Sleepless in Manhattan Read online

  “I won’t take her on the bike if it bothers you so much, but you should let her make that decision on her own. You’re overprotective.”

  Matt sprawled in the nearest chair. “This isn’t about the bike. It’s about the business. The business you told her to set up. What the hell were you thinking?”

  “I was thinking she needed more control over her life. You saw her—she was feeling powerless and scared. I reminded her that she could take back some of the power, that’s all.”

  “You made her angry.”

  “Yeah, I made her angry. Better angry than crying.”

  “She wasn’t crying. I have never seen my sister cry, not even when she was going through all that trauma when she was ill. Not once.”

  Jake, who had trained himself to spot female tears at a thousand paces, wondered how Matt could be so clueless. “She was on the verge of losing it. And if she had, she would have been mortified. She was already feeling bad. She didn’t need to feel worse. What she needed was to be galvanized into action, and there is no better motivator than anger. You should be thanking me.”

  “You made her angry on purpose?” Matt ran his hand over his jaw and swore softly. “I didn’t see that. How come you know so much about women?”

  “Extensive experience along with an extraordinary gift for driving women crazy.” His phone rang and he silenced it with a stab of his finger.

  Matt eyed the number on Jake’s screen. “Brad Hetherington? You really are moving in illustrious circles. You need oxygen up there?”

  “No, I need shovels to dig my way out of the bullshit.”

  “You’re not taking his call?”

  “I would, but you’re sitting in my office. And sometimes it pays to be a bit elusive. I have something he wants. Make him wait and he’ll pay more.”

  Matt shook his head. “How does it feel to have everyone queuing up at your door?”

  “It feels busy.” Jake leaned back in his chair, looking at the man he regarded as a brother. “So did you just come here to punch me for making your sister angry or was there something else?”

  “Something else. I want you to help her with her new business.”

  Jake stilled. Caution seeped into every bone of his body. “Why would I do that?”

  “Because you were the one who pushed her into it. You owe it to her not to let her fail.”

  “What makes you think she’ll fail?”

  “The fact that she equates asking for help with weakness. We both know that running a business is a steep learning curve. The more you ask, the faster you learn. My sister has turned independence into an art form. She is never going to ask. So you have to offer.”

  No way.

  Jake tapped the desk with his fingers. Nudging her in the right direction was one thing; getting personally involved was another. “She won’t want my help. You heard her last night.”

  And he knew it wasn’t simply a need to be independent that would prevent Paige from asking him for help.

  Neither of them mentioned it but the past simmered in the background, coloring every interaction.

  She guarded herself around him and that suited him just fine.

  “I don’t know anything about running a concierge service or events management.”

  “You should. You attend enough events.”

  “To network, get drunk or get laid. Sometimes all three. I don’t plan them.” It was like standing on the edge of quicksand knowing that if you stepped in the wrong place you were going to be sucked in too deep to escape. “You have as much business experience as I do. You help her.”

  “She thinks I’m overprotective, and she’s right. I try not to be, but I get it wrong. Every damn time. Remember when she was learning to drive?” He saw Jake wince and nodded. “Yeah, that time. I’m too worried about her to be objective.” Matt stood up and walked to the window. “Great view,” he said absently.

  “I’m usually too busy to look at it.”

  His friend didn’t take the hint. “To me she’s still that little girl with a heart problem. I can still see her in the hospital, blue lips, struggling to breathe.”

  “If you’re going for emotional blackmail, don’t. It’s not going to work.”

  Except the words conjured up images Jake had worked hard to forget, along with a ton of other stuff he never wanted to look at again.

  “It’s not emotional blackmail—it’s the truth. I want to cover her in bubble wrap and fix everything. I always have. Right from day one.”

  “That’s because your parents gave you the responsibility.” Jake stood up and joined his friend by the window. “They trusted you to keep an eye out for her. That’s a hell of a burden.”

  And he’d always thought it was a tough deal for his friend.

  Matt frowned. “It isn’t a burden.”

  “Maybe it’s time to let Paige live her life and make her own mistakes. Instead of trying to catch her before she falls, you could wait until she does and then pick her up.”

  “I don’t want her to be hurt. I don’t want her to fail at this.”

  “You’re too afraid of failure. I guess that comes from having overachieving parents. Failure is part of life, Matt. Success teaches you nothing, but failure teaches you resilience. It teaches you to pick yourself up and try again.”

  Matt dragged his hand through his hair. “You used to be as protective as I was. Hell, you once spent an entire night sitting by Paige’s hospital bed when I couldn’t make it. Or maybe you don’t remember.”

  He remembered every moment. “I realized that protecting her doesn’t do her any favors. She doesn’t want to be protected.”

  But he did protect her, didn’t he?

  He protected her from himself.

  He knew he was capable of hurting her. He’d done it before.

  Neither of them mentioned it, but he was well aware of the pain his rejection had caused. He knew it had changed her. Gone was the openness he’d found so refreshing. With him she was always slightly guarded and he made it easy for her to be that way by ensuring their relationship always skirted on the edge of antagonistic.

  Matt turned away from the window. “Maybe she doesn’t want to be protected, but I want you to help her. I’m asking you as a friend.”

