Page 68 of Secrets at Seaside
“Really? That’s so generous of you.” How could she turn down the job after he offered herthat?
“What good is owning luxury resorts if you can’t share the fun with friends?” Duke leaned back and looked out over the harbor. “I’m a sucker for love. You guys just let me know when and where you want the rooms and consider it done.”
She dropped her eyes, trying to gather enough courage to tell him what she’d come there to say. She drew her shoulders back, settled her hands in her lap, and locked her fingers together in a death grip. When she met his gaze again, he was still smiling. Her stomach sank, knowing she was about to upset his apple cart.
“Duke, before I accept your generous gift, I need to talk to you about the job.”I can do this. I can do this.
He drew his brows together. “Should I worry that we need to talkbeforeyou accept the gift?”
“Probably.”
He leaned back in his chair and crossed an ankle over one knee, resting his elbow on the arm of the chair. “Might as well give it to me straight, Amy.”
“Straight.”Right. “Okay, well. This is really hard for me to say, because I really, really want to work with you. The position you’ve offered is exactly what I’ve been working toward all these years, and I know I’d do an excellent job.” She paused, and his facial expression didn’t change at all. She straightened the silverware on the table and refolded her napkin, anything to release the nervous energy buzzing beneath the weight of his steady gaze.
“It’s just…All I can do is be honest with you, Duke. I don’t want to ruin our friendship, and I really don’t want to give up this job, but my circumstances have changed. Now that Tony and I are getting married, I’m thinking about having children and starting a family, and I want to do that here. At the Cape. With my friends.” There. She’d gotten it all out in the open without passing out.
Duke didn’t say a word.
Shoot. Fearing she’d ruined their friendship and given up the job, she tried to explain further.
“I’m sorry. I am not normally the type of person to back out of a commitment.”Yes, I am. I broke up with Tony all those years ago.
I had to. Didn’t I?
Duke leaned forward, hands steepled beneath his chin. “Well, that puts an interesting spin on this situation, doesn’t it?”
His words pulled her back to the present.Interesting spin?She didn’t know how to respond to that, and she was still thinking about how she’d broken up with Tony so long ago. She’d done it to save him, yes, but she’d also done it to save herself. It had been too difficult to see Tony’s caring eyes looking at her with so much sadness that she’d nearly drowned in them. She’d barely been able to make it through each day, and she’d been at risk of failing her classes if she didn’t pull her head together. She’d been a kid making a decision based on fear.
What was she doing now? What or who was she saving?
Her relationship with Tony? No. He’d said he’d go wherever she wanted.
Now she was making a decision as an adult. She was saving her own stupid self again, coveting the time she had to be at the Cape with her girlfriends. Was that so wrong?
Duke was looking at her with a question in his eyes.
No. It wasn’t wrong. She’d waited a lifetime to marry Tony.
I’ve also waited a lifetime for a job like this.
“Is this an all-or-nothing decision?” Duke asked.
“I’m not sure what you mean.”
“Amy, I didn’t offer you the job because we’re friends. I offered you the job because you’re the best person for the position.” He paused long enough for the weight of his words to sink in.
The best person for the position. What a nice ego stroke. Duke’s eyes were dead serious. She’d been so busy worrying about saving their friendship that she hadn’t consideredwhyhe’d hired her.
“You have the professionalism and skill set to make this conference center a success, and you have the vision to drive it into the future. Not to mention that you know how to finesse clients.” Duke sat up straighter, and Amy suddenly felt as though she weren’t talking to her friend Duke Ryder but to the real-estate-tycoon Duke Gerald Ryder.
And the real-estate tycoon wantedherfor the job.
Amy sat up taller. It had been such an emotional few weeks that she’d lost sight of the fact that she was Amy Maples, President of Maples Logistical & Conference Consulting.
Her personal life was heading in the direction of her dreams, all because she’d taken a chance the night before Jamie and Jessica’s wedding. She glanced at her engagement ring. Even if she’d failed miserably at being a seductress, she must have done something right, because she’d gotten Tony’s attention. She’d had no idea what she was doing as a temptress, but she knewexactlywhat she was doing in her professional life.
She reveled in her realization and used that renewed confidence as she would with any client—to get what she wanted.
