WLUV Box Set: Ignited, Consumed, Burned (8 page)

“Good. Then this, whatever this is, and my
physical
reaction to…to…you… is not going to get in the way again, now...”  Macy
struggled to come up with her next machine gun fire of words and whirled on him
when she had them.

“Yes?” he asked.

Nothing infuriated a woman more than remaining calm.

“Okay, now, about the newsroom. I’ll start looking for a
news director.”

“No hurry, you’re here for five and a half more weeks, G.”
Wes leveled his coolest gaze on Macy and she seemed more unnerved than he’d
ever seen her. He tried not to be amused, but somehow he was and charmed at the
same time. She was trying to do a job and he wasn’t making it easy. But she
wasn’t quitting.

“Be that as it may…The news. Don’t interfere with my
decisions in front of the staff. And stop looking at me like that. And stop
calling me G.” Macy met his gaze and her eyes darted across his face. She
seemed to be checking him out in other places, too. So interesting, this
Gorgeous Miss Green. The war she was having with herself was even more dramatic
than the one she was having with him right now.

“It’s my station. I’ll do what I want. And I can’t promise I
won’t look at you a certain way.”  

“You hired me to do what’s best, let me do it. Also, if you
disagree, please don’t do it in front of the staff. Also do not manhandle
people on my behalf. Also don’t be so fucking handsome in front of me. Ugh.”
Macy unhinged like this was the best thing going, Wes decided and pushing her a
bit further was going to be his new favorite sport.

“Also, backatcha Gorgeous.” Wes raised his eyebrow and that
was the end of it.

Macy turned and stomped out of the office, talking to
herself as she went.

He watched her walk for a moment, wishing she would have
taken five more minutes before she came to her senses on his desk. Now he was
painfully aroused with nowhere to go. Still, Wes couldn’t wait for the next
dust-up with the consultant. Unnerving her at every turn was going to be just
as fun as seducing her in the hotel. Plus, while he got to enjoy their
chemistry, their spark together, she’d be adding value to Thompson-Hardaway’s
asset.

Wes considered this strange predicament with Macy at WLUV.
He was equal parts aroused, amused, and annoyed. Suddenly, Macy stuck her head into
the doorway and interrupted his revelry; she was more composed.

“And we’re ordering two live trucks by the end of the day. I
found a station selling theirs. It won’t cost as much as new and it will get
the job done.” She waited for a fight.

“Fine, but we’re not hiring three new photographers as your
email suggested.” He saw her nostrils flare at that.

“We’ll see. At least one, for sure.” Macy’s ponytail swung
in the air as she stomped back out of the office. It appeared that she’d
regained her equilibrium. But that was okay, he’d help push her off balance
again. He had five weeks, anything could happen.

Macy fled to the ladies room. She needed to get her head and
clothes pulled together before she went back to the newsroom. She looked at
herself in the mirror. Anyone with eyes could see she was just in a clinch with
a man. Her lips were still swollen. Unfortunately, so was her cheek. Wes was right;
it looked like she’d smacked it pretty good when Pat Walters shoved her. To
think, that wasn’t even the most emotional part of the day. Macy blinked away a
few tears. There’s no crying in news, she thought. She’d told Shelby Virtue
that, and she’d make sure to practice what she preached.

If she could figure out a way to bail on this assignment at WLUV,
she would. Then again, if she told ANCR that she couldn’t do this, she’d have
to come up with a reason. There wasn’t a reason she could share with her
bosses. The explanation “I can’t work there because I’m ridiculously out of
control around the station owner” didn’t seem like a good career move for Macy,
and a career could only handle a certain number of bad moves. She’d had her
share.

Macy was a list maker, so she made a list of how to
accomplish her two goals, fixing WLUV and staying out of Wes Thompson’s bed… or
desk… or elevator…

For WLUV, it was pretty straightforward. Difficult to enact,
but easy to outline:

To Do List for WLUV

1.
     
Train
the news team for live breaking news

2.
     
Hire
a few good photographers

3.
     
Find
a competent news director

4.
     
Mentor
the younger employees

5.
     
