The Blind-date Proposal
Tomorrow, Kate told herself. She would buy a paper and check out the appointments page, go to the gym on her way home and cook herself something healthy and non-fattening for supper.
Tomorrow would see the start of the new Kate.
Bella was eating toast in the kitchen with her hair in rollers when Kate let herself into the house. Since Phoebe had married and moved in with Gib, the two of them and Kate’s surly cat had had the Tooting house to themselves.
The cat was waiting, a brooding presence by the fridge, and Kate knew better than to try and sit down until he had been fed. He was more than capable of shredding her ankles, so she fished out a packet of the over-priced cat food that was all he would accept and forked it into his bowl before she had even taken off her coat.
‘I thought you were going out?’ she said to Bella, eyeing the toast enviously.
Bella could eat whatever she liked and still not put on weight. ‘Metabolism,’ she said cheerfully whenever she was challenged by her less fortunate friends. She was ridiculously pretty, a blue-eyed blonde with legs that went on forever and a sunny disposition. The worst thing about Bella, Kate and Phoebe had often agreed, was that it was impossible to hate her.
‘I am, but Will’s taking me to some incredibly cool restaurant where the portions are bound to be tiny. I thought I’d have something to eat now so I don’t pig out when I get there. Anyway, I’m hungry,’ Bella added simply.
Lucky Bella, going out with the gorgeous Will while she got some poor old widower who needed someone to be nice to him. Kate sighed to herself. Typical.
Without thinking she dropped a slice of bread into the toaster.
Bella pointed her piece of toast at her. ‘You’ll regret that,’ she warned through a mouthful. ‘Gib always cooks enough for an army. Anyway, I thought you were on a diet?’
‘There’s not much point in starting a diet when I’m going out to dinner,’ said Kate, taking off her coat at last. ‘And we’ve got to eat up all the fattening food before we can restock with the healthy stuff.’
It was a good enough excuse to slather butter on her toast as she told Bella about borrowing Will mentally. ‘I wasn’t going to tell Finn McBride that I was just going on a blind date with a sad widower.’
‘A widower?’
Kate told her the little she had learnt from Phoebe. ‘It doesn’t sound like it’s going to be a bundle of laughs, does it?’
‘Come on, he might be gorgeous,’ said Bella.
‘Not with my luck,’ grumbled Kate, but she did her best to talk herself into a more positive frame of mind as she got ready to go out. Perhaps Bella was right. Perhaps a fabulous hunk of manhood was going to walk into her life tonight and sweep her off her feet. It had to be her turn sometime soon, surely?
Just in case, she dressed carefully in a flounced dress whose plunging neckline showed off her best assets. At least there were some advantages to having a figure like hers. It was just a shame that a curvaceous bust came with equally curvy hips and thighs and tummy.
Wriggling her feet into high heels, she felt instantly taller and therefore better. Kate had often thought that life would be so much easier if only she had slightly longer legs. An extra couple of inches wouldn’t have been asking too much now, would it? And a couple less around her hips, which would have balanced her out nicely.
She studied her reflection in the mirror. Amazing what a bit of make-up could do. In a dim light she might even pass for exotic. The warm red in her dress gave her a vaguely gipsyish look that went quite well with her tumbling brown curls and vibrant lipstick. Would the widower be into gipsies? Somehow Kate felt not. Perhaps she should have gone for a rather more demure look?
Could she carry off demure? Kate wondered, unaware that she had lost track of time. It was only when Will arrived to pick up Bella that she thought to look at her watch, and gave a yelp of fright. How could it be eight o’clock already?
It was little comfort to know that Bella wasn’t ready either. Will was reading the paper resignedly in the kitchen, and he raised a laconic hand in greeting as Kate teetered down in her heels to ring for a minicab.
‘It’ll be another twenty minutes,’ said the bored voice at the other end of the phone.
Oh, God, now she would be really late. Punctuality was another of Kate’s New Year resolutions that didn’t seem to be working out as planned.
‘Sorry, sorry, sorry,’ Kate gabbled when she finally arrived at almost quarter to nine, practically falling in the door when Phoebe opened it. ‘I know I’m late, but I really didn’t mean to be. Please don’t be cross with me! It’s just been one of those days.’
‘It’s always one of those days with you, Kate,’ said Phoebe, trying to sound severe as she gave her friend an affectionate hug.
