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CHAPTER THREE

JACOB LINCOLN walked into his second-in-charge’s office first thing Monday morning. He had been able to catch up for a brief hello and welcome home Saturday night but one subject had been bothering him since.

Without hesitation, Ben rounded his desk and hugged his old friend. He patted him on the back once more, as though making sure he was really there.

‘I still can’t believe you’re back. And what an entrance. You sashayed into the match the other night, calm as you please, as if you’d never been away. Over the jet lag yet?’

‘Pretty much. I had forgotten how cold and dry the air is in Melbourne. It hits you as soon as you get off the plane. I don’t mind, though—I never could get used to the humidity in New Orleans.’

‘Good. It means you’re a Melbournian at heart.’

Jacob shrugged. ‘Or maybe it means I should try San Francisco next.’ Jacob sat down on the leather lounge chair on the near side of Ben’s desk. His fingers unconsciously played with his bottom lip as he broached the subject that had been worrying him.

‘At the fight, I met your date.’

Ben grinned broadly. ‘So, you met the other woman in my life.’

Jacob’s eyes narrowed at Ben’s obvious affection towards a woman other than his pregnant wife. But Ben just burst out laughing.

‘Don’t look at me like that, Link. She’s Beth’s best friend. My poor wife can hardly walk up stairs any more, much less handle a nightclub function, so she asked me to take Holly. They’ve known each other for ever so when I fell madly in love with my wife, Holly came with the deal.’

Feeling undeniably better, Jacob leant back in the chair. ‘What’s she like?’

‘You’ve met her. Short, blonde, heavily pregnant.’ Ben reached for his wallet. ‘I can show you a photo.’

‘I meant Holly, and you know it.’

‘Ah, Holly.’ Ben put his wallet away.

‘You get on well?’ Jacob asked.

‘You bet. So well, in fact, she has roped me into finding a man for her.’

‘Really?’ Surprising. She hardly seemed the type to need a blind date. But while he was in town.

‘Not only a man,’ Ben continued, shaking his head and smiling indulgently, ‘but a husband at that.’

Whoa. A blind date was one thing …

He had been back in the country for just a few days and twice he had run into the same woman, and both times he had allowed her to get under his skin. He should have known better. So he swiftly latched onto the perfect balm for just that kind of irritant; she was on a husband hunt.

Suddenly San Francisco was looking better and better.

‘She’s cute, don’t you think?’ Ben asked with a glimmer in his eye.

‘Sure.’ If you called women with stormy blue eyes and legs that went on forever ‘cute’.

‘Did she happen to mention how she enjoyed the fight?’

‘We met just before it began actually. But that didn’t stop her pitching varied unflattering opinions about the match and my company in general.’

‘That sounds like Holly. Did you … introduce yourself?’ Ben asked, seeming to choose his words carefully. ‘Did she know who you were?’

‘She must have.’ Jacob pictured her open book face and the recognition evident in every blink. ‘What does that matter?’

‘I guess it doesn’t.’

Jacob stood and Ben walked him to the door.

‘What are you doing for dinner tonight?’ Ben asked. ‘How does roast lamb grab you? Beth hasn’t seen you for years and she would love to catch up before the baby’s due.’

Though he had masses of work to do, the thought of such contented, uncomplicated company was too tempting to refuse.

‘What time?’

‘About seven?’

As Jacob left Ben’s office he popped his head back in the door to say, ‘By the way, I have never sashayed in my life.’

‘It was horrible.’ Holly was bent double with her bottom in the air and head pushed between her legs.

‘Ben had a ball.’ Beth did a far more gentle stretch with their yoga instructor watching her carefully.

‘Of course he did. He’s a man. And a Neanderthal at that, as I have only just discovered.’

‘I promise if he’d told me beforehand it was that sort of function, I never would have suggested he take you. I’d told him a little about your dad, but not enough as it turned out.’

Beth laid a hand on Holly’s arm. Holly shook it off, then instantly regretted the prickly move. She had long since let those memories lie and knew she was being overly sensitive.

‘He thinks that Lincoln guy is “inspired”,’ Holly continued, her voice light. ‘He has his head screwed on wrong. If he really wanted his employees to bond in one of his establishments, why not buy a health resort and send them there? I could do a better job planning their parties half asleep and with one hand tied behind my back!’

‘Or with your head between your knees, evidently.’

Holly flicked her friend a smile from between said knees.

‘So, did you meet any honeys?’ Beth asked.

‘Nah,’ Holly said, steadfastly failing to acknowledge the picture of sparkling hazel eyes that had fast formed in her mind. Besides, he was no honey. He was the enemy.

