Perfect Partners (28 page)

Joel leaned back in his chair. “Mind telling us why, Diana?”

But it was Letty who answered. “I think I know why,” she said slowly. “You're afraid, aren't you, Diana? You're afraid that your husband can't handle whatever your father will dish out if we put Keith's plan into effect.”

“Oh, God,” Diana breathed, her voice tight. “Daddy will be furious if you use any of Keith's ideas. He'll take it as a personal affront. He's rejected every suggestion Keith has ever made for Copeland Marine. If you come along now and use Keith's plan to salvage the firm, I don't know what Daddy will do.”

“You'd rather we shut down the entire operation, wouldn't you, Diana? Even if it means destroying the whole town of Echo Cove.” Letty looked at her with deep sympathy. “You think that's the only way you can be free of your father.”

Diana started at her and then turned to Joel. “I didn't let you rescue me fifteen years ago, Joel, because I lost my nerve. I was too young to take such an enormous risk. Or maybe I wasn't desperate enough to give up everything then. But now I am. Don't you understand? Daddy's rages are getting worse.”

“Now, hold on a second here, Diana.” Letty studied her intently. “You're assuming that Keith doesn't have whatever it's going to take to stand up to your father if Victor turns on him, right?”

Diana knotted her hands into small fists. “Joel could have done it. He has done it. Look at how he's brought Copeland Marine to its knees. But Keith is different.”

“I'm not so sure about that,” Letty murmured.

Diana glared at her. “You think just because Keith managed to win a stupid brawl with Joel at the Anchor that makes him a macho guy? You think it makes Keith capable of standing up to Daddy?”

Joel cleared his throat and glowered at Letty. “I beg your pardon, Ms. Thornquist. Did you by some remote chance tell Diana that Escott won that fight?”

“Yes, I did.” She gave him a frosty glance. “It's the truth, isn't it?”

“It's a matter of opinion,” Joel said through set teeth.

“Well, it's only natural you would prefer to call it a draw,” Letty said sympathetically. “I understand that it's unpleasant to have to admit you lost.”

“Very unpleasant.”

“But facts are facts,” Letty continued brightly, “and we're in a tricky situation right now. We must stick to realities. And the primary thing to keep in mind is that I believe Keith Escott would be the ideal person to take over the management of Copeland Marine.”

“You don't know what you're saying,” Diana whispered. “You're a fool.” She turned and walked out of the room.

A
heavy silence hung over Joel's office after the door closed behind Diana. Letty waited uncomfortably for Joel to say something. When he did not, she smiled tentatively.

“Joel, you're not really upset because I told Diana that Keith pounded you into the floor during that bar fight, are you?”

“Pounded me into the floor?” Joel repeated softly. “It gets worse every time I hear the story.”

“Pounded, flattened, beat to a pulp, what does it matter? It was in a good cause. I was trying to shore up their relationship a little.”

“I take it you don't think my ego is a worthy cause?”

Letty grinned. “I think your ego could sustain a direct hit from a nuclear warhead without getting badly damaged.”

“Thanks a lot. All the same, next time I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't have me lose quite so badly. Maybe I could at least give a good account of myself.” Joel tossed a pen down on his desk and got to his feet. He stalked to the window.

Letty eyed him warily. “You're not really mad at me, are you?”

“No. If I was really mad at you, you'd know it.”

Letty nodded. “That's what I figured. Now, then, tell me the truth. Were you serious when you told Diana that you're considering Keith's proposal?”

“I was serious.” Joel didn't turn around. He kept his attention on the street below. “There's nothing wrong with Escott's plan. It could work.”

“
Joel
. You mean you'll go for it?” Without giving him time to respond, Letty shot up out of her chair, dashed across the room, and threw her arms around Joel from behind. She hugged him fiercely. “You won't regret it, I swear it. It's the right thing to do. You'll see.”

“I said I was thinking about it,” Joel growled. “I didn't say I was committing myself to it. Do you mind telling me why you're so determined to save that rinky-dink town?”

Letty released him and took a step back. She was surprised at the question. “I'm doing it for your sake, of course.”

“My sake?” Joel swung around to confront her. His face was rigid and his eyes were harsh. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

Letty cocked her head, uncertain how to explain it to him in terms he would accept. “Destroying the entire town would be too much for you to carry around on your conscience,” she said gently. “Don't you see, Joel? Your plan goes beyond simple justice. It's overkill.”

“I can handle my own conscience, Letty.”

