When Dreams Cross (3 page)

Well, she thought resolutely, she would have to wake him. It was better to speak with him on his own turf, and since no one else was around, this could be a good opportunity. Besides, there wasn’t much time to waste. The park would be opening soon, and they would have to begin working immediately if they were going to incorporate this last-minute addition. She lowered herself onto the couch beside him, careful not to surprise him into wakefulness, and whispered, “Justin.”

He stirred slightly but didn’t awaken, so she touched his arm. Still there was no response. She studied his face, so serene and relaxed, different from the way it had seemed this morning, but much the same as it had been all those years ago. A shadow of stubble darkened his jaw, and his lips were parted slightly, slow rhythmic breathing whispering through them. His black hair fell into his face, and a strand was caught in the thick dark lashes curling away from his cheek. Without thinking, she raised her hand and pushed the hair from his eye, her fingertips following the soft arch of his brow, the touch again making her aware that her feelings had never died. His face turned into her fingers then, lips brushing lightly against the heel of her hand as he readjusted his head.

The movement stopped her heart, suspended her breath, but she didn’t remove her hand. His face was warm with sleep, rough to the touch, and she let her fingers follow the hard, carved lines of his jaw. The impact of sensations bursting through her heart surprised her. Had she been so lonely that a simple touch could confuse her so completely?

Pulling back, she turned sideways on the couch and rested an elbow on the cushions behind her, propping her head as she gazed on the handsome, sleeping man. She had been attracted to men since him, and many had been attracted to her. But since her father’s accident there had been no one, for she spent every moment that she wasn’t working sitting at his hospital bedside, praying for the moment he would come out of his coma and see that she had carried out the plans for the dream that had become her own. Until now, she hadn’t been aware of her need for the touch, the response, of another human being. Sudden loneliness filled and enveloped her.

Unwilling to wake him just yet, she let her eyes linger on his face, on the sound of his breathing, on the man he was without the barriers of pride and memory.

A loud sigh pushed through Justin’s lips, and he shifted slightly. The sketch pad that had been lying facedown on his lap slid off and hit the floor.

She jumped.

Closing her eyes and holding her breath until she realized the sound hadn’t disturbed him, Andi tried to think rationally. She should run as far away from him as she could. She should send a representative to make her offer, and make sure that their business dealings brought them together as little as possible. But somehow, she couldn’t make herself get up and leave. She was caught in a net he didn’t even know he had cast.

She looked down at the sketch pad, which had fallen face down, and wondered what he’d been working on. Quietly, she leaned over and picked it up, turned it over …

Her heart jolted as her own face stared back at her. Had he been sitting here thinking of her? Sketching her? She studied the rendition, amazed that he hadn’t given her horns or a witch’s hat, blackened a tooth or drawn a wart or mustache. It was a sweet likeness of her, with sparkling eyes and a coy smile …

Her heart raced as she set the pad back on the floor, face-down, so he’d never know she had seen it. Biting her lip, she willed the gnawing in her heart to stop until she could get a proper distance between them and convince herself she didn’t still love him … that he didn’t still love her.

She laid her hand on the couch behind him and watched him, knowing instinctively that she couldn’t let him slip away again. She was stronger now, more careful to guard her feelings. She would never let him know of the turmoil he caused within her. But the same God who had allowed them to be torn apart had used a cartoon to hurl them back together. She needed those cartoon characters, and he needed Promised Land. Somehow she would make him see that.

The first step would have to be waking him without letting him know that she’d had a glimpse into his thoughts. Carefully, she got up, made her way across the floor, and slipped out the door. Then she took a deep breath and rapped hard on the wooden door frame. “Hello,” she called in her loudest voice, shoving her shaking hands into her pockets. “Is anybody home? Justin?”

T
he pounding penetrated Justin’s sleep, and the voice, urgent and loud, pulled him from the depths of it.

“Justin? Justin?”

He opened his eyes and saw the woman silhouetted against the bright daylight behind her. He squinted as if he didn’t believe she was real. Slowly his eyes focused and widened, and he pulled himself up. “I’m coming,” he said. He went to the door, his hand shading his eyes from the light as he opened it and let her in. “What time is it?”