‘I’m not surprised. May I ask how you hoped to find a husband in the “communal lounge”?’

‘By that stage all I hoped to find was sanctuary from the rabble outside.’

‘You would hardly want that to be the story you tell your grandkids. “We met on the way to the toilet.”’

‘What’s the point?’ Holly sighed as she slowly stretched her arms to touch her toes. ‘I will find no husband. I will have no grandkids to tell stories to.’

‘Well, if that’s your attitude I had better cancel your dinner date for tonight, then.’

‘Dinner?’ Holly stood up so fast she had to steady herself so as not to black out.

Beth stood more slowly and waddled over to their bags. Holly followed at a trot.

‘To make up for his dismal effort the other night Ben has organised for one of his work colleagues to come to dinner tonight. He had hoped the two of you could meet, fall madly in love and marry. But if you’re not interested—’

‘Of course, I’m interested. Do you know him? Is he nice? Intelligent? What does he do? No, don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. Is he cute?’

‘Just be at our place by six-thirty, and all will be revealed.’

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.’ She gave Beth a big hug. ‘You guys are so good to me.’

‘Even Ben? A minute ago he was a Neanderthal.’

‘Ben a Neanderthal? Never. He’s the most wonderful man in the history of the world.’

Beth nodded, agreeing wholeheartedly.

As the clock neared seven Beth screamed at Ben to take Holly into the front room and keep her there. ‘If she asks me what he’s like one more time, the pair of you will be sucking gravy from your shirts.’

Holly took a seat in the front room. She crossed and uncrossed her legs several times before settling on right over left. She nibbled at her manicured fingernails and her right leg jiggled up and down.

A sudden downpour made a soft, rhythmic drumming sound on the flat roof. Holly watched as rain created hypnotic rivulets down the window-panes. Each car driving past was heralded by a soft swoosh of tyres on the wet road surface. Headlights lit up raindrops on the glass to a blinding brilliance, before fading as fast as they had arrived. But none heralded her blind date.

‘Ben?’

‘Yes, Holly.’

She knew that tone. Ben had already begun rubbing stiff fingers over the back of his neck.

‘What does he know about me?’

‘Are you sure you want to know? Are you sure you’re not going to stop me as soon as I begin telling you?’

‘I’m sure. Tell me. I can’t stand it. I need to know something.’ Holly’s leg jiggled ever more violently.

‘Okay,’ he said. ‘I told him that you were cute.’

‘You said I’m cute?’ Her leg jiggle slowed. ‘You’re so sweet.’

Ben mirrored her more relaxed behaviour. ‘I told him that you and Beth had been friends for years—’

‘He knows Beth well enough for you to mention I was friends with her?’ she shrieked, and watched as a small muscle twitched in Ben’s cheek. There was no stopping her. She was out of control.

‘Maybe I should know who it is. No. I can’t. Does Beth like him? What else did you tell him?’

Headlights flashed brightly through the window, though this time they shone directly through the lace curtains, and then switched off. Holly gulped as the engine sound stopped. He had arrived.

‘I can’t do this,’ she whispered. ‘Help.’

Ben stood and walked over to her, his jaw set. He grabbed her by the hand and pulled her to her feet. ‘You want to know what else I told him about you?’

Ben propelled her to the front door. Holly knew that she had pushed him too far. She smiled in apology. ‘I don’t think I do.’

But it was too late. As the bell rang and just before Ben whipped open the front door he whispered in her ear.

‘I told him you were on the prowl for a husband and he was candidate number one.’

CHAPTER FOUR

THE door swung open and Jacob found Holly frozen to the spot, her eyes wide and her mouth unnaturally ajar.

In that first moment, a broad smile swept across his face. He felt that same odd rush of warmth deep in the pit of his stomach that he felt each time he saw her.

Then he remembered Ben’s revelation. The flowers he had brought for Beth drooped to his side. He glanced from Holly’s curiously blanched face to Ben’s apologetic one and he knew.

He had just turned up to a blind date with a husband hunter.

‘Look, Holly. Flowers.’ Ben grabbed the posy out of Jacob’s hand and put them in Holly’s, clasping her limp fist around the stems. ‘Now, go put them in water.’

Ben spun her on the spot and gave her a little shove in the direction of the kitchen.

Jacob shrugged off his coat and shook his head to rid himself of a spray of raindrops that caught him on the way to the door, and then laid a friendly but controlling arm around his friend’s shoulder. ‘Is this what I think it is?’

‘Mate, I’m sorry. I had a feeling neither of you would agree to come to dinner if I let on the other would be here.’ ‘You got that right.’

‘If you are staying in town for any length of time you will be bound to run in the same circles so you may as well get to know each other.’

