him.’
‘I don’t.’
‘As a matter of interest,’ Guy said calmly, ‘could you help me if you wanted to?’
‘Do what?’ she said, trying to disguise a child-like glower. But he saw it and his lips twitched. No wonder the glossies described him in glowing terms, Jenny thought. Until now she’d wondered how the head of what was essentially a catering company had become someone that the gossip columnists described as hot property. Now she knew. Guy would just have to look at you with those eyes, that held laughter…
The man was seriously sexy.
‘Do you have the resources to run a wedding for three hundred on Christmas Day?’ he asked, and she had to make a sharp attempt to haul her hormones into line. ‘Are we arguing about something that’s an impossibility?’
‘It’s not impossible,’ she said, and then thought maybe she shouldn’t have admitted it.
‘Why is it not impossible?’
‘Anna says she wants pink tulle?’
‘So?’ The laughter was gone now, and she could see why he was also described as one of the world’s best businessmen. She could see the intelligence…the focus.
‘So we could give her a country wedding. Kylie-style. It would be so unexpected that she’d love it.’
‘We could put on a country dance,’ Jack contributed. ‘It’s great weather this time of year. Haul some hay bales out into the paddock for seats, some more for a bar, and shove a keg on the back of the truck.’
‘Keg?’ Guy asked faintly.
‘Fosters,’ Jack told him. ‘Gotta be Fosters.’
‘He means beer,’ Jenny told him, putting him out of his misery. ‘I don’t think this crowd would be happy with only beer.’
‘Drink’s the least of my problems.’
‘So what’s your problem?’
‘Finding clothes for the wedding party in ten days. Sourcing food. Finding staff to wait on tables and clear up afterwards.’
‘Piece of cake,’ Jenny said, and then thought that was stupid. What was she letting herself in for?
‘How is it a piece of cake?’
‘Make Kylie’s wedding the first Australian Carver Wedding and I’ll tell you.’
‘Kylie doesn’t want a Carver Wedding.’
‘You’re making huge assumptions here,’ she flashed, and Henry stirred and looked up at his mother in surprise. Lorna shifted her wheelchair sideways so she could take his weight, and he moved his allegiance to his grandmother. As if he wasn’t quite sure who his mother was any more. ‘What’s the difference between Anna and Kylie?’ she demanded. ‘Career choice and money. Nothing more. Kylie’s got herself pregnant, but Anna ended up in drug rehab. Two kids getting married. Kylie does want a Carver Wedding, and she asked first.’
‘You’d seriously make me-’
‘No one’s making you do anything,’ she told him. ‘Including staying at our dinner table.’
‘You’re telling me to leave?’
‘I don’t like what money does to people.’
‘The man hasn’t finished his dinner yet,’ Jack protested. ‘Have a heart.’
‘It’s a bit rude to invite him to eat and put him out,’ Lorna added, looking curiously at Jenny.
‘Jenny’s just itching for a fight,’ Jack told Lorna, speaking across the table as if no one else was there. ‘Dunno what’s got into her, really.’
‘It’s hormones,’ Lorna decided. ‘You have a nice cup of tea, Jen.’
‘Lorna…’
‘She could do the wedding if she wanted to,’ Lorna said, turning to Guy. ‘She’s the cleverest lass. I used to run the salon, making dresses for locals and organising caterers for out-of-towners. Only then the out-of-towners grew to so many that I had to employ Jenny. It was the best thing I ever did. Her mum didn’t have any money, and her dad lit out early, so there wasn’t enough to send Jenny to anywhere like university. She took on an apprenticeship with me. She’s transformed the business. She’s just…’
‘Lorna!’ Jenny said, almost yelling. ‘Will you cut it out? Mr Carver doesn’t want to know about me.’
‘Yes, I do,’ he said mildly. ‘I need to persuade you to use some of your skills on my behalf. Where could you get caterers on Christmas Day?’
‘I don’t-’
‘You tell him, lass,’ Jack said. ‘Don’t hide your light under a bushel.’
She stared wildly round, but they were all watching her expectantly. Even Henry.
‘This town is full of retirees,’ she said at last, trying desperately to get her voice under control. ‘Most of them have a very quiet Christmas. If we had all the food planned the day before-if we settled on country fare that all the women round here can cook-if Anna settled for a late wedding and if we told the locals that they could come to the dance afterwards-there’d be queues to work for us.’
‘Locals come to the ceremony?’ he said, incredulous.
‘Not the ceremony. The idea would be that there’d be a huge party afterwards, with workers welcome. Think of the publicity for Anna and Barret. If you got onto that nice PR person I talked to this afternoon…’
Guy stared at her, poleaxed. ‘It might…’
‘It might well work,’ she said. ‘She’s not squeaky clean, our Anna, and this would be great publicity.’
‘You know about Anna’s past?’
‘The world knows about Anna’s past. This wedding will be great for her.’
‘It would,’ he agreed, and suddenly Jenny’s eyes narrowed.
‘That’s why you’re thinking of doing it,’ she said softly, on a note of discovery, thinking it through as she spoke. ‘I couldn’t understand…’ But suddenly she did, seeing clearly where her impetuous nature had landed Guy. ‘The Carver empire doesn’t need this wedding, but Anna needs the Carver emporium.’ She bit her lip. ‘I should have thought about that when I was contacted. Oh, heck. I was angry with you, and I didn’t think.’
To say Guy was bewildered was an understatement. That Jenny was sensitive enough to see connotations that he’d only figured because he moved in those circles…
His estimation of the woman in front of him was changing by the minute. Gorgeous, smart, funny…
He didn’t do gorgeous, smart and funny. He didn’t do complications.
He rose, so sharply that he had to make a grab to catch his chair before it toppled. ‘I need to go.’
‘You haven’t had coffee,’ Lorna said mildly, but he didn’t hear. He was watching Jenny.
‘You agree to staying on my payroll until Christmas?’
‘Can Kylie have a Carver Wedding?’
‘Yes,’ he said, against the ropes and knowing it.
She hesitated, but then gave a rueful smile. ‘Okay, then. I’ve never worked for a boss before.’
‘What about me?’ Lorna said, indignant, and Jenny grinned.
‘That’s different. I walked into your shop for the interview and Ben was there. I was family from that minute on.’
‘You were, too,’ Lorna said, and reached over and squeezed her hand.
Family.
Something knotted in Guy’s gut that he didn’t want to know about. He backed to the door.
‘Where are you staying, young man?’ Jack asked.
‘My secretary booked a place for me. Braeside?’
‘You been there yet?’
‘No. I-’
‘You’ll never find it,’ Jack said with grim satisfaction. ‘It’s up back of town, by the river. Tourists get lost there all the time.’ It seemed a source of satisfaction. Jack was looking at him with what seemed to be enjoyment.
‘I have directions.’
‘I’ve seen the directions they use. You’ll be driving through the mountains ’til dawn. Jenny’ll have to take you.’
Jenny stilled. Then she nodded, as if she agreed. ‘You will get lost. I’ll drive there, and you can follow me.’
