Page 8 of Daydreamer
“Lucy Mayweather!” My head shot up at Ollie’s deepvoice. He was grinning at me from across the table. “What the fuck are you doing here, love? Last time I spoke to Mike he told me you never left the village.”
“Er…” I glanced around at all the faces staring at our exchange and I flushed with embarrassment. Christ, these entitled public school boys just said and did whatever the heck they wanted, didn’t they? “Hi.” I gave Ollie a small wave, and he grinned across at me. But then, proving my earlier point, he got up from his seat and strode around to my side of the table. When he reached me, he pulled me up from my chair, gave me a hug and then pulled back to stare at me.
“Jesus, you look so grown up. Not a woolly jumper in sight.”
“For fuck’s sake, Ollie,” snapped Felix. “Let her go so she can sit down. She shouldn’t be on that ankle.”
Ollie rolled his eyes but did release me so I could sit back down on the chair. “He always this bossy?” he muttered in my ear once I was seated and I bit my lip. With another grin, Ollie gave me a quick kiss on the cheek before striding back to his own seat again.
“Sit the fuck down,” snapped Felix, sounding absolutely furious. He was glaring across the space at Ollie, his hands on the table as if about to push up to standing, a muscle ticking in his tightly clenched jaw.
“I guess the answer to that is yes,” said Ollie to me with another grin. When he took his seat, he looked between a still furious Felix and me and raised an eyebrow.
But when I glanced around the table, I realised that Ollie’s surprising display of affection was the least of my worries. Harry York was staring at me, a small frown marring his forehead.
Chapter 6
“Lucy Mayweather?”
Lucy
Why did Ollie have to use my full name? After a long moment staring at me, Harry blinked and shook his head as if to clear it. I breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe I’d got away with it? After all, Mayweather is a fairly common name, and he only glanced at me for a second in that restaurant over a year ago.
“If the reunion is over, can we get back to the actual numbers on the project and how they don’t add up? I’m sure we don’t want to waste His Grace’s time,” Harry said.
Felix rolled his eyes. “His Grace,” he muttered. “Christ, you’resucha kiss-arse.”
Felix and Harry continued to volley increasingly aggressive insults until, to my surprise, it was Victoria who interrupted the deadlock.
“Enough!” she said, that one word cracking through the room, silencing the meeting. “Neither of you are using logical reasoning skills here. Felix, I know Ollie’s your friend.”
“He’syourbrother,” Felix snapped. “Where’s his sense of family loyalty?”
“Half-brother,” Victoria corrected automatically.
“Careful, Felix,” Ollie put in, his smile dropping.
Victoria just rolled her eyes. “The financials on the Hyde Park development are solid. I will prepare a presentation and I’ll deal with your concerns. Let me assure you, Mr York, I have no interest in putting any Buckingham Estate money at risk, despite what you may have heard about my parentage.”
“Vics,” Ollie said softly. “Nobody would think that, love.”
Victoria gave a jerky nod, a flare of some unidentifiable emotion breaking her cool exterior for a moment before she masked it.
“Lady Harding, I didn’t mean to imply that?—”
“I am not Lady Harding. The title does not transfer to illegitimate children,” Victoria said, cutting Harry off. Silence fell over the boardroom. “I’ll prepare the figures by next week when we should have heard more from the planning application. This meeting is no longer productive. Lottie, arrange another meetingexcludingFelix. As far as Blue Sky Designs goes, I am already negotiating directly with Verity York. Good day.”
With that, Victoria pushed back her chair and simply left the room without a backward glance. The woman was a total badass. Ollie muttered his excuses and stalked out of the room after her.
“Right,” muttered Harry York. “Well, I?—”
“Jolly good,” the guy next to Harry said briskly (I assumed he was Harry’s business partner, Toby). “As usual, Ms Harding cuts through the bullshit.”
Everyone started packing up their stuff. I started to push up to stand, but Felix’s sharp “Lucy,” from across the table, caused me to sit back down. “Stay a moment, please. You as well, Brent.”
Will shot me another poisonous look, then sat back in his chair and crossed his arms.
“Lucy, is it?” Harry asked me as he approached my side of the table.