She touched him placatingly, willing him to think his vengeance through to the logical conclusion. “Think what will happen to all those families who depend on Copeland Marine for their livelihood. You know yourself what happens when people are thrown out of work. Look what it did to your father.”

Joel's jaw clenched. “Damn it, Letty…”

“Joel, listen to me. I've read a number of articles on the stress induced by unemployment. The rate of domestic violence jumps up. Crime goes up. So does divorce. Suicide rates increase.” She saw him flinch at that, but she did not stop. “Yes, suicide, Joel.”

“Christ, Letty, you read too damn many articles.”

She kept pushing, sensing that he was listening, even though he did not like what he was hearing. “A wave of unemployment in a small community like Echo Cove will be devastating. Families will get sucked down into poverty. They'll wind up on welfare, and some of them may never get off. Do you really want that kind of thing on your conscience?”

“Stop worrying about my conscience.” Joel grasped her shoulders and brought her close to his rigidly set face. “Do you hear me, Letty? I'll worry about my own goddamn conscience.”

“You haven't done a very good job of it so far,” she said. “You're still carrying around the burden your father stuck you with fifteen years ago. You're still feeling responsible for his death, aren't you?”

“I
was
responsible for it.”

“No. No, you were not, Joel Blackstone.” Letty flattened her palms against his chest. “You have carried his last words around with you for fifteen years, and you blame yourself for everything that happened. But you are not to blame, damn it. And it's time you realized it.”

“If I hadn't screwed Diana Copeland, my father would be alive today. That's the bottom line here, Letty. Don't try to pretend it isn't.”

“You were a young man in love, and Diana Copeland was a willing partner. You heard her a few minutes ago. She admitted she encouraged your affections because part of her wanted you to rescue her from her father's domineering grip.”

“Letty, that's got nothing to do with this.”

“The heck it doesn't,” Letty retorted. “It has everything to do with it. You did not kill your father. By all accounts he was a very ill man. He never fully recovered from the death of your mother, and he was not equipped to handle the stress of getting fired.”

“He blamed me,” Joel said through his teeth.

“Well, he should have blamed Victor Copeland,” Letty declared. “Copeland was the one who fired him without just cause. You're not responsible for another man's vicious or criminal behavior. Joel, listen to me. Chances are that what happened to your father that night was an accident. It's true, it might have been suicide. You'll never know the answer, and that may be hard to live with.”

“Goddamn hard.”

“I understand. But you must not continue to torture yourself with guilt. Go ahead and have your revenge on Victor Copeland. Copeland was grossly unfair when he punished your father for your actions. You've got a right to even the score. But let it end there.”

Joel's hands dropped from her shoulders. He shoved his fingers through his hair. “I don't know if it will ever end, Letty.”

“Some things don't,” she admitted. “But you can contain them. You can keep them from obsessing you. And that's what this elaborate scheme to crush Copeland Marine is, when you get right down to it. An obsession. You've got better things to do with your life, Joel.”

He shot her a savage glance. “Such as?”

Letty decided the moment had arrived to take the bull by the horns. “Well, for one thing, you're thirty-six years old. Isn't it time you started thinking about getting married and starting a family?”

“A
family
.” He stared at her, clearly startled. “What the hell brought that up?”

“I don't know,” Letty mumbled, regretting her impulsive words. “Maybe I've gone to one too many of Stephanie's baby classes.”
And maybe I've fallen in love with you, Joel Blackstone
, she thought.

“Yeah, maybe you have been going to too many baby classes. And reading too many articles.” Joel gave her an odd look as he circled her to get back behind his desk. “Look, I've told you I'm giving Escott's proposal serious consideration. That's all I'm going to say now. Go pitch a tent or something. I want to do some thinking.”

Letty fumbled for and found a wan smile. “That's no way to talk to the president of the company,” she chided.

Joel's eyes gleamed. “You're right. Any good CEO who was properly focused on the corporate image would politely tell the president that her shirttail is hanging out in back.”

Letty flushed and reached behind her to stuff the hem of her silk shirt back inside the waistband of her skirt. “It's Mrs. Sedgewick's fault. She kept grabbing at me when I was trying to get in here earlier.”

“Why did you stage a knock-down, drag-out battle with Mrs. Sedgewick to interrupt Diana and me, anyway?” Joel asked softly.

Letty sniffed and started for the door. “For the sake of corporate decorum, naturally. It doesn't look good for a male CEO to be closeted alone with an attractive woman for a long time. I didn't want people to talk.”

“Uh-huh. Is there just the remotest possibility that you were a touch jealous, Madam President? Perhaps feeling a tad possessive? Maybe even mildly alarmed by the thought of me being alone in here with another woman?”

