High-Powered, Hot-Blooded

Dear Mr. Patrick,

Thank you so much for the new tire discount you announced on Friday. I’m a single mom with three kids and money is always tight. I’ve needed new tires for a while now and simply couldn’t afford them. The discount means safer driving for my family.

I’ve always enjoyed working for Patrick Industries. Thank you for giving me another reason to be proud of my place of employment.

Have a wonderful holiday season.

Sincerely,

Natalie Jones

Accounts Payable

Duncan had no idea who the woman was or how long she’d worked for the company. He unwrapped the cookies and bit into one. Chocolate chip. His favorite.

Still chewing, he crossed to the windows overlooking the six-story atrium in the center of the building. He could see people coming in to start their week. People he’d never bothered to get to know.

Ten years ago, he would have been able to name every employee. He’d worked twenty-hour days, struggling to make the company profitable, then to grow it as quickly as possible. For the past few years, he’d had contact with his senior management team, his assistant and no one else. He didn’t have time.

Who were these people who worked for him? Why had they chosen this company and not another? Did they like their jobs? Should that even matter to him?

He looked back at the note and the plate of cookies. Annie would be a disaster as a boss, giving away more than the company made. But maybe it was time for him to leave the confines of his office and remember what it was like to know his employees. To listen instead of command. To ask instead of demand. Maybe it was time to stop being the meanest CEO in the country.

Nine

Duncan had never really enjoyed his board of director meetings, but this was worse than usual. Not because they were complaining—that he could handle. It was the way they were all smiling at him. Beaming, really, as if with pride. What the hell was up with that?

“The last two articles on you have been excellent,” his uncle said. “Very positive.”

“Just doing what we agreed.”

“This reporter…” One of the board members adjusted his glasses and frowned at the business journal. “Charles Patterson seems to think you’ve had an awakening. Who’s this Annie person?”

“Annie McCoy,” Lawrence said, before Duncan could answer. “The woman Duncan’s seeing.”

The other board members looked at him.

“You told me to find someone nice,” he reminded them. “She’s a kindergarten teacher. Very pretty. Charles has a crush on her.”

“Well done,” the oldest board member said. “You should bring her around here so we can all meet her.”

“There’s no need for that,” Duncan said, thinking the last thing Annie needed was a bunch of old guys trying to flirt with her.

“Annie’s special,” Lawrence announced. “Good for Duncan, too.”

Duncan narrowed his gaze. “I’m seeing her through the holidays. It’s a business arrangement, nothing more. You told me to find someone nice and clean up my act. I did. Don’t make it more than it is.”

“It didn’t look like a business arrangement to me,” Lawrence said.

“Looks can be deceiving.”

There was no way he was telling his uncle or anyone on the board that he also thought Annie was special. They didn’t need to know how she’d wormed her way into his life. The kicker was he didn’t think she’d even been trying. But regardless of his feelings for her, when the holidays were over, so was their relationship.

The board moved on to other business. When they were finished, Lawrence lingered in the conference room until the other men had left.

“Are you serious about ending things with Annie?” his uncle asked. “I saw you two together, Duncan. You like her. You should marry her.”

Duncan shook his head. “I’ve been married.”

“To the wrong woman. I don’t know what Valentina wanted, but it wasn’t you or a real marriage. Annie’s different. She’s the kind of girl you spend forever with.”

This from a man who’d been married five times? “You know this how?”

“I’ve lived a lot longer than you. I’ve seen things, made bad choices. There are few regrets more painful than knowing you let the woman of your dreams get away. You’ve always been smarter than me about most things. Don’t be an idiot now.”