Must Like Kids Page 5

  Irritated with herself and the inappropriate direction her thoughts kept taking, she made her tone purposefully brisk and businesslike when she said, “Getting back to the reason for my call, I’m emailing you the links to those articles I mentioned.”

  She punctuated her words by hitting the send button.

  “The ones you think I might find enlightening.”

  “Exactly.”

  “I’ll look forward to reading them.” His tone was maddeningly benign.

  “No, you won’t.”

  “But I will read them.”

  “See that you do.”

  After that crisp response, Julia bid him goodbye.

  * * *

  Alec listened to the dial tone hum for a full minute after she hung up. See that you do. What? Did she plan a pop quiz for later? And the woman claimed that he was all work and no play. Well, she was a royal pain in the backside. A pretty one with her classic features and slender build, but a pain nonetheless.

  Why then, he wondered, was he smiling?

  * * *

  By midafternoon, Alec had finished up his work and logged off his computer. The rest of the day, the evening in particular, loomed ahead of him, long and lonely. He could kill some time reading the articles Julia suggested. His lip curled in distaste just thinking about it.

  You don’t know how to have fun.

  He wanted to be able to discount the accusation since it had come from his mother. But the fact remained that it was Saturday and he’d spent the better part of the day in his office and had no plans for the evening.

  He hadn’t dated much since Laurel. There was no pining involved in that decision, as he’d been the one to break things off. He’d meant it when he’d told Julia that things had run their course. No, his continuing single status had more to do with the late hours he kept at the office and, well, plain old disinterest. He hadn’t met anyone engaging or exciting...bar Julia.

  Alec frowned. Did she even date? She’d managed to duck answering when he’d asked if she was seeing someone. He gathered up printouts of the articles she had suggested he read and tucked them into his briefcase to go over later. All the while, a question nagged. What kind of man would she prefer? The guy would have to like kids. That much was a given. And he would have to be comfortable around them. A family man. Not someone like Alec.

  He wasn’t her type any more than she was his, which was why he found it damned annoying that, later that evening while he was out to dinner with a young woman he’d met in the spring at a fundraiser, he found himself thinking about Julia.

  FOUR

  Julia was the first to arrive at the office on Monday, meaning she was responsible for making the coffee. After setting it to brew, she booted up her computer. She heard the maker gurgle out the last bit of java and went to pour herself a cup. Then, seated back at her desk, she picked up the telephone and got down to work. She called Dexter Roth first, touching base with him on the progress of the marketing team’s current strategy. With that marked off her lengthy to-do list, she dialed the first of several contacts she’d plucked from her bulging Rolodex.

  Over the course of a decade in business, Julia had learned which ears to plant a bug in when she needed to generate buzz. Since time was of the essence, she started with the local network television affiliates. Their morning shows, which ran on soft news, were always hungry for a hot topic to pull in viewers. Thanks to his verbal gaffe, Alec was definitely that. Indeed, she was banking on the fact that he was hot enough the networks might wind up picking up the story, too, and air it nationally. That would save them time and perhaps even some travel.

  By ten o’clock, she had Alec booked for that Thursday on Rise & Shine, Chicago! On Friday, he was set to appear on a popular Windy City radio program The Morning Commute with Leo & Lorraine. Julia hadn’t cleared either time with him in advance. She figured she’d made it plain to him already that job number one at the moment was damage control. If that meant rescheduling meetings and finishing up paperwork on off hours, so be it. That shouldn’t be a problem for him since he already worked evenings and could be found in his office on weekends.

  Alec didn’t sound pleased when she called him at eleven with an update on the week’s itinerary.

  “Rise & Shine, Chicago? The last time I caught that show the featured guest was a dog that had been trained to use indoor plumbing.”

  “I bet that generated good ratings for the show. My hope is that so will you.”

  “Are you comparing me to a domesticated pet?”

  “I wouldn’t dare.”

  He mumbled something under his breath.

  “Bad weekend?”

  “No. It was fine. I went out on a date Saturday night. You?”

  He said it like a challenge.

  “Home with the kids. Boring by your standards, I’m sure. We made popcorn and watched a movie.”

  “What was the movie?”

  It almost pained her to say it.... “Parent Trap.”

  She thought she heard him chuckle. Then he was all business. “I thought I was going to be doing events out in public.”

  “You will do those, too,” she promised. “But the TV appearance and the radio segment will help drum up interest in the meantime and, hopefully, start to shift the current tenor of public opinion.”

  Again, he muttered something she couldn’t quite catch, but he agreed, so she went on.

  “You also may be getting a call from a Sun-Times reporter in the next day or two. I gave her both your office number and your cell. Her daughter attends school with mine. I ran into her over the weekend at Danielle’s soccer game.”

  “Calling in favors?” he asked.

  “I suppose it could be viewed that way, but I don’t tell Lori Mercer what to write. I offer ideas that she may or may not find intriguing enough to follow up on. If she calls you, you can set up an appointment, but get in touch with me before you do the actual interview.”

  “Sure.” He waited a beat, then asked, “Did they win?”

