Perfect Partners

fingers inside his massive grasp. “Do you know my CEO , Joel Blackstone?”
    “We’ve met,” Joel said. He stepped out of the shadows so that those at the table could see him clearly for the first time.
    Somehow, Letty thought, she was not at all surprised by the stunned expressions on the faces of Copeland and the lovely woman who sat beside him as they turned to stare at Joel. The other man at the table, however, merely nodded with the normal response one expected between strangers.
    “Jesus H. Christ,” Victor Copeland muttered, eyes narrowing. “What the hell are you doing here?”
    “
Joel
.” The woman looked as if she were seeing a ghost. “My God. What on earth is going on?”
    “Business.” Joel held Letty’s chair for her. He smiled coldly as he sat down beside her. “Nothing personal. Just business. How have you been, Diana?”
    The sandy-haired man seated next to Diana spoke up quietly. “Excuse me. I don’t think we finished the introductions.” He turned to Letty. “I’m Keith Escott. This is my wife, Diana. Diana is Victor’s daughter, in case you didn’t know.”
    “I see. How do you do?” Letty smiled at the attractive woman, but Diana was staring at Joel.
    Keith glanced at his wife, looking uneasy. Then he smiled at Letty. “I hope you don’t mind the crowd. Victor said he thought we should all come, since we’re all involved in Copeland Marine in one way or another. If that’s a problem, let me know.”
    “Of course not.” Letty smiled, liking Keith at once.
    Keith Escott appeared to be in his mid-thirties. He was a good looking man with an open, mobile face and neatly trimmed sandy hair. There was an air of quiet intelligence about him. He reminded her of some of the earnest young faculty members she had known back at Vellacott. He had that same look in his eyes, the one that said he was just beginning to understand how greasy the ladder of success really was, but he was ready to climb it anyway.
    Diana Escott smiled coolly across the table. “I’m sorry. Seeing Joel again after all this time was a surprise. How do you do, Ms. Thornquist?”
    “Fine, thank you.”
    Diana looked to be thirty-one or thirty-two, but it was hard to tell. She was a striking woman with creamy white skin and raven black hair. Her eyes were huge and dark. The natural contrasts of her own coloring had been expertly highlighted with a judicious touch of eyeshadow and blusher. But the makeup did not hide the strained, unhappy look that lay like a mask over her beautiful features.
    Letty noticed that Diana favored a bright, vivid shade of lipstick.
    A fine pair of scarlet-tinted lips.
    The mocking words popped into her brain for no apparent reason. She suppressed them immediately along with a disturbing image of a certain CEO’s male member inserted between said scarlet-tinted lips.
    But even as she squelched the image, Letty knew her instinct was correct: Joel and Diana had been more than friends at one time. That realization was as glaring as the neon sign on top of the Echo Cove Sea Grill.
    “We had no idea Joel was with Thornquist Gear.” Diana’s sultry eyes filled with a hard mockery as they swung to Victor Copeland. “Did we, Daddy?”
    “No,” Copeland said brusquely. “We didn’t.” He looked straight at Letty, ignoring Joel. “Mind telling us just what’s going on here, Ms. Thornquist? We had a deal with your uncle. Things have been going real well. I’d like to know what your intentions are now that you’ve inherited his company.”
    Letty glanced at Joel. He reminded her of a lion waiting for the perfect moment to rip open a gazelle’s soft throat. She swiftly made an executive decision.
    “I’d rather not get into specifics tonight, Mr. Copeland,” Letty said smoothly. “We both know that Copeland Marine is in trouble, but I’d rather discuss it tomorrow after I’ve looked around your boatyard and seen something of your operation.”
    Victor snorted. “You want to look around? Now, see here, Ms. Thornquist—”
    “Please call me Letty.”
    He grinned, pleased at the invitation. “Why, sure. Now, the things is, Letty, all I need is a little more time and a little more cash. I can pull Copeland Marine out of the red if I just have a little bit more of each. I figure I can get it back into the black in another year. Did you take a look at last quarter’s figures? Definitely up from the previous quarter’s.”
    “But still drowning in red ink, Daddy.”