A Christmas Miracle for Daisy (Taming of the Sheenans Book 5) (2 page)

“I heard it has to do with Cormac Sheenan. He emailed all his corporate executive vice presidents but I don’t know what he said. Only it must be big, because Jeff is never in on Friday afternoons, and not late on the afternoon of his annual Halloween party.”

“Try to find out what’s what,” Whitney said.

“I will.”

*

Whitney didn’t hear
from Andi again and spent the weekend trying not to worry about the Friday afternoon emergency meeting and what it could mean. From experience, though, a late afternoon meeting of the executive team, called on the spur of the moment, and held behind closed doors, meant change.

Had Sheenan Media been sold?

Or had Cormac Sheenan sold off the magazine division from Sheenan Media?

She didn’t want to speculate, and she didn’t want to worry, because it might be nothing. It might be a change that had nothing to do with her, or her own creative team. Maybe Jeff was being replaced. Maybe one of the other executive vice presidents was being replaced. It could be anything. She shouldn’t let her imagination run away with her. Monday would be here soon enough and she’d get the facts then.

*

Whitney arrived at
the office early Monday morning, thinking she’d get in before everyone else arrived and be able to go through the mail on her desk and get caught up while it was quiet. But stepping out of the elevator to the fourteenth floor, she discovered that most of the lights were on, and people were at their desks even though it wasn’t even seven thirty yet.

She was just sitting down at her desk when Jeff Klein, the group publisher, and her immediate boss, rapped on her open door. “You have a minute?”

She stood back up, and gestured for him to come in. “I do.”

“How are you feeling?”

“Better. The antibiotics kicked in, thank goodness.”

“Well, don’t push too hard. Make it a half-day if you need to.”

“Thanks.” She looked expectantly at him. “So what’s up?”

“At nine thirty today, there’s going to be an announcement. I wanted you to hear before the news broke—”

“We’ve been sold.”

Jeff shook his head. “No. Nothing as bad as that.”

“But it isn’t good news.”

“It’s definitely a change. A big change.” He hesitated. “Cormac Sheenan is closing his personal offices in Southern California, and all regional offices, creating one big corporate office in Montana.”

Whitney sat down abruptly on the edge of the chair. “
What
?”

“Cormac sent an email to the executive vice presidents late Friday informing us of his plans. He is going to break the news to everyone at nine thirty in a company-wide email, but he’d wanted his executive team to hear it first, to make sure we were on board.”

“Which you’re not, right? You can’t be.” She searched his face. He looked tired, and stressed. “Do you really intend to move to Montana?”

“Definitely considering it.” He shrugged. “How can I not? I have a great job. It’s my dream job, and I’m paid really well, too.”

“What about your wife? What does Susan say? Is she good with this?”

“We are all in shock, but she’s not opposed to Montana. She’d definitely rather go to Bozeman than a big city like New York or Detroit.”

“So that’s where the new corporate office will be? In Bozeman?”

“Actually, in Marietta. It’s where Cormac was raised. Marietta is a small town thirty-five miles east of Bozeman.”

Whitney closed her eyes, pressed her fingertips to her brow. She knew exactly where Marietta was. She’d grown up in Bozeman. Had played her fair share of volleyball games in Marietta and Livingston. Marietta was a small town. A very small town…

“This is a tough time to move, with the holidays approaching,” Jeff added. “And Cormac realizes he can’t expect everyone to move over Thanksgiving and Christmas, so he’s giving people the next sixty days to prepare for the move, with the expectation that staff be in Marietta at the start of the new year. Those who don’t choose to relocate will receive a severance package.”

“He’s moving hundreds of people to Marietta?”

“I think he anticipates most will go, and then he’ll fill in the gaps once we’re in Montana, hiring from the community. I’m sure HR will start reaching out to headhunters in the coming weeks as well.” Jeff paused. “I know it’s a shock, but you’re going to go, too. Right?”

Whitney didn’t even need time to think about her answer. She was from Bozeman. She’d been raised in Montana. It was a great state, a beautiful state, but there was no way she could return to live there now, and definitely not as part of Sheenan Media.

“I don’t think so,” she said quietly. “I love Denver. This is home now.”

*

The email from
Cormac Sheenan arrived in her inbox at precisely nine thirty a.m.

The man himself entered her office at ten.

Cormac didn’t knock or make a sound. The only indication that someone was there—that
he
was there—was the prickle at her nape and the woosh of awareness that she wasn’t alone.

Lifting her head, Whitney spotted him standing across from her desk, hands in his pockets, expression faintly mocking.

“Good morning,” he said.

She laid her pen down, regarded him steadily. It was almost two years since she’d last seen him and he hadn’t changed. If anything, he was even more ruggedly handsome. Still tall, fit and tan, his dark blonde hair now had bits of white gold in places from the hours he spent in the water.

This morning his square jaw was clean shaven, highlighting the masculine angles, but she knew how much he loved to skip shaving on the weekends, as well as how good he looked with day-old stubble.