  “Who?”

  “Danielle’s soccer team.”

  “Oh. Yes. Two to nothing.” Even though it wasn’t necessary, she added, “She blocked a couple of really tough shots.”

  “You sound proud.”

  “I am. Very.” Julia was smiling when she glanced up to find her assistant standing in the open doorway. Sandy was holding the coffeepot, her brows raised in question. Julia didn’t think the question was whether or not Julia wanted a refill. Even so, she beckoned for Sandy to come in and held out her half-empty cup for a warm-up. For Sandy’s benefit as well as her own, she got back to business. “Oh, Alec, I wanted to ask, did you get the email I sent over this morning?”

  “The one on the expenses involved in child-rearing? It’s been received, read and filed.” His tone made it clear what he thought about it. Odds were good the file he referred to was the circular one known as the trash can.

  “I sent that one over the weekend. I’m referring to the one I sent about an hour ago.”

  “Let me check my email.” She heard clicking, then a mild expletive. “Media talking points?”

  “That’s the one.”

  “Are you kidding me?”

  She considered the question rhetorical and didn’t answer it. “Don’t just give the article a cursory glance before setting it aside. You need to read it, study it. I want you to memorize it.”

  She was pretty sure she heard a sigh. “So, I am to stay on script at all times,” he replied.

  “Exactly.” Julia pictured the corners of Alec’s mouth pulling down in a frown. It was a nice mouth, one that had featured prominently in her dream.

  “Anything else?” he asked.

  “No!” She cleared her throat. “Actually, yes. I’ve been in touch with a couple of bloggers, including Jan Owens. Have you heard of her?”

  “Should I have?”

  “She trashed you big-time after the article came out.”

  “A lot of people did, Jul
ia. I didn’t think to take down all of their names,” was his dry response.

  “Yes, well, not all of them have her reach. She’s one of the reasons the story went viral. She writes a blog called Mommy’s Helper. Have you heard of it?”

  “No. But I’m sure the company’s marketing team has.”

  “Yes, I’ve talked to Dexter Roth.”

  “You’ve talked to Dexter?”

  Alec’s tone told her he wasn’t happy to be left out of the loop. She couldn’t blame him for that, so she hastened to add, “I spoke to him only this morning. I’m sure he’s planning to talk to you. Now, about Jan Owens’s

  blog, it connects stay-at-home moms with products and services that are supposed to make their lives easier and their kids healthier, happier and smarter.”

  “What does she do? Wield a magic wand?”

  Julia chuckled. “No, but her site averages tens of thousands of hits a week, which makes her very influential when it comes to buying patterns. Not only are you persona non grata right now, but you’ve made your company a pariah among her readership, which represents Best For Baby’s core customer base.”

  “Dexter is proposing giveaways and special offers to entice people to buy our products,” he said. “Is that something he should approach her about?”

  “No. It’s something you need to approach her about. Touch base with her today, if at all possible.” Julia rattled off the blog address. “You can find her contact information on there. She’s on West Coast time, so keep that in mind.”

  “Sending me into the lion’s den?” he asked wryly.

  “Afraid?”

  “Petrified.” Though he didn’t quite sound it. She pictured him smiling, maybe lounging back in his chair...shirtless. She lurched forward in her own chair and upset her coffee mug. Brown liquid spread over his file.

  “Damn!”

  “Everything all right?”

  “Yes. I just spilled my coffee,” she told him, blotting it up with some tissues.

  “I hope you didn’t burn yourself.”

  Oh, Julia felt singed, but not from the coffee. What was it about this man that kept setting her imagination into motion?

  “No. I’m fine. The same can’t be said for your file, I’m afraid. It’s ruined.”

  “That may be a good thing. Maybe we need to start over.”

  It was an interesting thing to say. She wasn’t quite sure she understood what he meant by it. “Hoping to get out of doing a guest blog?” she asked.

  “Among other things.”

  That made things clear as mud. Several seconds ticked by as she puzzled over it.

  “Julia? Are you still there?”

  “Yes. Sorry.” She got back to business. “Anyway, in the email I sent Jan, I told her you would love to guest blog on Friday.”

  “In other words, you lied.” But he laughed.

  “Through my teeth, or rather, my keyboard. I’ll help you draft the content before you send it for posting. Plan to spend a little time monitoring the replies to your post and answering them where possible. Again, I’ll help you with the responses.”

  “I can think of more palatable things to do on a Friday, but at least I’ll have company.”

  “I, um, won’t be with you.”

  “Figure of speech.”

  She knew that.

  “So. If this Jan Owens is so influential, why am I not lined up to do a guest post sooner?”

  “First of all, we want a Friday. They are her biggest day traffic-wise. That’s when most of the giveaways occur, so more moms are likely to click in. Secondly, by then we should have a full-blown strategy in place for dealing with the public relations fallout and we can roll out parts of it.”

  “Clever. You’ve been busy,” Alec remarked.

  His tone held admiration now, maybe even a little gratitude, which she appreciated, since he was the beneficiary of all her hard work.

