Cain walked past Donna, wearing a charcoal suit today, Armani or Gucci, or some equally posh designer. At Delta, she had worked the first-classsection. She knew high-dollar clothes. The briefcase he carried was expensive belted leather.
Carly stood up behind the desk in her jeans and T-shirt. Suddenly remembering what was printed on the front, she froze. Cain’s gold-flecked green eyes ran over the wordsBAD MOTHER TRUCKER,and his mouth edged up.
Carly hadn’t expected the jolt of heat that faint smile created. She hadn’t expected to notice his lips at all, the slight tilt, the sexy way they curved. She wished to God she hadn’t.
She looked down at the bold white letters. “I . . . umm . . . spilled coffee on my blouse and one of the guys loaned me this. I thought I’d have time to change, but . . .” She shrugged. She was babbling. It was ridiculous. She didn’t owe Cain an explanation.
“No need to apologize,” he said. “I don’t always wear a suit and tie.”
One of her eyebrows went up. “Just most of the time?”
“Only when I have to.”
“Which is most of the time?”
His faint smile broadened. Those faint grooves appeared and her stomach lifted. For God’s sake, he was only a man. Good-looking, but so what? He was also rich and powerful, undoubtedly controlling. She’d dated men like Cain. She had no interest in doing it again.
He said, “Too damned much of the time—that’s for sure.”
She relaxed a little. Maybe he actually had a sense of humor. “Why don’t we sit down?” Carly walked over to the round Formica table and metal folding chairs in the corner, and both of them sat down.
“So what can I do for you, Mr. Cain?”
“Linc would suit me better. If I can call you Carly. I feel as if I’ve known you for a while. Your grandfather talked a lot about you.”
She wished Joe had talked about Lincoln Cain. Why hadn’t he? But then they never seemed to have enough time to really talk at all.
“All right,Linc,what can I do for you?”
“As I said before, your grandfather and I were friends. He helped me when I needed it. In return, I’m here to help you.”
She studied the strong, masculine lines of his face, noticed the beginningsof a beard shadow along his jaw. She wondered if she could trust him. “Help me how?”
Cain opened his briefcase and pulled out a sheaf of papers, set the thick stack of pages down on the table. “This is an offer to buy Drake Trucking. I expect you to take it to your financial advisor as well as your attorney, but you’ll find the offer is extremely generous and the transaction will hold you harmless from any problems from the day we close the deal.”
She couldn’t believe it. Lincoln Cain was there to buy the company. Damn, she wished she’d had time to read more about him.
“What makes you think I’m interested in selling?”
One of his dark eyebrows went up. “I assumed that would be your first priority now that Joe’s gone. You’re telling me you don’t want to sell?”
She didn’t have to think about it. She had known almost from the day Joe died. “That’s exactly what I’m saying. My grandfather’s health issues left Drake in less than perfect financial condition, but with a little hard work—”
“Why go to all the trouble? If you take my offer, you can do whatever you want. You moved back here from San Francisco, I understand. As a flight attendant, you traveled all over the world. I can’t imagine you’d want to stay here in Iron Springs.”
He was beginning to annoy her. “Then you’re a man of little imagination, Mr. Cain. Because that is exactly my plan. I’ve traveled. I’ve done the things I wanted to do. Now I’m ready for a change. I need a new challenge and I’ve found it right here. I’m going to rebuild Drake Trucking, make it the successful company it was before.”
“It’s just Linc, and that’s a fine ambition, but how much experience have you had running a trucking firm?”
Not enough, but that was beside the point. “I learned a lot from Joe. I’ve forgotten some of it, but it’s beginning to come back to me. I’m a fast learner and a hard worker. I’ll figure things out.”
Cain shoved the paperwork across the table. “At least take a look, see what I’m offering.”
Her irritation mounted. Carly stood up from her chair. “I’ll be blunt,Mr. Cain. Drake Trucking is edging toward bankruptcy. It isn’t worth whatever you’re offering—which you would find out as soon as you looked at the books. So I’m saving you a lot of grief by simply saying no.”
Cain stood up, too, his towering height putting her at a disadvantage. “Buying companies in trouble and turning them around is what I do. I’ll cut you a deal that will cover your debts and let you walk away with half a million dollars.”
Half a million dollars!And all her worries over. For one crazy instant, she actually considered it. Carly shook her head. “Thank you, but no.” She had a debt to repay. And she needed a purpose in life. She had found it here in Iron Springs.
