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“Good morning!” she sang. “Good Christmas?”
“Great, thanks,” he replied. “I don’t have to ask if your holidays were good.”
“Kane told you?”
“He told me about his spill down the black slope and how you laughed as you went by.”
Megan covered her mouth. “It’s the sibling code. His pride was hurt more than his butt. Besides, I brought him a brandy the size of a Big Gulp that night. He was fine.” There was that word again.
“Well, I can’t say I’m not glad to see you back,” Leo went on. “I’ve only got you for another month before they steal you over at manufacturing.”
Megan’s job was to learn, to observe, to listen, to help, to smile, to encourage. She was damn good at all these things. One more department to go, and she’d become a vice president with an office on the top floor. Observing, listening, helping, et cetera, et cetera. A few unspecified years after that and she’d be a senior vice president. One day, she’d take over for Kane, and then all the skills she’d learned would be needed. The last ten years had been one long internship. One looooong job interview. A test.
“Don’t worry. We’re ready for Kane’s tour of the mills next week.” In fact, Megan was so ready, her inbox was beginning to look worryingly empty. They couldn’t give her the juicy new projects she wanted. So she was left doing busy work while she waited to move.
Kane sauntered into the department at that moment. “You ready?” he asked Leo. “Hey, Meg.”
Megan kissed his cheek, then appraised him from a PR point of view. Flawless, of course. Custom suit, a subtle tie, his hair its trademark messy. The years had added silver to his temples, which enhanced his credibility in interviews.
“Do I pass?” he asked with an indulgent smile.
“Just about.” She sniffed. But she couldn’t pretend to be distant from her loving and annoying big brother.
She wasn’t just useful for Kane’s sartorial choices. During her years in PR, Leo had taught her how to write speeches that told the truth about the recycling industry while providing poetry and cadence, and Kane had taught her how to move and inspire an audience so they’d be eating out of her hand. Megan could talk for Kane in her sleep. She would havelovedto be doing the PBS interview this morning.
But she couldn’t. Because her brother had put a strict embargo on Megan getting anywhere near the cameras.
“I don’t know how I’m gonna learn how to speak for the company if I can’t speak for the company,” she’d said mildly when he’d first told her.
“Meg,” he’d said, rubbing his hand through his hair. “You know why I don’t want you out there.”
Kane had negotiated an uneasy peace with the press ever since he’d almost gotten himself killed saving the company while they were hounding his soon-to-be wife. That had been right before Megan started working at Fielding Paper. Even if she didn’t owe everything to her family, she loved business, and Kane would eventually retire and they’d need a new leader. Their eldest sister, Cat, was busy with her teenage boys’ basketball lives; Thea had started a career as a teacher while she raised her boys with her new husband, and Sam, of course, had gone. That just left Megan. She had to do this.
“Listen,” Kane had said. “Just—do this for me, okay? I don’t want to be worrying about the media going after you the way they went after Ellen. Sam and T and Cat have been able to stay out of the spotlight, but you’re working here and they know about you. I want you to have a whole lot more media training before they get a hold of you. And I want to be on Xanax before I have to watch you make a speech.”
Megan was on social media plenty and no one had come after her yet. She’d taken all the media training—hell, she’d taught some of it in the last few months. She’d observed how her brother dealt with his minor fame since she was a kid. She’d given speeches in college that had gotten her a summa cum laude degree. And if Kane wanted her to take over the company one day, she was going to have to start sometime.
But this was her brother, and she could see the pain in his eyes. “Okay,” she’d agreed. “Whatever works for you.” And she’d hugged him to show she knew where he was coming from.
So now she straightened his tie, said, “Enjoy PBS,” and went back to her seat.
And that wasfine.
♦
Chapter 2
Despite telling the others that he had to leave, Alessandro instead folded into the nearest chair.Merda.
She’d come into the coffee shop so fast, her quick, determined step a sound he’d listened for years ago. And he’d had no defense against her—except for dear Sophia, who’d been a hell of a bodyguard.
Megan Fielding remained the most beautiful woman Alessandro had ever seen, and he’d just come from LA. Dark brown hair that cascaded over her shoulders. Dark eyes that caught all the light in the room and reflected it back to him. And that smile. She used it on everyone, but each time the smile told people that she was happy to see them, happy to talk to them. That she was sharing a joke he hadn’t even heard yet. He’d dropped cups and pots for weeks before he’d learned to steel himself against that smile.
He’d stood up and revealed himself this morning without even realizing he’d done it. His manager would have murdered him if she’d known.
“Lie low,” she’d said after he’d gotten out of jail.
“I have the Studio fundraiser in two weeks,” he’d reminded her.
