DANIEL'S GIRL: ROMANCING AN OLDER MAN (21 page)

CHAPTER TWELVE

Two months
after Melanie Chandler had that interview with Daniel, and six weeks after
Daniel hired her as his executive assistant, she entered the Gazette newspaper
building at a time that she knew was optimum.
 

Luke looked
up from the front page article he had been reading.
 
The woman that stood in front of his desk
reminded him of an older version of Kelly Rowland.
 
The same curves, the same long, flowing,
black hair, the same small but expressive eyes, and that seductive smile.
 
“May I help you?” he asked.

“Your
assistant said it was all right for me to come on in.
 
I’m Melanie Chandler.”
 
She said this and began removing her
gloves.
 
Luke remembered Nikki mentioning
that a Melanie Chandler was Daniel Crane’s assistant and, as Nikki put it
snidely, he thought, his right hand woman.
 
Luke stood up.

“I’m afraid
Nikki isn’t here,” he said.

“I know
she’s not.
 
That’s why I am.
 
May I?”
 
Melanie motioned toward one of the small chairs in front of his messy
desk.
 
He nodded and she sat down.
 

He walked
around the side of his desk and sat down in the chair beside her.
 
Nikki had a right to think a chick like her
would have the hots for Crane.
 
She was
fly.
 
Had it going on in every
department.
 
Looks, attitude, style.
 
If anybody could shake up tight ass, Luke
thought, it was this chick right here.

“So you’re
Melanie,” he said.

“Sounds as
if you know me.”

“I heard a
little something about you.”

“And I about
you.”

“What brings
you to our house, if not to see Nikki?
 
I
know it isn’t to give any of my reporters an interview, since no-one at Dreeson
ever does.
 
On orders from your boss, I
might add.”

He was
ridiculous, Melanie thought, looking at Luke.
 
But he was good looking.
 
And
young.
 
And exactly somebody who could
easily be Nikki’s type.
 
She decided then
and there that her suspicion, based on little more than the way Nikki said his
name, was true.
 
He had a thing for
Nikki.
 
And she, undoubtedly, had a thing
for him.
 
“You know my boss?”

“I wouldn’t
call it knowing him.
 
I know his lady.”

“That’s why
I’m here.
 
She mentions your name quite a
bit.
 
I wanted to see if it was
possible.”

“If what was
possible?”

“That she
could be in love with you.”

Luke
couldn’t believe she went there.
 
“Now
look lady.
 
I don’t know what Crane told
you or what you may be implying, but...”

“Close the
door, please.”

Luke looked
at Melanie with one of those
check her out
expressions.
 
But he got up and closed the door.

When he sat
back down, Melanie crossed her legs.
 
She
was ready to get down to business.
 
“We
don’t have a lot of time because I would rather not be here when Nikki gets
back.
 
So I’m going to get to the
point.
 
You want Nikki and I want
Daniel.”
 
She said this and leaned
back.
 
Luke couldn’t believe his ears.

“Excuse me?”

“You want
Nikki.
 
Or am I wrong?”

Luke didn’t
know how to respond.
 
“Where would you
get an idea like that?”

“Am I
wrong?”

“Did Nikki
say something to you?”

“Yes, but
not what you think.
 
She merely said your
name.”

Luke
smiled.
 
“Is this some kind of a
joke?
 
Some kind of a set up?”

“She evoked
an emotion in Daniel when she said your name.
 
Daniel doesn’t show emotions that way.
 
But he showed a spark twice, and both times were at the mention of your
name.”

“He hates
me, and I’m not crazy about him either.
 
I’m the liberal media he despises.
 
Remember?”

“You’re the
man who wants to take his lady away.
 
Remember?”

Luke
paused.
 
“And you’re the lady who wants
to take her man away.”

Melanie
nodded.
 
“Now you get it.
 
Because that is exactly right.
 
I want Daniel.
 
I will tell it to you freely and deny it to
the world if you tell it to anyone else.
 
But I don’t make miscalculations very often, Luther.
 
I’m a quick and usually accurate judge of
character.
 
You won’t tell a soul.
 
You want her too badly.”

He leaned
back in his chair.
 
“And how badly do you
want Crane?”

“So bad that
I can taste it.
 
He is everything a man
should be.
 
I love him and I want to
spend the rest of my life with him.”
 
She
exhaled.
 
“But there’s a problem.”

Luke
nodded.
 
“Nikki.”

“Right.
 
And Daniel’s standing in your way.”

“But. . .
I’m still not getting this.
 
You’ve
decided that I’m in love with Nikki based on the fact that she said my name a
couple of times?”

“Because
Daniel responded both times.
 
That’s the
issue.
 
Daniel’s response.
 
He’s as intuitive as I am.
 
And he knows competition when he sees
it.
 
You’re his competition.
 
And you’re young and handsome.
 
He knows this.”

“So he
doesn’t call her, stays away from her for days at a time sometimes, treats her
like crap.
 
But he’s worried about
me?”
 
Luke shook his head.
 
“I ain’t buying what you’re selling lady.”

“I’m telling
you what I know,” Melanie said.
 
“He honestly
believes that if Nikki ever got the courage to leave him for good, you’ll be
waiting with arms wide open.”

“Me and
about seven hundred other guys.
 
No
offense, but have you seen Nikki lately?
 
I mean she’s it, she’s . . . the total package.”

