could have opted for a slightly larger office, but so much of the running of the store was done elsewhere. All department managers reported to the general manager who reported to her. And if she needed to talk to someone, she had a tendency to go to their office rather than demand they come to her. She wasn’t into power plays.
The door burst open and hit the back of Eli’s chair. He fell forward with the momentum, first looking surprised, and then irritated at the interruption.
“Ms. Darcy. Ms. Darcy.” Clara Shaw, the Santa parade coordinator, burst into the room wringing her hands.
Clara was a tiny woman with glasses perched at the end of a narrow nose and a snowy-white Gibson Girl bun at the top of her neck with pencils stuck into it for easy access. Christmas was her main focus every year. Since Darcy’s grandfather’s death, Clara had become the sole coordinator of all the seasonal projects. Clara, like Silas, was a fixture at Bennett’s.
“What’s wrong, Clara?” Darcy asked calmly. For Clara everything that didn’t work properly was a cause for drama. Drama Darcy didn’t have time for today.
Eli leaped to his feet, his arms outstretched as though he expected Clara to faint dead away.
Clara held up her hands, tears leaking out of her crinkled blue eyes. “Santa, Santa…he fell down and…and broke his leg,” she wailed. “What are we going to do? He’s been our Santa for…for thirty-five years.” She ended her statement on a dramatic up note that told Darcy she was truly upset. The woman was as high-strung as a poodle on espresso, but she was the best seasonal coordinator in the business.
Darcy put a hand on the older woman’s shoulder. “Clara, take a breath.” Darcy inhaled, and Clara followed her. She couldn’t stop a little smile when she realized Eli was doing the same thing. Darcy’s father had stolen Clara from Saks Fifth Avenue more than twenty-five years ago, and Saks had been trying to lure her back ever since.
“What will we do?” Clara asked, brushing tears from her eyes. Her mouth was tight with stress.
“You’re going to call his son,” Darcy responded calmly. “Daniel retired from the police force this year and he’s been waiting for ten years to be Santa. Tell him this is his big, shining moment.”
Clara put a hand to her pale cheek. “I knew you would know what to do. You’ve saved Christmas.”
Eli grinned at Darcy and she found herself grinning back. She could see he understood all about Clara. Clara was…well, Clara. She fussed, worried and fussed some more and in the end everything always turned out much better than expected.
Clara left, searching through her pockets for her cell phone. Darcy closed the door. “You’ll have to excuse Clara. She gets a little excited this time of year. Now where were we?”
Eli looked around. “So tell me why you are in this little room and not in a big, ostentatious and pretentious office like your stepfather.”
“Because I like to think I was raised properly and hopefully words like ostentatious and pretentious will never be used to describe me,” she answered. “I do hope you aren’t planning on occupying his office because it’s the new day care center. It was the perfect size.”
“I recall reading something about a day care center. I didn’t realize it would be that office.”
“Did you have plans for it?”
“Apparently not,” he replied.
She knew he’d decided on today for the takeover, thinking she would be too preoccupied with the Christmas season to pay attention to him. “Don’t worry, I found a great office for you. Right next to mine and it’s even bigger by all of three feet.”
“You’re not going to allow me to be ostentatious or pretentious, are you?” Amusement showed in his eyes.
“You’re the head honcho of the Dollar Bin empire and one would think you know the value of a lean, mean operation.” She studied him in his handmade, pin-striped suit that had “private English tailor” written all over it. He flaunted his money and his power, albeit discreetly, which she could appreciate. “I’m assuming you want to talk to me about the changes you intend to make to Bennett’s. I would be happy to listen to anything you have to suggest in making this store more efficient and profitable without damaging our customer expectations.”
He said nothing for a moment as though considering her words. “I would like to settle in before I make any drastic changes. Seeing the running of the store on paper and observing it from the outside isn’t quite the same as walking my new territory. My people did have a few suggestions, but I prefer to wait.”
She wondered what he considered drastic and what did his people think needed to be changed? His new territory! She swallowed hard, exerting every bit of self-control she had not to grab him by his three-thousand-dollar tie and yank it tight. She had to play this cool, the last thing she needed was for him to see her unnerved, which she could see he was trying to do.
* * *
“I should think Simon might have objected to your dispossessing him of his office.”
“I hate to speak ill of the vacationers, but my stepfather didn’t care what I did as long as it improved the bottom line.” She tried to act modestly, but sometimes thinking about her stepfather sent her anger into overdrive.
His lips quirked, and she watched him fighting not to smile. He found her amusing and she could use that somewhere down the line.
“My stepfather,” she said, “tended to use the store as a huge ATM machine, and as long as I made sure the ATM kept running, he didn’t care.”
He nodded and gave her a small, indulgent smile as though talking to a child. “I can understand the idea of the day care, but how do you see it helping the store?”
“Number one, it cuts down on absenteeism. It’s free to employees’ children up to the age of twelve. We offer after-school programs as well as day care. Customers who want to use the facility pay for the privilege. People who don’t have to shop with their children shop longer and buy more things. The day care center will be a self-sufficient entity that will pay for itself by the end of the Christmas season and possibly show a profit. I thought I was quite clear with your lawyers about the day care center.”
“I did read the projections on the day care center, I just wanted to hear you say it,” he said, his eyes thoughtful as he studied her.
She tried not to grind her teeth. He wasn’t going to make things easy.
Her stomach suddenly growled, surprising her. She glanced at her watch, barely an hour had passed since the store opened and she hadn’t had breakfast yet. “Can I offer you breakfast in the employee cafeteria?”
* * *
Eli didn’t want to eat breakfast with her. He wanted to find a way to convince her to sell him the land the store was on, get her packed up and moved out before she could disarm him again. She was too charming, too smooth, too much all the things he was attracted to in a woman. He didn’t need her distracting him from his mission. He needed her gone and Bennett’s completely in his hands from the ground up.
Darcy’s late father and Eli’s father had been competitors in a friendly manner for most of their lives. At least until the