‘Fair enough. But if that’s all that this is, why is she acting like a living mummy?’

Ben flicked furtive glances towards the closed kitchen door. ‘At times Holly can drive me around the bend, tonight being a prime example. And just before I opened the door I snapped and told her that—’

Ben stopped talking and swallowed. Jacob squeezed his friend’s shoulder to hurry him up.

‘I pretty much told her you knew she was “husband hunting” and that’s why you were here.’

‘You what?’ Jacob dropped his arm from his friend’s shoulder and took a step back, physically distancing himself from the shock.

‘Look, Beth will be out any second, and she doesn’t need too much excitement right now; so any shouting, and hitting, and telling Beth what I’ve done would create excitement. Please stay, eat a nice dinner. It’ll all be over in a couple of hours.’

‘I’ll stay,’ Jacob said through clenched teeth. ‘For Beth.’

‘Of course. And the shouting and hitting?’

‘We’ll save that for a rainy day.’ Jacob grinned but it was all bared teeth and no pleasantry.

‘And there’s one more thing,’ Ben said.

‘What more could there possibly be?’

‘It turns out Holly doesn’t know you’re Jacob Lincoln of Lincoln Holdings, which is a good thing as she really hated the whole boxing match and thus doesn’t think much of him. You.’

Jacob blinked slowly. His mind was turning devilishly. Never one to shy away from a challenge—

‘So, your Holly doesn’t think much of me. Yet she thinks I have delivered myself here on a platter.’

‘Yes. And?’

Jacob knew he had Ben worried. Good. ‘Oh, I don’t think you have the right to question me right now, my friend. No shouting, no hitting, now and for ever, as long as tonight you go along with whatever I throw at you. Deal?’

Ben looked over to the closed kitchen door. The water turned off and the kitchen door bumped as it started to open.

‘Okay, deal,’ Ben said.

Jacob slapped Ben on the back and grinned at his friend. But this time his smile was radiant with good humour.

Holly took her time fetching the food, and so gladly missed several minutes of chit-chat. That meant they were several minutes closer to the end of the night. Beth had just finished telling about the guitar lessons she was taking so she could play for her baby when Jacob informed the table at large that his younger sister was engaged.

‘So that’s why you’re here,’ Beth said. ‘I knew it had to be more than just the temptation of my roast lamb. Have you met her fiancé?’

‘I have. On Sunday. Nice guy,’ Jacob said. ‘This will be his second time around.’

‘Divorced?’ Beth asked.

‘A widower.’

‘Oh. Poor man. So he’s older than Ana?’

‘A good bit.’

‘Doesn’t surprise me, really, considering.’ Beth brought her fingers to her temples and started to rub. ‘Now, let me guess, knowing Ana, I bet he is in a caring profession. He’s a … vet?’

‘A triage nurse.’

Beth grinned. ‘Oh, how perfect.’ ‘It would take someone with that sort of temperament to look after our Ana. She’s quite a handful.’ ‘You would know.’ ‘No comment.’

Holly could tell there was some serious subtext to Beth’s comments. She was intrigued despite herself, but her desire to stay invisible outweighed her curiosity so she let the conversation continue over her head.

‘Anyway, good on him for taking her on,’ Jacob said. ‘I guess some people just like to be married.’

Holly stopped chewing and her cutlery stilled in her hand. Did he seriously just say what I think he said?

Ben coughed and she hoped he was choking on his potato. Beth’s face, on the other hand, was all innocence. Perhaps Holly had misread the matter and Jacob was really talking about his sister, and not about her.

‘Holly, could you please pass the broccoli?’ Jacob asked.

Holly jumped in her seat at the call of her name. Her frazzled nerves were drawn as tight as Beth’s new guitar strings. As she passed the bowl she locked eyes with the man across the table. He smiled bringing out his oh, so charming dimples.

He’s the anti-husband, she reminded herself, distant and indifferent. And his admittedly appealing dimples are, well, irrelevant.

‘Holly did the vegetables tonight, Jacob,’ Beth said. ‘She’s a whiz with a steamer.’

Holly happily let go of the eye contact as she let go of the plate, and then shot Beth a quick yet entirely humourless smile.

‘Anyway,’ Jacob began again, ‘Ana and Michael have known each other six months, been engaged for a week and are already talking kids.’

‘Oh, that’s wonderful,’ Beth said.

‘I’m all for short engagements,’ Jacob said. ‘She found someone like-minded, at the same point in his life, with the same goals and desires, and snapped him up. It was the smart thing to do.’

