‘Of course you will. It’s a work function.’
‘Christmas Eve is on a Saturday! I don’t have to be there.’
‘I want you there. And so does Nell. And I warn you, she won’t give up. She doesn’t find it easy taking no for an answer.’
‘It obviously runs in the family,’ she snapped, while all the time she was thinking, Oh God, am I ever going to be able to come clean? Were her plans always to end in disarray and get her deeper and deeper into this quagmire?
‘Making my grandmother happy means a lot to me,’ he added.
And her sanity didn’t?
She huffed in a breath. ‘Okay,’ she said, but still shaking her head—knowing she’d regret it, knowing it was only putting off the inevitable, knowing it could only make things so much worse, but unable and unwilling to turn the invitation down. ‘I’ll come.’
It wasn’t all bad news. Two more weeks she got to live the life she’d have chosen if given the choice. Fourteen more days and nights she’d get to spend with Maverick as his mistress, being wined and dined like someone special, like she mattered.
As a child she’d counted down the days before Christmas with relish, marking each and every one off the calendar with boundless excitement and anticipation. This year she scratched the days off the calendar of her heart with dread, as the relentless passage of time brought her closer and closer to the end.
When Morgan finally returned home the day before Christmas Eve, it was hard not to be excited even though she knew it was the final stroke and that there could be no more delays. Tomorrow after the Royalty Cove lunch she would tell Maverick. It wouldn’t be much of a Christmas for him—for either of them—but at least his grandmother would have her Christmas lunch and at last the air would be cleared.
Morgan was wheeled off the plane in a wheelchair and the sisters greeted each other with tears, one with relief to be home, one with what she was about to lose, but both with love for each other.
Watching the pain twist her twin’s face as she manoeuvred her battle-scarred leg into and out of the car was too much for Tegan.
‘I thought you were supposed to be better,’ Tegan said as she carried her sister’s baggage into the apartment. ‘I know the office doesn’t reopen until New Year’s, but do you think you’ll be fit enough to resume work by then?’
Morgan smiled wanly, looking weary from the flight, as she gave up the battle with crutches and flopped onto the living room sofa. ‘I was going to talk to you about that.’
A new wave of panic skittered down Tegan’s spine. ‘What do you mean? I thought once you came back you were going to take over your job again.’
‘I was hoping to. But the doctors tell me I’ll need physio, and weeks of it, before I’m back to normal. I thought about asking you if you could keep filling in…’
Tegan’s heart lurched to a standstill before pounding back into life.
‘But I thought I’d asked you to do enough. Maybe it’s just time I resigned.’
‘But you love this job!’
‘And you’ve done your utmost to keep it going for me, I know. But I can’t expect you to do any more. I know how you feel about Maverick. You’ve been desperate to get away.’
Guilt wrapped around Tegan like a shroud. ‘Morgan, it’s not quite like that. In fact, I guess when it all comes down to it, he’s not really that bad.’
Morgan homed in on the comment like a heat-seeking missile. ‘He’s not that bad? Are we talking about the same Maverick you couldn’t wait for me to rescue you from?’
Tegan stalled. ‘Oh God, Morgan, I’ve made such a mess of this! You’re going to hate me when you find out what I’ve done.’
‘Why, what have you done? Blown the expense account? Forgotten to pick up Maverick’s dry cleaning? What does it matter?’
Tegan just shook her head. ‘It’s worse,’ she said. ‘Much worse.’
Morgan wrapped an arm around her sister’s back. ‘You really are worried. What is it that’s happened?’
Tegan dragged in a breath and looked at her sister uncertainly. ‘Just that I think I’ve fallen in love with your boss.’
‘With Maverick!’ It wasn’t really a question. It was a shocked response that told her twin just how unlikely she found the prospect. ‘That’s impossible. He’s impossible. How could you?’
Tegan chewed on her cheek. ‘I don’t know. It just happened. He got under my skin so much, and I irritated the hell out of him, and it just happened. And then we started the affair.’