”

“Uh-uh-uh…” Dr. Brown said, shaking his finger. “You don’t get to talk business until after the bypass.”

“Spoilsport!” Hilton said, but he laughed.

Gerrick’s gaze drifted to Gina. Wearing blue jeans and a loose-knit hunter-green sweater that intensified the hue of her dark-brown hair, she couldn’t have been prettier if she tried. Yet, something about her was off-kilter. She appeared pleased with her father’s recovery, but she was different.

“Hi, Gina,” Gerrick said, greeting her because he hadn’t done so when he walked in.

“Hi, Gerrick.”

Gerrick accepted her casual reply because of the circumstances and smiled, but Gina shifted her gaze away from him.

“Since Dr. Brown won’t let me talk business,” Hilton said, “I would feel much better, Gina, if you would go out into the hall and get the lowdown from Gerrick. So I’ll know at least one of us is staying on top of things.”

“There’s really nothing pressing happening,” Gerrick said, but Hilton waved him out. “You two go talk.”

Because Hilton hadn’t changed floors, only rooms, Gina and Gerrick returned to the corridor waiting area and the alcoves of chairs. They took seats in the first hideaway. It was private, but Gerrick nonetheless glanced around to see if he could do something as simple as take her hand.

Gina shook her head. “Don’t.”

“Don’t?”

“Don’t. I don’t want you holding my hand.”

“Gina, you don’t have to worry,” Gerrick said soothingly. “I’m not going to do anything to embarrass you or even announce our wedding. You’re safe.”

“I don’t think so,” Gina said, her voice barely a whisper. “Now that the worst is over and now that I’ve had time to think things through, I know I won’t feel safe until we talk about our marriage.”

“Okay. So, let’s talk.”

Gina straightened her shoulders and sat taller in her chair as if she were about to have a business discussion, not a personal one. She drew a long breath then said, “I had too much to drink the night we got married and I don’t remember it. I don’t remember if we consummated the marriage.” Without so much as a blink, she steadily held his gaze. “I assume we did. But whatever happened, I don’t remember and as far as I’m concerned that makes it a mistake.”

“I disagree,” Gerrick said calmly, though inside he was reeling. She didn’t remember. That would explain her hesitation when she awakened, and why she had second thoughts. But it didn’t explain why she kissed him at the airport in Atlanta. Or the fact that she didn’t want out of the marriage Sunday afternoon. Sunday afternoon she wanted to be his wife as much as he wanted to be her husband. Otherwise she wouldn’t have let him come to her house, because she had to know the only reason for them to go to her father’s home together was to tell him they were married.

“Gina, this just happened at a bad time. I’m willing to give you weeks or months to adjust if need be, but I don’t think we made a mistake.” He paused, took her hand. “I love you, Gina.”

“You don’t love me,” Gina said, yanking her hand from his and shifting away from him, though she remained coolly detached. “We had a really great weekend but we do not love each other. Gerrick, I barely know you.”

“We worked together for six years. We’ve known each other twelve.”

She shook her head. “You don’t really know the people you work with.”

“Are you telling me you’re hiding some deep, dark secret?”

“I’m telling you we made a mistake and I don’t want to continue it. I want out.” She combed her fingers through her thick brown hair, then shook her head in disgust. “I’ve got problems enough with my dad and I don’t have the mental energy to argue with you. I don’t even have time to be as diplomatic as I probably should be. And you don’t, either. You’ve got a new job to go to.”

“That’s funny. Last week you were insisting only I

could stay behind to run the company in your father’s absence. Now you want me to leave?”

“You need to leave. You need to get on with the rest of your life and I need to get on with mine.”

“I see,” Gerrick said coolly and rose from his chair. Where had his wonderful Gina gone? Where was the sweet passionate woman who tormented him by fingering all the red and black lace bras in the hotel store? Where was the woman who made love with passion and abandon? Where was the woman who had asked him to marry her? “I guess I should head for home, then.”

She nodded.

“I’ll just say goodbye to your father.”

She nodded again. “I’ll be in in a minute.”

Gerrick took no comfort in the fact that Gina appeared to need to collect herself before returning to her father’s room. Heeding doctor’s orders, Gerrick also didn’t tell Hilton that Gina had basically asked him to leave the company. He never lost his smile, his friendly demeanor, or even the spring in his step until he was boarding the commuter at Johnstown’s airport, then he felt as if his entire world was crumbling around him.