Was he serious? Holly had her reasons for embarking on her husband hunt, but what would Mr Standoffish be doing on a blind date with a woman he knew was after marriage? It made no sense. And, worse, it laughed in the face of her theory.

And who on earth was this guy? Ben had conveniently not let on what he did for the company. Maybe because Lincoln Holdings only kept him on in sympathy for some shocking flaw he hid under his cool good looks. Well, apart from the obvious personality defects Holly had already been subjected to.

To make matters worse, what if he eventually recognised her and let on that he was the guy on the street, the guy Beth knew had started her off on this crusade? If Beth knew, she would never let up about signs and primes and all sorts of gibberish. Holly was certain nothing bar that revelation could make this night more unbearable.

‘I want kids, you know,’ Jacob practically cooed. ‘At least eight. No, eleven—a whole soccer team. So I should probably get started as soon as possible.’

Holly barely contained her groan. She lay down her cutlery, unable to stomach another bite.

Beth gave a painfully obvious nod towards Holly before asking, ‘Do you have someone in mind to bear this football team for you?’

Holly glared ferociously at her friend, who refused to meet her eye.

‘Not as such,’ Jacob said, picking up a stem of broccoli on the end of his fork and twirling it before his eyes. ‘But she would have to be a good cook. Though I would hope that she did not enjoy her own cooking so much that she not be able to keep her figure after the kids are born.’

What? Was this guy for real?

Jacob had trouble keeping the smile from his voice. Ben had his head buried in his hands, Beth’s eyes were widening in shock with each absurd statement, and the lovely Holly was slumping lower and lower in her chair.

‘Ben and I talked about this today. Didn’t we, Ben?’ Jacob casually cracked a knuckle or two as if to say, Your choice: shouting and hitting or go with the flow. Ben smiled ruefully and nodded.

‘Constantly, mate. Hardly got any work done, we were so busy talking about kids.’

But Jacob wasn’t finished yet—

‘And I do like blondes. If I were to marry a brunette I would ask that she dye her hair. I mean, if she really cared for my feelings she would do that, wouldn’t you think?’

Jacob revelled in the stunned silence that met his latest words. Got ‘em!

‘So, Holly, how about you?’

‘Excuse me?’ Holly squeaked.

‘How many kids do you want?’ Jacob asked.

Holly darted a hunted gaze to her friends but found no help from their corner. Ben was finding his cutlery very interesting whilst Beth still stared at Jacob, her eyes bright with astonishment.

‘Umm … kids?’ she said. ‘I haven’t really thought about it.’

‘No? I’m surprised at that.’

‘Surprised?’ Her voice was still an octave too high and barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat.

‘Don’t all women think of these things? How many and what you would name them all?’

‘I guess,’ Holly admitted whilst wishing she could dissolve into the floor.

‘And haven’t you had a distinct idea of the man you would one day marry?’

And then he smiled. From ear to ear. Adorably overlapping teeth, charming dimples and enough charisma to knock her socks off. If he had held up a big sign with an arrow pointing to himself it would not have been more obvious. He seemed so ripe he probably kept his grandmother’s ring in the top pocket of his jacket every day … just in case.

She swallowed hard. Her brow was furrowed so tight it was giving her a headache. She knew her terrible poker face would be showing all the signs of the strain she felt. She could feel hot red blotches forming on her neck and cheeks. But she had no idea how to extricate herself from this nightmare.

Then suddenly Jacob’s bright eyes narrowed, seemingly looking deeper and deeper into her own until she was sure she saw a softening. A melting. The impenetrable myriad hazel flecks in his gaze grew deep and kind and sad. For a flicker she sensed an apology, as real as if he had said it aloud.

And although she would have thought it impossible, it made her knees feel weaker than they had all night.

* * *

He had done enough. He had proven his point. After this performance, Ben and Beth would not dare to set him up on this kind of date again. And that was all he wanted from the night. So he changed tack.

‘How about you, Beth? Did you think you’d end up with someone soft and fuzzy like young Benny boy?’

As Beth proceeded to regale the group with tales of numerous dream boys from her teens Jacob watched as Holly slowly relaxed.

Her natural colour had returned and he noticed again what an attractive woman she was—and just his taste. Not too tall, graceful, curvaceous, vivacious. And he had been lying earlier to rile her. He had never been one of those men who preferred blondes. Her lustrous, thick dark hair beguiled him. He found himself wanting to release it from its confining pins and feel its lush abundance sliding through his fingers.

With her head cocked, listening to Beth’s funny stories, she surreptitiously picked up stray slivers of carrot and brought them to her mouth, daintily sucking them in with a swift sip. And each time she gave the tips of her fingers an unhurried lick, savouring the slight drops of honey. And Jacob was mesmerized. It was all he could do to stop himself from licking his own lips, she made it look so good.