“Morning,” she said coolly, biting down on the inside of her lip to keep the emotion from her voice. Not just because Cormac valued reason, not emotion, but because she refused to show weakness in front of him. He’d use any weakness to his advantage, as he always had. It was the Cormac Sheenan way.

“It’s been awhile,” he said, crossing the floor to drop into one of the leather chairs flanking her desk.

She opened her mouth to tell him she hadn’t invited him in, or offered him a seat in her office, but checked the words. They’d just sound angry. Bitter. Which would immediately put her at a disadvantage. Better to think this through. Choose her words with care. “Yes, it has.”

“Almost two years,” he said, extending his long legs out, his elbows propped on the arms of the chair, the fabric of his shirt straining over his thick biceps.

She didn’t want to notice his biceps. Or his gray-green eyes. Or the hard beautiful lines of his face.

Instead she focused on what he’d taken from her. On how he’d cheated her.

The lawsuit had been horrendous. It had been devastating to not just lose April, but then to lose her best friend’s daughter, too. Daisy had been in her life since birth. And then suddenly she was gone. Suddenly everyone was gone.

After the disastrous conclusion to the custody battle, Whitney wanted out, away from Cormac, but the publishing group, headed by Jeff, didn’t want to lose her. He’d fought to keep her and she agreed to stay on, as long as she didn’t have to work with Cormac. Cormac promised to keep his distance. And he had, until today.

Just seeing him lounging across from her made her insides rise and fall, and she’d never liked those loop-de-loop rollercoasters. She didn’t enjoy that much adrenaline. And Cormac Sheenan was pure adrenaline.

Once upon a time that had been a good thing. But not anymore.

“This is a….surprise,” she said, struggling to slow her pulse. It was difficult when she was so aware of him filling the chair, filling her office, making her heart race as if it remembered how she’d once felt about him. As if it remembered how much she’d loved him. Wanted him.

Whitney had had plenty of boyfriends in her thirty years, but none of them had ever made her feel as much as Cormac did.

And she’d learned the hard way that she never wanted to feel that much about anyone again.

“I didn’t tell anyone I was coming,” he said.

“That’s why Jeff didn’t mention it.”

“I thought it better just to come and talk to my staff in person. I’m making changes across the company. Relocating to Marietta.”

“I read the email, and Jeff also filled me in.”

“Do you have any questions about the move?”

“No.”

“Any concerns?”

“No.”

“I want you to feel free to ask me anything—”

“No questions,” she said cutting him short, resenting that he looked so comfortable while she felt as if she’d swallowed glass. She forced a small hard tight smile, wondering if he’d know it was as fake as fake could be. “No concerns.”

He smiled back, his lips curving and yet his gaze narrowed. He wasn’t buying her smile. He apparently knew her too well. “I wish everyone was as calm and pragmatic as you are about the move to Montana. But then, you’re from Bozeman. Of course you know the area, and the appeal of a small town like Marietta. I am hoping you can share your knowledge of the area with the others on your creative team.”

“I’m happy to talk up Marietta, because it is a charming town, but I am not going. I literally just sent HR an email letting them know I won’t be relocating.”

There was a flicker in his eyes but other than that, he didn’t look unduly disturbed. “You’re a key part of Sheenan Media.”

“
Was
a key part,” she corrected. “I love Denver. I’m staying here.”

“There are significant bonuses for those of you in key positions that make the move. And you hold one of those key positions.”

She shouldn’t be surprised that he was dangling money. It’s how Cormac operated. If there was a problem, throw cash at it. Cash solved everything.

Her lips curled even as her heart hurt remembering anew how Cormac Sheenan refused to play by society’s rules. He was the kind of man who made up his own rules. He did what he wanted, when he wanted without regard to others.

“Money doesn’t solve everything,” she said.

He shrugged. “It certainly helps, and in this case it will ensure that my staff is able to settle in Montana with as little stress as possible.”

“It won’t help those who have to leave their families and friends.”

“Some people like change.”

Her lips compressed. Cormac had an answer for everything. But then, control was everything to him. He always did what was best for him, treating others as accessories. But she wasn’t a doll, or a puppet. She wouldn’t be toyed with and then discarded. And she certainly wasn’t about to move to Montana for him. “I am sure there are,” she agreed. “But I’ve had enough change in my life. I’m ready to stay put. Denver is home now—”

“You should at least hear my offer.”

Whitney held his gaze. “Not interested.”

“You’re ready to give it all up? Everything you’ve worked so hard to gain?”

He was right. She
had
worked hard during her years at Sheenan Media, but then, she’d loved her job. It wasn’t just a job, either. It had been a passion. She’d been able to pour her design background into every aspect of Sheenan Media from branding to overhauling each different magazine’s design. Working with her editorial team she’d had her finger in everything, and it had been wildly fulfilling. Creating. Collaborating. Developing. Managing. Cormac might be the numbers guy, but she’d become his brand expert.