Bachelor CEO (McDaniels #1)

Chapter Eleven

Mike Storm had lived in Chenille his whole life. A friendly looking man in his mid-forties, he owned the local furniture store. He was also the Chamber of Commerce president, a member of the Lions Club and the secretary of the school board.

He hadn’t come to lunch alone, Miranda noted as she followed Diane to a table in one of Maxine’s back rooms. Mike saw her approach and stood. So did the man who had his back to her.

The interloper didn’t even need to turn around. Miranda already recognized him.

Chase had crashed her lunch.

“Miranda.”

Mike reached out and grasped her hand in his bruising grip. “I’m so glad you and Chase agreed to meet with me.”

“The chamber is very important us,”

she managed to answer as she extracted her hand. At least the pain kept her from wanting to reach over and punch Chase in the nose. How dare he! This was her meeting.

“I was just telling Chase that we’ve gotten a nibble. Rhodes Printing is expanding. They’re looking to build a new plant in the Midwest and Chenille’s made their short list of potential locations.”

“That’s great news,”

Miranda replied, taking the seat next to Mike’s, which put her directly across from Chase. “When will the final decision be made?”

“They’re sending a scouting party here in two weeks and they’ll stay five days while Iowa and Chenille woo them with our proposal. I’ve already contacted the governor’s office and the state development agency, and I’ll be meeting with them tomorrow so we can get our presentation together. Three hundred permanent jobs based right here.”

“I’m sure you’ll do a fantastic sales job.”

Miranda said.

Mike reached for his iced tea. “Thanks, but we’ll need McDaniel’s help.”

“Anything we can do.”

Chase jumped into the conversation as their waitress brought Miranda some iced tea. At Maxine’s, once you were a regular, the staff knew what you wanted and brought it without being asked.

“We’ve never had this type of interest in our town. When I requested this meeting it was to ask McDaniel to underwrite a fall festival we’d like to hold in October. But Rhodes Printing’s expansion is much more important.”

“I agree,”

Chase said.

Mike had clearly given the matter some thought. “We need slick brochures on why Chenille is a great place to live, raise a family and locate your company. Who better to answer those questions than McDaniel employees?”

“So we’d be a two-horse town.”

Chase laughed. “We contract all our four-color press printing and binding with a plant in Kansas City. I’d be more than happy to transfer our business to Rhodes Printing provided they give us a comparable bid.”

Chase named the figure they’d spent last year on annual reports and other company brochures. “We’re a pretty large account and lately I haven’t been that satisfied. It seems sort of like we’re being taken for granted, as if we’ll always be a client. Rhodes could definitely win our business.”

“I appreciate your willingness to help,”

Mike said. “Chenille is McDaniel’s town.”

“We can be good neighbors,”

Chase replied. “I’d be happy to meet with representatives of their company if that will do some good. We’ve kept all our manufacturing here for a reason, instead of having multiple plants across the country. What tax abatements do they want?”

Miranda listened as Chase and Mike talked tax incentives. While the conversation went on without her, she found the entire discussion fascinating. She’d watched Walter and Leroy conduct business, but since they’d only had a week’s transition, she’d never seen Chase interact with anyone outside of McDaniel.

He’d known the amount of their printing costs off the top of his head. He could remember business expenses from the last plant expansion, five years ago.

He also understood the ramifications of three hundred new jobs. While not all the employees would live in Chenille, enough would that the school system would have an influx of new families, which might make for overcrowding.

What was supposed to be an hour lunch for the fall festival became a brainstorming session for the best way to entice Rhodes Printing without sacrificing Chenille and Iowa values.

Considering Miranda hadn’t lived in Chenille or Iowa that long, she had little to add. Which might be exactly what Chase was trying to prove, she realized as lunch wound down.

On one hand, he was showing her how competent he really was. The guy knew his stuff. He was sharp and savvy. He didn’t just spout figures, he lived them. Chenille and McDaniel Manufacturing were in his blood.

The flip side was that his expertise made her appear incompetent. He’d taken over her meeting without any effort at all. What he’d done had been designed to prove she was in over her head and not as qualified as he was for Leroy’s job.

In fact, as the waitress came by and offered coffee and dessert, Chase committed several thousand dollars to get the fall festival off the ground. He didn’t even ask to see the proposal, just gave Mike his word that McDaniel would help out financially, and stated his maximum monetary figure.

“You’ve been more than generous,”

Mike said, obviously moved as Chase even brushed off his offer to pick up the tab for lunch. “Thank you.”

“As you say, McDaniel and Chenille are synonymous. We love this town. Anything you can do at the chamber to provide a better quality of life for our employees and local residents is worth supporting.”

Mike glanced at his watch. “I’ve got to get going. I’ve got a conference call with the governor’s office in an hour.”

“Don’t let us keep you. Miranda and I are fine finishing dessert on our own.”

“Thanks again, Chase. Miranda.”

With that, he left.

Miranda looked at her barely touched slice of strawberry-covered pound cake. Mike had polished off his dessert in record time. Chase was halfway through his apple pie.

The room had emptied and they were the last diners seated, although a few people remained in another section, visible through an archway. She should make her excuses, get up and leave.

“You’ve been quiet all day.”

As if sensing her impending flight, Chase broke the ice before she could set her napkin on the table.

She shrugged. “You pretty much took over and said everything. I didn’t really have anything to add.”

“Hmm.”

Chase’s lips wrapped around the tines of his fork as he ate another morsel. The man could make eating dessert sexy. “Your being speechless is not normal.”

