Meant for You (25 page)

Robert looked at the rest of his family. “Anyone got anything to say about that?” When there was no response, he said, “Good. Now let's get down to business.”

For a moment, all Ethan could do was stare. Was that really it?

Robert cleared his throat. “William, I'd like you to stay here with Ryder and James to talk to the doctors and see when it will be possible to get Zach moved.” He turned to Ethan. “You and I need to get back to the hotel to pack and get to the airport. It seems to me like you have a potential appointment with a client to intervene in.”

After a round of handshakes and words of good luck, Ethan and Robert exited the room. Once the door was closed, William sat down and looked at his three nephews and grinned broadly. “Well, well, well…” Cheerfully, he crossed his ankles as he relaxed in the chair. “Anyone have anything else to say about my matchmaking abilities?”

They were smart enough to keep their mouths shut.

* * *

“Did you get any sleep last night?” Gabriella asked the next morning as she rode up in the elevator with Summer.

“Between the thousands of pages to read on this Morrison guy and Maylene wanting to play, I think I managed to get about thirteen minutes' worth.”

“Hmph…that's thirteen more than I got.”

“Why? You're not the one who has everything to lose here. If I screw this up and Morrison ends up walking anyway, everyone is going to be pissed at me. And not in their usual ‘Oh, it's just Summer' way. It's going to be huge.” She leaned against the wall of the elevator. “You'll be praised as a hero because you left when Zach told you to and came back here to make sure that everything was running smoothly.”

Gabriella gave her a sour look. “I didn't leave because Zach told me,” she said defiantly. “Obviously, my being there was causing him some stress.”

“And why is that, exactly?” Summer asked with a smirk.

“Beats me. We argued before he left for the climb because I refused to get you on the phone for him. I told him it was a family matter, not a business matter.”

Summer's eyes went huge. “Seriously? And what did he do?”

“I don't know. I left for lunch.”

“No!” Summer said with a laugh.

“I'm not proud of it, but…I also kind of am. It was a glorious exit.” She couldn't stop the huge smile that crossed her face. “In my mind, his head pretty much exploded.”

“Oh, I can totally picture it! He must have stood there, all red in the face and stammering and not knowing what to do! Too bad there weren't any witnesses.”

“Ethan was there, but I'm sure he just played peacemaker like he normally does and calmed Zach down.” At the mention of Ethan's name, Summer's smile faded. “Hey,” Gabriella said softly, “I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring him up and upset you. Have you heard from him?”

“He left a couple of messages on my phone, but I haven't listened to them. I can't. Not yet. I have to get through this meeting with Morrison first. If I hear Ethan's voice, it will definitely shrink my confidence in what I'm trying to do.”

“Why?”

“Because no matter what he says, I'm going to hear him laughing at me with Zach. I'm trying to push that from my mind and remember I am totally capable of doing this. I am not some brainless twit who was only given a token job within the company. I want to earn my place here and show my father and my brothers how wrong they've been about me.”

“I believe in you, Summer,” Gabriella said as the elevator doors opened. “You've totally got this.”

“From your lips to God's ears,” she muttered as they walked out into the lobby of the Montgomerys offices.

“Please…everything is going exactly as you'd hoped. Morrison doesn't stand a chance.”

They opened the wide glass doors and walked in and were greeted by a frowning Bob Davis. “Ladies, I'm afraid we have a problem.”

* * *

It was three o'clock in the afternoon and Summer was sweating bullets. Her original plan was for a first-thing-in-the-morning meeting with Alan Morrison, but it appeared he wasn't going to be easily swayed. Even though he had agreed to a nine a.m. meeting, he called and postponed it until three fifteen.

Summer was no idiot; the man wanted to show he was the one in control. The only problem with that was, with such a lengthy delay, her father and Ethan and whoever else wanted to join in could be here at any time and blow this whole thing up in her face. Although her nerves were starting to get the best of her, she managed to make the most of this extra time to hone her presentation and to do even more research on Alan Morrison and his company, so she could talk to the man on his level and appear to know exactly where he was coming from.

