Amanda entered the office, a worried frown on her face. “There are three men in business suits waiting in the library. Were you expecting them?”
“Did they give their names?”
“They did, but I didn’t catch them. One of them passed me this.” Amanda gave him a business card with Angus McAndrew’s name on it.
“The CEO of Advantage Corporation is here,” he said.
“They’re here already?” Marnie asked, a slight tremble in her voice.
“So it appears.” He turned the card over in his hands, his mind racing over how the meeting would go, who the potential purchaser was, what his future role would be.
“Who are these people?” Amanda asked, her worried look switching from Luke to Marnie and back again.
“This man who gave you the card runs the company that owns this inn.”
Amanda’s eyes widened. “The owners? What does that mean? Why are they here today of all days?”
“Let me talk to them and see exactly what’s on their minds.”
“Do you want me to show them in?” Amanda asked.
“No, I’ll meet them in the library in a couple of minutes.”
He closed the door behind Amanda before turning to Marnie. “Whatever happens in the next couple of hours, I’m not letting you go, so don’t get any crazy ideas about packing your bags again,” he warned, kissing her.
“They’re a bunch of mean-spirited grinches to show up here at Christmas and drop bad news in your lap.”
“So the sooner I meet with them, the sooner we can get back to our first Christmas together.”
She put her arm around his waist, the warmth of her body his defense against his dread. “How can you be so calm?” she asked.
“Because I have you now.” Luke let the air he’d been holding in his lungs escape in a long, tired sigh. “And as much as I’d like to continue this, it’s time for me put my manager hat back on.”
Marnie’s hands rested on his chest, her expression one of determination. “I’ll be here when you need me.”
“I’m lucky you dropped into my life when you did.”
“Dropping in is a specialty of mine. Don’t forget to call when you’re done.”
“I’ll call you the second they’re gone.”
“I’ll be waiting.” She stepped out of his arms, and went to his desk to jot down her cell-phone number. Bringing it over to him, she said, “I’ll probably be in my room, but just in case I’m not, here’s my number.”
He studied the piece of paper in his hands, a sense of calm settling over him. “You’ll be the first person I’ll call.”
She gave him the thumbs-up. “It will all work out, you’ll see.”
“Based on what?”
“Based on the fact that we love each other, that we’re going to deal with things together from now on, and that includes the three suits sitting in the library.”
“Gotta love these feisty women,” he said, kissing her hard on the mouth, his lips claiming hers, his body hardening. Then he released her and watched her leave the room.
Staring at the door, he wished he could let them stay out there a little longer to cool their heels, but he would only be postponing the inevitable. With a heavy sigh, he pulled on his tie and jacket, smoothed his hair and went down the hall to the library.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
MARNIE COULDN’T GET her legs to move fast enough as she rushed toward the library. She had to see what these men looked like. During the years she’d spent running the salon, she’d come to accept that you could learn so much simply by observing a person without them knowing—how they sat in a chair, how they stood, their expression, whether they made nervous hand movements, how easily they smiled.
She rounded the corner, her mind intent on her mission, and stopped short. The library with its fireplace bracketed by poinsettias and with the sun streaming through its tall windows, looked like something out of a fairy tale.
Except for the three men standing near the windows with their Brothers Grimm expressions.
Wouldn’t you just know? Not a smile or a soft angle among them, and it appeared as if they were all wearing the same tie. She squinted into the sunlight to get a better look. They were all wearing the same tie. Talk about slavish obedience to the man—the man being Angus McAndrew. The triplets of Wall Street—Boston-style.
How she wanted to go in there and say something, do something, anything, to relieve her worry over what they were about to do to Luke. Indignation burned in her chest, and her jaw tightened at the prospect. Was there anything she could do? Anything she could say?
She peeked in at them again, and saw that each man held a BlackBerry in his perfectly manicured hands.... Nice manicures, she admitted grudgingly. She was staring at the three of them when, from down the hall, she heard Luke’s deep baritone voice.
She stood perfectly still…there was something she could do. Something that might help Luke.
She retreated into the alcove by the stairs and waited for Luke to go by, and was about to head up to her room when he moved back down the hall to his office with the suited threesome in tow. The four men walked in silence toward Luke’s office, Luke walking in front with the alpha dog, Angus McAndrew, while the Ken dolls brought up the rear, leaving behind a cloud of expensive colognes.
She waited for them to enter the office before scooting down the hall behind them. When she reached the office door, she hesitated, torn between wanting to listen at the door and wanting to get upstairs so she could put her plan into action.
She was about to move on when she realized the door was slightly ajar, and she could hear the men’s voices quite clearly. She glanced up and down the hall, only to see Mary coming her way.
Darn! She didn’t want to be seen as a nosy eavesdropper, but she couldn’t resist the opportunity, either.
“Hi, Marnie—”
Marnie held her fingers to her lips as she moved a few feet from the door. “Luke’s in there.”
“With the three men?”
