A Family Affair Read online

A Family Affair

  Marilyn McPherson

  Copyright © 2011 by Marilyn McPherson

  Books by this author:

  A Family Affair

  A Family Affair - First Born

  A Family Affair - Next of Kin

  The Faithful Watcher

  Lottie’s Patch

  Stray

  Note to Reader

  Please note that this book is written in Australian English.

  Chapter One

  Tom Bradley did not usually visit the twelfth floor, as his own office was on the thirty-sixth. However, the Sales and Marketing teams were located there and Bruce Buxton, Head of Sales had asked him to attend a special team meeting that day. Sales of Satinol's new Glide lipstick range were selling three times faster than recent projections had anticipated, leading to frantic analysis by Bruce's teams to determine the cause.

  Tom believed that recognising the success and hard work of his staff was an important part of being CEO. If he were honest with himself, he would admit that it was also one of the nicer parts of the job. So Tom made sure to shake as many hands as possible during the thirty minutes he spent in the sales meeting.

  On the way out, Tom buried his head in a copy of the daily business review as he walked down the long corridor towards the lifts. Just as he was about to press the button, some boisterous laughter caught his attention, distracting him completely from the article he had been reading. The noise was coming from one of the studios, and his curiosity stirred him enough to investigate. Tom had almost forgotten about the four studios on this floor. Satinol produced its own TV advertisements and photo shoots occasionally, to avoid paying the extravagant fees that external agencies were known to charge.

  Tom rounded the corner and stopped still. From the moment he first saw her, he would never be the same again. But who she was, he did not know. Had his heart stopped beating? Had the world stopped turning? Tom reminded himself to breathe. He felt as if he knew her already, even though he could not place her. The girl seemed just so familiar. Had he known her in a previous life? Nonsense, he told himself.

  The girl had long dark hair and an olive complexion. She was in Studio Four, talking and giggling with the makeup artist who was slowly applying a deep red to her shapely lips.

  Maybe he had seen her before on television, Tom told himself as he continued to watch from behind a partly-opened door. The ladies in the room continued laughing at something that he did not understand. Her smile made him smile, and he blushed.

  Tom knew that this sort of physical reaction to someone was very unusual for him. In fact, he could not recall a time when any woman had held his attention for so long. Still, he found comfort in remaining unseen by her, while continuing to watch from his vantage point. Her features seemed so familiar, and she was soft and vulnerable. He did not believe in love at first sight, but if that was not the case, then what was happening to him? Why was he captivated by her like this?

  After a while he realised her age. He tried to calm his heart so he could think clearly. The girl was young, far too young for him. She could not be more than eighteen years old in any case. In fact, the models working in this business were usually younger than they looked. This awareness made him turn around, briefly ashamed of his feelings. He couldn’t help but ask himself the question - what would she want with an old man like you?

  Tom had recently celebrated his thirty-eighth birthday. It was a rather sombre occasion, with both of his parents at their favourite Italian restaurant in the city. Unfortunately, his mother had used the opportunity to raise her concerns once again about his marital status. Tom had become resigned to the fact that he might never marry, but this option was fast becoming more and more unacceptable to his mother. She was constantly seeking the “right” sort of woman for him to meet. Tom knew that arguing with her was pointless, and it only left both of them feeling hurt. So he usually went along with her plans, meeting some of the women to whom she introduced him, but refusing to meet others. However, none of the women his mother had chosen held his attention or interest for very long.

  Up until this point in his life, his only real passion was to ensure the ongoing success of the company he had created as a young man. It had been tough in the early days, but Tom had a natural instinct for the world of business, and his company had soon begun to prosper. Today, Tom Bradley was the CEO and owner of a multinational company producing cosmetics that were now recognised around the world. His work kept him busy, so busy that most of the time he did not acknowledge his own loneliness. He told himself that dating was difficult to conduct because of the intense media scrutiny and speculation that surrounded him. Relationships and engagements were often announced in the papers after only a few dates with the same woman. However, the real truth behind his bachelor status was that he had never met a woman that impressed him like the one he was looking at in Studio Four. Tom’s day was definitely not turning out to be ordinary.