Andi checked her watch. “Six o’clock.”

“Sorry,” he muttered, his hand ruffling his hair distractedly. “I fell asleep.” Her penetrating eyes reminded him of the sketch pad he had drawn her picture on, and he went back to the couch and saw that it had fallen on the floor. He picked it up and set it on a table facedown. “I have to work tonight. It’s good that you woke me.”

He offered Andi a seat on the couch with a wave of his hand, then lowered himself back down, rubbing his eyes.

“When’s the last time you slept?” she asked.

He thought a moment, glancing askance at the guarded concern in her eyes, his head leaning indolently against the cushions. “Uh, yesterday morning, I think. Yeah, I got about three hours.” His gaze settled on her hands, clamped so tightly that white marks cut through her tan. “What brings you here?” he asked in a voice without that familiar trace of sarcasm. “I thought you decided my cartoons weren’t worth the trouble.”

She sighed. “You know they’re worth it. So my board of directors has been working all day to come up with a compromisean offer that even you can’t refuse.”

“A compromise?” A crooked smile played across his face. “Yes,” she said wearily, “I’m willing to compromise in this case. Are you?”

Justin looked down at his knees and rubbed his face again. “That depends on what I have to give up.”

“I don’t see either of us giving up anything if we can put our past behind us and work together instead of against each other,” she said.

He nodded, wishing flashes of the Andi he once knew wouldn’t keep surfacing in her eyes, bringing back old feelings despite the chilling aura surrounding her. “I’m listening.”

Andi glanced through the door leading further into the house. “Could we talk over coffee? You look like you could use a cup.”

“Good idea,” he said, standing up. “I can’t believe I fell asleep.”

“It happens to the best of us, Justin. You should try it on a more regular basis, though.”

Brushing past her, he caught her pleasant scent—the long-forgotten scent of a cool breeze across a flowered meadow—as he led her toward the kitchen. The fragrance was familiar … too familiar.

He forced himself to block that scent from his mind and led her into the cluttered kitchen. Andi leaned against the kitchen door and watched him spoon the coffee into the pot. Justin plugged in the coffeepot and turned to the table. He pulled out a chair for her. Dropping her gaze, she sat down. He sat across from her and leaned his elbows on the table, hands covering his face.

The coffeepot finished perking, and Justin got up and filled two cups, absently fixing hers the way she had once liked it. He caught himself, then handed her the cup. “Do you still take two spoonsful of sugar?”

She nodded.

Little slips, little slips, he thought. That was how he would lose himself again. He sipped his coffee, watched the steam curling out of it. Bringing his eyes back to hers, he cleared his throat. “So, what’s your proposal?”

Andi leaned her elbows on the table and looked into his blue eyes. “I’d like to buy Pierce Productions.”

Justin laughed suddenly. “Is that all? Where do I sign?”

Bristling at the sarcasm, Andi tried again. “I expected that reaction, but Justin, give it a chance. For once, just listen.”

Attempting to control his amusement, Justin pursed his lips. “For what it’s worth,” he said in mock acquiescence, “you have my undivided attention.”

Andi wet her lips and blew out a frustrated sigh. “I want to make Pierce Productions a part of Promised Land,” she said. “You could keep some of the stock and still run the company.”

“Under your supervision,” he tacked on for her, his eyes still sparkling with amused disbelief.

“Only technically,” she said. “You’d have the backing of Promised Land no matter what you did with your cartoons. And nothing would conflict with our interests because we would be …”

“In control,” he provided. “Reaping the profits.”

“Profits much higher than you would ever come close to ‘reaping’ without us,” she pointed out. “Promised Land could give you a reputation and credibility. Being under our umbrella could give you infinite opportunities.”

“But let’s not forget,” Justin said, raising a finger, “that Promised Land is under the umbrella of Sherman Enterprises. I’d just be a minute part of the empire.”

“Not true,” Andi said, unwilling to show her hand but realizing it was the only way to win. “Promised Land is not owned by Sherman Enterprises.
I
own most of the stock in this company. Some of the major stockholders sold out after Dad’s accident, and I bought as much as I could. Don’t you see that if I bought your company I’d have its best interests at heart? If you succeeded, I’d succeed. And if one of us failed, it would very likely pull the other down. And you know the chances of Promised Land failing.”

