The Vine Read Free Page B

professionally, giving him a secret smile, “Mr. Sinclair is ready for you.”
    “Thank you, Miss Maynard,” Lucas replied before adjusting his cuffs and heading toward George’s office.
    Just as he turned the handle to enter, I saw his business face appear.
From boy to man
, I thought, chuckling to myself at the events that had just miraculously unfolded in my life in the last few minutes.
    About an hour later, the door had opened, and as I turned to look, my stomach somersaulted as Lucas walked out. It was ridiculous really, how this man affected me, and if my tummy was likethis by just seeing him, how on earth was I going to eat a dinner in front of him? With that thought in my head, he walked formally straight past me, nodding with a curt “Miss Maynard” as he went.
    “Mr. Castle,” I whispered in a confused tone.
What just happened? Had he changed his mind?
I then watched his back as he departed, and the doors closed as the lift plummeted, taking my stomach with it.
What had I done?
    As I was sitting there analysing our conversation, the telephone rang. I answered, trying to sound as upbeat as possible, considering the scenario I’d just pictured of dinner with a certain handsome man this weekend had just been shattered into a billion pieces.
    “Good afternoon. Mr. Sinclair’s office.”
    “Hello, Lizzy; it’s Lucas.”
    I was silent; now I was really confused. “What’s going on Lucas?” I asked, trying and failing miserably to hide the hurt in my voice.
    “Hell, Lizzy, I’m so sorry.”
    Oh, here we go
, I thought,
he has changed his mind. He’s bloody well changed his mind. This is the first date I’ve accepted in over four years and now he’s blowing me off.
Again Lucas’s voice cut through my thoughts. “Lizzy, after my meeting with George, I mentioned to him about me taking you out to dinner. I just thought I would say something to him out of courtesy because of the business aspect, but also because I know how close you are to him. I don’t know why, but it’s like he looks out for you or something, so I sort of felt I should clear it with him. But, Lizzy, he really wasn’t happy with it at all. In fact, he was quite angry, and to be honest, he went so red in the face I thought he was going to have a coronary or something. So I just passed it off as just a thought, and if he wasn’t happy with it then of course I wouldn’t take things any further.”
    “Oh,” was all I could think to say. I don’t think it was really Lucas that George had the issue with. I think it was all men in general. Although his reputation with women preceded him, and George knew him well enough that it probably hadn’t helped his case.
    Since the death of my parents, George had become a bit of a father figure, and I think because he knows all I’d been through, he was just being protective toward me. He wouldn’t want me getting hurt any more than I had been already.
    “But I really do want to take you out to dinner, Lizzy. I really do,” he pleaded.
    “Look, Lucas, I really do respect George and the fact he’s looking out for me, but I am a big girl, and I am certainly capable of making my own decisions. So I would love to go for dinner with you this Saturday night,” I said a whole lot more confidently than I actually felt. “Great,” he replied, and I literally heard the breath he’d been holding exhale. “Well in that case, Lizzy, I’ll pick you up at 8pm on Saturday.”
    “Looking forward to it,” I replied more coyly now, and with that, we bid our goodbyes and hung up. As I put down the telephone, a shiver of excitement ran through me. I had a dinner date this weekend with a tall, dark, and handsome man—my first real date. You certainly couldn’t count the boys I was with when I was younger, as dates weren’t really on their radar, just shagging. I shudder when I think of how I’d let myself be used in the past, and I could feel my mood sinking, so I brought myself back up. No way was