Sitting alone in the conference room, she said a silent prayer that whoever was going to come back from Alaska today would be delayed long enough to let her get through this meeting. She knew exactly when Mark left to head back to Denali, and she had no doubt his passengers would already be waiting for him at the airport so the turnaround time would be swift.

Dammit.

The door to the room opened and Gabriella stuck her head in. “It's showtime.” She paused and looked at Summer. “You're going to be great. I believe in you.”

Summer felt oddly calm. She thought she'd be sick to her stomach as soon as her clients arrived, but now she calmly stood and smoothed her skirt. “Please send them in.” She took a steadying breath and stood by her chair at the head of the table until she heard them coming. Then, as if she had been doing this for years, she walked confidently to the door and extended her hand with a smile. “Mr. Morrison, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

* * *

Ethan held his breath as the helicopter landed on the rooftop pad of the building. “I still can't believe you pulled this off,” he said as he and Robert waited for the pilot's signal that they could get out.

“Gabriella isn't the only assistant who can pull a rabbit out of her hat at the last minute. Janet has been with me for almost twenty years. When something needs to get done, she does it. She's not as crafty as Gabriella, I'll give you that, but in situations like this, she does me proud.” When Robert had called his assistant to tell her his change of plans and what he needed, he had been surprised when she'd come up with the idea of taking a helicopter from the airport to the office. He'd simply asked her to make sure a car was waiting, but Janet said if he wanted to get through downtown Portland at that time of the day, a helicopter was the way to go. As he glanced down at the building four o'clock traffic, he had to agree.

The pilot gave the thumbs-up, and Ethan and Robert quickly took off their headsets and disembarked from the aircraft. Together they walked through the doors and into the building. At the top of the stairs, Ethan stopped. “What are we going to do, Robert? Go in there with guns blazing? I mean, we didn't really discuss this.”

Robert stopped and gave pause. “Honestly, I was so consumed with getting here that I really didn't focus on what exactly we were going to be walking into. For all we know, Summer could have had her meeting with Morrison already.”

“Are we sure she didn't?”

Robert nodded. “I managed to get Bob Davis to talk a little bit this morning. I didn't come off as being upset; I played it like it was all my idea for Summer to come here and handle this. He mentioned the meeting had been postponed until later in the day, but he couldn't give me an exact time. I guess we need to go down there and evaluate what kind of damage control we might need to do.” He looked at Ethan. “What about you? Do you know what you're going to say to Summer?”

He shook his head. “I'll know when I see her. If I can just look at her, I'll be able to see in her eyes how upset she is.”

It did Robert's heart good to hear Ethan talk like this. If ever there was a man he thought capable of taking care of his daughter, it was Ethan. He didn't want to like it at first, but as the idea began to settle and take hold, he knew William was right. Ethan Reed was exactly the perfect man for Summer. He only hoped they weren't too late. “Then let's stop chatting up here like a couple of schoolgirls and get down there.”

They descended the stairs and came to the eighteenth floor of the office building, which housed the Portland branch of the Montgomerys offices. They strode through the glass doors and the lobby and noticed that several people had stopped working. Without a word or a glance, Robert continued on to the conference room. Out of the corner of his eye, Ethan saw Gabriella pale at her desk. She went to stand, but Ethan held out a hand to stop her, never breaking stride.

The door to the conference room was slightly ajar, and Robert held Ethan back before he could walk through. He signaled for them to listen to what was being said on the other side of the door.

“So you see, Alan,” Summer said in her sweetest voice, “with this projection, you will triple your investment in a little more than two years. Now I don't know about you, but that's not something I'd be willing to walk away from.”

Silence. Ethan wanted to walk through the door and see what the hell she was talking about. In all of the dealings with Morrison, they'd never discussed that kind of return. What had she done?

Inside the conference room, Summer held her breath. She was taking a huge risk here. She couldn't quite get a read on the man.

