One More Promise Read online

  Paige sighed. “The only one who seems to have an issue with my wardrobe choices is you. No one has said a word about it.”

  “Actually, they have. To me. This is me telling you—from everyone—that you need to start dressing the part.”

  For a moment, all she could do was stare. “Um…excuse me? What?”

  Carefully, Ariel leaned against the countertop and then made a pinched face at her suit touching the surface. “Look, you’re an executive now, Paige. College is over. I mean…honestly. If you weren’t my sister and I saw you walking around here, I’d swear you were an intern.”

  Looking down at herself and then at her reflection, Paige still didn’t understand what all the fuss was about. “I’m wearing a skirt!”

  With an eye roll, Ariel studied her. “It’s a knit skirt. And clingy. And…are those tights you’re wearing?”

  “Um…yeah. Why?”

  “Oh God,” Ariel murmured and smoothed a hand over her hair. “Okay, let me try another approach. Turn and face the mirror.” They both did. “Look at us side by side. What do you see?”

  “That genetics clearly favored only one of us?” Paige joked.

  Ariel didn’t smile. She rarely did. She thought it caused wrinkles.

  “Okay, fine. I’m looking.”

  “And?”

  “And I see that you are wearing a suit and I’m wearing a skirt and sweater.” She shrugged.

  “You’re overaccessorized,” Ariel pointed out. “The scarf, the bracelets, the giant watch, and don’t even get me started on those clunky boots.”

  Okay, now she was getting pissed. “Look, I happen to like all these accessories, and there’s nothing wrong with any of it. I’m not you. I’m not going to wear a suit or stilettos. That’s not who I am! And even if I went out and copied your entire wardrobe, I can guarantee you it won’t look the same on me as it does on you.”

  “Obviously.”

  “Why are you always like this?” Paige asked wearily. “It’s like you purposely choose the worst times to pull these stunts.”

  “Stunt? What stunt? I’m trying to help you, Paige! You’re about to go in front of the board with your whole…book thing. I want you to put forward the right impression. Gosh, excuse me for trying to be a good sister.”

  And there it was—the start of the martyr act. If she had a dollar for every time Ariel…

  “I mean, every time I try to do something nice for you, you get mad and make me feel bad. I don’t know what else I can do to prove to you that I have your best interests at heart.”

  Okay, she is still going…

  “Remember when we used to play together and you would tell me how much you wanted to be like me when you grew up?”

  Um…no.

  “What happened? What did I ever do to you to make you so ungrateful?”

  “That’s enough,” Paige said finally. “I’m not ungrateful. I’m not. I’m sorry you feel that way. It’s just that I’m stressed enough right now, and if you were really concerned about my choice of wardrobe today, you could have told me sooner than three minutes before the presentation.” She did a quick double take at her watch and gasped. “Three minutes! Oh crap!”

  “Language, Paige,” Ariel said with disdain. “Daddy would have a fit if he heard you cursing like a sailor.”

  Seriously? That was cursing like a sailor? Then it was a good thing her father wasn’t in her head right now because he’d probably have a stroke.

  With one last glance at herself in the mirror, she couldn’t help but be self-conscious. Her hair was a mess compared to her sister’s. Where Ariel’s was pale blond and silky, Paige’s was more of a honeyed blond and wavy. Even tied back like it was now, it didn’t look neat. And she wasn’t kidding on the genetics comment. Besides the height difference, Paige was…curvier. And not in a way that made her feel like a model. Her curves were… Well, they were everywhere and tended to make her look chubby rather than shapely.

  Dammit.

  This is exactly what always happened. She’d be feeling good about herself and then her sister would walk by with some stupid comment and undo the girl-power pep talk she had just given herself.

  Straightening her glasses—oh yes, she wore glasses too—she resigned herself to going in front of the board looking less than executive worthy and hoped everyone would be more focused on the facts and figures of the campaign than her choice in fashion.

  One could hope, right?

  As they exited the ladies’ room, Paige immediately switched gears and went into work mode. “Okay, did you send out those invitations I asked you to for participants?” Paige had given her that simple job in exchange for helping Ariel negotiate the fine points of the Hernandez contract. Invitations were one of Ariel’s strongest points. No one liked to refuse her. That’s why Paige hadn’t assigned the task to one of their assistants.

  Ariel nodded as she glided elegantly down the hall. Paige had to take two steps to her sister’s one. “I did. And I even reached out to several more. This way if anyone backs out, we have substitutes at the ready.”

  “Perfect. Good job. Thanks,” Paige replied. “Have you gotten any responses yet? I mean to the new ones?”

  Ariel nodded again. “It’s all in the folder.”

  “What folder?”

  “The one I gave you.”

  Paige huffed loudly as they turned and made their way toward the corner conference room. “You didn’t give me a folder, Ariel.”

  “Well, I put it on your desk,” she said flippantly, and then her entire face broke out in a smile as their father stood to greet them. “Hi, Daddy! You’re looking handsome today!”

  Ugh. Seriously?

  “Hey, Dad,” she said with a smile after Ariel stepped aside.