  “Very busy,” she agreed.

  “Did you get any sleep over the weekend?”

  The question, by itself, was innocuous...until the dream reared up from her subconscious. Need of the most basic kind settled low in her belly. Just as she had on Friday night, Julia tried to ignore it. And, just like on Friday night, she was about as successful.

  Still, she managed to say in a bored tone, “I got a few winks.”

  “Yet you claim not to clock overtime. I think you missed your calling. Instead of being an image consultant, maybe you should teach time management. I’d send you a few of my department heads,” Alec offered. “They don’t know the meaning of prioritizing or how to multitask. You’re apparently a pro.”

  It had as much to do with luck as skill. Despite her best-laid plans, sometimes it came down to that. A feverish child, car trouble or a computer glitch could derail everything. That wasn’t the sort of information one confided to a client, however. So, to Alec, she said, “I do my best to stay focused.”

  “Focused,” he repeated. “My mother would say we both sound boring.” She thought she heard ringing and then a soft oath. “Speak of the devil.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “My mother is calling my cell. I don’t want to take this, but I have to.”

  “I’ll be in touch.”

  Julia might have given him points for being a dutiful son had he not sounded so grim.

  * * *

  It was late when Alec got to his apartment. The place wasn’t home, but it was a refuge of sorts. He’d had the day from hell, with plenty of fires to put out. In addition to his mother’s call and the usual raft of meetings and personnel issues, his public relations disaster was showing no signs of abating. A highly rated television show was making noise about dropping Best For Baby as a sponsor and a group of parents had begun a picket line outside the building. Their signs urged the board to Dump McAvoy among other things, and the media had been there.

  Alec had hoped to sneak out through the parking garage unnoticed. They’d swamped his car until security forced them to scatter and let him pass. He could only imagine how the story would play out on the evening news.

  He tossed his keys on the console and grabbed an imported beer from the fridge in the kitchen, twisting off the cap on his way to the couch. He switched on the television and channel surfed until he came to a baseball game. The phone rang as he was tugging off his tie.

  “You should have called me about the picket,” an irritated female voice said.

  “Hello, Julia.” He took a pull of his beer.

  “The local news led off with it at six, and they’ve been teasing it for the late broadcast along with a shot of you trying to drive your Porsche through a throng of sign-waving protesters.”

  He pinched his eyes closed. “For the record, I didn’t run anyone over.”

  “Alec, this is why your board hired me.”

  “What would you have done?” he demanded.

  “At the very least, I would have had you issue a statement before you left. As it was, you looked like a criminal trying to make a fast getaway.”

  He exhaled. Anger warred with exhaustion. “This is ridiculous. I’m not a criminal. I said one stupid thing, and now I’m being crucified.”

  “I’m sorry.” There was a slight pause, then she asked, “Long day?”

  “Never-ending.”

  “Mine, too, but for different reasons.” He heard a sigh.

  “Yeah?”

  “Nothing work-related.”

  He should have been relieved on that score, since he was her main client at the moment, but he found himself curious instead. “You could still share it with me if you want.”

  A couple beats of silence passed. Then she admitted, “My daughter and I had a...disagreement.”

  “That’s the same thing as a fight, right?” He laughed, hoping to get Julia to do the same, but she sounded every bit as grim as before when she replied, “Pretty much.”

  He studied the beer bottle and confided, “My mother and I had one of those today, too. Som
ething must be going around.”

  “Gee, you mean I can look forward to this sort of thing for the next thirty years?” This time her laughter echoed through the line.

  Alec didn’t join in. He sipped his beer, recalling the argument he and Brooke had had over a catering charge she wanted to put on the account Alec kept at a restaurant where he was a regular. The owner had insisted Brooke have Alec call him before he would book the event—dinner for twelve aboard one of their friends’ boats on Lake Michigan.

  “For your sake, I hope not,” he told Julia now. Even as he said it, he heard a child’s voice calling “Mom” in the background. “It sounds like you’re being paged.”

  “Always.” But there was a grin in her voice.

  “We’ll talk again in the morning.” She paused. “You’ll get through this, Alec.”

  His name, said in such a tender tone, touched something inside him. “You almost sound like you believe that.”

  “I do.” She cleared her throat. “I’ve never failed a client. I don’t intend for you to be the first.”

  They said goodbye and disconnected. Alec finished off his beer and headed to bed. Even though it was pointless, he found himself wishing that Julia’s reasons for wanting to save his hide weren’t totally professional.

  * * *

  Julia dialed Alec’s number just after ten the following morning. She’d tossed and turned half the night trying to figure out how to mitigate the damage from the protest. That wasn’t the only reason she’d tossed and turned, but it was the only one she could think about without becoming flushed.

  “Good morning,” she said when he came on the line.

  “Is it? I’ve already had an email from Herman Geller.”

  “I know. He cc’d me.”

  “Then you are aware that my approval rating among members of the board is bad and heading toward worse. Some of them didn’t want to give me a second chance as it was. If they convince enough of their colleagues to feel the same way...” He left it at that.