Family Merger - By Leigh Greenwood Page 0,55

the road."

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing yet. Just that I never thought about boys and girls in situations like this. Their families, either. I don't imagine there's a lot being done to help them. This weekend's started me thinking about it."

"I don't know how you had time with all that was going on here and in Geneva."

She wasn't sure she should have mentioned Geneva. She thought Ron ought not put his business before his family. She thought that healing his relationship with Cynthia was unquestionably more important than any business meeting. But she couldn't help wondering if her telling him he ought to stay with Cynthia until everything was worked out could be partially responsible for his merger going bad.

"I'm used to working on more than one thing at a time," he said. "Business deals never come one at a time. It's usually feast or famine."

"If this was a feast, you don't appear to have been enjoying it."

Ron gave her a quick glance before turning his gaze back to the road. "Shamus has been talking, hasn't he?"

"When he was leaving, he said the merger was in trouble."

They had reached the end of the private drive through the woods. Ron waited until he'd pulled out on the twisting mountain road before he replied.

"There's a tricky political situation involved. The politicians are afraid to move until they know how things are going to settle out."

"Would things have gone better if you'd been able to stay in Geneva?"

He sent her a sharp look. "Do you want the truth?"

"Why wouldn't I?"

"Some people don't want to hear answers that don't fit their notions of how things ought to be."

"Do you think I'm like that?"

"I don't know. You seem so set against nearly everything I do."

"Then I've given you the wrong impression. I'm not against business. I realize men must have careers if they're to support their families. What I am against is men ignoring their family responsibilities for their careers."

"And you think I've done that."

"You know I do, but that's not what I asked."

"I have a reputation for handling negotiations personally. The political situation is the real stumbling block, but I may lose the whole deal because I'm not there to keep the people coming back to the table until that's resolved. Is that what you wanted to know?"

"Yes."

"Then you should also know I don't regret my decision. My career will always be important to me, but my daughter is more important. I hadn't realized how close I was to losing her. I'm going to work very hard to make sure we grow close again. I'm also going to try to be a damned good grandfather, but I'm not going to give up my work. It's not just a way to make money. It's not just a barometer of my success or social acceptance. It's my work, my career, something I do better than almost anyone else. I can't give it up any more than you can give up your shelter. It's part of who I am."

Kathryn hadn't realized she'd grown so tense. She'd certainly gotten more than she'd asked for.

"Will you have dinner with me when we get back to town?" Ron asked. "I've got a few hours before my flight leaves."

His request was unexpected, but not nearly so unexpected as her reaction to it was unwelcome. Her pulse started beating almost as rapidly as it had when she was a young girl acting silly over a handsome boy who'd paid attention to her.

"Why would you want me to have dinner with you?" she asked. "You just said you had no intention of giving up your career."

"What has that got to do with dinner? We both have to eat."

Now he was being a humanitarian. Somehow that didn't appeal to her.

"You know I like being with you," he said. "I tried all weekend to find some time for us to sneak away and misbehave in the moonlight, but either you had gone to bed or I got nabbed by somebody wanting to talk my ear off without listening to a word I had to say."

Kathryn couldn't keep up. Surely there was something she was missing. "But we don't agree on anything."

"Of course, we do. We agree that family's important, that I have to get things straight with Cynthia. We also agree we like other, that we find each other attractive."

She hadn't been willing to state that out loud. It was even more uncomfortable to have Ron do it.

"Besides, I've been thinking about kissing you for three