  And their friendship was the reason he didn’t want to do it.

  “Why can’t you do it?”

  “Apart from the fact she automatically ignores anything I say to her, there’s the fact I’m a landscape architect. I can design her a breathtaking roof terrace, complete with dramatic water feature and a swing seat, but I’m no expert on digital marketing and I don’t have the ear of every top executive in the city. You do. You could open doors.”

  “Which she would then slam in my face.”

  “You have the ear of Brad Hetherington.” Matt waved his hand toward Jake’s phone. “That guy virtually owns Wall Street. His business alone would make Urban Genie successful.”

  Jake thought about the rumors floating around. “Trust me—Paige doesn’t need Brad Hetherington in her life.”

  “Personally, no. But professionally? The guy has deep pockets. And so do any one of the many other companies you work with. She doesn’t even need to know you’re helping. Pick up the phone and make a few calls. Half of Manhattan owes you favors.”

  “I’m always transparent in my business dealings.” But he hadn’t been transparent in his relationship with Paige, had he?

  She thought he had no feelings for her.

  She thought that, to him, she was nothing more than his friend’s little sister.

  “I’ll do you a deal.” It was the only way to get Matt out of his office. “If she comes to me and asks for help, I’ll give it.”

  Matt swore under his breath. “You know she won’t come to you for help.”

  Jake gave what he hoped passed as a sympathetic shrug.

  He was counting on it.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Reach for the stars, and if they’re t
oo far away, wear higher heels.

  —Paige

  PAIGE SAT, SLUMPED at her favorite corner table at Romano’s, with Eva and Frankie, trying to formulate Plan C, since Plan A and B had crashed. It had been two weeks and they were nowhere.

  The comforting smell of garlic and herbs wafted from the kitchen and through the open window she could see her brother talking on the phone to a client.

  It was Friday night and dinner had been his suggestion, his treat, but his phone hadn’t stopped ringing from the moment he’d sat down.

  Her phone, on the other hand, had been depressingly silent.

  No one had taken her call, and no one had called back in response to the messages she’d left. This wasn’t what she’d imagined when she’d dreamed about starting her own business.

  She promised herself that one day she was going to be successful enough to buy her brother a million dinners. Her phone would ring so often she’d have to hire someone to answer it. She hoped that day wasn’t too far in the distance.

  “You’ve been rushing around all week.” Maria put heaped bowls of pasta in front of them, topped with her signature red sauce. “You need food. Buon apetito.”

  “Soon we won’t be able to afford to eat,” Paige said gloomily. “We’ll be sniffing around the trash like stray cats.”

  “Claws was a stray cat.” Frankie picked up her fork. “She eats like a queen most days.”

  Maria patted her shoulder. “You can eat here every day. We love having you.”

  Carlo, who happened to be passing, nodded agreement. “With you three girls in the window, business booms.”

  Everyone’s business seemed to be booming but hers.

  Paige glanced around the crowded restaurant. There wasn’t an empty seat in the place.

  Normally just being in Romano’s lifted her mood. She loved the intricate metalwork of the tables and the photographs of Sicily on the wall. She knew each one in detail. There was the familiar snowcapped peak of Mount Etna, the pretty town of Taormina with its twisting medieval streets, a fishing boat bobbing on a sparkling blue sea.

  Laughter and conversation echoed around the room.

  Everyone was having a good time.

  Everyone, that was, except the team from Urban Genie.

  Paige was in charge of company morale and so far she was failing.

  “It’s early days.” She made a superhuman effort to be positive. “There are plenty more businesses out there.”

  Frankie glanced at her. “You’ve made one hundred and four calls and the only business we’ve been given is to pick up someone’s dry cleaning and arrange a cake for a woman’s ninetieth birthday.”

  “Her name was Mitzy and she was adorable.” Eva twisted pasta around her fork, her appetite apparently unaffected by the pressures of their new venture. “Do you know she flew American military aircraft in the war?”

  “No.” Paige frowned, distracted. “How would I know that? And how do you know that?”

  “Because I spoke with her when I delivered the cake and we bonded. She showed me some amazing photographs, and then one of her grandsons turned up to visit and she asked me to stay for tea.”

  Frankie paused with her fork halfway to her mouth. “You stayed for tea?”

  “Of course. It would have been rude to say no, and anyway she was interesting and he was pretty cute, in a slightly uptight banker sort of way. Mitzy is worried he’s single, but she’s even more worried about his brother. He’s a well-known writer. He lost his wife in an accident a few years ago around the holidays and since then he’s become virtually a recluse.” Eva’s eyes filled. “Isn’t that awful? I keep imagining him all alone in his big empty apartment. Money doesn’t matter, does it? It’s love that matters. It’s the only thing that’s important in the end.”

  “Unless you don’t have a job.” Paige handed her a napkin. “And then money becomes pretty important. But I agree, it is awful. Can’t be easy to get over something like that.”

  “He hasn’t. Mitzy is worried he never will and she’s tried everything to get him out there again. Poor man. I want to pick him up and hug him.”