Inspire
the veterans to step up their game

The staying-out-of-Wes-Thompson’s-arms plan was not so
straightforward and Macy fretted that it was going to be even more difficult
than fixing a broken news station. She even questioned her ability to resist
him. Her face flushed when she realized that, at every opportunity in the last
two days, she’d given in— worse yet, she’d initiated it! She couldn’t claim
harassment because twice this man had stood still while she’d lunged at him.
Never in her life had she been so forward, so filled with lust around another
person. Even at its worst, she had been in more control during the Phil Situation
than in the few interactions she’d had with Wes.

Okay, so what could she do to make sure she got through the
next five weeks without jumping on Wes at every turn? Remember what happened with
Phil. That was important; it would remind her why she had to stop acting this
way. She considered putting the phrase on every post-it note within a 30 miles radius.
Macy mentally conjured up old memories and details while she smoothed the
strands of hair escaping her ponytail.

She’d fallen hard for Phil Strong, the former-athlete-turned-sportscaster.
He was handsome, funny, and interested in her. He made sense for both of their
careers, and he delighted in showing her off to the gossip press. Her
reputation for being an intelligent, hard news reporter made him seem smarter,
he said, while his happy-go-lucky persona warmed her icy, no-nonsense image; it
made viewers root for her instead of being scared off by her hard-nosed
approach.

Macy stupidly ignored it when Phil talked like that. She’d
let her heart lead her and calculated nothing. After deliberately distancing
herself from men her entire adult life so she could focus on her career, Phil
was a bubbly lark. They’d sparkled together on the national stage and it was
intoxicating for a while. She’d let down her guard, laughed with him, loved
him, and missed every warning sign along the way. In the end, Phil Strong was
just like every other man. He found someone else; someone younger, curvier,
dumber, more compliant, and ultimately more beneficial for his career. One
instance of letting her heart rule her head and Macy had lost her a spot as a
network reporter. The company preferred to sweep her away while turning the
spotlight on Phil and Kirstie, who made for better ratings.

The whole thing had cost her more than her job. Phil took
away her ability to trust a man or even her own heart. Every cynical instinct
she’d had before he came along was correct, and she learned that ignoring her
cold black heart’s warning would lead to trouble. When it came to Wes, she
needed to listen to that inner cynic.

If she didn’t, she knew she’d lose her job at ANCR. That
would be the career consequence, but she’d waited tables to get through
college, and she could do that again.  Losing her heart to Wes Thompson was the
much more terrifying risk.

It had taken her months to eat, to give a damn, to even
start to pick up the pieces after Phil left. And if she was honest with
herself, what she felt with Wes was one hundred times more powerful than her
feelings had been for Phil. There would be nothing left of Macy’s heart, body,
or soul if she got burned again. Protecting her heart needed to be first on her
to-do list. If she didn’t do it, no one else would.

But no matter what her head told her, her body remembered
exactly where Wes had touched her, and continued to remind her about it. She
put her hand to her lips and her face flushed. Damn man, damn fantastic man.

To Don’t List for Wes Thompson

1.
     
Keep
to the newsroom, not the upstairs office

2.
     
No
romantic dinners

3.
     
One
martini limit

4.
     
Stop
dreaming about Wes (she admitted it would be hard to reign in her subconscious,
but it was still on the list)

5.
     
Pinch
yourself HARD if you start to lean in to kiss him

Macy needed to force Wes from her head.

It was news time. They were on deadline and a storm was
coming. She’d break news here, dammit, but she would not let WLUV’s owner break
her heart.

In the days that followed her list making, Macy focused on
WLUV and getting the station closer to the level of their competition. She’d
managed to avoid Wes and was working closely with Bernie, whom she’d become
tightly connected to. He was her grizzled ally in all things hard news.

Wes took a pointed interest in her work, learning how they
were attempting to transform the newsroom, but he didn’t suggest dinners,
drinks, or otherwise.

Macy felt good about the progress she had made. The trust
she’d put in Alva, the older reporter, prompted  her to really work her police
contacts, and now she was routinely coming up with at least one decent police
story a day and was even given a premier position in the newscast. She’d really
started to shine when she was able to uncover a story that she was invested in,
and do the legwork, rather than just being fed a story every day.

Macy tried to stay clear of Gordon. She wasn’t sure if the
guy’s loyalties were still with Pat Walters or if he was just a jerk. The one
request she’d made of him went over like a lead balloon.

