Page 1 of Suddenly Pregnant

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“Absolutely not,” Jack Harvey said, shaking his head at his sister Amy, who sat on his couch with her legs crossed. “I won’t be taking a new assistant yet. You told me you’d help me for two months.”

“That’s because I thought you’d snap out of this nonsense much sooner. Besides, you have the shareholders meeting next week,” Amy said, then lifted her chin. “You need to be on the top of your game. You need an efficient assistant to get you back to your old life in Sydney. Besides, I’d like to maintain my marriage.”

“So you’ve been looking for a new hire behind my back?” Jack raked his fingers through his hair. Leave it to his little sister to make him sound like a needy newborn. Still, he had a point. The last assistant he had tried to ruin his career, and nearly achieved his goal. He paced in his living room, until he looked at the wall to ceiling glass wall featuring his impressive property in the Australian Outback. Usually, the orange dirt mixing with the paved road, along with the canopy of trees and wildlife skipping about would give him a moment of respite.

Not lately, though. Not when he had a hard time moving on after the massive betrayal he’d suffered from the one he should have trusted most.

He rubbed the back of his neck, eager to alleviate the kinks knotting his muscles. “Did Dad put you up to this?” His father had pegged him for the sacrificial lamb to take over Downunder Adventures. With his health problems, Craig Harvey had stepped away from being the CEO and had always groomed Jack for the position. But with the scandal, his father had to fill his shoes momentarily, a position he no longer enjoyed in his seventies.

His sister Amy had certainly no interest in being CEO. She loved the Outback, and didn’t enjoy the Sydney high life, especially since her husband didn’t either.

“You can’t hide forever, you know,” his sister said, shifting on his sofa.

“I’m not hiding,” he said. “I just don’t want to give the media the circus they want.”

“I’m afraid they already got the circus… now they just want an update,” she said. “I told you one interview would help smooth things down. I reckon they’ll lose interest if you give them what they want.”

He shook his head. He’d given much more than anyone could ask for. When he’d started dating Cressida, a year prior, he didn’t imagine their relationship would end with pictures of his dick online, along with screenshots of their heated arguments floating into the digital abyss.

Bile rose up his throat. His privacy had been violated, yes, and the media had painted him as the bad guy. Was he? Likely. He shouldn’t have proposed to her, and imagined that would solve their problems. Cressida drank too much and at the end, he cared too little.

Maybe he just wasn’t marriage material. Work was the only thing he excelled at, and he should bloody remember it.

“Well, even without the interview… your new assistant arrives tomorrow.”

“Send him or her away.”

A small smile tugged at Amy’s lips, like the cat who got the cream. “I can’t. That’s the beauty of it. She’s coming all the way from America, on a one-year work visa.”

Irritation surged beneath his skin, causing the hairs on his neck to stand on end. His sister tended to be crafty. When the scandal popped up and he wanted to leave Sydney and entertained stepping away from Downunder Adventures, the largest receptive tourism company in Australia, she quickly rose to the challenge and offered to work alongside him until the dust settled.

Of course he knew one of the reasons why had been because if he stepped down, their parents would summon her to take on the family business, and she wanted nothing to do with it at that level. She enjoyed managing a smaller version of the receptive franchise in the Outback, where she could deal with travelers, lead a local team and set her own hours.

“Call the HR department. They can deal with her,” he said. He was sure they could offer some financial compensation for this misunderstanding. After all, reality dawned on him. If he accepted this woman, letting her go later would prove more of a headache since she’d have to go back to her country. Best to nip it at the bud.

Amy stood. “No.”

He sighed. When they were kids, his sister had a way of goading him into doing shit he didn’t want to. Such as letting her and her best friend talk him into attending a frilly tea party. He knew how stubborn she could be when she really wanted something. “Amy…”

“Think, Jack,” she said, waving her hand. “So what if she goes away? You won’t have an assistant? How will you ever get anything done?”

“I just wanted a bloody break,” he said, his voice as tired as he felt.

“And you had it. But now, it’s time to shape up again. You have a meeting next week where you have to convince the shareholders that our company still has it together even though the stocks plummeted after your affair. You’ll need someone to run errands for you so you can focus on the bigger picture. One that doesn’t end with Downunder Adventures losing even more than it’s already lost.”

Because of me. Who would trust in a family-oriented company when its heir’s heated arguments with the woman he was supposed to love had leaked online? If his father didn’t have the majority of shares, he’d be long gone. But his seemingly second chance didn’t mean the shareholders wouldn’t pressure both he and his father until it became unbearable.

“I’m not a toddler,” he said, his throat dry. Though his sister had a point. He needed to find someone who would be his shadow for a while, until he got the company back to where it was before. Until he sorted out the mess.

She rolled her eyes. “No, because if you were a toddler, this all would be a lot easier.”

“Funny.”

“Who is this mystery assistant?” he asked. She’d gone through the trouble of hiring someone overseas. Maybe she was overqualified for the job.

She picked a statue from one of his shelves and touched it. “Billie Jones is a wonderful fit for you. She was temporarily living in New York, but she comes from a small town in Texas. Cute accent.”

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