“You think he’s gotten a better offer and he’s stalling?”
She was smart. That was my suspicion but if he was after the best price, he’d have put the company up for auction. “Maybe. I feel disconnected from the process out here. If I were back in London I think I’d figure it out. It’s like I have one hand tied behind my back.”
“And you can’t get back to London because you don’t want anyone to know you’re buying this company.”
I didn’t deny it—she didn’t know which company and she’d been vetted. I needed to stop being so paranoid, as Landon had said. “Something like that.”
“So you’re out of your comfort zone but that doesn’t mean you’re in a worse position. If you were in London, what would you do in this situation? I mean if it’s so secret, I guess you couldn’t just have a meeting with this guy and ask him outright what the matter is?”
I reached behind my neck, pressing my fingers into the knotted muscle. “Right.” What would I do differently if I was back in London? “Seeing people is the easiest way to figure out what they put a value on. It’s pretty easy to read people.”
“That’s for sure. Mainly. Although not always. Some people are tough to figure out. Especially those who don’t care if they’re eating oysters or fish sticks.”
I narrowed my eyes. “You trying to make a point Ms. Walker?”
She laughed in such a completely unaffected and genuine way, I couldn’t take my eyes off her. She leaned on the side of the desk and I shifted my chair around so I was pointed toward her. “Seeing people definitely makes it easier to read them, but what do you already know about this seller? Is it a corporation? A family? What?”
“A guy in his mid-sixties. He started the business nearly fifty years ago. He’s selling up and retiring.” I was probably telling her too much but I trusted her, trusted Landon to have vetted her.
“Oh wow. Fifty years. So he’s gotta find it tough to let go.”
I chuckled. “I’m not getting it for free. He’s going to retire a very rich man. He could live on one of these for the rest of his life and his kids are still never going to have to work again.”
She drew the edge of her thumbnail across the desk, dividing the space between us and I imagined her delicate wrists circled by my hands and pushed up over her head as I kissed her. “But that’s not it. If his company’s that successful, he probably could have sold a long time ago and never worked again, right?”
“Absolutely. He’s crazy to have waited until now.”
She nodded as if what I was saying completely made sense. “So that’s it then. He’s deliberately placing obstacles in the way of the sale. So he doesn’t have to let go.”
I sat forward, almost crossing the invisible line she’d created, and she lifted herself off the desk and stepped back. Was she concerned I was going to touch her? I could read women pretty well, and I was more than sure this attraction I was feeling was mutual.
“No one gets that successful without being driven by the performance of the business. Of course it’s about the money for him.”
“Is it all about the money for you?”
I took a breath. I wasn’t about to confess to Avery that it was important for me to be successful and for people to see me as such. I wasn’t about to tell her how I wanted my father to feel some sense of satisfaction from me building up a business more successful than Cannon. “I’m not sure I’m the right comparison. Most people in my business are driven by pounds and pence.” I wasn’t convinced by Avery’s theory. Greed was the guiding force in the City.
“I’m not saying that he will give his company away for free. But that money represents something for him. I bet you a hundred dollars that this is personal when you get down to it.”
“A hundred dollars, huh?” I grinned at her. I liked the way she stood behind what she was saying and didn’t back down.
I sat back in my chair. I’d heard rumors of several abandoned attempts at a sale over the years. Was it less about the cash and more about Harold not wanting to see his legacy belong to someone else?
“Yes, a hundred dollars. How would you feel if you’d built something up for fifty years and a perfect stranger was going to take it over? The people he works with are probably like family to him and then he’s got to decide what to do with all the time he normally devotes to his work.”
“It’s possible. But I’m not sure it helps. If he doesn’t want to let go, he doesn’t want to let go.”