“You’re turning in three-minute stories. That’s twice as
long as we need.” Macy had called Gordon into Pat Walter’s old office; since
the news director had been fired the space was mostly vacant except for
watching the newscasts, and for scenarios like this one— a meeting to deliver unwelcome
news. This wasn’t a firing, but it could get ugly. She didn’t think it was
going to turn into Pat Walters part two, but she hoped the open door would keep
Gordon under control, just in case.

“Oh, so you’re suggesting that a complicated story, about a
hotly debated city ordinance, that will
directly
impact our viewers’
pocketbooks, needs to be dumbed down and repackaged to fit your research-driven
idea of news.” Gordon used air quotes around news to let Macy know he didn’t
take her seriously.

“I’m not arguing against the story, but I am arguing against
your way of telling it.” Macy turned her laptop towards him. It was playing the
story Gordon had filed for the previous evening's newscast.

“It’s one talking head after another, just officials droning
on. It doesn’t say anything about the actual impact. How much will be coming
out of their wallets? You give the big number but never break it down.” Macy
paused the video. She wasn't vindictive in her analysis of Gordon’s story, just
matter-of-fact.

He was on edge, but he was listening.

“Also, there aren’t any graphics to illustrate the points
you’re making, it’s just one shot of a building after another. Aside from all
that—this is old video!”

Gordon nodded and unfolded his arms, even if he seemed
reluctant to do so. “You’re right; I should have had more video. But you are
aware of the fact I didn’t
have
a photographer. I had to make due.” His
point was well taken.

Macy hadn’t made any headway in her campaign to hire a few
top-notch photographers for WLUV. It meant going toe-to-toe with Wes and,
although she’d maintained her professional decorum around him, she still didn’t
trust herself. Every time he was in the same room with her, she felt herself
physically react. It took nothing more than him to walk into a room for her to
feel heat traveling from her thighs to her face, and it was all she could to
make sure no one else knew it.

“That’s fair. I’ll continue to work on beefing up the WLUV
photography staff. Until then, you’ll to work on tightening up these stories?
Avoid talking heads, meetings, and buildings. Oh, and one more favor,
Gordon…Can you help Shelby tonight?”

“With what?” Gordon was fairly distant from everyone in the
newsroom, and despite his boring approach to telling a story, he did know how
to do a solid live shot.

“I’m sending her live tonight from the highway to preview
next week’s storm preps. I want you to coach her through it. She needs someone
with your expertise.” Macy hoped Gordon would be complimented by the request
and her positive opinion of his live skills.

“Yes Macy, I can help the cub do a live shot, even though
that’s about as basic as it gets. Is that everything?” Macy worried a little
bit about Gordon out there with Shelby. She wanted him to understand that he
was valuable, but he needed to make some changes.

If she could ask Gordon to stretch himself and mentor
Shelby, and if she was asking Shelby to conquer the live shot, then it was only
fair that Macy face her own challenge. She would battle with Wes for the
photographers, and that meant she was going to have to be alone in his office.

She got up from the desk and started to think of
unattractive things, things she hated.
Nails on a chalkboard, wooden
Popsicle sticks scraping against teeth, peas…
Anything to keep her closed
off from Wes and his charms and focused on the fight for her newsroom.

Wait. Her newsroom?  No,
the
newsroom; it wasn’t
hers. Great. Another thing she was getting attached to, the quirky news team of
WLUV.

Mrs. King always left at five on the dot. It was five after
five and, sure enough, she’d left for the day. Macy knocked on Wes’s office
door.

“Come in.” He had his hand over the phone receiver; Wes was
always on the phone when he wasn’t checking up on her. The sleeves of his
custom-made dress shirt were rolled up and his tie slightly loosened. Why did
he have to look so handsome?

Anchovies, Ped Eggs, Pat Walters…Damn what else was
unattractive
?

“I’ll talk to you soon. Okay, love you too.” Love you too?
Who was he talking to? Macy was immediately jealous. She involuntarily shook
her head to get rid of the unreasonable emotion. She had no claim on him and
didn’t
want
any claim on him.

Wes must have sensed her irritation, “My dad, we check in at
least twice a week.”

Macy settled down but was immediately reminded that her
emotions around him were in no way under control.
Mosquito larvae, dog
slobber.

