Free Last-Minute Bridesmaid by Nina Harrington Page A

them. ‘Hot and humid afternoon. How about you? All gathered for the big wedding?’
    ‘On my way now.’ Heath smiled. ‘So you would make my day if you told me that the meeting with the distributor went well yesterday.’ There was just enough of a pause for Heath to take a breath. ‘Talk to me, Lucas. What are the customers telling you?’
    ‘It’s the same story I had last week. Our competitors are stealing the market with enhanced digital versions of the printed academic textbooks. You know how students love visuals and they are so loaded up with technology these days.’ Lucas sighed down the phone. ‘I have been promising our customers some news on the new lines for over a year now, Heath, and your dad won’t budge. I know this might not be the best time to bring it up again, but seeing as he is going to be in such a good mood...it has to be worth a try.’
    Heath pinched the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. ‘Leave it with me, Lucas,’ he replied in a low voice, trying to conceal his disappointment. ‘I’ll do what I can.’
    ‘Great, that’s great, Heath,’ Lucas replied a little too quickly and with enough tension in his voice to make Heath sit up a little straighter in his seat. ‘But...there is something else you should know about. It’s only a rumour, and you know what terrible gossips publishers are, but I heard it twice at the trade fair yesterday. You might want to check it out with the team.’
    Heath ran his tongue over his suddenly parched lips. ‘Oh, I think I have heard just about every possible gloom-and-doom scenario these past few months. What’s the latest?’
    ‘Only this. Sheridan Press is planning to move the printing operation overseas to cut down on production costs. It would be a shame—the Boston print works is a great selling point. But, hey—you know how rumours spread—there is probably nothing to it. I’ll call you next week with the updates from the Beijing Book Fair. Have a great wedding!’
    ‘Bye, Lucas. Thanks.’ Heath snapped down the lid on his phone and held it in the palm of his hand.
    Move Sheridan Press. This was the last thing that he wanted to happen.
    And if the rumour was true? If. Then his father had kept his plans for the company a secret from the one person he had brought in to help turn it around. All the work that Heath had done with Lucas and their team had been geared to promoting books which would be printed by the loyal employees who had given Sheridan Press the best years of their lives.
    Suddenly it felt as though the air conditioning had been switched to Arctic ice and a shiver ran across his shoulders. His shirt felt damp with cold sweat in the hollow of his back and his collar was trying to strangle him. Breaking the habit of a lifetime, Heath loosened the Windsor knot in his silk tie and unfastened the top button on his shirt, desperate to get some air into his lungs.
    Have a great wedding. Yeah. Right.
    Suddenly all of the missed phone calls and unanswered emails made sense. Charles Sheridan was well known for being low-key but Heath knew better than most that beneath that quiet, introspective grey-suited executive was a sharp and scheming brain.
    So much for working together.
    He had been a fool to allow ridiculous sentimentality back into his life. Memories of a happy childhood were just that—memories. For children who had no control over what happened to them.
    Stupid! He had left his own company in the hands of the management team—and for what? To help out the man who had cheated on his wife with Alice Jardine and then married Julia Swan within twelve months of his wife’s funeral? The man who had barely spoken to him in over a decade and then suddenly wanted to be reconciled and play dad?
    Well, maybe his son and heir wasn’t ready to be made a fool of.
    The fire that had been burning inside Heath’s belly turned into a furnace. Molten lava flowed through his veins and he felt his teeth grind together in