“Jacob told me most of the island residents have their own boats.”
“It's a matter of safety as well as necessity. You never know when ferry service is going to be interrupted.”
She'd certainly found that out, not that she was complaining. “You don't have to worry about gossiping ferry officials either.”
Simon's mouth quirked. “That's true.”
True to his word, it only took an hour to reach the mainland and Eric was waiting for them at the pier.
He smiled when he saw Amanda. “Hi. How are the merger negotiations going?”
Her returning smile was rueful. “Your cousin is stubborn. He listened to the proposal and all the benefits I outlined to you, but I don't think it made any difference.”
Simon's arm dropped casually around her shoulder. “But she's welcome to keep trying to change my mind.”
Eric looked at Simon's hold on her and then at Amanda's face with a speculative gleam, but he said nothing. He opened the back passenger door on a silver Mercedes sedan. “Elaine and Joey are waiting at home.”
“What about Jacob?” Amanda asked as Simon handed her into the backseat of the luxury car.
“He'll keep himself occupied.”
“Won't he feel left out?”
Eric laughed from the front seat as he started the car. “Jacob is Simon's employee, not his best friend. You don't need to worry about him, Amanda.”
She didn't agree entirely with that assessment and her look to Simon told him so.
“Jacob has an old friend he likes to visit when we come to the mainland. He doesn't feel neglected at all.”
“Oh. Okay then.” The irascible old man irritated her no end, but she liked him.
“I imagine being on the mainland feels good after so many days on the island,” Eric said to her.
“I don't know. I think I could easily live there year round. Simon does it.”
Eric's laugh filled this roomy interior of the car. “Yes, but Simon doesn't look at life the same way other people do. He prefers his solitude.”
She did too, when that solitude included Simon, but she didn't say it. Her first comment could be construed as a broad hint to Simon that she wanted to stay already. She didn't want to make him uncomfortable or to sound like a clinging vine.
“How's Elaine?” Simon asked.
Eric's smile slipped. “Morning sick and emotional. I feel so helpless and it only gets worse. It's a darn good thing she only wants two children. I don't think I could go through this again.”
Amanda's hand slipped to her stomach. She could be pregnant with Simon's baby. Would he feel the same way about pregnancy? Would he only want one child like her parents had or two like Eric and Elaine? Maybe he didn't want any.
The sobering thought pierced the sweet bubble surrounding her. If she was pregnant, she had every intention of staying that way. She didn't see abortion as an option for birth control, no matter what the rest of the country thought. She could never get rid of Simon's baby.
For a few sweet seconds she considered what it would be like to be married to Simon and pregnant with his child. As long as she was daydreaming she might as well put a toddler on her lap and serious dark haired little boy on the seat beside her. It was positively medieval, but she would love four children . . . with Simon as the father.
“Amanda?”
She snapped out of her reverie.
Simon's head was turned toward her from the front. “Eric asked how soon you would have to head back to California.”
She couldn't help feeling the answer should have been of more interest to Simon than Eric, but it wasn't her lover who had brought it up.
“I . . . . There is no set time. Upper management really wants the merger. I'm doing my other work remotely, so it's not a problem for me to stay.” Well, other than a lack of clothes. Maybe she would call Jillian and ask her to FedEx some things up from California.
Her business suits just didn't fit her current lifestyle with Simon.
“There must be some kind of deadline,” Eric probed.
She turned her face away and looked out the car window. “I'm sure there is, but I don't know what it will be.”
She didn't want to leave and talking about it depressed her, but Eric was right. Her boss was bound to have some cutoff point at which he'd call her back to California.
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She began to doubt that belief as the next week progressed. Daniel had been extremely affable when she made her less than encouraging report on Monday regarding the merger.
She'd had the opportunity to discuss the merger with Eric while Simon was busy playing with his nephew. Eric had reaffirmed his interest in the proposal. However, he'd made it clear that if Simon stayed opposed to it, he would withdraw his support rather than allow a family war to start over the issue.
Which was just as she'd suspected. Yet when she'd told Daniel, he had responded as if it were a minor consideration, not the major setback it was. He had told her to keep working on Simon, but she'd gotten the distinct impression something was going on she didn't know about.
However, she'd gleaned nothing from the remainder of their conversation and her carefully worded questions.
Tuesday, she had accompanied Simon to Brant Computers. He had wanted to meet with his design teams and had invited her along. He'd made it a point to introduce her to several Brant Computers employees. The difference in how he related to them and the way Extant's Executive Management Team related to the workforce was a revelation.
He'd left her in the company of an older woman who worked in the sustaining group during his meeting. After they left the company, Simon had asked her how she would feel if that woman were one of the ones forced out of a job by the merger.
She'd been forced to acknowledge: one, it was all too likely and two, she'd feel awful.
“She's worked for us since her husband died of pancreatic cancer fifteen years ago, leaving her a widow with two teenage children. I couldn't sleep at night if she had to start working at a fast food place because we let her go.”
Simon's words still echoed in her mind and she had begun to see his adamant refusal to consider the merger in a different light. He wasn't a quirky genius who didn't understand the business world well enough to function efficiently in it. He was a deeply caring man who took the plight of his company very personally and, in his mind, his employees were the company.
