Meant for You (29 page)

“Reason number nine hundred and forty-seven why my life sucks. This job. At least this job today.” Zoe Dalton slouched down in her office chair and looked at the pile of messages in front of her. She'd been an interior designer for years, but she'd just moved to the East Coast the month before and working for well-known designer Martha Tate was quickly grating on her nerves.

A flurry of activity outside her door made her look up and her boss appeared as if Zoe'd conjured her up by force of griping.

“Zoe,” Martha said breathlessly as she stepped into the office and sat down at the desk, “I'm going to need you to take over on the Shaughnessy job.”

From what Zoe had heard in the previous weeks, the Shaughnessy project was a huge undertaking. There were a lot of houses going up in a brand-new community, and at least half a dozen model homes needed to be decorated. “Why? What happened to Sarah?” Zoe asked.

Martha waved her off. “She went rogue and the client is majorly pissed.”

“Went rogue?”

“She ignored the design plans the client requested,” Martha said reproachfully. “This was a fairly straightforward job; everything was clearly specified per Mr. Shaughnessy's directions.”

“So I have to go in and do damage control, is that it?”

Her boss nodded. “And…redo everything Sarah did. And make sure the next five houses are done
exactly
as requested.”

Seemed like a no-brainer. Zoe shrugged and smiled. “I'm on it.”

Martha looked visibly relieved. “Good…good. You have a meeting with Mr. Shaughnessy in an hour. Sarah's collecting all her files, along with all her personal belongings, and you'll have them to go through in a few minutes.”

“Her personal belongings?”

“Her files. She's fired,” Martha said.

Maybe this job
wasn't
a no-brainer. She was going to have to tread very carefully from this point forward.

She nodded and straightened in her seat. “Okay, I'll go and meet with Mr. Shaughnessy at ten and then I have an eleven o'clock with…”

“Oh, no, no, no, Zoe,” Martha interrupted. “You aren't meeting with anyone else today. You'll have to cancel.”

“But—”

“You have to give this project one hundred percent of your attention.”

“But—”

“You can't expect someone like Aidan Shaughnessy to wait on you and your schedule. I know you haven't been here very long, but the Shaughnessys are a very important family in the community and this account is huge for us. Sarah can fill you in about them. You're going to need to be available not only to fix Sarah's mistakes but to make sure absolutely nothing else goes wrong with the rest of the houses. You need to be on this 24/7.”

Zoe was not one to raise her voice but right now it was the only way to get her boss to stop interrupting her. “Hold on!” she said. “I have at least six other active projects I'm working on. I've put a lot of time and effort into developing relationships with these clients. I can't just toss them aside, Martha!”

“Already taken care of,” Martha said dismissively. “I've reassigned all of your projects. If you'll just go through your messages, I'll be sure to pass them on to the designers who are taking them over.”

Zoe's head felt ready to explode. Back in Arizona, she'd had her own firm and had been her own boss. Zoe had known there were going to be some compromises when she went to work for someone else, but this was worse than she'd expected. The decision to move had been an emotional one and she had hoped for a more positive transition. This was not something she was willing to take lying down.

“Look, Martha, I'm sure Mr. Shaughnessy is a reasonable businessman…” she began diplomatically and was surprised when Martha actually snorted sarcastically. Zoe raised her eyebrows but continued. “Surely he can understand that while Sarah made a…mistake…we will do everything to rectify it without compromising our other clients.” There. That sounded reasonable, didn't it?

Leaning forward in her seat, Martha gave Zoe a pitying look. “Zoe, trust me. If it were any other client, I would let you keep your other projects. But this is a…special…case. This is going to demand much more of your time than you think. If, by some miracle, you get things going to the point where I'm not hearing from him several times a week, I'll consider letting you take on other projects again. Until I can be sure of it, though, he's your one and only client.”

“What if I promise not to let my other projects interfere with the Shaughnessy job?”

Martha shook her head. “Trust me; you can't keep that promise.”

Zoe sat back in resignation.