Kate hung her head. ‘I know, I know, but I am trying to get better.’ She lowered her voice conspiratorially. ‘Is he here? What’s he like?’
‘A bit stiff—no, reserved would be a better word,’ Phoebe corrected herself. ‘But he’s very nice when you get to know him, and he’s got a lovely smile. I think he’s quite attractive, too.’
‘Really?’ A hot widower after all! Kate perked up. Things were sounding promising. ‘No beard?’
‘No.’
‘Beer belly? Wet lips?’
‘No!’ Phoebe was laughing now. ‘Come and see for yourself.’
Maybe her luck had changed. Smoothing down her top, Kate took a deep breath and followed Phoebe into the sitting room.
‘Here’s Kate,’ she heard her say, but Kate had already stopped dead as she saw who was standing by the mantelpiece with Gib and Josh. He had turned at Phoebe’s words, and she had a nasty feeling that his expression of horror only mirrored her own.
It was Finn McBride.
Then he was blocked from her view temporarily as Gib came towards her, grinning. ‘Kate!’ he cried, sweeping her up into a warm hug. ‘Late as usual!’
‘I’ve already grovelled to Phoebe,’ Kate said returning his hug and hoping against hope that she had been mistaken and that when Gib moved she would see that the stranger wasn’t Finn at all, but just someone who looked like him and either didn’t care for the gipsy look or disapproved of unpunctuality. Or both.
But no. Gib was turning with his arm still around her to face the others and there was no doubt about it. There stood Finn, looking as if he had been turned to stone to match the granite of his expression.
Clearly not enjoying discovering that he had been set up on a blind date with his own secretary.
Mortified beyond belief, Kate considered her options. Wishing that she had never been born came top of her list, closely followed by that old cliché, a bit tired but effective nonetheless, of wanting the ground to open up and swallow her.
Could she get away with pretending to faint? Probably not, she decided regretfully. She wasn’t the fainting type.
Which just left brazening it out.
CHAPTER TWO
‘HELLO.’ Plastering on an artificially bright smile, she stared Finn straight in the eyes, daring him to acknowledge her. Finn looked back at her with a glacial grey gaze.
‘Kate, this is Finn McBride,’ said Gib. ‘We’ve been telling him all about you.’
Great, thought Kate. Now Finn would know just how sad her life was.
She stuck out her hand and Finn didn’t have much choice but to take it. ‘Kate Savage,’ she introduced herself in a brittle voice, trying not to notice the feel of his fingers closed around hers. In spite of his obvious reluctance, his clasp was firm and warm, much warmer than she had expected, and she snatched her hand away, oddly unsettled.
‘You’re being very formal, Kate,’ said Gib amused. ‘At least I don’t need to bother introducing you to Josh.’ He turned to Finn. ‘Josh practically lives with Kate.’
‘Oh?’ said Finn coldly.
‘Kate shares a house with a very good friend of mine,’ Josh explained, and the quick smile he gave Kate was sympathetic. He had obviously been told that he was there to make it less obvious that this was a blind date, although his presence wasn’t fooling Finn one little bit. ‘How are you, Kate? I haven’t seen you for a while.’
‘I’m fine.’ Apart from wanting to die of embarrassment, that was.
Phoebe handed Kate a glass of wine. ‘Finn’s just been telling us about his disastrous experiences with temps in his office,’ she said cheerfully. ‘We thought you could give him a few tips on how to handle them.’
Oh, yes, Gib and Phoebe had built her up into a topflight PA, hadn’t they? As if her humiliation wasn’t complete enough!
‘Really?’ Kate produced an acidic smile. ‘It does seem to be difficult getting good secretarial staff these days! What’s wrong with the temp you’ve got?’
‘She doesn’t seem to have any idea of time-keeping for a start,’ said Finn with a sardonic glance at the clock on the mantelpiece. No doubt he had been here on the stroke of eight, long before Phoebe and Gib would have been ready for him. ‘She’s completely unreliable.’
Unreliable, was she? Kate took a defiant gulp of her wine. ‘It doesn’t sound as if she has much motivation to work for you. Why would that be, do you think?’
Finn shrugged. ‘Sheer laziness?’ he suggested. ‘She seems to have a very vivid fantasy life too,’ he went on and Kate coloured in spite of herself, remembering how she was supposed to be sitting here being proposed to right now by a financial analyst called Will.
