Was that supposed to be reassuring?
“We already have someone in mind. She already works for my company, and has experience bringing other failing small businesses into our brand and turning them around.”
“Let me get this straight,” she repeated, a mixture of shock and anger roiling in her gut. “You are personally firing me?”
She saw a brief flicker of regret, followed by his inherent pragmatism. “I told the board I wanted to do it. I thought it would go down better this way.”
Mitzy didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. In truth, she felt like doing a little of both.
The closeness they’d built faded. Replaced by the withering animosity that had been the hallmark of their previous breakup.
She glared at him, not understanding how he could possibly be so cruel! Hands on her hips, she stomped closer. Temper flaring, found she just had to interject, “Excuse me. How is this any different from years ago, when you told my dad that the only way he would ever make MCS the kind of success it could be, was by bringing in total strangers to modernize things?”
He gestured inanely. “It’s not.”
She slammed her hands on her hips. “Glad we clarified that!”
His tone took on a stony edge. “It was necessary then, Mitzy. Although maybe not in the way I envisioned at that time. It’s necessary now.”
Mitzy rushed past him. Throwing up her hands, she stalked into the house. “Buck was right about you. Before you got to him, anyway! All you wanted...all you’ve ever wanted...was my dad’s company as another feather in your cap. The fact you weren’t able to get it must have really haunted you all these years.”
He followed, hard on her heels. “I admit I didn’t handle that properly.”
She spun around, hands fisted in front of her. “And you think you’re doing fine now? Winning over Buck Phillips—who by the way always had your number, at least until now! What did you offer him? Did you hire an architect to renovate his house?”
Chase’s lips thinned. “I understand that you’re upset. That you don’t mean any of these things you are saying.”
“You understand nothing!” Mitzy spat back. “But I do!”
Like it or not, she had twenty-nine employees counting on her. She was not going to ruin their Christmas, not for a second year in a row.
“And as much as I am loath to admit it, Chase, the only chance MCS has to survive is in me turning the company over to you.” Bitterness clogged her throat. Tears misted her eyes. “I know how you hate to fail so I know you’ll take good care of it.”
Once again, he did not see where all this was leading. “I’ll make Gus proud,” he said quietly. “I promise you.”
Mitzy was sure he would. Impatient, she stood in the center of the kitchen. “Where are the papers I need to sign?”
He got his briefcase—which was also on the counter. Took out the contracts that were simultaneously breaking her heart and securing the future. The places were flagged. Here and here, and here and here.
When she was done, she put down her pen. Lifting her chin, she glared at Chase again. “As long as we’re having stipulations, I now have one,” she told him in her best steel magnolia voice. “I know we’re handing out bonuses today, but as for the rest of it, I want to wait until after the New Year before we announce the sale and/or the pending changes to the employees.”
“We can’t do that,” he said. Then added quietly, “Big business doesn’t work that way.”
Doesn’t?
Or won’t?
She drew a deep breath. Tried again in her most persuasive voice to raise some empathy in him. “You know how I feel about giving the MCS staff a good holiday this year.” Guilt flooded her anew as she admitted with regret, “Especially after what happened last year, when I was too distracted and upset to even realize they were deprived of their annual bonuses.” She held out her hands beseechingly. “I want to make it up to them, Chase.”
He nodded. Clearly understanding, just not agreeing. “Unfortunately,” he said with equal kindness and candor, “this isn’t about what I want or what you want, Mitzy. It’s about the bottom line.” He paused to let his words sink in. “This is business. Not personal.”
He was backing her into a corner, the way her mom always pressured her and coerced her into doing things against her better judgment.
She had resisted Judith’s machinations for years.
She could resist his.
She let her gaze sift over him. “You own the acquiring corporation, Chase.”
He grimaced, to her frustration, digging in all the harder. “Which is the only way I was able to pull this off in such a short amount of time. Plus, get you the bonuses you wanted and the maximum amount of capital to infuse back into MCS, to turn it around.”
She knew he had worked wonders on that score. She also knew it wasn’t enough. “I appreciate all you have done,” Mitzy said carefully, doing her best to preserve what little friendship they had left. “I still don’t want to publicly announce any of this until after the New Year.”
Exasperation hardened the chiseled lines of his face. “Word like this always gets out, Mitzy. Especially when the staff is already worried and keeping an eagle eye on things.”
Mitzy scoffed. “Things like your sudden reappearance in my life, and the inordinate amount of time you’ve been spending with me?”
“You know why I did that.”
Feeling like her whole world was crashing down on her again, she moved closer and locked her eyes with his. “I thought I did.”
He let that one pass. Came closer. His jaw clenching, he braced himself as if for battle. “Even if the news of the sale didn’t leak, the bonus checks are made out by McCabe Leather Goods. So as soon as they open those envelopes today, the employees will know,” he pointed out in a low, lecturing tone. “So it’s better we tell them everything up front and answer all their questions.”
Was it? Mitzy wondered emotionally.
