A Fortune's Children's Christmas by Lisa Jackson

Author:Lisa Jackson
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Silhouette
Published: 2004-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

Five

Joanna and Ryder spent the next few weeks locked in a frozen truce.

It was worse, she decided, than all-out war. At least in a war, battle lines were drawn and anger expressed. Ryder’s icy politeness, his policy of speaking to her only when absolutely necessary made him unapproachable, and the distance between them grew.

Every day at the office she felt him watching her with a disparaging eye, certain that he was silently analyzing and criticizing everything she said and did. They continued to work late into the evenings, but their previous camaraderie was missing.

They didn’t even order their take-out dinners from the same places anymore, though Ryder did insist on paying for her meals. Joanna was on a spicy chicken burrito kick and ordered them every night, while Ryder selected a different entrée from a plethora of international cuisines, as if to counter the constancy of her choice.

“How can you eat the same damn thing every single night?” he finally demanded, after her fifteenth straight burrito dinner was delivered to the office.

The cold anger in his tone did not invite her to share any facts about her impaired sense of taste, and his glare seemed to accuse her of consuming burritos solely to provoke him.

So Joanna merely shrugged. “I just can.”

Their rift coincided with a particularly busy time. The ambitious, energetic new hires in Ryder’s PR and marketing department had done a good job of spreading the word about the revamped Fortune’s Design. Their efforts had brought in dozens of inquiries, many of which had turned into new contracts for the company.

Joanna knew it would’ve been difficult for her to keep up with the increasingly complicated and demanding workload, even in an atmosphere free of tension. But Ryder’s coldness and attitude of reproach intensified the pressure.

She was positive he was waiting for her to royally screw up so he could righteously sack her. He must be hoping she would make an error of such magnitude that no one, not even his cousin Michael, could possibly fault him for getting rid of her.

As the tension between them continued to build, Joanna worried that it was only a matter of time till that monumental blunder occurred.

On the day after St. Patrick’s Day, Miss Volk arrived even later than her customary 10:00 a.m. and announced to Joanna that she was quitting her job. Immediately. Forget the customary two-week notice, Miss Volk was out of there!

The reception desk was deserted, the phones went unanswered and the public ungreeted after Miss Volk left the building. The task of breaking the news of the receptionist’s hasty departure to the boss fell to Joanna.

“Miss Volk’s sister who lives in Pittsburgh won a hundred thousand dollars in the Pennsylvania Lottery yesterday,” she began. “Miss Volk said they have the luck of the Irish without being Irish.”

“Mmm.” Ryder, engrossed in the thick report in front of him, did not even feign an interest in the Volk sisters.

“Both Miss Volks decided to move to Florida and buy a condo together. They’ve already contacted moving companies and intend to head south right away.

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