  “You don’t know him,” Frankie pointed out, “so technically you’d be assaulting a stranger. It’s a sad story, I agree, but I don’t understand how you can cry over a stranger.”

  “I don’t understand how you can be so hard-hearted.” Eva blinked back the tears. “And after a few hours together, Mitzy didn’t feel like a stranger.”

  Frankie dropped her fork. “A few hours? Delivering that cake was supposed to take no more than forty minutes. How long were you there?”

  “I didn’t really check the time.” Eva looked vague. “It was probably closer to four hours by the time we’d had tea and I’d taken her dog for a walk.”

  “Four hours?” Paige blinked. “You could have charged her for that time, Ev.”

  “It wouldn’t have seemed right after she made me such a delicious tea. It’s not as if it made me late for another job. We don’t have any other jobs. And she was interesting.” Eva paused. “She reminded me of Grandma.”

  Hearing the wobble in her voice, Paige gave her hand a squeeze. “It’s fine, Ev. It’s not as if we’re exactly busy doing other things.”

  “It’s not the time that bothers me,” Frankie said, “it’s the fact that these people were strangers. They could have been knife-wielding psychopaths. Do you have no sense of self-preservation or caution?” Frankie shook her head and Eva looked at her patiently.

  “In my experience most people are pretty nice.”

  “Then your experience is limited.” Frankie retrieved her fork and stabbed it into her pasta. “I hope your faith in human nature is never shaken.”

  “So do I, because that would be truly horrible.” Eva took a sip of her drink. “By the way, Mitzy’s grandson—the one I met today, not the one who never leaves his apartment—is CEO of a private bank on Wall Street so I gave him our card.”

  Paige stared at her. “Seriously?”

  Frankie reached for more garlic bread. “She tells us this after she’s given us Mitzy’s life history.” She took a bite and glanced at Eva. “You didn’t maybe think that would be the information that would interest us most?”

  “Everything about humans interests me. I don’t know if I ever told you that the woman in the room next to my grandma was—”

  “Ev—” Paige interrupted her “—you were telling us about Mitzy’s grandson. The rich one who owns a bank. You gave him our card, and—?”

  “And nothing. He took it and put it in his wallet.”

  “Did he say he might call? Can you call him? Follow up?”

  “No. I didn’t ask for his number and I don’t know the name of the company. Don’t look at me like that.” Eva’s rounded cheeks were tinted pink. “I hate asking for business. I am not a salesperson. What if they say yes because they feel pressured? Or worse, what if they say no? That would be so awkward for both of us.”

  “I’ve had one hundred and four ‘awkwards’ over the past two weeks,” Paige said wearily. “I’m an expert. Did you find out anything about him?”

  “He’s allergic to strawberries and he was the first person in his family to go to college. He’s very successful. Mitzy is so proud of him. And he wished us luck.”

  “Luck.” Paige felt a rush of despair. Was she the only one who was worried about their fledgling business?

  Maybe these things did take time but they didn’t have time.

  “I had no idea it would be this hard. The internet is full of tales of success, people who started businesses while at college, got crowdfunding and sold their company for billions of dollars. I can’t even persuade people to pick up the phone and talk to me.”

  “I’ve already told you, you should talk to my Jake.” Maria put more garlic bread in the center of the table. “Ask him to make some introductions. He knows everyone worth knowing in Manhattan. Paige, eat something. You will fade to nothing, girl.”

 
Maria walked away to serve a customer and Paige stared at her plate.

  She was not going to reach out to Jake.

  She was never, ever going to make herself vulnerable around him again.

  “I still have a few people to call and I’m making a new list tomorrow. I’m going to widen the net.”

  “Maria has a point. Jake could reel you in a big fish with one cast of his rod.” Frankie looked at her strangely. “Why not ask? You’re not afraid to call any of those strangers on your list. Why not Jake, who you’ve known forever?”

  “Because—” She groped for an excuse that would sound believable. “Because this is our company.”

  “So? People network and make recommendations all the time. It’s how business is done. What’s the difference?”

  “Is this to do with what happened when you were a teenager?” Eva’s eyes narrowed. “Because if it’s the whole ‘he saw me naked’ thing that’s getting in the way—”

  “It isn’t!”

  “I was going to say, then you should forget it. Jake has seen plenty of women naked since then.”

  “Is that supposed to make her feel better?” Frankie looked at Eva with exasperation. “She doesn’t want to hear that, Ev.”

  “Why not? It’s not as if she’s in love with him.” Eva paused and looked at Paige. “Are you?”

  “No,” she croaked. “Definitely not.”

  “Right. It’s an embarrassing incident in your past, nothing more. You should forget it.”

  “She’s trying to,” Frankie muttered, and Paige took a deep breath.

  “It has nothing to do with that. He’s probably forgotten it ever happened.”

  But she knew he hadn’t forgotten.

  He was wary around her. Careful. As if he saw her as a potential threat.

  Which was mortifying.

  As a result she was also careful. She hadn’t touched him since that night.

  But the other night he’d touched her, and for a moment she’d thought—

  She stared down at her hand, still able to feel the warm strength of his fingers closing over hers.

  Then she shook her head impatiently. Those thoughts were exactly the reason she kept her distance.