He had loved her for months. Before he got the job offer in Maine he had been building up to asking her out by talking with her every chance he got. True, he hadn’t told her about his family, but she knew as much as anybody knew about him personally. And he knew absolutely everything about her. Most of her growing-up years had been documented in the company’s annual statement because it was a family-owned business. He knew her. He knew he loved her. And he knew that without her, his life would have almost no meaning.

His heart actually hurt, and he considered not leaving, waiting around until she came back and then trying to talk to her again. But Gina had made her wishes clear. She wouldn’t be receptive to his staying. She wouldn’t see his refusal to go as tenacity born of love. She would fight him tooth and nail, if only on principle. But more than that, if she didn’t believe she knew him, if she had missed that he had been flirting with her for months, then she hadn’t been paying any attention to him and she was right. She didn’t know him.

So she could not love him.

No matter how many times she had said it on their wedding night, she didn’t love him.

The realization hurt so much he stopped his thoughts. He wouldn’t let himself go any further down that road. He knew better. He knew exactly what happened when a person let grief overwhelm him. He might have been in elementary school when his father left, but he had grieved. He had spent Christmas day on a chair by the window, watching it snow, waiting for his father to return, and when he didn’t six-year-old Gerrick had fallen apart.

Then, when he was twelve his mother took him to spend his summer vacation with her sister, Gerrick’s aunt, and simply never returned. She didn’t give a word of explanation to him or his aunt. She just never came to pick him up. Only one day beyond her scheduled arrival, Gerrick knew what had happened and this time when he fell apart it wasn’t the fear-based agony of a child, but the true grief of a boy on the brink of manhood. No one wanted him, and he knew it.

Anger and rebellion marked the next four years of his life, but on his sixteenth birthday everything changed. He suddenly realized the only person he could count on was himself, but he also saw that wasn’t such a bad thing since he could control what he did. His life took a miraculous upturn. He got a job so he could begin to pay his own way. He made peace with his aunt and uncle and cautiously made friends at school. He didn’t spend his life avoiding relationships, but he was careful and wise beyond his years.

Which was why he was amazed he had rolled the dice with Gina. He let his emotions overrule his common sense and now he was hurting almost as much as he had when he was twelve.

Except this time he had chosen his fate. This time he had a plan, but he hadn’t followed it. When she proposed to him, he tossed his plan and his common sense out the window.

In some ways that made the hurt worse, because he knew this pain was his own fault.

He kept a tight hold on his control through the entire flight to Atlanta and on Sunday occupied himself with writing notes about his job for Josh Anderson, so he did not have time to think about Gina. He didn’t want to be reminded of the things she’d said to him, their marriage or how stupid he had been to panic and marry her before she had a chance to catch up to his level of feelings. If he did, he knew he would crumble, or, worse, do something foolish.

On Monday morning he called Josh Anderson and Ethan McKenzie into Hilton Martin’s office, which he had been using in Hilton’s absence.

“Good morning, Josh, Ethan,” Gerrick said with a nod to Ethan indicating he should close the office door. To look at him, no one would know the suffering of his soul. Gerrick held his emotions so tightly to his chest that even he didn’t fully comprehend the extent of his pain.

“What’s up?” Josh asked, taking a seat across the desk from Gerrick. “I heard you went to Pennsylvania over the weekend. How was Hilton?”

“Weak but recovering,” Gerrick said, as Ethan closed the door and took the second seat across the desk from Gerrick. “And because he’s recovering so quickly and so well, we have some more important things to talk about. First of all, I never told anyone but…”

“But there’s something between you and Gina,” Ethan speculated, his dark eyes bright with merriment.

Josh grinned in agreement. “Olivia told me you got in to see Hilton the day of his heart attack, when none of us was allowed in because we’re not in his immediate family. Olivia guessed…”

Gerrick held up his hands to stop Josh. “Don’t guess. There’s nothing happening between Gina and me. We went to Vegas that weekend to celebrate the fact that I had a new job.…”

“A new job?” Ethan said, sounding confused and reluctant.