‘Don’t you remember Gary Phelps, Holly?’ Beth asked, snapping Jacob back to the conversation at hand. Holly even managed a small laugh. It was a pretty sound. Light and unselfconscious.

‘He was so horrid, Beth.’ Holly grimaced, but her voice had returned to a more normal timbre.

‘He was not. He was lovely.’

‘He was five feet tall and never washed his hair. I never knew what you saw in him.’

‘Just because he wasn’t tall, dark and handsome like every boy you ever had a crush on didn’t mean he couldn’t be attractive to someone else. Namely me. And what a kisser.’

Holly flicked a sudden glance Jacob’s way. If he had blinked, he would have missed it, but he had caught its full measure. It was a look brimming with suppressed attraction. He should have jumped from his seat and run for his life. But he didn’t.

She had bruised his ego enough with her indifference towards his business practices. So he intended to soak up every bit of positive attention she was willing to send his way. Just to even the scales. That was all.

‘Hey,’ Ben called out, feigning a broken heart. ‘You do realise your husband and the father of your soon to be child is sitting here having to listen to these stories of young love which do not involve him.’

‘Yes, darling but you have to remember that, out of this long line of dreamboats, I chose you.’

‘Very true.’ Ben beamed lovingly at his wife.

Under the mask of laughing along with them, Jacob stole a cheerful glance over Holly, and he found her leaning her chin on her palm, watching Ben and Beth with a smile of pure joy splashed across her lovely face. Her expression was so tender it was luminous. And in that moment he thought he understood her. It did not seem so very strange to want what Ben and Beth had.

Jacob felt a sudden tightening in his chest. Not good. He needed time out. He pushed his chair back and stood up.

‘Excuse me, folks. I have to powder my nose.’

As soon as Jacob left Beth leaned forward and whispered conspiratorially, ‘What on earth is with him tonight, Ben? All that talk of babies and blondes, that wasn’t like the Jacob Lincoln of old.’

‘Lincoln?’ Holly mimicked Beth’s strained whisper, as it was the only way she could stop herself from shouting. ‘He’s Jacob Lincoln? As in your boss, Link? As in Lincoln Holdings Lincoln?’

Ben flinched. ‘Ah, yes. He’s one and the same.’

‘What on earth is he doing here? You told me he lived in … New Orleans or some such place.’ And he was supposed to be balding, with a paunch and liver spots. Not … well, not so manifestly the opposite.

‘He did,’ Ben said. ‘Then without telling a soul he moved back to Melbourne a couple of days ago.’

That first morning, standing on the corner, armfuls of luggage, faint accent. Holly dropped her face into her palms.

‘That means I told him how little I thought of his boxing idea, not at the time realising that it was his idea, then accused him of going to the wrong bathroom, not at the time realising it was his bathroom. He’s really Jacob Lincoln?’ she repeated.

Ben shrugged and grinned contritely.

Holly’s voice hissed as she turned on Ben, her pent-up mortification whirling into a terrible rage. ‘And knowing all of this you set up this dinner, told him that I was “husband hunting”, and that he was my number one contender?’

Beth also turned on her husband. ‘Did you really do all of those things?’

Ben held his hands up in submission. ‘Hey, you guys dragged me into this ridiculous plan of yours. So, I took you to a gathering teeming with numerous available red-blooded men and you hid in the bathroom all night. And then I ask the most eligible of all red-blooded men I know to dinner and you attack me.’

Holly was having none of it. ‘But you told him—’

‘The truth, Holly. But to tell you the truth I really did wonder if my two best friends in the whole world might not hit it off.’

Beth’s face softened easily. ‘That’s so sweet. Holly, forgive Ben.’

Holly sat back, all angered out. Her face was heated from her strained whispers and her head spun with the maze of words and deeds they had created for themselves.

Beth giggled. ‘Now poor Jacob thinks Holly’s hot for him. No wonder he has been acting so strangely.’

‘Ah, well, actually,’ Ben said, ‘he knows the whole deal and has been pulling your legs all night.’

‘Ha!’ Beth said, clapping her hands together. ‘Now that’s more like the Jacob Lincoln of old.’

But Holly was not so amused. She was thinking. And planning. ‘He knows the whole deal and he thinks I’m now sweating it.’

‘Well, gorgeous, you have pretty much been sweating it all night,’ Ben said.

‘But I’m not now.’ Now she knew the glimmer in Jacob’s eyes had indicated he was enjoying an elaborate joke, not that he was sizing her up for a wedding dress.

Well, if it was fun and games he liked …