What if the staff didn’t like all the changes? What if they didn’t trust any of it? What if this news ruined all of their holidays? There were so many things she had overlooked, hadn’t thought to ask, she realized miserably. And all because she had trusted Chase with her entire heart and soul! Trusted him to ride in like some hunky larger-than-life cowboy, create some big Christmas miracle and save the day.
Whereas he had obviously never lost sight of the end goal. The end goal he had always had. To make what was her family’s, his.
“Then maybe we should reissue the checks in our current bank’s name, so we can do as I originally asked, and delay the sale announcement until after the New Year.”
“And deceive them about what is really going on? That’s not the way I operate, Mitzy. I’m not going to start off with a lie. I’m going to run the company in a forthright manner from the very start and be as honest with them as I’ve been with you, when we make the announcement today.”
She stared at him with a mixture of disbelief and shock. “We.” She echoed him through her tears.
“Yes, we. Actually...” He took her gently in his arms, still acting as if he believed he was her conquering hero. “I was hoping we’d have even more to tell them at the time...”
Hardly able to believe she had spent all that time making him an old-fashioned Christmas present, Mitzy scoffed. “Like what?” She glanced back at the blueprints he had showed her. “We’re moving in together?”
Even though, she realized with soul-crushing disappointment, there had been no mention of love.
No hope, it seemed, for anything but a hot, passionate affair and a relationship run like a business deal in their future.
“Or getting married,” he countered in a calm, cool voice.
Her resolve strengthening, Mitzy could only splay her hands across his chest and stare. She wanted a love that surpasse
d all else, a love that lasted a lifetime. She wanted their hopes and wishes and dreams to be far more important than any financial bottom line. Because only then would they have a foundation strong enough to support a marriage and a family. But clearly Chase did not feel that way. And never would. “You really thought I would say yes to your cockamamy proposal?”
He recoiled as if she had slapped him. “Given all we’ve shared the past month? Given how I feel about you and the boys, and you feel about me?” His brow furrowed as she stepped even farther back. “Of course I thought you’d say yes! I thought you’d be happy to say yes!”
Mitzy tried to wrap her mind about what he’d done. “So in other words,” she surmised slowly, “you came up with a deal for us, too. I sell you my family company. You give me the bigger house for the quadruplets that I need. In town, where I need to be. And we seal this ‘agreement’ with what we’ve both always wanted—at least in theory. A traditional family. Complete with mom, dad and kids.”
His lips thinned. “Crudely put, Mitzy,” he returned, clearly as insulted as she felt. “But yes, I thought letting go of MCS would be far less painful for you if you got something out of the arrangement that you personally wanted and needed for your long-range happiness, too.”
Was he really that naive? That clueless about what made her tick? Apparently so! Mitzy glared at him furiously. “Well, hate to burst your bubble, Chase, but I’m not the only one ‘getting fired’ today.”
Anger flared in his stormy blue eyes. “What do you mean?”
She walked close enough to poke a finger at the hard musculature of his chest. “You, cowboy, are no longer my lover or my friend. Or heaven help us all, a father figure to my boys!” She stepped back and tilted her chin pugnaciously. “Because you might have just saved the company my father left me. But you also destroyed our relationship for the second time! And I will never ever forgive you for any of this!” Tears blinding her, she strode out.
Chapter Fifteen
December 23
“How are you doing, darling?” Judith asked, late the following afternoon, when Mitzy returned from the grocery store.
Mitzy turned to her mother, grateful Judith and Walter were there a day earlier than planned to celebrate with her and the quads.
Also glad her mother had agreed it would be an intimate family Christmas with just the seven of them, Mitzy set the last of the bags on the counter. “I’m fine.”
She walked over to check on the boys. As when she left, all were sleeping soundly in their bassinets.
Judith stepped in to help unload the ingredients for their holiday dinner. “But angry, too.”
Mitzy set the onion, sage and celery on the counter. “Can you blame me? After what Chase did at the party yesterday?”
Walter joined them in the kitchen. He stole a bite of the salad her mother was making for that evening’s dinner. “I thought the MCS employees were all happy with the buyout announcement and bonus checks.”
“They were.” Mitzy unloaded the cranberries, oranges and pecans, too. She shook her head. “The worst part is none of them even acted surprised.” She picked up the turkey breast and set it in the fridge. “In fact—” much to her chagrin “—they all admitted that they thought Chase would eventually come to the rescue.”
“And he did.” Judith got up to give the coq au vin a stir.
Mitzy harrumphed, her Christmas spirit entirely gone. Would this day—this season—never end? “While firing me and pushing me out of the business entirely in the process!”
Judith put the lid on the skillet. “Surely, you can see it’s for the best.”
Exhausted down to the marrow, Mitzy sat on a stool at the island. Moaning, she buried her head in her hands. “I promised Dad that I would always take care of the company for him.”
Her mother set a mug of mulled cider in front of her. “And you have, by keeping it intact and putting it in the hands of professionals who are cut out to do just that.”
Mitzy paused, midsip. “Why is everyone acting as if I was treating it as my little vanity project!”
“Maybe because, if truth be told, you didn’t have a clue how to run the venture.”
And she hadn’t tried to learn, either, until the very end, Mitzy reflected guiltily.