She should have known that the inn grapevine would be working double time on this one. “Yes, and I’m worried,” she whispered.
“I am, too,” Mary whispered back.
“What should we do?” Marnie asked.
“I’ll keep people away from here, and you see what you can hear,” Mary murmured so quietly Marnie wasn’t sure if she’d heard her right.
A woman after my own heart.
“Thanks,” she mouthed, and moved closer to the door, while Mary took up her post farther down the corridor.
* * *
LUKE LED THE MEN INTO his office, and realized too late that there were only three chairs. Oh, well, he might be better off standing for this meeting, anyway. “Gentlemen, please have a seat,” he offered, moving to the filing cabinet at the back of the room. “Can I get you anything? Coffee? Tea?” He could use a drink of Scotch right about now.
“No, thanks,” two of them said.
“I’ll have a wee dram,” Angus McAndrew said with a pleasant smile on his face.
“Certainly.” Luke took a bottle of single-malt Scotch and a crystal glass from the top of the credenza that rested along one wall, and poured Angus a drink.
Angus took a sip, an appreciative gleam in his eyes. “Wonderful. It’s been a long drive up here,” he said, settling into the best chair in the room.
“Yes, I hear the roads are still pretty snow-packed, but the plows are working to clear them.”
“I should hope so, because we had a couple of narrow misses on our way here. But that’s winter in the northeast,” Angus said, his gaze moving about the room. “Do you not have another chair? I’d like to get right down to business since we have a long drive back, and no one wants to miss Christmas Eve.”
Idly, Luke wondered what Christmas Eve would be like at Angus’s house. Would he treat his family like employees? Or did he have a whole other side no one in his company would ever see? “I’ll stand, if you don’t mind.�
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“It wouldn’t be right for you to have to stand while we discuss business,” he said, his bushy eyebrows flexed over his eyes. When Luke refused to budge, the man sighed and continued. “Luke, we’re here to discuss the future of The Mirabel Inn and its relationship with Advantage Corporation. After a full review of our assets, and in light of our shift away from smaller holdings—those under one-hundred rooms—the board has come to a decision.” His tone was urbane, congenial and without a hint of personal involvement, with words that were code for changing the landscape of the company. Words used by people who cloaked their callous behavior in socially polite language. “So, you’re planning to sell The Mirabel.” A spasm knotted Luke’s stomach.
“We have a potential buyer who has begun to put limitations on his bid. It’s the main reason we felt we needed to come up here today.”
“Go on,” Luke said, suddenly interested. If the buyer they had was backing out, he might have a chance at putting in a bid. He didn’t know where he’d find the money—there having been no return call from his father—but he’d wait and see what Angus had to say.
“While we’re negotiating with the buyer, we need to discuss your place within our organization.”
They were about to disassemble the life he’d made for Ethan and himself with one short speech to him about his value to the organization.
His anger toward these people who didn’t give a damn about him or his life threatened to get the best of him, and he realized he had to get away from them, if only for a few minutes. “I’ll get a chair and be right back.”
Pushing open the door, he nearly ran headfirst into Marnie, her eyes huge with surprise. He closed the door quietly behind him. “What are you doing out here?”
“Nothing. I was just on my way to the—to my car.”
“Without a jacket in this weather? You were listening at the door, weren’t you?” he accused her.
“Well, someone left it open a tiny bit, and I couldn’t help it. I’m worried about you.”
He couldn’t look into her imploring eyes, aware of how much he loved her, and how their future together could now be in jeopardy. He had to focus on finishing the meeting, and getting these men back on the road to Boston.
“Marnie, please do not get involved in this,” he said.
“Did they tell you who the buyer is?”
He shook his head, longing to hold her, a reprieve from all the harsh reality playing out in his office. “I need to get a chair from the reception desk,” he said, gathering all his reserves to walk past her down the hall.
On the way back, she reached for him. “Luke, I’ve got to do something, but I’ll be right back, I promise. Wait for me, and please don’t worry. I’ve got a plan.”
“A plan?” he whispered. “The only thing that will save the inn is if we can find a buyer.”
“There has to be someone out there who would see the inn as a great investment,” she whispered back. “Let me work on it.”
In the midst of this unsettling event, he’d found an ally, a friend, and someone he could rely on. He no longer felt isolated from the world around him. “I love you,” he whispered.
“Ditto,” she whispered, her smile consuming her face.
Inside his office, the room felt stuffy. The scent of men’s colognes was overpowering. “So, you were saying that you’re going to sell the inn.” He set his chair down along the wall near the door.
“Yes, we are, but we want you to know that your position is safe here until the purchase is finalized.” Andrew crossed one long leg over the other, and checked the knife-sharp seam on his pants.
No one’s position was safe during a transition, regardless of what these men said. “Do you have an offer pending?”
The man hunkered in the corner—his nervous gaze flicking from his BlackBerry to a spot on the wall behind Luke’s head—spoke up. “In the event our buyer doesn’t go ahead with the deal, a photographer will be up—” the man grimaced “—January second.”
