I looked back at the list. One name stood out. “This one. She’s an environmental lawyer. She works for me.”
Suzanne looked over my shoulder at the paper. “Ah. Bernadette Macallister. Yes. Tall. Good-looking. Not a bit of scandal. She had one serious relationship and was with him for seven years. They’ve been broken up for a year, so there should be no lingering side effects from that. She’s a very good candidate, to be honest. She has great style, never a hair out of place. She would look very good as the first lady. And she’s a redhead.”
“I like redheads.” I’d liked redheads a lot since that one waitress years ago, the one who could have set me on an entirely different life path.
“Yes, I’m aware of that. She works for one of your organizations.”
“In this building?”
“Yes, for more than a year now. They have nothing but compliments for her. Would you like me to begin communication with her? I can interview her for the position and feel her out without telling her what we need until I’m sure she’s the right person. This has to be done very carefully. We don’t want news getting out that we’re searching for a wife for you. That is not good public relations.”
“Of course not.” I picked up the phone and called my secretary. “Can you please ask Ms. Bernadette Macallister to come to my office? She works in the Environmental Law Agency. Thank you.”
“Will!” Suzanne gasped. “I said that I would contact her. This has to be done very delicately.”
I gestured like it was no big deal. I guess I had decided that this was the best plan of action. Once I had decided on a course to take, I didn’t bother with making things complicated. I made a choice. I did what needed to be done. “She works in this building, and she’s here now. We should take advantage of that.”
“But she may not be interested.”
“You put her on this list because she was a good candidate. We won’t know if she’s interested or if we suit each other until we meet and talk. This seems to be the easiest way to go about it, rather than complicating everything.”
Suzanne sputtered. “That is not how it’s done.”
“That’s how I do it. She may not be the one, but she’s the one we can start our process with. We can either decide that she’s in the running or that she’s not, and we can cross her off the list.” Suzanne glared at me. There was a knock on the door. “Come in,” I said.
A stunning redhead walked in. She wore a cream-colored, fitted suit with a pencil skirt and nude heels that made her at least five-foot-nine. A pale turquoise necklace matched her almond-shaped blue eyes, and her silken hair, the color of fire, was pulled back and twisted into a chic knot at the back of her head.
“Did you want to see me, Mr. Jeffries?”
It was her, the redheaded waitress. Now she was here, standing in front of me, looking perfect. It had to be a sign.
She was the one—my wife. I had to have her. “Birdie,” I said and smiled.
Chapter Three: Birdie
“Bernadette,” I said. I didn’t use Birdie in the office, and I didn’t feel comfortable with him being so familiar when my long-ago memories were coming back to me so sharply. “Bernadette Macallister.”
I had been waiting for the big boss to call me into his office, to recognize me or acknowledge our past and our connections. I’d been here a year and a half, and he hadn’t so far. I’d thought maybe he wouldn’t or that he had forgotten me. I thought maybe he hadn’t thought of me all these long years the way I had thought of him and wondered. My stomach flipped. He called me Birdie. He remembered.
He smiled, slow and wide. It scared me. Or maybe that wasn’t fear I was feeling. It didn’t really matter because I’d never let him know I felt anything at all. I blinked at him and smiled back. I knew from experience that my smile gave him nothing. “What can I do for you, Mr. Jeffries?”
“Call me William.” That smile was deadly, and so were his broad shoulders, perfect bone structure, and the way he wore his suit. He had really grown up well, although I already knew that. He sat on the edge of the desk, masculine and powerful. He gestured toward the leather Eames chairs that sat in front of his solid maple desk. “Please, have a seat, Bernadette.”
He wasn’t the only one who was powerful. I nodded. “All right, William.” I sat and smoothed my skirt, tucking my ankles to the side.
“Let me handle this, Will,” a woman said, blonde and steely-eyed. She stood by the window, watching our greeting, and she came forward when he gestured for her to go ahead. She shook my hand and then sat in the seat next to me, leaning forward intently. “I’m Suzanne Cook.”
“She’s my fixer.” William still had that wide smile. He looked like a predator, but I was no one’s prey. I cocked my eyebrow at him.
“I’m his public relations specialist,” she corrected.
“He must keep you quite busy,” I said. William let out a bark of laughter, and I shot him a look, but only one before my attention went back to the fixer. “What is it you need to fix for him that has to do with me?”
She narrowed her eyes speculatively. “Everything I’ve heard about you says that you’re a no-nonsense woman, so I’m going to get straight to the point, even though it might sound crazy when you first hear it. Please, bear with me.”
I nodded. It got worse and worse. This did not sound good. “Go ahead,” I said mildly.
She shot a look at William, who was staring at me with a penetrating gaze, and then she looked back to me. “All right, then. As you know, as everyone knows, William has led a scandalous life.”
“Quite.” I couldn’t help following the gossip stories about him. As much as I hated being interested in what happened to him, I was.
“Quite. It’s time for him to improve his reputation.”
It was my turn to pin him with a penetrating look. “You want to run for office.”
This time, when he laughed, he was delighted. “She’s smart.”
“Did you think I would pick someone who wasn’t?” Suzanna asked.
I looked between them. “It’s obvious you have political ambitions, looking at the projects you’ve taken on in the last few years. They’re all geared toward public works. You hired me to fight against laws and policies that are destructive to the environment.”
“I didn’t hire you.”
“You didn’t?”
He shook his head. “To be honest, this is the first time I’ve heard your name.”
“But…” I shook my head slightly. He’d thrown me for a loop. “But your mother asked you to hire me. Didn’t she?”
“My mother? What does she have to do with this?”
“Your mother and my mother are friends. Your mother told my mother she could get me a job here, even though I wasn’t looking to capitalize on my connections to your family.”
“Wait.” Suzanne leaned forward and put a hand on his desk. “You know Bernadette?”
He was still shaking his head when I spoke up. “No. He doesn’t know me. We met once, many years ago.”