“The Happy Billionaire is a doting dad, they always said.”
She had done a little research on Thompson and his family before flying out to
Michigan for her assignment. The Thompsons had money to dole out, and the
reminder of that fact gave her the confidence to push for it now, for the
station.

“He can be infuriating, but yes, he spent a lot of time with
my brothers and me. This is the longest I’ve gone without seeing him actually,
this stint at WLUV.”

“So why are you here, Wes? You don’t seem all that into news.”

“Well, I thought it was obvious. I’m into you.” She ignored
his flirting.

“Bullshit. You were here before me.”

“True. I’m here because the Happy Billionaire is doing a
little experiment with all of the Thompson heirs.”

“Really?”

“Yep, he thinks it’s time to see which of the businesses
need to be shut down and which ones we want to continue to invest time, money,
and emotion into. And he wants his sons to be hands on in the process.”

Macy was worried all of a sudden. “So how’s WLUV doing?” Had
Wes already decided to shutter this business?

“Things don’t look too promising. If the changes you’re
implementing have an impact, then maybe, but it would probably have to be
pretty dramatic.” Wes looked at her with a colder gaze than she had ever seen
on his face. She realized that there was a lot Macy didn’t know about Wes.
Would it be easy for him to cut these people loose?

Macy’s head was racing. Even if the staff did everything she
asked, it might not be enough. Ratings didn’t turn on the dime. Sometimes it
took years of viewing trends to see a difference. What if she failed all these
people? What would Bernie do? What about Mrs. King? She swallowed hard.

Macy needed to connect Wes to this place instead of push him
away.  If WLUV had any hope of surviving, Wes had to want it. A plan started to
form in her head. She barreled forward. “We need new photographers, at least
three.”

“No.” Wes smiled.

“No is not an answer. Your company has plenty of money, you can
easily afford to hire-” Wes put a hand up in the air for her to stop talking.
The gesture was infuriating.

“We didn’t become successful by throwing good money after
bad. I’ve got the sale agreement right here, in fact, I’ve been holding off on
signing it. WLUV will be shut down, its assets split apart. No one wants it in
total.” Wes’s face hardened during their confrontation, but it fell a bit at
that last pronouncement.

Macy’s blood was boiling. “You’re telling me that even with
these people’s jobs at stake you’re not willing to invest in a few things that
are desperately needed?”

“How would I know what’s needed if my consultant only visits
once every, what’s it been, seven days?”            

In dodging Wes, she was protecting her heart against him,
but it was hurting the newsroom. He needed to see how hard they were working,
connect to them. If he did, then maybe he wouldn’t pull the plug on them, no
matter what the ratings showed. It was their only shot.

“You’re right.” Macy blurted.

“Did I just hear that right?” Wes made a display of cupping
his ear with his hand, “I’m right?”

“Yes. You’re right. You’re not going to see the need when
it’s just on paper, and I’m doing a lousy job convincing you. You have to see
it for yourself...I need you in the newsroom.” Macy had no idea how her
suggestion would play out, but she was willing to find out if it meant giving
the station a fighting chance.

“What’s that? I think I just heard you say ‘I need you.’”
Again, Macy ignored Wes’s flirting.

“I know you have busy owner stuff to do, but come down in
the newsroom and pitch in. Watch the news with me—every day. That should give
you a feel for what we’re trying here.” Macy was flinging ideas against the
wall and hoping one stuck. She wanted to bind Wes to the employees that
ultimately depended on him.

“So… are you asking me to spend time with you?” Wes smiled
at her and she felt herself start to heat up.

Macy clenched her jaw and lifted her chin. “Not me, the
newsroom.” She needed to be sure she didn’t throw a mixed message at Wes. He
needed to see, firsthand, what the station was doing and what it needed.

“Does that invitation take effect immediately?”

“Yes. Meet you in the Glass Cube at six.” Macy turned on her
heels and left. If she’d learned anything, it was not to linger in Wes’s
office. She already wanted to crawl across his desk and kiss the sternness off
of his face.

These are not productive thoughts, Green
.

But she’d gotten him agree to be in the newsroom,
that
was something.

“It’s a date, G!” Wes called after her.

Wait a minute. Was asking him to spend more time in the
newsroom a victory for her, or for him? As usual, she was in turmoil after
another encounter with Wes Thompson.