She rose to the bait. “You showing up uninvited at my lunch is rude.”

He chuckled, clearly enjoying her reaction. “There’s the spitfire. I knew she couldn’t have died. Actually, I did get invited.”

The man was infuriating. “Then it was rude not to tell me.”

He shrugged and took another bite. “How could I? You were already here.”

“Okay, you’d better explain. This is making no sense.”

He’d already made her feel incompetent. She refused to feel stupid, as well, no matter how his smile warmed her insides.

“I came in for lunch. Mike saw me and invited me to join him, as he’d just heard this great news. End of story.”

“You knew I was coming here. You could have eaten elsewhere.”

“Where? This is Chenille.”

True. Everyone ate at Maxine’s. “It was my meeting.”

“Things change. And we gave him the money he wanted. He’s happy and he probably won’t spend close to that much. Mike’s great at making money stretch.”

“You don’t even know if McDaniel can afford what you offered.”

“Sure we can. I read the quarterly reports yesterday. We’re actually twelve percent ahead of our net profit projections for the year. We have room to put our focus on what’s important.”

“You didn’t even look at his proposal first to see what he wants to do.”

Chase’s shoulders lifted. “So? I don’t need to. I know Mike. Have for years. He doesn’t do anything half-assed. If he’s going to put on a fall festival, it’ll be one heck of a good time. And October is perfect because he can tie it into the high school’s homecoming game. This town loves a party, and people will come from miles around. This could become an annual tradition, drawing tons of tourists.”

“You didn’t consult me on what I thought.”

“I don’t have to.”

The authoritative way he said it had the hairs of her neck standing on end. “The meeting was mine. I was to review the proposal. You cannot just come in here and do whatever you want.”

Her rebuke was sharp, yet Chase’s words were even sharper. “Yes, I can.”

Miranda leaned back as if slapped. She took a moment to compose herself, controlling the fury that threatened to make her leap out of the chair and throttle him. This was why this arrangement of Chase filling in for Leroy wasn’t going to work.

“Chase, whether you like it or not, I am McDaniel’s vice president. You might be taking over for your grandfather, but that doesn’t mean you can delegate me into oblivion. I have a job to do and I plan to do it.”

“And I never said you wouldn’t. You’re taking something personally that you shouldn’t. This is business.”

“No, this is childish. I am competent enough to do my job, which included dealing with the fall festival.”

“Fine. You can oversee the money and have Mike report to you. In a few days I’ll have a firm grip on everything and I’ll also have your role clearly defined. Until then, I’m sorry if things aren’t quite to your satisfaction. There’s a lot of data to sort through from the past seven weeks.”

“You could have just asked me to brief you instead of acting like some gorilla pounding his chest.”

His gaze narrowed. “I like to do things my way.”

“Yeah, that’s obvious.”

She pushed her plate away, her appetite gone. “Fine, by Monday afternoon following the board meeting I’ll expect you to have my role defined and my duties outlined. I find having my time wasted insulting.”

“So take the rest of today and tomorrow off with pay. Have a mini vacation on me. Enjoy yourself.”

She gaped at him. He was essentially banishing her, as his grandfather had him. “You are a grade A jerk.”

Chase didn’t appear to be insulted. “Didn’t you once say you’d be grateful to be in my shoes? Here’s your chance. Go to a spa or something. Drive to the Twin Cities and shop.”

He knew she’d do neither. Miranda stood, towering over him. She’d always considered herself a calm, rational person, but at the moment she would have liked to take the remains of her iced tea and dump it over Chase’s head. “Thank you for lunch,”

she said as she strode away.

“Everything okay, Ms. Craig?”

Diane asked as she stalked past her.

She plastered a smile on her face. “Everything was wonderful,” she lied.

Bright sunlight assaulted her as she left the restaurant. The July day was ninety-nine degrees but even the summer heat couldn’t warm the chill that had gripped Miranda’s heart.

CHASE PAID THE BILL and tucked the receipt away.

He’d done it again. He’d been a complete ass to Miranda. What was it about her that rubbed him the wrong way?

Actually, when they’d been together, nothing had. Everything had been so right. That was the problem.

He wrestled with his feelings as he walked to his car. He was angry that Walter planned to try to unseat him. Chase was resentful that Miranda couldn’t be happy as a vice president, an impressive position in itself.

However, he’d acted like a jerk and he had no rational explanation for his behavior. Miranda had been doing a fine job in his absence. Maybe he was jealous he’d been replaced so easily. Was that why he’d acted as he had?

Or was it because he’d secretly hoped that when he returned she’d fall into his arms instead of looking straight through him as if nothing had happened between them?

Whatever his reasons, he’d behaved like a dog marking its territory. Absolutely abominable. He owed her yet another apology.

But when Chase returned to work, he learned that she’d taken his advice. She’d left for the day and told her secretary she’d be back Monday morning.

“You can reach her on her cell phone if it’s anything important,”

her secretary offered. “Do you need the number?”

“No, I’ve got it.”

Chase headed to his office and closed the door. He checked his e-mails and read something that bothered him a great deal.

No wonder Miranda had hightailed it out of Dodge.

To hell with apologizing. Why should he feel guilty? One of McDaniel’s board meeting rules was that no new business could be brought to the board without being placed on the agenda first.

There, in black type, was proof that Walter planned to make a motion to unseat Chase and put Miranda in his place.

Chase fumed. He had no problem with her being vice president, but she wasn’t going to be CEO.

If she wanted that, it would be over his dead body.