“Actually,” he said, “there have been a hundred times when everybody in town has thought Promised Land would fail. Your fights with the city are almost legendary.”

“That’s propaganda,” she said. “There are people here who have vendettas and will do whatever they can to keep Promised Land from opening. But I’ve stood up to them, and I always win. Promised Land won’t fail, and neither will Pierce Productions if we join forces.”

Justin’s amusement faded as the offer grew more attractive. “Pierce Productions may not be much,” he said solemnly, “but it’s mine. I haven’t struggled to keep it going all these years just to hand it over to someone else.”

Andi pulled a note pad out of her purse and jotted down her first offer. “Does that sound like ‘handing it over’?”

Justin read the amount and swallowed. “It doesn’t make any difference,” he said, resenting the temptation. “I won’t work under someone else. I’m not inflexible when it comes to my cartoons, but I’m used to having the last word.”

Andi scribbled out the refused offer, then brought her eyes back to Justin, who was watching her with growing interest. “What if I made you president of Pierce Productions, with the stipulation that you could never be fired or demoted in any way and that all creative and management decisions must be approved by you?”

A wry grin crinkled his eyes again, but this time it held less sarcasm. “I already have that.”

“But that’s
all
you have,” Andi said. “With Promised Land’s budget you could stretch to the limits of your imagination. You’d have freedom to do anything you wanted, Justin.” Sitting back, she waited.

Justin hoped his reeling thoughts weren’t apparent on his face. “You have to realize what would be involved here,” he said. “For me to make a move like that, I’d want to take my business a lot farther than I’ve been able to in the past.”

“That’s the point, Justin. It can take us both farther. Give me some specifics,” she said in a voice that had always captivated him. “Think about it for just a minute, and imagine the way you’ve always dreamed of Pierce Productions.”

Justin smiled at her prodding, but he kept his dreams within the realms of reality, knowing that taking the gauntlet meant entering negotiations. “I’d want at least a hundred employees. Most of my work now is done by a pretty small staff, some of whom work out of their homes painting and inking. I’d like to have them all in the same offices, with enough people to work on other projects I have in mind.”

“Go on,” she said with a grin that was both persuasive and innocent.

“I’d want a sound studio so that we wouldn’t have to pay through the nose to use someone else’s. And I’d need to update my photographic lab with the most modern equipment.”

“Anything else?” she asked, undaunted.

Justin riveted his eyes into hers. “Sixty percent of the stock. I won’t give you all of it under any circumstances, and I’d have to have controlling interest.”

Andi sat back in her chair. “Justin, that’s a lot to ask. I’d have to have at least fifty percent. I won’t change my mind on that point.” She waited while Justin stared unwaveringly at her across the table. “With fifty percent each we’d be forced to get along. You said yourself that we’re both controllers. Well, I don’t want to be controlled any more than you do. And, believe me, I have too much responsibility already without having to get very deeply involved in Pierce Productions.”

When Justin dropped his eyes in thought, Andi jotted down a higher figure. “This and fifty percent interest.”

A competitive grin narrowed his eyes, and he took the pen from her hand and jotted down an even higher figure. “Try
this
and fifty percent interest.”

Andi studied the amount for a moment, as if mentally calculating whether it would put too much strain on Promised Land. Of course it would. She’d have to borrow on what was left of her Sherman Enterprises stock. Bringing worried eyes back to Justin, she shook her head. “I probably wouldn’t get a return on my investment for over a year, but I’d have to keep feeding money in, Justin. It wouldn’t be feasible to pay this much up front.”

Justin shrugged and flashed a taunting smile. “You get what you pay for.”

Nibbling her lip, Andi stared at the figure again. Justin smiled as if he expected her to withdraw her offer, but she didn’t. “All right,” she said with resignation. “If we could get into the toy and clothing market within a few months, it might be possible that the investment would be worthwhile.” She paused for a moment, thinking, then finally met his eyes. “I guess that means we’ve got a deal.”