“This is a very different deal from what your brother and I discussed,” Alan Morrison said evenly. “Or from my discussions with Ethan Reed.”

“After reviewing your files and doing a little research into your company, I knew the deal you were working on was not nearly worthy of a man of your stature. I don't believe in making a client feel small, Alan. I think there is a lot of potential here for both of our companies, and working together is going to do wonders for us both.”

She had schmoozed and dazzled him with her flattery, but in the end, this was a business deal, and batting her lashes and smiling was only going to get her so far.

Alan Morrison let out a loud laugh and Summer's heart sank. She'd blown it. Dammit.

He stood. “Summer,” Morrison said as he walked over to her seat and held out a hand to help her up, “you are one hell of a woman.” He enthusiastically shook her hand. “I don't know where your family has been hiding you, but I'm sure as hell glad they chose now to have you come out and join the ranks. In all of my dealings with Montgomerys, I was beginning to feel a little boxed in; no one wanted to look at the big picture. But you did. You did your homework and it means a lot to me.” He released her hand and took a step back to look at the projection up on the wall and smiled.

“I knew we were capable of something like this, but Zach wouldn't listen,” Morrison continued. “And I knew if Zach wouldn't listen, no one else below him would either. That's why when I heard of his accident, I decided to cut my losses and walk away. I didn't want to deal with some junior executive. I wanted to be heard. I vowed I would make your brother listen to my ideas before we signed on the dotted line. Looking at what you've presented here, it's like you saw in my head exactly what I wanted to do.” He placed his hands in his pocket and continued to smile at her.

“Alan, I am so pleased that you're pleased,” Summer said brightly. “That was my goal. I wanted you to see that you are a valued client and we are anxious to do business with you. I know Zach is going to be happy we were able to sit down and move forward with this deal and that you're going to stay on with us.” She reached for the contracts and a pen and saw him hesitate.

“I don't mean to seem ungrateful, because I am,” he said carefully. “But I still have an issue or two here.”

She wanted to crumble to the floor. What could she have missed? There was no telling when her father or Ethan or both of them were going to come crashing through the door. If she could just get Alan Morrison to sign the contracts, she'd feel a lot more confident.

Casually, she sat herself back down in her chair and moved the contracts to the side and smiled serenely up at him. “Tell me what we can do to make you happy here, Alan.”

Ignoring his earlier seat, he pulled up a chair right beside her. “How do I know that once Zach is healed and back here in the office, he's not going to try to renegotiate these terms? How do I know he's not going to say you weren't authorized to make this deal?”

At that moment, Robert and Ethan walked confidently through the door. Robert's hand was outstretched as he walked toward them. “Alan Morrison? I'm Robert Montgomery.”

Alan looked from Summer to her father and back again. “Your father?” he asked, and Summer nodded, slowly rising to her feet. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Robert. You've got one hell of a daughter here.”

“Yes, I know,” he said proudly. “That's why we sent her here to work with you. With Zach being temporarily incapacitated, we knew Summer would be able to meet with you and work through the negotiations.”

Summer beamed with the praise but couldn't help focusing on Ethan. Just the sight of him took her breath away. If they hadn't been in the middle of this meeting, she'd have been tempted to throw herself into his arms and tell him how she'd missed him. And she had. Even as angry and disappointed as she was with him, being without him last night had felt wrong. Funny how just a few short weeks had changed so much.

He was staring back at her with an intensity she couldn't quite read—was he angry or as relieved to see her as she was to see him? She glanced at her father and Morrison and gauged whether she could walk right over to kiss Ethan senseless without either of them noticing. She chose not to try it.

“This means a lot to me,” Alan said loudly, and Summer turned just in time to see him reach for the contracts and sit down to sign them. She almost jumped up and cheered. They all stood and watched as the legal teams jumped in and had everyone, including Summer, sign in the appropriate place. At last, everyone in the room was standing and shaking hands and offering congratulations.