  “There’s my girl,” Robert Walters said proudly. “All set for your big presentation?”

  “I am. I was just…”

  “Didn’t you forget that folder on your desk?” Ariel asked sweetly, and Paige wanted to kick her.

  Their father looked at Paige expectantly.

  “Um…thanks for reminding me. Give me five minutes.” She took two steps back, then turned and did her best not to run from the room.

  Of course, once she was out of the conference room’s line of vision, she bolted. Down the hall, around the bend, and she almost tripped and fell as her assistant, Daisy, jumped out from behind her desk.

  “Hey! Where’s the fire?” she asked and then gasped. “Oh my God! Is there? A fire? Are you coming here to warn everyone? Should I make an announcement? Everyone—”

  “No! No!” Paige quickly interrupted. “There’s no fire. I forgot a folder I need for the meeting. Ariel said she put it on my desk.” Walking past her assistant, she went into her office and began a frantic search of her desk. There were papers and files and calendars and Post-its but…no folder. The one she had given Ariel was a pretty pastel blue with the logo she was thinking of using for the campaign on it. “Where the heck…?”

  “You know, if you cleaned that surface off once in a while, you’d be able to find things much easier.”

  “Uh-huh… Where could she have put it?”

  “In the conference room.”

  Paige instantly stood. “Excuse me?”

  “The folder? The pretty blue one with the logo you think looks good but needs to be tweaked because it’s too generic for something like this? Personally, I think you should go with something—”

  “Daisy! Focus! Where is the folder?”

  Daisy sighed and said, “In the conference room. You had already left when Ariel floated in here on her cloud of superiority, and I told her you weren’t coming here before the meeting. But did she listen? No. So after she left, I took the folder to the conference room for you. It’s on the little podium stand and everything. Oh, and I left you a bottle of w
ater and a little thing of hand sanitizer.”

  This time she didn’t bother hiding that she was running and simply sprinted down the hall and back to the conference room. Her footsteps echoed as she entered the room and all eyes were on her.

  Dammit.

  With a quiet clearing of her throat, she apologized and took her seat at the table and then waited for her father to do as he always did—go over their agenda and open the floor to any new projects—and then he’d let her get up and do her thing.

  Relief swamped her as she got comfortable and realized that no one was particularly paying attention to her and she could take a few minutes to catch her breath and collect her thoughts. She wished she could have grabbed the folder to glance through it before she had to stand up and present. Her curiosity was piqued about who else Ariel had reached out to. For starters, she didn’t think her sister knew of any other authors who would achieve Paige’s goals.

  Paige followed along on the agenda and made notes where she knew she’d need to step in and finalize details and finally—finally!—her father called her up.

  At the podium, she smiled and immediately started sharing one of her favorite stories about when reading had become so important to her. She had been eight, and it had been storming and she couldn’t go outside and play. Her mother had suggested sitting quietly with a book. That book had been Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. For several minutes, Paige described how it felt to be transported to another world, where she could forget about the storm and about her disappointment about not being able to go outside and instead enjoy the wonders of the written word.

  When she looked up, she saw some interest, some boredom, and her sister filing her nails.

  Clearing her throat, she straightened and went in for the hard facts and figures. “The statistics haven’t changed much in the past decade. Thirty-two million adults in the United States are functionally illiterate. Over twenty percent of adults read below a fifth-grade level. And it’s not getting better, as schools are graduating teens who can’t read. Libraries and schools want to change this. With the introduction of projects such as International Literacy Day, we have brought this problem more into the spotlight, but it’s not enough. We may not be able to help everyone, but I believe with the right campaign, we can put a dent in this alarming statistic.”

  Opening the folder, she only gave it a cursory glance before continuing. “I’ve been actively working with Literacy Now for some time on a personal level, and when they came to me and asked for help with a new campaign, I knew we could do something amazing for them. My plan is to bring on a host of A-list authors for promotional spots on TV and in newspapers and magazines to talk about the issue. On top of that, they will go to schools and talk to teachers and students, to encourage them not only about the importance of learning to read, but also to share the joy and wonders of how reading can enrich their lives.”

  “Who have you recruited so far?” her father asked, and Paige was thrilled to see the genuine interest on his face.

  Pulling out the list, she was about to read it and then stopped. What the…? She glanced over at Ariel, who was now texting on her phone. “Ariel?”

  Her sister looked up. “Hmm?”

  “What is this list?”

  “The one you asked me to work on.”

  “Uh…no, it’s not. This is not a list of authors. I have no idea who these people are. My list had New York Times bestselling authors from multiple genres—Marta Hayes, Mitchell Blake, Stephen Cane… Who are these people you’ve contacted?”

  Robert Walters looked over at his older daughter and waited. Paige knew immediately that the waterworks were going to start and the excuses were going to fly.

  “That is not what we talked about, Paige! You said you wanted big names. You didn’t specifically say authors.”

  “It’s a literacy campaign! Who else would we need? And, need I remind you, I gave you the list. All you had to do was reach out to their agents. I didn’t ask you to contact anyone new.”

