“What does Linda mean?” Heather asked. “Simon, what did you want to tell me?”
Chapter 12
I love you.
A voice inside his head was saying it over and over, but he didn’t dare utter a word. Not now. Not with Heather staring at him expectantly. There were a million reasons he couldn’t just blurt out his feelings to her, the least of which being that Linda was right here with them. Telling Heather he loved her was a delicate matter. A personal one. Blurting it out at work, in front of Linda, was the least romantic thing he could think of.
The moment was growing more awkward by the second as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. He had to find a way out of this. He shot Linda a warning glance and then turned back to Heather. “Linda and I need to clear something up. Excuse us for a moment, Heather. Please.”
He motioned for Linda to follow him. Without a word, Linda trailed him out of her office and into the hall, leaving Heather behind, looking bewildered.
Simon fought to keep his temper in check, focusing on slowly closing the office door before he confronted Linda. As the door shut he inhaled deeply, forcing himself to calm down. “What was that about?”
Linda’s face burned redder. “I assumed you told her how you felt.”
“How I felt?” He nudged Linda further away from the office to make sure that they were well out of Heather’s earshot. “Have you lost your mind?”
“No. But you certainly have if you still haven’t told her the truth.”
He narrowed his eyes. “Watch yourself, Linda.”
She paused and took a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have blurted all that stuff out, but I assure you I was only trying to help.”
“My private life is none of your business,” he said icily.
“You’d like to think that, wouldn’t you?” She crossed her arms and glared at him. “But your life is my business whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t like it one bit,” he said.
“Tough.” She tossed a lock of her graying hair over her shoulder and took a step towards him. “You think I like wondering if company stock is going to tumble because you’ve been caught having an affair with your assistant? You think I like wondering if I’m going to get fired because Dover has to start laying off staff to keep up with a loss in revenue?”
His jaw tightened. “I’m sorry things at Dover have been chaotic recently, but that doesn’t mean my private life is any of your business. It has nothing to do with the company.”
“It has everything to do with the company!” she hissed, throwing her hands up. “If it’s none of my business, why did you tell the entire board that you’re in love with Heather?” she demanded in a low voice. “You haven’t exactly kept your feelings a secret around here. Though, from the looks of it, the one person who doesn’t know how you feel is Heather herself.”
“How is that any of your business?”
After a long pause she sighed. “Maybe that part isn’t my business. But when you told the board you love her...” A tiny smile tugged at the corners of her lips. “I’ve never known you could be happy. I didn’t know you were capable of such deep feelings.”
“Neither did I,” he admitted in spite of his anger. “I’m just as surprised as you are.”
“So, when you told the board and stormed out, this urge came over me.” Her shoulders sagged. “I wanted you to be happy. And I knew that the only person who makes you that happy is Heather. I figured if I plotted to get you two alone together at the hotel in California you’d have the privacy and the opportunity to tell her how you really feel about her. It was easy to get the receptionist and the manager to switch room numbers and give you the wrong keys. After all the business I’ve sent their way, they owed me big time.”
“You had no right to do that.” When they had ended up in the same room, for a moment he had really thought that fate had brought them together. Then the manager had explained that it had all been a mix-up and he chalked it up to a routine accident. A happy accident. Now it looked like Linda had orchestrated the whole thing. He hated being manipulated and used, especially by someone he respected as much as Linda. Maybe he didn’t trust her the same way he trusted Heather, but Linda had been at Dover even before he had become CEO. He valued her as an employee. And, to be honest, as a friend—or at least an acquaintance.