‘I object to you talking to me like this,’ Kent argued, his anger mounting. ‘I’d be happy to talk about this rationally, but I won’t be yelled at in my office.’
Nicole and Kent stared at one another, and Jack wondered which of them was going to pounce first. Eventually Nicole’s shoulders dropped and she pulled out a chair. ‘May I?’
Kent held out his hand and gestured for her to sit. Without looking away from Nicole, he said, ‘If you could excuse us please, Jack, Braydon. I’d like to talk to Nicole alone.’
Braydon showed no signs of shifting until Jack took the lead.
Shutting the door behind him, Jack knew that at least one thing he’d wanted to talk to his father about had been taken out of his hands.
‘Do you think your old man is going to let her keep her precious building?’ Braydon asked.
Jack rolled his eyes and walked away, calling over his shoulder, ‘No idea.’ What he really wanted to add was that he didn’t care about some stupid building. He didn’t actually give a damn about anything much to do with this company right now.
Kent
‘I’m sorry. It wasn’t professional of me to barge in on you like this.’ Nicole’s corkscrew curls were pinned back in an updo that certainly gave her a business edge. Deep brown eyes looked at him for the answers she wanted to hear.
Kent rested his elbows on the table, fingers steepled in front of him, fingertips resting against his lips. ‘You know, once upon a time,’ he began, ‘I had the edge. I was a businessman with no margin for error. No corners were cut, not until now. I’d have known exactly who had the lease on that building. And I wouldn’t have cared. It wouldn’t have caused me anything more than a fleeting concern that my plans could be delayed.’
‘And what about now?’ she asked.
‘Like I said, I’m losing my touch, my hunger for success. The heart attack scared me to death, the thought of leaving Jack to pick up the pieces.’
‘He doesn’t deserve that.’
‘No, he most certainly does not.’ When Nicole reached out and touched a hand to his arm, his bicep tensed beneath his shirt. The feel of her touch was like a hug that brought him home.
He shook away the feeling, the feeling he couldn’t allow to grow, and sat back in his chair so the distance between them was marginally bigger. ‘Tell me about the shelter,’ he said.
‘I started volunteering after I finished working at the house.’ She didn’t meet his gaze yet. ‘I needed something to occupy my time, but I had plenty of money since I inherited a hefty sum when my godmother died the year before.’
‘I remember when it happened,’ said Kent. She’d confided in him about the loss of her godmother, but not about her inheritance because she’d wanted to keep working with the Churchills even though there was absolutely no need.
‘I didn’t need to generate an income,’ she continued, ‘and when I saw the ad for people to help out, everything fell into place. I like to help people. It’s why I became a housekeeper, but this was so much more.’
‘So much more than working for snooty rich people,’ he finished for her, and when she looked about to protest he held up a hand. ‘I’m not offended.’
‘Meeting Evie affected me deeply, Kent. And it’s good of you and Jack to worry about me, but our relationship is deeper than you could ever know. She’s like family to me and the help isn’t all one-sided. I know that if I ever needed her, she’d be there in a heartbeat and vice versa. Don’t you think everyone deserves somebody like that in their life?’
He held her gaze but avoided the question by asking one of his own. ‘Tell me about some of the other people you met at the shelter.’
‘Do you really want to know?’
‘I asked, didn’t I?’ He’d probably surprised himself much more than her.
Nicole took off her coat, put her bag down on the floor beside her, and over coffee and cookies that Kent requested Penny bring in, Kent got to know the shelter and its regular residents, but more than that, he got to know Nicole all over again. They talked about the other shelters in the city, how Nicole saw her shelter taking the overspill and offering something extra, and by the time they’d finished talking, Kent had no doubt in his mind about what he wanted to do. She’d said it herself when she’d arrived and accused him of not thinking about anyone outside his immediate cushy world, and it was true. It hadn’t always been that way, but since Cynthia died and Jack had pulled away from him, he’d never felt so empty.
‘Perhaps we can work together on this, Nicole.’ Without any further explanation, he finished his cup of coffee—decaf on doctor’s orders—and pulled open the door to the meeting room to ask Penny to let Jack and Braydon know they should come back in.
‘I’ll go.’ Nicole lifted her bag. ‘I don’t much like your colleague, I’m afraid, and I’m sure the feeling is mutual.’
Kent put a hand on her arm. ‘Sit, please. You need to hear what I have to say. And so does Braydon.’ He leant closer. ‘And I don’t like him much either,’ he whispered as the man in question re-entered the room. He returned her relieved smile.
‘What’s going on?’ Braydon demanded.
‘Sit,’ Kent instructed. ‘Let’s wait for Jack and then we’ll start.’ He didn’t miss Braydon scrutinising Nicole, but this wouldn’t take long. He knew how Braydon would react, but right now he was past the point of caring. It was time he got his priorities straight.
Jack came in and shut the door behind him. He winked at Nicole. ‘I see you’ve been treated to the finest cookies we have.’ He noted the gold tubular tin of Fortnum’s Chocolossus biscuits.