Yet, he continued to discuss the finer points of her proposal with her. He made it a point to ask her at least one question a day, or bring up an argument that she was forced to parry. She didn't know if he did this as a sop to his conscience because of his promise to Elaine, or if he just wanted to remind Amanda why she was there.
Even if that wasn't his intention, it worked. She never forgot that she was a temporary aberration in Simon's life, not a permanent fixture. The issue of her possible pregnancy had not come up again and Simon had been scrupulous about protection since that time in the shower.
Part of her was terrified she would end up pregnant. What did she know about being a decent and loving parent? A single one at that. But there was this teeny-tiny person inside her that craved having someone who belonged to her, someone to whom she could belong.
She ignored those desires while trying to understand her boss's almost complete about-face. He was way too understanding about her lack of success with Simon and then today, she'd gotten an out-of-the-office response in reply to her e-mail asking him a question about something else.
It gave her a bad feeling.
She was afraid he had gone behind her back to talk to the other shareholders. What really preyed on her mind was the idea that she should warn Simon and Eric of the possibility. She owed Extant Corporation her loyalty as an employee and telling Simon and Eric anything would be tantamount to revealing confidential information. On the other hand, she was terrified her boss would start that family war both she and Eric were so intent on avoiding.
And if he was pursuing the other shareholders, he was violating his agreement to let her handle the merger negotiations at this point. She sighed as she stepped on a small dead branch that crackled under her feet. She felt torn apart by her divided loyalties and the impermanence of her association with Simon.
The watch on her wrist started to vibrate. Simon had given it to her on Monday. Both he and Jacob could buzz her within a mile radius via the small two-way radio that was part of the watch just like Simon's.
She lifted it and pressed a small button on the side. “Yes?”
“You got a visitor, missy.”
Daniel was here! It had to be. Who else would come to see her? “I'm heading back now.”
She'd been exploring the woods surrounding Simon's home. She loved the tall spindly trees that swayed like hula dancers when the wind gusted and the way their sparse branches let sunlight through, casting a dappled pattern onto the forest floor.
She approached the house from the front. The yellow Mustang convertible did not look like something her boss would rent. He drove a white BMW. It wasn't flashy, but it screamed status seeker, from the polished silver door handles to its shiny black wheels.
She jogged up to the house and went in through the front door. She could hear voices from the great room, but the words were indistinguishable. However, as she drew closer to the room, she could tell one of the voices was a woman. Definitely not Daniel. Maybe Elaine had come to visit.
She'd been really friendly the previous Saturday, especially after Simon had made it clear he and Amanda shared more than a business relationship. Amanda had thought it odd later that neither Eric, nor Elaine were concerned she was attempting to manipulate Simon with sex.
They obviously didn't see her as Mata Hari material either.
Jacob said something and the woman laughed.
Jillian
.
Amanda burst into the great room just as Jacob started laughing right along with Jillian. Dour-faced Jacob laughing?
“Jill! What are you doing here?”
Jillian spun around to face Amanda. “I came to surprise you.” And with her characteristic grin she flew across the room to give Amanda a hug. “I checked in to the hotel and then came right over. You wouldn't believe this guy who works at the ferry. I asked for directions and he starts pumping me for information like he's the CIA or something.”
Amanda laughed. “I'd believe you, trust me.”
“He didn't even recognize me.”
“Most people don't and that's how you like it, so don't whine.”
Jillian dressed conservatively with her hair kept in an elegant up-do for her role on the soap opera, whereas in real life she tended to wear clothes that would look jarring on Madonna and let her hair riot around her head in a mass of auburn curls.
Jacob was back to looking dour. “I recognized her right away.”
“You charmer, I think I'll keep you.”
Red burnished Jacob's cheekbones and Amanda just about fainted. The man was definitely starstruck.
“Can I get you two some refreshments?” Jacob asked, at his polite best.
Amanda stifled a giggle at the amazing change in him. “Sure. I'll take Jill out to the deck. Do you know if Simon plans to surface soon?” It was just going on lunchtime and he'd come out to share it with her every day so far this week.
“As I have said in the past, Ms. Zachary, Mr. Brant is not a submarine.”
“Be nice to me, or I won't let Jillian talk to you.”
Jillian laughed and patted Jacob on the shoulder. “Don't worry. Her bark is much worse than her bite. She hasn't muzzled me in a year at least, but I do want to meet your boss. Will he be down for lunch?”
“I believe so. He has discovered an ongoing and sufficient motivator for leaving his lab in the middle of the day.” He gave Amanda a significant look and it was her turn to blush.
Because while it was true that she and Simon shared lunch every day, it was also true that that wasn't the only thing they shared in the middle of the afternoon.
Jillian's brow rose. “Interesting. You two will have to be more circumspect now that I'm here, though. I'm very impressionable.”
“You're impossible,” Amanda replied. “Come on. Let's go out on the deck.”
They were seated at the table, sipping freshly brewed ice tea with a twist of lemon when Jillian turned to Amanda, her face more serious than Amanda had ever seen it. “Tell me about this guy you're sleeping with. Are you pregnant yet?”