No doubt Gib and Phoebe had already filled him in on her disastrous relationship with Seb, and even if they hadn’t he would still know that story wasn’t true either. After all, if she had a financial analyst to go home to, she wouldn’t be the kind of sad person who needed to be set up on blind dates by friends.
Kate suppressed a sigh. Could things get any worse?
‘It can be just as bad on the other side of fence,’ Phoebe was saying loyally. ‘Tell them about your horrible boss, Kate. He sounds ghastly.’
Ah. They could get worse.
‘Oh?’ said Finn, thin-lipped. ‘Why’s that?’
Oh, well. In for a penny, in for a pound. She might as well take the opportunity to tell him what she thought, and it wasn’t as if he had spared her feelings!
‘He’s just generally rude and unpleasant,’ she told him. ‘He doesn’t seem to have even the most basic social skills. He can hardly be bothered to say “good morning” and as for “please” and “thank you”…well, I might as well ask him to talk Polish!’
A muscle had begun to beat in Finn’s jaw. ‘Perhaps he’s busy.’
‘Being busy isn’t an excuse for not having any manners,’ said Kate, meeting his gaze levelly.
‘He’s absolute death on personal calls in the office as well,’ Phoebe put in, apparently unaware of the antagonism simmering between Finn and Kate. ‘Kate’s always having to put down the phone in the middle of a conversation when his door opens, and we can be in the middle of a really good chat when she suddenly starts putting on an official voice and telling us she’ll get back to us on that as soon as possible. That’s our cue to call back later when he’s gone! It’s very frustrating.’
She turned politely to Finn. ‘You let people in your office use the phone, don’t you?’
‘I don’t encourage it, no,’ he said with a nasty look at Kate, who was almost beyond caring by now.
She was obviously never going to be able to use the office phone again—not that Kate could imagine going into work again after this. On the scale of embarrassment, being blatantly fixed up with your boss must rank pretty high, she thought. It was certainly one of the most excruciating situations Kate had ever found herself in and, let’s face it, she had plenty to compare it to. Sometimes she seemed to spend her life lurching from one mortifying episode to another.
‘Access to phones and email for personal business is good for staff morale,’ she pointed out. ‘If you treated your staff like human beings who have a life outside work, I think you’d see productivity shoot up.’
‘There’s nothing wrong with our productivity,’ snapped Finn, and this time his irritability did catch the others’ attention. They looked at him a little curiously and he controlled his temper with an effort.
‘There’s a difference between dealing with a crisis, in which case of course staff can use the phones, and spending hours gossiping on my time,’ he said in a more reasonable voice.
‘Doesn’t your temp get the job done?’ Kate asked sweetly.
‘In a fashion,’ he admitted grudgingly.
‘Perhaps you should go and work for Finn,’ said Gib in such a blatant attempt to push them together that he might as well have shown them to the spare room and tucked them in to bed together. ‘You might get on better with him than with the boss you’ve got at the moment.’
‘Now, there’s an idea!’ said Kate as if much struck by the thought. ‘Have you got any jobs going at the moment?’
‘It’s very possible that there might be a vacancy for a temp in my office coming up,’ Finn said with something of a snap, ‘but that wouldn’t interest you, of course, you being such a high-flyer! Gib and Phoebe here were telling me that you practically run the company where you are at the moment. I’m not sure I could offer you anything that challenging.’
A hint of colour touched Kate’s cheekbones at his sarcasm. ‘No, well, I’m thinking of changing career anyway,’ she told him loftily.
‘Really?’ the other three all said together.
‘Yes,’ she said, thinking that it wouldn’t be such a bad idea, come to that. It didn’t look as if she had much future in the secretarial world, anyway. ‘I’m sick of being treated like a lower life form, so I’ve been thinking that I might…what’s the word?…downscale.’
‘Downscale?’ Josh echoed doubtfully, clearly wondering how it was possible for her to downscale from her current position. Being a temp was hardly the giddy heights of a career, was it?
‘Or do I mean diversify?’ said Kate. ‘Do something different anyway. Think out of the box. Use my talents.’
‘What exactly are your talents?’ Finn asked, the sardonic lift of his brows belying the apparent interest in his voice.
Yes, what were her talents? Kate’s normally fertile imagination went inconveniently blank at the very moment she needed it most.
‘She’s a great cook,’ Phoebe prompted, evidently still under the impression that Kate might make a suitable wife for Finn.
