Her Pregnancy Surprise. SUSAN MEIER
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promotion is part of my thank-you for your assistance with Orlando.”
She shook her head. “I don’t want it.”
Positive he’d heard wrong, Danny chuckled. “What?”
“I’ve been with your company two weeks. Yet I was the one chosen for a weekend at your beach house with Orlando Riggs—a superstar client most of the men and half of the women on staff were dying to meet. You’ve already given me a perk beyond what employees who have been with you for years have gotten. If there’s an empty position somewhere in the firm, promote Bobby Zapf. He has a wife and three kids and they’re saving for a house. He could use the money, and the boost in confidence from you.”
Danny studied her for a second, then he laughed. “I get it. You’re joking.”
“I’m serious.” She took a deep breath. “Look, everybody understood that you chose me to come with you this weekend because I’m new. I hadn’t worked with you long enough to adopt your opinions, so Orlando knew that when I agreed with just about everything you said I wasn’t spouting the company party line. I hadn’t yet heard the party line. So I was a good choice for this. But I don’t want to be promoted over everybody’s head.”
“You’re worried about jealousy?”
She shook her head. “No! I don’t want to take a job that should go to someone else. Someone who’s worked for you for years.”
“Like Bobby Zapf.”
“In the two weeks I spent at the office, I watched Bobby work harder than anybody else you employ. If you want to promote somebody he’s the one.”
Danny leaned back in his chair. “Okay. Bobby it is.” He paused, toyed with his silverware, then glanced up at her, holding back a smile. He’d never had an employee turn down a promotion—especially not to make sure another person got it. Grace was certainly unique.
“Can I at least give you a bonus?”
She laughed. “Yes! I worked hard for an entire weekend. A bonus is absolutely in order.”
Continuing to hold back a chuckle, Danny cleared his throat. “Okay. Bonus, but no promotion.”
“You could promise to watch my performance over the next year and then promote me because I’d had enough time to prove myself.”
“I could.” He took a bite of his dinner, more pleased with her than anybody he’d ever met. She was right. In his gratitude for a weekend’s work, he had jumped the gun on the promotion. She reeled him in and reminded him of the person who really deserved it. If he hadn’t already been convinced she was a special person, her actions just now would have shown him.
Grace smiled. “Okay. It’s settled. I get a bonus and you’ll watch how well I work.” Then as quickly as she’d recapped their agreement, she changed the subject. “It’s beautiful here.”
Danny glanced around. Darkness had descended. A million stars twinkled overhead. The moon shone like a silver dollar. Water hit the shore in white-foamed waves.
“I like it. I get a lot of work done here because it’s so quiet. But at the end of the day I can also relax.”
“You don’t relax much, do you?”
Lulled by the sounds of the waves and her calming personality, Danny said, “No. I have the fate of a company that’s been around for decades on my shoulders. If I fail the company fails and the legacy my great-grandfather sweated to create crumbles into nothing. So I’m focused on work. Unless relaxation happens naturally, it doesn’t happen.”
“I don’t relax much, either.” She picked up her fork again. “You already heard me tell Orlando I grew up the same way he did. Dirt poor. And in the same away he used his talent to make a place for himself, I intend to make a place for myself, too.”
“Here’s a tip. Maybe you shouldn’t talk your bosses out of promotions?”
“I can’t take what I don’t deserve.” She wiggled her eyebrows comically. “I’ll just have to make my millions the old-fashioned way. I’ll have to earn them.”
Danny laughed and said, “I hate to tell you this, but people who work for someone else rarely get rich. So if you want to make millions, what are you doing working for me?”
“Learning about investing. When I was young I heard the theory that your money should work as hard for you as you work for it. Growing up, I didn’t get any experience seeing how to make money work, so I figured the best place to get the scoop on investing was at an investment firm.” She smiled, then asked, “What about you?”
“What about me?”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Anything. Did you want your family’s business? Were you a happy child? Are you happy now?” She shrugged again. “Anything.”
She asked the questions then took a bite of her dinner, making her inquiry into his life seem casual, offhand. But she’d nonetheless taken the conversation away from herself and to him. Still, she didn’t seem as if she were prying. She seemed genuinely curious, but not like a bloodhound, like someone trying to become a friend.
He licked his suddenly dry lips and his heart rate accelerated as he actually considered answering her. A part of him really wanted to talk. A part of him needed to talk. Two years had passed. So much had happened.
He took a breath, amazed that he contemplated confiding in her, yet knowing he wouldn’t. Though he couldn’t ignore her, he wouldn’t confide. He’d never confide. Not to her. Not to anyone.
He had to take the conversation back where it belonged. To business.
“What you see is who I am. Chairman of the Board and CEO of Carson Services. There isn’t anything to talk about.”
She blinked. “Really?”
“From the time I was six or eight I knew I would take over the company my great-grandfather started. I didn’t have to travel or experiment to figure out what I wanted. My life was pretty much mapped out for me and I simply followed the steps. That’s why there’s not a lot to talk about.”
“You started training as a kid?”
“Not really training, more or less being included in on conversations my dad and grandfather thought were relevant.”
“What if you didn’t like investing?”
“But I did.”
“It just sounds weird.” She flushed. “Sorry. Really. It’s none of my business.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Her honesty made him laugh. More comfortable than he could remember being in years, he picked up his fork and said, “I see what you’re saying. I was lucky that I loved investing. I walked into the job as if it were made for me, but when my son—”
He stopped. His chest tightened. His heart rate kicked into overdrive. He couldn’t believe that had slipped out.
“But your son what?”
“But when my son began to show artistic talent,” he said, thinking quickly because once again the conversation had inadvertently turned too personal. And this time it was his fault. “I suddenly saw that another person might not want to be CEO of our company, might not have the ability to handle the responsibility, or might have gifts and talents that steer him or her in a different direction. Then the company would have to hire someone, and hiring someone of the caliber we would require would involve paying out a huge salary and profit sharing. The family fortune would ultimately deplete.”
She studied him for a second, her gaze so intense Danny knew the mention of his son had her curious. But he wouldn’t say any more about Cory. That part of his life was so far off-limits that he didn’t even let himself think about it. It would be such a cold, frosty day in hell that he’d discuss Cory with another person that he knew that day would never come.