Letty's hand was on the doorknob. “Nonsense. Jealousy is an irrational emotion. I'm not capable of that. Just ask my father.”

“Few of us have your father's ability to rise above petty emotions,” Joel drawled. “Some of us tend to wallow in them.”

“Speak for yourself.” Letty started to turn the doorknob and hesitated. “Joel?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you mind telling me exactly what you saw in Diana fifteen years ago?”

“In a nutshell?”

“Yes.”

Joel shrugged. “She was the prettiest girl in town, and she was an incredible flirt. She was also spoiled rotten. When she decided she wanted a taste of walking on the wild side, which for her meant dating someone from the wrong side of the tracks, I jumped at the opportunity to accommodate her. After I got to know her a little better, I felt kind of sorry for her. I saw her as a bird in a gilded cage, I guess.”

“But in the end you fell helplessly, mindlessly, passionately in love with her, didn't you?”

Joel's mouth quirked. “I'll tell you something, Letty. The phrase ‘helplessly, mindlessly, passionately in love’ has a slightly different meaning for a twenty-one-year-old male than it does for a thirty-six-year-old male.”

Letty licked her lips. “So you would probably not feel that way about her today? If you were to meet her for the first time without all the past emotional baggage attached, say?”

“No. I wouldn't feel like that at all.”

Letty's heart lifted at that. “Because you realize she's not really your type?”

Joel looked thoughtful. “I think it would be mostly because she looks too damn neat in a suit. I seem to be turned on by the rumpled look these days.”

Letty slammed the door on her way out of the office. Mrs. Sedgewick glowered.

The following morning, ensconced behind her own desk and deep into a description of the new ad campaign for Pack Up and Go tents, Letty realized she was still stewing over what Joel had said after Diana left the office the previous day. Or, rather, over his startled surprise when she mentioned marriage and a family.

Okay, so he had obviously not been thinking a whole lot lately about getting married and starting a family.

One could attribute that to general male obtuseness. Maybe he just needed a little prodding in the right direction. Letty brightened briefly at the thought that she had at least planted the notion in his brain. Now all she could do was wait and see if it took root.

On a more positive note, she felt reasonably secure now about his lack of romantic interest in Diana Escott. She had not sensed any deep undercurrents of romantic passion flowing between Joel and Diana. They definitely shared a past, and both were carrying scars from that past, but Letty was almost certain Joel was no longer attracted to the other woman.

Letty turned the page in the report on the ad campaign and frowned over a photo of a male model in the process of pitching one of the new tents.

The model appeared to have been taking steroids; he certainly had the biggest biceps Letty had ever seen. Everything else on him was rather large also. He could obviously have erected the new lightweight tent with one hand.

This was not the right image, Letty decided. The new line was being targeted at families who were not experienced campers. The ads needed to focus on ordinary people discovering how easy it was to handle the new line of Thornquist Gear.

Letty reached out to punch the intercom. Before she could activate it, Arthur's voice squawked anxiously. “Professor Dixon is on his way in to see you, Ms. Thornquist. Is that all right?”

Letty stifled a groan. “It's fine, Arthur.”

A second later the office door swung open and Philip strode into the room. The first thing Letty noticed was that he was not wearing his usual tweed jacket and oxford-cloth shirt. Instead, he looked riveting in a silver-gray suit, pale pink silk shirt, and discreetly striped tie. There was a dark pink handkerchief in his breast pocket. He was wearing highly polished wingtips and carrying an expensive leather briefcase.

It was clear Philip had made the shift from respected professor to captain of industry.

“Good morning, Letty my dear.” Philip smiled benignly down upon her. “How are you today?”

“Just fine, Philip.” Letty eyed him warily. “May I ask what you thought you were doing in Echo Cove?”

“Got word of that did you?” Philip put down his briefcase and settled into the chair across from Letty. “I came across a reference to the takeover while I was going through some papers on your desk the other day. Thought I'd better check out the situation firsthand.”

“I see.” Letty put as much ice into her words as possible. “Philip, I don't think you understand how much I resent your high-handed actions. This is my company.”

“Yes, yes, I know, my dear.” Philip was apparently willing to be indulgent. “But, as we discussed, you definitely don't have the background to handle the cut and thrust of the business world.” He chuckled. “This is hardly the reference desk at the Vellacott Library, is it?”

“I think I'm doing all right,” Letty said. “Mr. Blackstone is quite capable of guiding me through the maze of the modern business environment. He has kindly agreed to act as my mentor.”