“Well, that answers most of my questions,” Luke said, angered that these people couldn’t wait until after Christmas to come up here. If they’d waited until after Christmas, thus giving him and the staff a chance to enjoy the holiday, this decision might be easier to accept.
“There’s so much going on within the company at the moment. I felt we needed to come here and see you personally,” Angus said.
How could these three men sit there with their smug expressions and not care what they’d just done to him and the rest of the staff? They might be able to ruin his Christmas, but that didn’t mean they could take up any more of his Christmas Eve. “I understand, but right now, I have a Christmas Eve celebration to host, and as you said earlier, you need to get back to your own families.” He rose and started toward the door.
Angus caught up with him. “Luke, I’m sorry to have dropped this news without giving you a heads-up first, but the company is going through so many changes at the moment, many of which I’ve had to address rather quickly.”
Your stupid excuse doesn’t cut it.
“You do what you have to do.”
“And I mean it, Luke, this job is yours at least until the new owner takes over. And you have my word that I will personally recommend that you be retained as manager in one of our hotels.”
And you expect me to believe you?
“I appreciate that,” Luke said, holding the door open for them.
Watching them troop out, his courage deserted him. He suddenly felt completely exhausted and bereft. He was certain the staff would be waiting to hear the outcome of the meeting, but he didn’t have the heart to break the news to them right now. He simply didn’t have anything left to give anyone.
All he wanted was to find Marnie and make love to her, to forget everything that had happened in the past hour. Closing his office door, he picked up the phone and called her room. No answer.
Where was that piece of paper with her cell-phone number on it? After searching for what seemed like forever, he found the scrap of paper, dialed her number, his spirits lifting at the expectation of hearing her voice, a voice he needed to hear more than anything in the world.
The call went to voice mail.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
MARNIE HAD BEEN ON HER WAY to her room, her hand on the newel post, about to ascend the stairs, when Jack intercepted her.
“Mary just told me what’s been going on. Can we talk?”
She didn’t want to talk right now. She had to come up with the money to buy the inn. “I can’t. I mean I have to get to my room and call my brother.”
He frowned. “What for?” he asked, his tone wary.
Marnie could understand him being suspicious. Jack had to know about the survey by now. “I… We need to see if we can line up some financing for this inn. Do you think Luke’s parents would help out?”
“Luke’s parents have been indifferent all of Luke’s life.”
“Indifferent?”
“Yeah, you know. Luke spent most of his childhood away at boarding schools, and even now, with Christmas here, there hasn’t been a peep from them. Not so much as a card.”
“No gift for Ethan?”
“Not unless it was held up by the storm.”
“When was the last time they were here to visit?”
“They were here for about two weeks after Anna died.”
“That was three years ago.”
“And they kept talking about Anna’s accident until Luke couldn’t listen anymore.”
They sounded like a totally useless set of parents, but if they could help in other ways… “Do you think there’s any chance they’d be willing to loan him money?”
“According to Luke they live beyond their means. No spare cash, I assume.” Jack gave her a grim look. “Marnie, you’re a smart woman with lots of business experience, but a piece of advice.”
“And that would be?”
“Don’t go messing around in Luke’s life. He doesn’t
like it. The inn may be for sale, but Luke will make it through this. He’s tough.”
“But if I know someone who might be willing to back him, should he decide to put in a bid, would that be a problem? He can’t lose this inn, it means everything to him.”
Jack touched her arm. “You don’t know the half of it.” He shrugged. “If you know someone…”
“When Luke comes out of his office, tell him I’m in my room.”
“Doing dirty deeds?” He winked.
“The dirtiest of dirty. I’m going to see how much cash I can wheedle out of my family.”
He looked at her with a mixture of skepticism and amusement. “You know what?”
“What?”
“I see why Luke likes you so much. You’re pretty damn special, going out of your way like this to help him.”
“He told you he likes me?”
“Luke’s a changed man since you came on the scene. We’ve all noticed how much happier he is, how much more engaged. And I’ve been told that you and Ethan are buddies.”
“Best buddies. He is the cutest little boy.”
“He’s a huge favorite around here. Of course now that we have James, he’ll have some competition.”
“How is James, by the way?”
“He’s great! Lindsay is spending all her time either sleeping or feeding him. I’ve been relegated to errand running and grocery procurement.” He smiled. “But I’m about to be granted a reprieve. Lindsay’s mother arrives tomorrow.”
“It all sounds wonderful…”
“Hey. Is that a sad tone I hear? It better not be,” he teased. “With a man like Luke ready to beat down your door you’ve already gone where few women have gone before.” Jack moved to the bottom of the stairs. “Marnie, trust me about Luke, will you?”
“I will,” she said. Somehow she had to convince her brothers to do what they could to help her. If she succeeded, it would be the miracle of all Christmas miracles.
* * *
BY THE TIME SHE REACHED the third floor, she was even more determined to do what she had to do. Her family would reproach her for being impetuous, but she was ready for them.
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