For some reason it was only at this point that Kate made the connection and remembered that his presence here meant that Finn was a widower. She had been so shocked to see him that she hadn’t thought beyond the awkwardness and antagonism, and now she felt suddenly contrite. That beautiful, glowing girl in that photo on his desk was dead. No wonder he seemed so grim.
Kate was conscious of a twinge of guilt about all the times she had thought Finn abrupt and rude, but then, how was she to know that his brusqueness hid a broken heart?
The others were still madly promoting her. ‘Kate’s a communicator,’ she heard Gib say. It was the kind of thing that made you realise just how long he’d spent in the States. ‘She’s got wonderful people skills.’
‘Not just people,’ said Josh dryly. ‘She’s pretty good when it comes to animals too. Remember that dog in the pub, Phoebe?’
‘God, yes.’ Phoebe gave an exaggerated shudder, and Josh grinned.
‘I still wake up in a cold sweat sometimes thinking about it,’ he told Finn. ‘Kate confronted a skinhead with huge hands and no neck. He was covered in tattoos and snarling and swearing at his dog. Kate told him he wasn’t fit to own an animal and took the dog away from him while the rest of us were dancing around in the background being mealy-mouthed and saying I’m not sure this is a good idea, Kate, why don’t you let the RSPCA deal with it? Meanwhile Kate was about half the size of this guy, and giving him a piece of her mind, and the rest of the pub was squaring up for a good fight.’
There was a flicker of interest in Finn’s eyes. ‘What happened to the dog?’
‘Oh, Kate got it,’ said Josh. ‘We knew she would. It was a savage Alsatian cross, and I wouldn’t have wanted to go near it myself, but Kate had it eating out of her hand in no time.’ He turned to Kate. ‘What did happen to that dog?’
‘I took him down to my parents,’ she said, uncomfortable with all this blatant promotion. ‘He’s spoiled to death now, of course, and getting much too fat.’
Finn glanced at Kate. ‘Do you think the dog really cared one way or another?’
‘I don’t know,’ she said, meeting his eyes defiantly. Why did people like Finn always have to make you feel so stupid and sentimental when it came to animals? ‘But someone had to.’
There was a tiny silence.
‘A word of warning,’ Gib confided to Finn. ‘Kate might look sweet and cuddly, but don’t ever try mistreating an animal when she’s around, or you’ll find yourself in big trouble! She’s got a hell of a temper when roused.’
Finn’s cold grey gaze flicked to Kate, whose cheeks were burning by this stage, and then away. ‘I’ll remember,’ he said.
‘What Kate really needs,’ said Phoebe as she ushered them all through to the dining room, ‘is a house in the country where she can make chutney and keep chickens and dogs and all the other stray people and animals that cross her path.’
‘No, I don’t,’ objected Kate. A big house in the country sounded perfect, but also a bit too much like she was hanging out to get married. She wasn’t having Finn thinking that she was desperate for a husband, certainly not desperate enough to consider him!
‘I’m a metropolitan chick, really,’ she said loftily. ‘I don’t think I’m ready to make jam yet. I was thinking more along the lines of PR—’ She broke off as Phoebe, Gib and Josh burst out laughing, and even Finn managed a sardonic smile. ‘What’s so funny?’ she demanded, offended.
‘Kate, darling, you’re not nearly tough enough for PR! You’d always side with the underdog regardless of what your client wanted. You might as well decide to be a brain surgeon!’
With that they were off, vying with each other to think up more unlikely careers that Kate could try. Josh’s suggestion—pest controller—was voted the best.
‘Kate would take all the rats home and make up little beds for them!’
Kate gritted her teeth. She could feel Finn watching her with a curling lip. He was probably one of those people who thought that a soft heart equalled a soft head.
She wouldn’t have minded so much if the other three hadn’t been so determined to push her as a homemaker. Couldn’t they see that Finn wasn’t the least bit impressed? Things got even worse over dinner when Phoebe manoeuvred the conversation, none too subtly, round to Finn and his daughter.
‘What’s her name?’
‘Alex,’ said Finn almost reluctantly.
Kate didn’t blame him. He could obviously see the subtext—how much he needed to get married again to provide his daughter with a stepmother—as clearly as she could, and she was conscious of a treacherous twinge of fellow feeling. He couldn’t be enjoying this any more than she was.