Gerrick nodded. “This week is supposed to be the final week of my notice, but I’m going early. Today will be my last day. Hilton has known all along. He supported me during the interview process. He recommended me.”

Josh swiped his hand across the back of his neck. “You can’t be telling us you’re leaving.”

“That’s exactly what I’m telling you,” Gerrick said, rising from his seat to pace. He normally wasn’t a fidgety person, but keeping such a tight rein on his emotions filled him with impulses and urges he almost couldn’t control. But he did. He turned and smiled at the men in front of Hilton’s desk. “One of you is going to have to take over.”

“You’re a more logical choice than I am,” Ethan said to Josh. “If only because you have to know more about the stores to promote them, but, frankly, Gerrick, I’m shocked that you’re leaving. I’m shocked that you would leave us in a lurch when Hilton is so sick.”

“My new job is as CEO of a grocery store chain in Maine. Their stock just went public. It’s through the roof. The man who started the business is retiring, and everything is set up for this company to explode. I’m on the ground floor. A chance like this comes along once in a lifetime.”

“And Hilton Martin has only really needed us once in a lifetime.”

“Guys, he’s been encouraging me to go.”

Josh peered up. “And what does Gina say?”

Gerrick smiled at the irony. “She’s emphatic that I go. She’s also emphatic that you can handle this without me.”

Ethan slapped his palm on the leather arm of his chair. “Then I guess you go,” he said, but he didn’t sound happy or encouraging.

“And we’ll handle it,” Josh said, as he rose.

The two men walked out of the office without another word and Gerrick rubbed his hands down his face. He had just lost two friends. First, he married Gina and thoroughly pushed her from his life. Then, to accommodate Gina, he had to leave Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods, which alienated his friends. The only person he hadn’t run off was Hilton and Gerrick suspected that if he ever found out about the secret Vegas wedding, Hilton wouldn’t be his supporter anymore, either.

He remembered the old saw: be careful what you wish for because you may get it, and knew it was right. He had wished Gina would notice him, wished he could marry her before he moved to Maine, and both had happened.

And it had not only cost him any chance with her. It also cost his two best friends.

After settling her father in at the hospital in Atlanta, Gina arrived home the following Wednesday, exhausted but satisfied that her dad would eventually be back to normal. She joyfully paid the taxi driver and gave him a healthy tip because he lugged her assorted bags, boxes and mismatched suitcases into the foyer of the Martin mansion.

The first thing she saw after she turned away from the door was a note propped up against a vase on the small mahogany table beneath the large mirror. The envelope bore her name, so she reached for it and ripped it open.

She read it and tears unexpectedly filled her eyes. It said only,

I’m sorry,

Gerrick

P.S. By the way, I did love you. I might always love you.

Overcome, Gina dropped to sit on the bottom step of the stairway that spiraled to the second floor. The funny part of it was, she believed Gerrick really did love her. Or at least he loved the woman she had been in Vegas. Gina didn’t know who that woman was but she did know she was gone for good. Particularly since she had more than a sneaking suspicion her father would begin to train her to take over the company once he returned to work, and her time would be taken up with facts, figures and negotiating strategies. So Gerrick was better off this way. The real Gina Martin wasn’t the kind to fly to Vegas on the spur of the moment, to deliberately buy shimmering lace panties and bras because she knew the man shopping with her was attracted to her and she wanted to tease him.

The real Gina didn’t tease people. The real Gina had thrown away the red bra and thong. The real Gina had invested the money she won playing blackjack.

Gerrick was much better off without her.

She pressed her lips together to stop their trembling, but couldn’t stop the flood of tears that rolled down her cheeks. Though she didn’t remember a big part of it—the most important part—that weekend in Vegas had been the best, most fun weekend of her entire life. But now she had to get back to her real world.




Chapter Three


Between monitoring Josh’s work as temporary head of Hilton-Cooper-Martin Foods and overseeing the treatment of her sick father, Gina initially didn’t get much chance to think about Gerrick. When her thoughts did drift to him, she experienced the dull ache of missing him, but convinced herself that any thoughts she had of him were only the typical concern she would have for any co-worker who moved so far away. Particularly when weeks passed without so much as a phone call from him. The very fact that Gerrick never called—not even to check on her father—was proof any feelings he had for her were gone and any feelings she might have had for him were pointless.

