Page 36 of Strictly Business

It was all very difficult – embarrassing – and confusing.

One minute she was angry. Why was it so darned hard for Liam to call her? And then the next she would wonder if she was expecting too much of him. If only she wasn’t so unsure of her role in his life.

She was unsure of everything. Todd had made her so insecure. And his legacy was that she didn’t really know what she wanted now: she didn’t want a new relationship, and yet she wanted Liam.

Dennis had a field day in the boss’s absence. ‘What’s with this fellow?’ he cried. ‘He flies up here, insists on having hands-on involvement, goes through our entire operation with a fine tooth comb to the point where we’re virtually having fingernailinspections, and then he rushes off again.’ He shot a suspicious glance Alice’s way. ‘Is this some kind of test?’

‘No, of course not, it’s a family emergency.’ Oh, dear. How unfortunately vague that sounded.

‘A family emergency?’ Shana repeated. ‘So his wife’s found out that Liam’s straying, has she?’

She smiled too sweetly at Alice, who had no answer other than to shoot her a drop dead look.

Liam stared at the famous Sydney skyline.

Once upon a time this office with its stunning views had been the pinnacle of his ambition. Now, as he surveyed the glorious harbour, the spectacular opera house and the unique coat-hanger bridge, he found little in this high-status vista to comfort him.

What a dreadful week it had been!

Emotionally he was exhausted. He’d been to hell and back during his long vigil at the hospital. But at last Julia was out of the woods. In a few days she would be going home again. In another week she would be more or less back to normal, or as normal as she could ever be.

Not that Julia considered her life to be anything less than normal. Her endurance of hardship was amazing. She never complained and was always smiling.

It was Liam who had never come to terms with seeing her in a wheelchair. She managed beautifully, but he could never forget how lovely and lithe and full of life she had been before the accident.

He hadn’t allowed himself to think about Alice this week. The contrast between her passionate vitality and Julia’s weakness was too cruel, his sense of guilt too sharply painful.

‘Liam.’

He turned at the sound of his PA’s voice.

‘Mr. Toh is here.’

‘Already?’ Liam glanced at his wristwatch and sighed. ‘Very well. Tell him I’ll be with him in a minute.’

Time to snap his brain back into corporate mode.

Kenny Toh, a Singaporean businessman, headed Asia-Pacific Investments and potentially he was a major financial partner in Kanga Tours.APIwas proposing to fund vital expansion of their business and when Kenny had heard that Liam was in Sydney, he’d flown in from Singapore to meet Liam, to talk to him face to face, to view his product, and to generally size him up.

He would expect to be taken on a tour of the city, wined and dined, introduced around. The process couldn’t be hurried or dismissed lightly and would probably take several days.

Liam knew he shouldn’t feel trapped by the fellow. In the past he’d found international networking to be the aspect of his business he enjoyed most. But now it kept him from getting back to Cairns.

To Alice.

‘Rita,’ Liam called as his assistant was almost out of the room. ‘One other thing. Could you please telephone the Cairns office?’

‘Certainly.’

‘I’d like to pass a private message to...’ He paused and then swore softly. No, he didn’t want Rita to ring Alice at the office. Scowling angrily he rubbed at his forehead. He hadn’t spoken to Alice in a week.

There was no time to ring her now.

Suddenly he gave an abrupt little laugh of triumph as he hit on a better idea. ‘Can you take time to do some shopping today?’

‘Well, yes. What would you like me to get you?’

When Liam told her what he wanted and where he wanted it sent, Rita’s eyebrows lifted high, but then like a well trainedPA, she lowered them again just as quickly. ‘I can do that in my lunch break,’ she said.

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