  “Oh, that’s just great! I do you a favor by finding you better people—more famous people—and this is the thanks I get?” Ariel cried and then looked at their father. “Honestly, Dad, I was trying to make this campaign a success. No one will pay attention to people they don’t know talking to them about things they don’t care about. There was no one famous on her list!”

  “Now, Ariel, Paige had a specific plan for this campaign—”

  “But it wasn’t going to work,” Ariel countered. “And besides, I was trying to do a good thing. I’ve been feeling so weird lately, and then it came to me that this was what we needed to do. So while I was at the doctor’s office—”

  “Why were you at the doctor?” Robert asked, concern instantly lacing his voice.

  Paige was certain she was seeing her own brain from rolling her eyes so hard. How was it that nobody else saw through this ridiculous act?

  “Well,” Ariel began with a coy grin, “I was going to wait until lunch to tell you, but…” She looked around the table to build anticipation. “I’m pregnant! Dennis and I are having a baby!” Then she squealed with joy and waited as everyone jumped up to congratulate her.

  With a sigh of resignation, Paige stuffed the papers into the folder and simply joined the line to wait her turn.

  * * *

  The next day, Paige begrudgingly sat and looked over Ariel’s list. The rest of the previous day had been a bust. After the big pregnancy announcement, the meeting had ended. Her father promised they’d get together later in the week to talk about the campaign again, but he had been too far gone with joy at the news of becoming a grandfather to concentrate on anything else.

  There was a part of Paige that was excited at the thought of becoming an aunt, but really, it was the image of her sister getting fat and throwing up that put the slight grin on her face.

  “Uh-oh. Someone looks like they’re plotting something!”

  Looking up, Paige chuckled as Daisy walked in. She was a little bit younger than Paige—fresh out of college—but there was something about her that made you feel like she had been living under a rock or something. She was a hard worker but a bit…quirky. Clueless. Not in a bad way, Paige thought, but there were times when it took far too much energy to reel the girl in.

  “What could I possibly be plotting?” Paige asked sweetly. “There’s too much work to be done to focus on anything else.”

  Placing some messages on her desk, Daisy took a seat facing her. “So how did the meeting go yesterday? I had to head out early. Did everyone love the list of authors we’re going to get?” She sighed happily. “I mentioned to my mom—who loves to read—that we were trying for Marta Hayes, and she about fell out of her chair! I mean she screeched, and I thought she was going to hyperventilate! So I had to calm her down and get her something to drink and before you knew it—”

  “Daisy?”

  “Hmm?”

  Paige took a moment and studied her assistant. “Remember when we talked about asking questions and waiting for the answer before you start talking again?”

  Confusion came first. Then remembrance. Then a smile. “Right. Sorry,” Daisy said with a sheepish smile. “You were going to tell me about the meeting.”

  “I had just started going into my pitch about the list of authors, except when I looked it over, it was all different. Ariel changed it,” Paige said.

  “What? No!” Daisy cried with disbelief. “Why would she do that?”

  “Because she thinks we need bigger celebrity names—not authors. I mean…she doesn’t even understand what it is we’re trying to do here. It’s a literacy campaign! We need to have authors! I know there have been other campaigns with sports stars and celebrities, but that wasn’t the angle I was going for.” With a huff, Paige pulled up the list of names Ariel had made and handed it to Daisy. “Honestly, I can’t even look a
t the stupid thing. I get aggravated just thinking about it. I don’t even recognize some of those names!”

  Taking the paper from her boss’s hand, Daisy scanned it and then gasped excitedly. “Oh, come on! You have to know who Mick Jagger is!” Then she looked up at Paige and shook her head. “Not that I expect him to do the campaign. I mean, let’s be realistic.”

  “I know there are some big names on there—none of whom are probably going to do it—but that’s not the point. The point is, I had an outline for this campaign and she disregarded it. Now I’m going to have to redo my approach and still reach out to authors and their agents and publicists and publishers when I’m already swamped!”

  “I can help with that, Paige. That’s part of my job.”

  Paige smiled. “I know. And thank you. But…I had this whole thing worked out in my head and now it’s going to be completely different.”

  “What did your father say? Didn’t he question why she changed everything without telling you?”

  “He never got the chance,” Paige said.

  “How come?”

  “Because in the middle of it all, she dropped a bombshell. She’s pregnant.”

  “No!”

  Paige nodded. “Oh yes.”

  “And she decided to share that? In the middle of your presentation?”

  Another nod. “I don’t think she would have if it weren’t for the fact that I was calling her out on making these changes without my permission and she was trying to take the focus off that.”

  “Kind of an elaborate tale to tell just to get out of getting reprimanded.”

  Tale? “Wait…are you saying you don’t think she’s pregnant?”

  Daisy’s eyes went wide. “What? Oh, no. That’s not what I meant. Although…nothing would surprise me where Ariel’s concerned.” Then her hand flew over her mouth as if she couldn’t believe she had said that out loud.

  Unable to help herself, Paige burst out laughing.

  “Oh God, oh God, oh God, oh God!” Daisy cried, jumping to her feet. “I’m sorry! I’m really, really sorry. I can’t believe I said that!”