At breakfast on the Monday of the fourth week after returning to Atlanta, Gina’s father told her he was coming into the office and wanted her to call an employee meeting in the company cafeteria for ten o’clock that morning. She argued that he wasn’t allowed to come in yet, though even she had to admit both his color and his energy were back. But he told her he had cleared this trip with his doctor and he was going in. Since he still had to get dressed, he told her to feel free to leave without him.

Gina drove to the corporate headquarters and she immediately wrote an e-mail instructing all department heads to have their employees in the cafeteria at ten. Assuming her father wanted everyone together to thank them for their cards, letters and phone calls, she had the maintenance department remove the tables from the room and arrange the chairs for theater seating, before they brought in the podium.

A good daughter and dutiful employee, at ten o’clock Gina was sitting on one of the folding chairs with her co-workers, when her father strode into the room and up to the podium. Wearing a navy-blue suit that complemented his very white hair and pale-blue eyes, Hilton Martin turned to face the assembled crowd. As the employees scrambled to their feet in thunderous applause, Gina also rose, clapping as loudly as everyone else. Her dad was the handsomest man on the face of the earth.

An image of Gerrick flashed in her mind contradicting that conclusion, but she shoved it aside. Not because Gerrick wasn’t attractive, but because he was gone. That was done. She might occasionally think about him and wonder how he was doing, but if Ethan or Josh had gone to Maine, she would have wondered about them, too. She certainly didn’t miss the man who had married her then never called her, and she didn’t long to see him. No matter if that thought did pop into her brain, she wouldn’t sanction it. He was gone. G-o-n-e.

“Sit. Sit,” Hilton said, waving aside their applause, though Gina could see he was pleased by the welcome he received. “You’re gonna make me feel like you missed me,” he teased and the employees laughed. He motioned with his hand that everyone should sit and the applause stopped. The room grew quiet.

“Okay. I know you’re wondering why I called you in this morning. Most of you are probably wondering why I’m even here.”

“Yeah, this was my week to use your executive washroom,” one of the employees called out, continuing the running joke the sales staff had about commandeering his washroom while he was recuperating.

“I’m having that place dusted for prints,” Hilton said, giving back as good as he got. “And the cleaning crew for that room will be made up of everybody whose prints I find.”

That brought another spurt of laughter, followed by another round of applause and Gina breathed a long sigh of relief. Her father looked a little tired, but he was essentially back to normal. At least as normal as he could be until he had his bypass surgery. In fact, she suspected his upcoming surgery was the reason he had returned prematurely. He probably wanted to clear up everything he could before he had to take off another long span of recovery time. Specifically, he had to officially appoint Josh as head of Operations and give him temporary power to run the company.

“Anyway, you’re here for two reasons. First, I want to thank you for the cards, flowers, gifts, fruit baskets, homemade cookies and phone calls.” His eyes misted and his throat sounded tight. “Thank you.”

The employees again applauded exuberantly, and Hilton took the opportunity to compose himself. When the commotion died down, he said, “The second reason I brought you here is to tell you that I have decided to retire.”

“What?”

Gina wasn’t the only person who had said that out loud. Beside her, Ethan McKenzie and Josh Anderson both said the same thing. It wasn’t unusual for her fun-loving father to dramatically make surprise announcements that even upper-echelon staff didn’t know about. But this wasn’t a surprise. It was a disaster. She, Ethan and Josh knew they weren’t ready to take over. They might have done well in the short-term, but they couldn’t run the company indefinitely.

“Now, hear me out. I didn’t mention to anyone that I was thinking about retiring,” he said, glancing apologetically at Gina, Josh and Ethan, “because I wanted to be sure the person I picked to replace me could take the job before I announced I was leaving. And I got a phone call early this morning indicating my replacement would be here today so I decided there was no reason to wait to make the transition.”

Everyone in the room appeared dumbfounded. Gina simply stared at her father realizing she, Ethan and Josh didn’t have to take over. Actually, the change wouldn’t affect Ethan and Josh at all. Ethan already headed his department and Josh had had no choice but to assume the leadership position in Operations when Gerrick left. Both of them were in place. But for Gina, her father’s leaving the company was staggering. It meant it would not be her dad who trained her to run the business. A stranger would show her the ropes, and she wasn’t sure how she felt about that.




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