‘She’s nine,’ he added, evidently recognising that the information was going to be dragged out of him somehow, so he might as well get it over and done with.
‘It must have been very hard, bringing her up on your own,’ said Phoebe.
Finn shrugged. ‘Alex was only two when Isabel died, so I had various nannies to help. She never really took to any of them, though, and since she’s been at school full time we’ve managed with a housekeeper who comes in every day. She picks Alex up from school and cooks an evening meal, and she’ll stay with her if I’m late back from work.’
His voice was emotionless, as if his small daughter was just another logistical problem he had had to solve. It was Alex Kate felt sorry for, poor motherless child. Kate had never taken a phone call from her, or seen her at the office, so she clearly wasn’t encouraged to disturb Finn there. Having grown up with four brothers, Kate thought Alex’s life sounded very lonely. It couldn’t be much fun growing up with just a housekeeper and Finn for company.
Certainly not if Finn was always as boring as he was tonight. He was driving, so he drank very little, and although Kate couldn’t object to that, she did feel that he could at least look as if was enjoying himself.
He was obviously terrified that she was going to throw herself at him and force him to marry her. It was understandable, Kate supposed, after the way the others had built her up as a domestic goddess, but he needn’t worry. Getting together with him was the last thing on her mind. She wasn’t that desperate for a relationship!
Finn sat beside her at dinner, radiating disapproval as Kate laughed and drank rather too much wine and talked about clubbing and parties and generally made it clear that she was absolutely not in the market for uptight widowers, no matter how sorry she felt for his poor daughter. Of course, the more poker-faced and buttoned up he was, the more she she had to compensate for Phoebe and Gib’s sake. They had gone to so much effort, she felt that the least she could do was try and make it a successful evening.
Defiantly ignoring the way Finn was looking down his nose, Kate held out her glass for more wine. Anyone with a sense of occasion would relax and have a drink as well. They would agree to call a taxi and come and pick up the car in the morning, but the Finns of this world evidently didn’t do relaxing or having fun.
Of course, it was a bit tricky trying to impress her complete lack of concern on Finn and ignore him at the same time, especially when she was so aware of his austere presence beside her. It wasn’t that he didn’t contribute to the conversation, but he made it very clear that he thought Kate was too silly for words, which just made her nervous, and nervousness made her drink more until she was trapped in a vicious circle. As the evening wore on, she could hear herself getting louder and more outrageous, and had reached the owlish stage when Finn, obviously unable to bear any more, looked at his watch.
‘I must go,’ he said, pushing back his chair to forestall any objections.
‘I think you should go too,’ said Gib to Kate with a grin, ‘or you’ll never get to work tomorrow.’
Kate didn’t want to think about going into work. ‘Don’t talk about it,’ she groaned, closing her eyes, but that was a mistake. The room started to spin and she opened them again hastily, clutching her tousled curls instead.
‘I don’t suppose you could give her a lift home, could you?’ Gib asked Finn. ‘She can’t be trusted to get home alone in this state!’
‘I’m absolutely fine,’ Kate protested instantly, lifting her head and trying not to sway at the sudden movement. ‘I’m great!’
‘You’re fab,’ agreed Phoebe soothingly, helping her to her feet, ‘but it’s time to go. Finn’s going to take you home.’
‘Why can’t Josh take me?’
‘Because I haven’t got my car with me and I live in completely the opposite direction,’ said Josh ungallantly.
‘I’m very happy to give you a lift,’ said Finn with a certain grittiness, clearly feeling far from happy but unable to think of a good excuse.
Outside, it was raining and making a determined effort to sleet, if not actually to snow. Finn watched, resigned, as Gib and Phoebe helped Kate into her coat like a little girl for the short walk to the car, buttoning her up and kissing her goodnight before consigning her into his charge.
Kate thanked them both graciously for supper, although she had a sinking feeling that the words might have come out a bit slurred, and set off down the path, very much on her dignity. Unfortunately, the effect was spoilt by stumbling on her heels, and only Finn’s hand which shot out and gripped her arm stopped her landing smack on her bottom.
‘Careful!’ he said sharply.
‘Sorry, the path’s a bit slippy…slippery,’ Kate managed, wincing at the iron grip of his fingers. She tried to pull her arm away, but Finn kept a good hold of her as he marched her along to his car.
‘You’re the one that’s a bit slippy,’ he said acidly and opened the door with what Kate felt was unnecessarily ironic courtesy.