Perfect Partners

you, Blackstone. I gather you’ve been holding things together around here since the death of Letty’s great-uncle?”
    “You could say that.” Joel’s voice was devoid of inflection. He ignored Philip’s outstretched hand. “What’s going on here, Ms. Thornquist?”
    “Philip seems to think I need help running Thornquist Gear,” Letty said tightly. She recalled Joel saying much the same thing to her just a few hours earlier: “
You need me to run Thornquist Gear and we both know it
.”
    Philip chuckled benignly. “Now, Letty, there’s no need to get defensive. You know as well as I do that you cannot possibly run Thornquist by yourself. You need an expert. You also need someone you can trust to look after your best interests. Who better than the man you’re going to marry?”
    “There seems to be a slight misunderstanding here,” Joel said softly.
    Philip gave Joel a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Blackstone. I’m sure we’re going to work very well together. We’ll schedule a meeting sometime during the next few days for you to give me a full report on the status of Thornquist Gear. Make sure it’s complete, because I intend to use it as the basis of my new operating plan.”
    Letty saw the grim menace in Joel’s eyes, and she panicked. At this rate there would soon be blood all over her office. “Mr. Blackstone, please, let me handle this. I’ll talk to you later.”
    Joel turned to look at her. Letty held her breath as she saw the anger seething in him. She was sure he was going to tell her to go to hell. But at the last instant his expression altered slightly. She realized he had himself back under control.
    “Right, Ms. Thornquist,” Joel said with a civility that grated on every nerve ending Letty possessed. “I’ll be in my office when you need me.”

12

    G ood Lord,” Morgan Thornquist said in amazement that evening when Letty told him the story. “What happened next?”
    Letty wrinkled her nose and adjusted her glasses. She was sitting on the sofa in her father’s living room, waiting for Stephanie to appear from the bedroom. They were due at Stephanie’s infant nutrition class in half an hour.
    “Joel left. Philip told me he wanted to take me out to dinner tonight and talk about our future. I told him I had other plans for the evening, which was the perfect truth. But you know Philip. He just said we’d arrange something for tomorrow evening. I finally got him to leave. He’s staying at a hotel downtown.”
    “What about Joel? How did you explain things to him?”
    “I didn’t,” Letty admitted. “I was a total and complete coward about the whole thing. I waited until the coast was clear, and then I made a dash down the hall to the elevator.”
    “You just disappeared?” Morgan looked surprised. “That’s not like you, Letty.”
    “I couldn’t help it. I just had to get out of there. I left the building for the rest of the day. I haven’t seen either Joel or Philip since that scene in my office. I have to be blunt, Dad. I’m not exactly accustomed to handling this kind of thing.”
    Stephanie walked into the room wearing a stunning red maternity dress that had a row of crisp, full-length pleats across the front. “What aren’t you accustomed to handling, Letty?”
    “Two men squabbling over me.”
    Stephanie gave her a surprised look. “But they’re not squabbling over you, are they, Letty? They’re fighting over Thornquist Gear.”
    Letty’s stomach clenched as the full impact of that statement sank in. Of course. Trust Stephanie to get straight to the heart of the matter. “Good point, Stephanie. I hadn’t looked at it in quite that light.”
    Morgan frowned. “It does seem highly probable that Dixon’s insistence on renewing the engagement may stem from the fact that you are now something of an heiress, Letty.”
    “Thornquist Gear is a sizable inheritance by anyone’s standards,” Stephanie added. “No wonder you suddenly find yourself trapped between two ambitious suitors, Letty.”
    Letty felt a little ill. There was no denying that Joel’s apparent eagerness to start an affair with her might be motivated by his interest in controlling Thornquist Gear. She had to keep that possibility in focus at all times. “You know something? The fast lane has a few potholes. And when you hit them fast, you hit them hard.”
----
    An hour later Letty dutifully teamed up with Stephanie when the instructor in the infant nutrition class announced