“Have you
seen Daniel lately?
 
He’s very near
perfection too.
 
And I’m disinclined to
use that word lightly.”

Luke looked
at her.
 
“There’s something between you
and Crane?”

Melanie
looked at him.
 
“That’s none of your
business.”

“I don’t
know about that.
 
You’re here.
 
You admit you want him.
 
That sounds like more than a professional
relationship to me.”

“It’s more
than a professional relationship, I’ll say that.
 
But it will never be what I need it to be
until Nikki Graham is out of the picture.
 
You’ve got to get her out of the picture.”

“Me?”

“Yes.
 
She cares for you and you love her.
 
The two of you have far more in common and
you’ll make a nice couple.
 
You’ve just
got to convince her that you’re more worthy of her affections than Daniel.”

“If the way
he treats her isn’t enough to convince her, nothing I do or say ever will.”

“That’s
where you’re wrong.
 
When I first met
Daniel I didn’t think it was possible to penetrate that wall of his
either.
 
But you’ve got to orchestrate
your own event.
 
You’ve got to make it
happen.
 
If you want her badly enough, it
will happen.”
 

Luke was
in.
 
He had to be.
 
He wanted Nikki just as bad as Melanie seemed
to want Daniel.
 
“What intervening
episode?
 
You have something in mind?”

This seemed
to upset her.
 
“What do you mean do I
have something in mind?
 
You can’t
contrive it, Mr. Finley.
 
Daniel, nor
Nikki, is stupid.
 
You have to pay
attention to events and then pounce at that unsuspecting moment when it would
seem impossible that you could have schemed up such a thing.
 
I will give you the tools to pounce with, but
you have to pick your moment.
 
I can’t
stress that enough.
 
Nikki likes you now.
 
She may even trust you.
 
Don’t mess that up.
 
Because if you do, and if she determines that
it’s all selfish on your part, that will be the end of your chance.
 
And I doubt seriously if she would ever give
you another one.”

Besides,
Melanie thought as she watched Luke absorb what she had just said to him,
getting Nikki out of the way was just one of her jobs.
 
Her main job was to get Daniel Crane at his
own moment of weakness, where he would want her in the worse way.
 
Then her job would be done.
 
Because she’d pounce too.
 
Only her pounce wasn’t going to bring Daniel
closer to her, but bring him down where he belonged.
 
And he was a big man.
 
In every way. It was going to be a mighty
fall.

Daniel was
back at work and swamped in site audits when Phillip Grayson hurried into his
office.
 

“Do I have
some news for you,” he said with blatant eagerly.
 

Daniel was seated
behind his desk, looking professorial, it seemed to Phillip, in his shirt
sleeves and reading glasses.
 
And
Daniel’s chest appeared so muscular and hard that Phillip wondered why his own
workouts never buffed him up like that.
 
“Got a minute?”

Daniel
glanced over his reading glasses and then looked back down at the papers before
him.
 
“Just barely,” he said.

“You break
my heart, Daniel.
 
And all I do for you.”

“What’s up?”

“You aren’t
going to invite me to sit down?”

Daniel
looked at Phillip again.
 
“Have a seat,
Phillip,” he said.
 
“Would you like some
milk and cookies too, Phillip?”

Phillip
laughed.
 
“That’s more like it,” he
said.
 
Then he seemed to brace
himself.
 
“I just thought you should know
that the board of directors of the Dreeson Corporation will officially ask for
Wayne Murdock’s resignation today.”

Daniel
hesitated, and then removed his glasses.
 
Phillip smiled.
 
“I thought that
would get your attention,” he said.

“Today?”
Daniel asked.

“Today,”
Phillip said.

“You’ve
confirmed this?”

“You bet
your life I have.
 
But there’s more.
 
Much more.
 
The board will then, later this same day, ask one Daniel Crane to become
interim President and Chief Executive Officer of our beloved Dreeson, pending a
replacement search and final decision.”

Daniel
stared at Phillip.
 
It was a shock if
ever there was one.
 
And then he leaned
back. “Well.
 
My goodness.”

“My goodness
indeed!
 
It’ll be your trial run up to
the permanent placement and you will wow them I’m sure!”

“But no
announcement has been made?”

“My spies
are always right, Daniel.”

Daniel shook
his head.
 
“This is some news, Phillip.”

Phillip
smiled.
 
“I told you it was coming.
 
Didn’t I tell you?
 
I told you we were in.
 
They never did it this way before.
 
They usually wait and let the chairman’s
people handle the CEO duties until they name a permanent head.
 
This interim stuff is new for Dreeson.”

“I’ve got to
prove myself.”

“You’ve
already proven yourself.
 
Our earnings
are at record highs since you came onboard and those plants, even that
antiquated Portland plant, are finally getting it together.
 
Who do you think the board credits for this
sharp turnaround?
 
Murdock?
 
Crazy Wayne Murdock?
 
Please.
 
The chairman knows what he’s doing.
 
He wants you already in place should some rogue director try to sabotage
your ascension.
 
You’ve got it made,
Danny boy, you’ve got it made!”

It sounded
wonderful, and it was exactly what he wanted, but Daniel wasn’t laying bets on
any of it.
 
Not yet.
 

“Mr. Crane?”
Whitney said, and Daniel pressed the button of his desk intercom.

“Yes,
Whitney?”

“Excuse me
for disturbing you, sir, but the chairman is on line one.”