Page 65 of The Unplanned Wedding

"Why are you getting so upset that your assistant quit, hmm? She’s not the first to do so.”

But she’ll be the last, for I can’t bear to have anyone else in her place.I don’t say that aloud, but Mary must glean some of my thoughts, for a canny look comes into her eyes, and I brace myself. Mary’s never backed down from putting us Davenports in our place.

“Why aren't you focused on the woman you say you’re going to marry?” She tilts her head. “Why are you, instead, fretting about the fact that a member of yourworkforcehas submitted her resignation?”

"Clearly, she hasn’t read the fine print,” I growl.

She levels a skeptical look in my direction. "Oh?"

I nod. "If she had, she’d know that she isn’t allowed to quit for her first six months on the job."

Mary seems taken aback. "You had that put in her agreement?"

"She’s the best assistant I’ve ever had. Of course, I was going to ensure she couldn’t quit that easily and leave me in the lurch. In fact, I depend on her for my wake-up calls, how am I supposed to function without them?

"You had her giving you wake-up calls?!" Mary’s lips twitch, then she straightens them out.

"I prefer being woken up by a human voice.”And yes, hearing her call me Sir first thing in the morning ensures my day is off to a good start,but I’ll never tell that to anyone else. Though based on the gleam in Mary’s eyes, she seems to have drawn her own conclusions.

"It’s not what you think it is," I snap.

"You have no idea what I'm thinking." She allows herself a small smile.

When she doesn’t say anything else, I widen my stance. "You may as well as say what’s on your mind."

"You won’t like it," she warns.

"When has that stopped you?"

She chuckles. "That’s true," she says slowly, then walks over to one of the glass walls of my office and looks out. For a few seconds, there’s silence, then she turns to me. "I've always been grateful to Arthur for hiring me, and to Quentin for keeping me on."

I begin to speak, but she holds up her hand. "Let me finish."

Only Mary could order me, or any one of the other Davenport men, and not lose her job.

"I know the rest of you think Arthur is greedy and only focused on power." She sees the disbelief on my face and nods. "And I concede he is, but there's something you may not know about him. There was no reason for him to give me a job, especially when I didn’t have the qualifications for the role, and I was a single mother. I was the only one who wasn’t cowed by his attitude. I never hesitated to speak my mind and tell him the truth, which is probably why he gave me the role. When he retired, Quentin kept me on as his assistant. Quentin has since started his own security firm. But as you know, at Arthur’s request he continues as a board member of the Davenport Group. So, he comes into the office maybe once a week.”

Her features soften further.

“He doesn’t need a full-time assistant. But he didn’t let go of me. He kept me on and added the role of Office Administrator to my job description, so I’d use my time productively. There was no reason for him to have done that."

"Maybe it’s because you’re a damned good assistant?” I point out.

"Which I am. But there was nothing stopping them from making me redundant, which they didn’t."

I tilt my head. I acknowledge what she’s saying, but what does that have to do with the resignation of my assistant?

She reads the impatience on my features and nods. "My point is, you Davenport men each have a heart of gold, but you’ll go to great lengths to keep it hidden from your employees, and definitely, from the ones you love."

"Love?" I cough. "What’s my assistant’s resignation got to do with love?"

"You have feelings for her,” Mary points out.

“I don’t.”

She merely stares at me.

“What is it?”

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