“Fine, I’ll pet-sit,” she said quickly. “Just as long as you do me a favor. Right now.”
“What’s the favor?” Gary asked.
“Pretend to be my brother,” she said, lowering her voice.
Gary’s eyes widened in astonishment. “What the hell? Why?”
“Just do it,” she snapped.
“There you are,” Simon said when he stopped in front of her. “I just got your email about talking to the security team. Great initiative.” Simon glanced at Gary and raised an eyebrow. “Friend of yours?”
“My brother,” she blurted out, hoping to hell that her ex-husband played along. If Simon thought Gary was really her brother, there was no way he’d figure out that she was the girl he had grown up with.
Simon paused, looking slightly stunned. “I didn’t know you had a brother.”
“Most people don’t,” Gary said.
Heather narrowed her eyes and subtly jabbed Gary in the ribs with her elbow. “My brother won’t be here long, so he won’t be distracting me. It’s just a slight family emergency. Some mix up at my son’s school.”
“No problem. These things happen.” Simon’s mouth suddenly formed a firm line. “I do still need to talk to you about the speech for a second.”
“Of course,” she said, striding away from Gary so that she and Simon could talk out of earshot.
Simon walked beside her as they headed to the other end of the lobby.
“He doesn’t look much like you,” Simon said, his eyebrows furrowed as if he was lost in thought.
“Who doesn’t?”
“Your brother.” Simon frowned. “What’s his name, by the way?”
“Gary,” she said. “So, you wanted to talk about the speech?”
“Right, yes.” His gaze slid over beyond her shoulder to Gary. Heather didn’t like that suspicious look in Simon’s breathtaking blue eyes one bit. If Gary decided to screw her over, or if Simon put two and two together, she was done for. No way could she keep her job after telling a lie this big.
“One of the speakers at the conference has had to cancel because of some unforeseen circumstances,” Simon continued. “It’s putting us in a difficult position, so we need to either lengthen my speech or figure out a new plan to fill in the absence.”
“You want my ideas?” she asked.
Simon shoved his hands into the pockets of the jeans that fit him so perfectly she could see the muscle definition of his calves. “Sure. I’m a stubborn man, but the more ideas I hear, the better.”
She wracked her brain, trying to ignore the panicked thoughts that her lie might just blow up in her face within moments. The anxiety was making it almost impossible for her to think straight. Finally, she said, “I wouldn’t advise making a longer speech. You want to keep people’s attention with a shorter speech. Is there any kind of footage we could use? A short film maybe?”
“We’ve already got some footage about the new products, but maybe some taped interviews with staff would be good filler,” he murmured. “Good idea. I’ll think it over. Anyway, I’ll let you sort things out with your brother.”
With a brief nod he walked away from her, towards the elevators.
Her face was flushed, like it often got in Simon’s presence. Heather let out a shaky breath and approached Gary. Her ex-husband regarded her with a smug smile.
Ugh. Now Gary knew that something was up at work. She hoped he didn’t decide to use it against her. If her personal life and her professional life kept colliding like this, there was a damn good chance that she would be found out.
THIS WAS HER CHANCE to prove herself.
She was standing backstage, Simon standing right beside her. He towered over her, and she had to crane her neck to look up at him. To her secret delight, her boss hadn’t changed his style of dress at all.
Today was the first day of Dover’s inter-company conference, and Simon was dressed in his usual mix of formal and casual. Expensive Italian-made jacket, sweater vest, and designer jeans.
Sexy didn’t even begin to describe him.
“The press seems to be loving everything so far,” he said, gesturing to the screen beyond the curtains that blocked them from the view of the audience.