“You've had your own business, Zoe, so I know you've had your share of difficult clients, right?”

Zoe nodded.

“And that's why I'm putting you on this job. Think of your most difficult client and multiply by say…ten.”

Music of doom began playing in Zoe's head. “Well, I wasn't scared before, but now…”

“We'll talk about this after your meeting.” Standing, Martha put an end to the discussion by walking out of the room.

Just when she had thought her day couldn't get any worse. Zoe immediately suspected she was going to hate Aidan Shaughnessy.

The next fifteen minutes were like an out-of-body experience for Zoe. People came and went from her office to get files and messages and collect what they could on her former clients. Zoe felt like she was watching the whole thing happen in slow motion; it was as though she wasn't even there. And just when she thought the worst was over, Sarah walked in and dropped a massive box on the floor in front of Zoe's desk.

“Good luck with
that
one,” she said snidely and walked right back out.

“Sarah! Wait!” Zoe cried, scrambling out from behind her desk. Luckily, Sarah halted in the hallway. “Can I talk to you for a minute? Please?” Zoe could see that her former coworker would as soon spit in her face as talk, but Sarah reluctantly walked back into Zoe's office.

“Thank you,” Zoe said, quietly closing the door. She offered Sarah a seat but the woman continued to stand with her arms crossed, ready to flee. “I know the last thing you want to do is help me with any of this, but could you please just let me know what I'm getting into?” Zoe was practically begging.

Sarah relaxed her stance. “I've known Aidan Shaughnessy all my life, and he is an arrogant, condescending jackass.
That's
what you're getting yourself into.”

Not quite what she was hoping for, but it was a start. “Okay, I got that part. But what about the job itself? I know there are five houses left and…”

“Six,” Sarah corrected. “He's going to make you completely redo that first house. I wouldn't be surprised if he's gotten the entire thing stripped down to bare walls already.”

Zoe's stomach lurched. She swallowed hard and sat down in her chair. “Okay, six houses. What makes them difficult?”

Sarah finally took a seat. “It's not the houses that make the job difficult, Zoe, it's the man. Just…be careful.”

This was getting worse by the minute. “How so?”

“Look, you're new to the area so you're probably not aware of it but…the Shaughnessys are like the Kennedys around here. They've been here forever. There are a lot of them and they're all successful.”

“Define successful.”

Sarah settled more comfortably in her seat and gave her words some thought. “Let's see…Hugh, the second oldest, owns a bunch of luxury resorts pretty much all over the world. His newest one is in Napa—he bought a vineyard and built a five-star resort on it. It's huge with the celebrity crowd right now. Most of his other resorts are on islands—his next one is going up in Australia, I think—and he does destination weddings and that sort of thing.”

“Wow.” Zoe was impressed but not to the point of a comparison to the Kennedys.

“Then there's Quinn. I graduated with him. He was a star athlete in high school and we all thought he was going to go play major league baseball but he took up race car driving. He doesn't do it anymore—one crash too many, I think—and now he has a chain of custom auto body shops up and down the East Coast.”

“So they're overachievers,” Zoe said conversationally. “So what?”

“It's not just those two.” Sarah smirked. “Next we have Riley.”

“Wait a minute,” Zoe interrupted. “Are you talking about Riley Shaughnessy…
the
Riley Shaughnessy?”

“I am,” Sarah said.

“The rock star?” Zoe said, as if it needed clarification.

“Yes. Riley's been singing since he was old enough to talk, but he's very down to earth on top of being incredibly talented. No one makes that big a deal of it anymore when he comes back to visit—to the locals, he's just Riley. Folks are protective of him. When he comes home, they do what they can to make sure the tourist fans don't get too out of hand.”

“I had no idea this was such a touristy place,” Zoe said. When she'd decided to relocate, all she knew was she wanted to live on the beach. Growing up in Arizona was all fine and well, but Zoe had dreamed of a time when she could wake up, walk out her back door, and put her toes in the sand. Finding the job with Martha had seemed like a godsend.

Until now.

