Harlequin Romance March 2021 Box Set Cara Colter (the mitten read aloud TXT) 📖

It took all her strength to focus on his words and not to reach across and press her lips to his.

‘I’ve decided to do something different. Something I think I’ll find more fulfilling. I mean, the TV job would’ve been interesting in the short term.’ She could feel her lips twist. ‘But when I examined my reasons for applying for the job I came to the conclusion that they were less than ideal.’

He didn’t say anything, so she continued.

‘On top of that, there was a lot of travel involved—as I expected there would be—but no time to really explore the places that I’d be travelling to. So, basically, I’d be living out of a suitcase and…’ She shrugged. ‘That’s not how I want to live my life. The time pressures and turnarounds were going to be tight, and I couldn’t see that there would be much of a chance for me to develop relationships with anyone. And, as my career counsellor pointed out, I’m a relationship-builder, so…’

She let the words trail off, feeling she might be babbling and getting off course. But the way Owen stared at her, as if he’d hung on her every word, had her heart crashing about in her chest.

He leaned towards her, bringing those tempting lips even closer. Breathe, she ordered herself. Breathe.

‘You’ve been seeing a career counsellor?’

‘I had some big decisions to make and I needed all the help I could get. She was great too—really helped me sort out my priorities.’

He stared at her for a long time and she found herself holding her breath.

‘Tell me about the Frances Foundation,’ he said.

She let the breath out slowly. ‘Well, we know that Frances championed the underdog, and—’

‘You don’t loathe Frances any more?’

‘No.’

The light in his eyes deepened. ‘Go on.’

Her heart raced. ‘With which part?’ She’d tell him whatever he wanted to know in whatever order he wanted to hear it.

From the corner of her eye she saw Gerry Dunkley get to his feet and leave the room, but she didn’t bother calling him back. Owen didn’t either.

‘The Foundation or not loathing Frances any more?’

‘Tell me about the Foundation.’

So she did. She told him how it would be set up to help unemployed youths find jobs or develop the skills they needed to break into the kind of work they hoped to find. She had plans to create industry links for scholarships and internships. With her mother’s blessing, she was going to turn the family estate of Ellerslie into a retreat-cum-training centre.

‘Your mother has agreed to this?’

His incredulity made her smile. ‘Absolutely.’

‘I… This—’ He shook himself, as if to gather his thoughts.

She wanted to kiss him so badly it hurt.

‘Okay, first things first,’ he said.

He hauled in a breath and she had a feeling he was mentally counting to ten.

‘What do you see as my role in the foundation? Obviously you want a financial investment, but—’

‘I don’t want your money, Owen!’ Oops. ‘I mean,’ she amended, ‘the foundation doesn’t want your money. Obviously donations are always welcome, but that’s not what this is about. I want… I mean the foundation wants,’ she corrected herself again, ‘your vision. You’re the person who loved and knew Frances best. We want your knowledge of Frances to help us determine the direction of the foundation—to help us decide what programmes to offer, what strategies to take. There’ll be a board made up of my mother, Mr Dunkley and myself, and we’re hoping you’ll join us.’

He didn’t say anything and her chest clenched up tight. It was entirely possible he wanted nothing to do with her, regardless of the fact that she now wanted to honour Frances’s memory.

‘I understand you might want to take some time to think about it. Mr Dunkley has drawn up some documents that you’ll want to read over before coming to a decision. I’ll call him back in and—’

‘Don’t call him back in.’

She swore her heart stopped—before beating even harder and faster.

‘This is so far from what I was expecting it’s making me slow to respond. But it’s unexpected in a good way.’ He reached out to briefly squeeze her hand. ‘A very good way.’

His words unfroze something small but vital inside her, and she found that she could smile again. ‘What were you expecting?’

‘For Mr Dunkley to name the price you wanted for the apartment block.’

‘Ah, about that…’

Owen sat back and waited.

She moistened her lips. ‘I’m not actually planning on selling the apartment block in its entirety. I want to keep the upstairs apartment—Frances’s apartment—for myself. But that still means the other seven apartments are yours if you want them. The proceeds of the sale, plus the trust fund Frances left me, will be going towards setting up the foundation.’

He frowned and she winced.

‘You hate the idea, don’t you? It’s just, if I don’t have to pay rent then I can afford to continue living in Greenwich Village.’

The apartment was the only part of Frances’s legacy she was keeping for herself.

‘I think it’s a great idea! What concerns me…’ his frown deepened ‘…is how you will support yourself. Callie, you’ll need an income.’

‘Besides giving Ellerslie over to the foundation, my mother is investing a generous sum to cover, among other things, my wages.’ She folded her arms. ‘Though we’re currently in discussion about what that wage should be. She thinks it should be commensurate with my university salary, but I don’t need much and—’

‘She’s right.’

Glancing up at the deadly serious note in Owen’s voice, she found herself swallowing at his almost-glare.

‘You can’t short-change yourself, Callie. I can already see how much time and effort you’re going to put into those youth programmes—your research skills are going to be well utilised. Additionally, if you were to eventually hire someone else, because demand required it, would you pay them a pittance to do the same work you’d be doing?’

‘Of course not. But at the moment this is all a risk. It’s possible we could lose everything—’

‘You need to trust your board to have the competence to