Desire by Design - By Paula Altenburg Page 0,71

Doucette. Can this building be saved? And if so, would saving it be economically feasible?”

“I don’t think it’s fair to put Ms. Doucette on the spot like this,” Bob continued to protest. “We’re here to talk about the new construction, not the old building.”

The reporter scented blood in the water. “Are you saying that Ms. Doucette is not allowed to answer my question?”

Bob straightened his shoulders and looked at Eve. “I’m advising against it.”

Eve now had to make a choice. Everyone in the room knew that Bob Anderson was trying to pull something. Did she let him get away with it, or did she give her honest opinion? Eve asked herself what her response would be if it weren’t for Matt.

But Matt had never given her any reason to think she couldn’t be honest. She wouldn’t want him this much if he had.

“Yes,” she answered slowly. “I think it would be possible to save this building. But without doing cost estimates, I have no idea whether or not it would be feasible for the city to do so.”

The reporter grunted, then moved on to other victims, for which Eve was thankful.

Bob seemed displeased, but she didn’t especially care since she wasn’t pleased with him, either. She did, however, care about Matt. His expression was unreadable, his whole attention seemingly now focused on the next speaker, and she tried not to feel hurt.

She’d been asked for her professional opinion, and she’d given it. She couldn’t have done anything else, not even for Matt. Because regardless of what others thought, it was more important to her that she approve of herself.

That was the mistake she’d made in marrying Claude. She’d thought he was more important than she was, simply because they’d both been impressed by his doctorate degree.

When the meeting was over she gathered her things and rushed from the room, ignoring the reporters who called out for her to wait.

…

Eve took off so fast, Matt couldn’t stop her.

He wanted to go after her, but his issues with his uncle weren’t going to wait. He’d catch up with Eve as soon as he could because they had things to discuss, too, but he was tired of people messing with her. That included his uncle. She was so easily manipulated, and never seemed to see it coming.

Claude had manipulated her, too. Eve hadn’t gone to the police before, and he’d known she wouldn’t this time. He’d anticipated that she’d try and hit him again, and he’d done his best to provoke her. That was why he’d turned his head away. He’d planned all along to press charges against her.

Because Eve was far more predictable than she realized.

Matt leaned closer so only Uncle Bob could hear. “I want to see you in your office.”

His uncle froze for a millisecond, then continued to toss notes back into his briefcase. “Not now, Mattie. I have damage control to attend to.”

“If you don’t find the time right this minute, you’re going to have a lot more damage than this to control.”

Uncle Bob spoke up, addressing a few of the reporters who were hovering near the door. “I can’t talk right now,” he said. “A family emergency has just come up.”

Matt followed close behind him. They strode down the hall and up the wide staircase, then turned right into a suite of offices. Packing crates littered the floors.

Uncle Bob waved to his secretary. “Hold my calls.”

He closed the heavy, colonial door leading to his private office before facing Matt. “Can we make this fast? I really do have things I need to take care of. That meeting was a total disaster.”

For a man who thought the meeting was such a disaster, Uncle Bob wasn’t looking all that upset. In fact, he was looking downright happy.

“I hope you aren’t planning to blame this on Eve,” Matt said quietly.

“Not at all. If there’s one thing that can be counted on in this world, it’s that Evie will do exactly what she thinks is right.” His uncle rubbed his hands together. “People expect me to try and pull something over on them, and she just proved them correct. Always give people what they expect, Mattie. Remember that. Keeps them on their toes. Thanks to her, between the money we’ve already raised and the money the province will now have to kick in to protect a heritage site, we can build one helluva Matt Brison original.”

“You used Eve to get what you want,” Matt said. Eve might be wrong about his uncle