Her mother patted her arm sympathetically. “Your dad tried to talk to you about that before he died, and you wouldn’t hear of it for a lot of very understandable reasons.”
Grief and fear over the prospect of losing him, being the major ones, Mitzy thought, beginning to tear up a little again. Darn, if this first Christmas without her dad wasn’t every bit as miserable and heartrending as she had expected it would be.
Walter came up on the other side of her. He draped a paternal arm about her shoulders.
“So Gus talked to Chase and together, they put together a fail-safe plan to rescue MCS when the time was right.”
Before the end of the fiscal year.
Silence fell.
Mitzy studied her mother. “You don’t look as happy about all this as I would have expected.”
Judith laid a hand over her heart. “Given how all this broke you and Chase up when the two of you had finally come to your senses and reconciled again? Of course I’m not!”
Glumly, Mitzy stirred her mulled cider with a cinnamon stick. “I know how it looked, Mother, but we weren’t really ever together.” Not as anything but friends and lovers.
“I beg to differ,” Walter put in.
Mitzy blinked.
Judith affirmed, “I saw the way you and Chase looked at each other, darling. How wonderful and loving he was with your four babies.” She sighed. “I hate to see you lose all that by repeating some of the mistakes I made.”
When had her ultraconfident mother become the least bit humble? “What are you talking about?”
Judith poured two more ciders. She and Walter sat opposite Mitzy. “All along, I thought it was the company that was the problem in my marriage to Gus,” she admitted gently. “But really it was our attitudes.” She paused, regret coming into her eyes. “The fact I resented MCS above all else, and your father revered it above all else. Had either your dad or I been willing to compromise, we would have both been much happier. And in turn, you would have felt more secure, instead of always feeling torn between the two of us.”
Mitzy couldn’t argue. Much of her childhood had been miserable in that sense, with her never knowing to whom to give her loyalty. Still... “Our situations aren’t the same,” she argued stubbornly.
Judith put her hand in Walter’s. “How do you figure that?”
“You and Dad weren’t meant to be. You didn’t want the same things. And were never going to. It was the same with your other three husbands, Mother. But with you and Walter...you finally have the wonderful life you always wanted.” She paused, close to breaking down in sobs, aware in that moment she had never respected—or needed—her mother more. “Don’t you get it? That’s what I want. The kind of enduring marriage that the two of you have.”
All these years, she’d told herself their marriage was all about money. Now she saw it was so much more.
Her stepfather said, “Don’t fool yourself, honey. The life your mother and I have isn’t perfect. We still have our differences. But our union is built on a deep enduring love, and we cherish and honor that, and do everything we can to protect our relationship.”
Her mother smiled wryly. “We also compromise whenever we do find ourselves at odds.” Something else her mother had never been inclined to do—before Walter, anyway. But now here she was, giving Mitzy the down-home holiday Mitzy wanted.
That wouldn’t have happened before Walter, Mitzy knew.
Mitzy sighed. She looked at Walter. Thought about the way he had turned down her request for a loan in order to preserve his marriage to her mother. He definitely had his prio
rities in order. “You’re saying I should forgive Chase,” she guessed slowly.
Walter and Judith exchanged glances. Then Judith said, “We’re saying you should think long and hard about what is really important to you, darling. And then act on that.”
* * *
Chase was outside chopping wood when a familiar pickup truck drove up to the Knotty Pine ranch house. Rachel and Frank emerged, looking ready to school him in a way they hadn’t in years. Frank spoke first. “We thought we’d find you here.”
Chase centered another log on the stump. Grimly, he split it in two. “You heard?”
His mom folded her arms in front of her. “We were hoping it wasn’t true. That Mitzy hadn’t broken it off with you.”
Chase picked up the pieces and added them to the pile of firewood. “Well, she did. She cast me as the bad guy and blamed me for everything.”
Frank moved to better see Chase’s face. “Because she didn’t like the way the acquisition deal was structured?”
Grimacing, Chase split another log in two. “Because she refuses to understand the way the business world works.”
Rachel shivered in the brisk air and motioned to him that she wanted to go inside to finish their conversation.
Reluctantly, he set the blade into the cover.
“That feelings never ever enter into it,” Frank guessed.
Chase grabbed a couple of logs. “Right.” He escorted them to the ranch house.
“Which is of course why you bent over backward to fulfill a secret promise to Gus,” Rachel surmised, as they crossed the threshold.
“Not to mention work the miracles required to save a company on the verge of bankruptcy, just in time for Christmas,” his dad added, taking off his hat and shearling coat.
His mother slipped out of her coat, too. “And threw in a hasty proposal, too.”
The way his mom said it made it sound like something he should regret.
“In the vain hope, of course, that Mitzy wouldn’t cast you out on your rear,” Frank added.
Chase added the logs to the fire he’d been building before deciding he needed to work off a little steam. He tried to tell himself his parents meant well. He lit the match, watched the kindling and rolled-up paper take flame. Then, jaw taut with mounting aggravation, stood. Figuring he was old enough to school them a little, too. “Nice way of putting it, Dad,” he drawled.
The Texas Cowboy's Quadruplets Page 18