The blaring ring of the telephone broke the mood, and Darci jerked away from those tempting hands. Snatching up the receiver, she listened to the voice on the other end, trying to stave off the panic growing inside her. Finally, she nodded her head, forgetting the caller couldn’t see her, and blindly set the receiver in its cradle.

“Darci?”

She felt numb, wooden. But she forced herself to look at Cole. He needed to hear the words, to know that all their plans were about to disintegrate. She just didn’t want to be the one to tell him. But there was no one else.

“That was Alex.”

“Your secretary?” Cole came toward her, grasping her shoulders gently. “What’s the matter? What did he say to upset you so much?”

Her numbed mind tried to sort through the words she needed to say. “The board meeting. It’s been changed. The next meeting is tomorrow morning at eight o’clock.”

She sagged against him, needing his strength now more than ever. “I think we’ve just run out of time.”

Chapter Six

Chapter Six

The day had proved grueling so far. Darci told Alex to. cancel all her appointments, then shut herself in her office with a pot of coffee and Cole. The tension still hummed between them, but her entire focus was on the candy-making company her step-father had built and turned over to her with complete faith that she’d make it work.

And now she was about to fail him.

She smoothed her tightly bound hair as she tried to stretch the kinks out of her neck. “This is impossible.” Her pencil tapped her irritation out on the desk.

“Nothing is impossible.”

She glared at Cole, tired of his positive attitude, tired of his unfailing energy, tired of his total support. There was a strong urge in her to pick a fight with someone, to let off some of the tension building inside her, and he was handy.

“We can’t do a year-long work plan, financial projections and all the trimmings by the end of today.”

“Do I detect the first notes of a discouraging word?” He shifted until he was sitting on the edge of her desk, his relentless pacing halted for the moment.

“Cole, admit it, we can’t work miracles.”

Cole leaned across the desk to kiss the tip of her nose. “That’s what they want us to think.” He tapped his fingertip on the spot he’d just kissed. “They think we’ll panic.”

“Who’s they?”

“Whoever pushed up the date of the board meeting. We were supposed to roll over and play dead, let them have a clear path to present their own ideas.”

“And who would that be?” Deep in her heart, she knew the answer, but she wasn’t willing to admit it, wasn’t willing to acknowledge that her own mother would do anything to have Darci removed from her position as president.