“Okay, so it's an overachieving family,” she finally said.

“Still not done,” Sarah said. “Did you know that Riley has a twin brother?”

Zoe shook her head, surprised. Everyone knew the rock star, but Zoe had never heard of a twin.

“Owen and Riley are fraternal but they still look a lot alike. I always thought Owen was the sweetest of the bunch by far, but he's also the shyest.”

“And what does he do?” Zoe was almost afraid to ask.

“Owen is an astrophysicist. He's absolutely brilliant.”

Of course he is
, Zoe thought.

“He got picked on a bit because he was so nerdy and quiet compared to his brothers—especially his outgoing twin—but now he goes all over the world teaching at universities.” Sarah let out a sigh. “And then there's Darcy.”

“Oh, you mean there's actually a female in that bunch?” Zoe asked.

“The one and only. She's got it the hardest.”

“Why?”

“Are you kidding me?” Sarah said. “She's got five older brothers and everyone in this town knows her family, along with everything about her life. She's seventeen years old. How much do you think she gets away with?”

Zoe was an only child so she couldn't imagine what it was like having even one overachieving sibling, let alone five. “Poor kid,” Zoe said. “What about Aidan? Where does he fall in the lineup?”

“He's the oldest,” Sarah said, suddenly tense again. “Maybe that's why he's such a control freak and such a pain in the ass to work with.”

“I'm sure he's just…”

Sarah cut her off. “He's a perfectionist and he's totally unreasonable. If you don't follow his instructions to the letter, he goes right over your head. I substituted some perfectly fine paint colors—they were from last year's palette, so they were thirty percent off, and they work just fine. You'd think he'd be grateful I'd taken the initiative and found a way to save him some money. But no, it's his way or the highway. And all Martha cares about is getting him off her back. And then there's the stuff he doesn't tell you and when you figure it out on your own, it'll be all wrong. Do yourself a favor, Zoe. Brush up on your ESP skills and plan on not getting any sleep. Good luck. You're going to need it.”

“I'm so sorry, Sarah.” It was the only thing Zoe could think of to say. “I really appreciate all of the background.”

Sarah nodded and stood. “I need to go. You have a meeting with him in less than half an hour. Better be early. He hates it when you're late. And by late, I mean on time.”

Perfect
, Zoe thought apprehensively.

She watched Sarah walk out of her office and then looked at the box on the floor.

“Reason number nine hundred and forty-eight why my life sucks today? Aidan Shaughnessy.”

* * *

Okay, that was a lot of information
, Zoe kept saying to herself on the drive over. She wasn't sure how helpful it would be in dealing with the man himself.

After perusing Sarah's project files, Zoe could see what Sarah had done with the colors and finishes on the first model home. It didn't sound so bad, but Zoe wasn't foolish enough to believe it was going to be an easy fix. As Zoe had left for her meeting, Martha had warned her again that no matter what Mr. Shaughnessy wanted done to make it right, Zoe wasn't to argue.

Zoe frowned. It wasn't as if she argued with clients.

Much.

Her GPS signaled that she had arrived at her destination—ten minutes early, thank you very much—and the sight before her took her breath away. After parking the car, she slowly got out and removed her sunglasses.

“Stunning.” The word was a mere whisper from her lips. She'd done her fair share of work with architects, builders, and your everyday homeowners, but never before had she seen a home that drew you in like this one.

The landscaping was immaculate; vivid colors mixed with the perfect amount of greenery. For a moment, Zoe would have sworn the plants were fake. Crouching down, she touched the leaves on some of the flowers and leaves just to make sure. The lawn felt like some sort of plush carpeting, and she itched to kick off her shoes and feel it on her bare feet. It wasn't as soft as the sand surrounding the beach house she was renting, but this was a pretty close second. She wouldn't mind walking outside to something like this every day.

The stonework on the front of the house was perfect and the color complemented the siding beautifully. All the windows were top of the line and just beckoned you to come inside. But not before stopping on the wraparound porch and maybe spending a few minutes on the swing.