The Unexpected Holiday Gift Read Free Page B

eventually.
    â€˜My father.’ The words came out tight, the way they always did when he spoke about it. The unfairness of it all. ‘He’s dying.’
    And that was the only reason he was there. The only thing that could make him seek out his ex-in-all-but-paperwork-wife and ask for her help.
    â€˜I’m so sorry, Jacob.’ Clara’s eyes softened instantly, but he didn’t want to see that. He looked down at his hands and kept talking instead.
    â€˜Cancer,’ he said harshly, hating the very word. ‘The doctors haven’t given him more than a couple of months. If he’d gone to them sooner...’ He swallowed. ‘Anyway. This is going to be his last Christmas. I want to make it memorable.’
    â€˜Of course you do,’ Clara said, and he felt something inside him relax, just a little. He’d known that she would understand. And what he needed would require more than the sort of competence he could buy. He needed someone who would give everything to his project. Who would do what he needed, just like she always had before.
    And, for some reason, Clara had always been very fond of his father.
    â€˜I’m planning a family Christmas up in the Highlands,’ Jacob explained. ‘Just like one we had one year when I was a boy.’
    â€˜I remember you all talking about it once. It sounds perfect,’ Clara agreed. ‘And like you’ve got it all in hand, so I don’t really see why—’
    â€˜That’s it,’ Jacob interrupted her. ‘That idea. That’s all I have.’
    â€˜Oh.’ Clara winced. ‘So you want to hire Perfect London to...?’
    â€˜Do everything else. Organise it. Make it perfect.’ That, she’d always been good at. She’d been the perfect businessman’s wife, the perfect housewife, the perfect beauty on his arm at functions, even the perfect daughter-in-law. Up until the day she wasn’t his perfect anything at all.
    â€˜But...’ Clara started, and he jumped in to stop whatever objection she was conjuring up.
    â€˜I’ll pay, of course. Double your normal rate.’ He’d pay triple to make this happen but he’d keep that information in reserve in case he needed it later.
    â€˜Why?’ Bafflement covered Clara’s expression.
    â€˜Who else?’ Jacob asked. ‘It’s what you do, isn’t it? It’s right there in the name of your company.’ The company she’d left him to build—and which, by the looks of things, seemed to be doing well enough. He’d never even imagined, when they were married, that she’d wanted this—her own business, her own life apart from him. How could he? She’d never told him.
    Well. If she was determined to go off and be happy and successful without him, the least she could do was help him out now, when he needed it.
    â€˜Perfect London, ’ Clara said, emphasising the second word. ‘We mostly work locally. Very locally.’
    â€˜I imagine that most of the arrangements can be made from here,’ Jacob conceded. ‘Although I would need you in Scotland for the final set-up.’
    â€˜No.’ Clara shook her head. ‘I can’t do that. I have...obligations here. I can’t just leave.’
    Obligations. A whole new life, he imagined. A new man...but not her husband, though. That, at least, she couldn’t have. Not unless he let her.
    Jacob took a breath and prepared to use his final bargaining chip.
    The only thing he had left to give her.
    * * *
    This made no sense. None at all. Why on earth would Jacob come to her, of all people, to organise this? There must be a hundred other party planners or concierge services he could have gone to. Unless this was a punishment of some sort, Clara could not imagine why her ex-husband would want to hire her for this task.
    Except...she knew his family. She knew his father, and could already picture exactly the sort of