She picked up the phone and called Duane Scanlon. When she got through to him and introduced herself, she explained the reason for her call.

“Well, that’s very nice of you to follow up,” Duane said. “But I just got a voice mail from Travis Murray.”

“Oh.” Samara scowled. “I’m so sorry. He didn’t tell me he was going to call you.”

“Who’s running the show there now?” he asked, although his tone was mild. “You two need to get your act together.”

Shit. She’d made them look like idiots. She closed her eyes briefly.

“Yes, we’re meeting on that this afternoon,” she replied. She rubbed between her eyes.

“Do I need to return his call?”

“No. I’ll let Travis know we spoke. I...we just wanted follow up on the meeting you had with my father.”

They discussed the deal, but Scanlon’s tone of voice made a feeling of dread rise inside her, and sure enough, he said, “But with Parker out of the picture, the deal may not be as attractive to us.”

She froze, the telephone glued to her ear. “Oh. Why is that?”

“Parker and I have known each other a lot of years. When he came to us with this idea, I was somewhat reluctant. It’s no secret that Cedar Mill is overextended these days and looking for new business. So I wasn’t sure if I wanted to jump into an arrangement with a struggling company.”

“Struggling company!” Samara couldn’t hold back her startled exclamation. “Cedar Mill is not struggling!”

“That’s not what I hear. In any case, it was Parker who persuaded me to consider the deal, but with him gone, I’m even more skeptical of Cedar Mill’s ability to recover from this downturn. I’m not saying it’s out of the question forever. I’m willing to have another look at the offer down the road. But right now doesn’t seem like a good time.”

She hung up from the call in a daze, her ears buzzing, mind whirling. What the hell was that about? She sat at the desk and stared into space for a few moments while she tried to collect her scattered thoughts.

Struggling? Why would they think that? Recover? Recover from what?

She surged to her feet, filled with determination, and strode out of the office. “Paulette, where’s Travis?” she barked.

Paulette jerked her head around. “Oh. Samara. I didn’t even know you were in there.”

“I got here early. I need to talk to Travis. Right now.”

Paulette blinked. “He’s in his office. Next door.”

Samara spun on a stiletto heel and walked out, into the hall and into Travis’s office. The door sat open so she didn’t knock, but she let the door fly behind her with a resounding bang.

Travis’s head snapped up from his computer. “Samara. What the hell?”

She stalked across the room and flattened her palms on his desk, leaning forward. “I just talked to Duane Scanlon.”

“Oh.” He frowned. “Why?”

“I was following up on his meeting with my father a couple of weeks ago.”

“I just called him this morning.” He frowned. “I left him a voice mail, but I hadn’t heard back yet.”

“Well, I got through to him. And I’m pissed off at what I heard.”

His dark gold eyebrows jerked together. “What did he say?”

“Basically they’re backing away from the deal. Because Cedar Mill is struggling. And without Dad here, they’re not sure we can recover.” She pushed her face closer to his. “Recover from what, Travis?”

* * *

Her green-hazel eyes flashed, and her cheeks flushed pink. Bent over his desk like that, he could see down the opening of her blouse where her breasts curved sweetly together. Travis dragged his eyes away from her cleavage and back to her face, stormy and gorgeous.

“We’re not struggling,” he replied.

“Then what’s he talking about?”

Travis sighed. This was why he didn’t want Samara there snooping through things she didn’t need to know. “Have a seat.” He waved a hand at a chair.

Samara straightened, staring at him, then took a seat. She crossed her legs, and once again, he was distracted by her bare calves, elegant and sexy as they brushed together. She gripped the armrest of the chair with one hand.

What was he supposed to tell her? She was a regional manager from San Francisco, but she also owned forty percent of the company now, and she had a right to know.

Shit.

“What’s going on?” she demanded.

“Let me put together some financial information for you to review,” he said slowly.

“Okay, I can do that, but I want to know now.”

“In a nutshell, Cedar Mill has been expanding too quickly over the last number of years. Back about ten years ago, when I started here, Parker was very ambitious and wanted to grow the company quickly.”

“He did.”

“Yes. But he thought it could continue indefinitely. Recently, as I’m sure you’re aware, the economy has not been good.”

“Well, duh.” Her eyes fastened on him.

“Parker thought we were immune from downturns in the economy. But our fundamental business changed also, leaving us vulnerable. We’ve lost market share, and our sales have declined.”

Her eyes widened, and her lips parted. “How bad is it?”

“It’s not a disaster.” Travis picked up a pen and turned it over in his fingers. “I believe we can turn things around. We may have to make some tough decisions.”

“Like what?”

“Closing stores. Laying off staff. Cutting back on new products. Reducing our plans to open new stores.”

She rolled her lips inward and stared at him. “Shit.”

Travis nodded glumly.

“Why did I not know this?” Her eyes snapped again.

“You didn’t need to know it,” he replied evenly. “You’re a regional manager.”

“But this...this is my business.”

“It is now. That’s why I’m telling you. Now you have a right to know.”

“Damn right I do! Jesus, Travis. I can’t believe you didn’t tell me this.”

“I’m telling you.” He reached deep for patience.

“But you weren’t going to! You were going to let me go into that meeting this afternoon not even knowing the problems we’re facing. How the hell would I convince them I’m the one to lead us out of this mess when I didn’t even know about it?”

“Samara.” He sighed. “That’s been my point all along. How can you lead us out of it when you didn’t even know about it?”

“That is not fair!” She jumped to her feet. “I can get up to speed on what I need to know! Yes, I need some time, but it’s not fair to say I can’t do it without even giving me that chance.”

“These are not going to be easy decisions,” Travis said slowly. “And...since we’re being open here, there are other problems as well.”

She went still then sank back down onto the edge of her chair. “What other problems?”

He told her about the grading problems with some of the growers. “Oh, god.” She chewed on her bottom lip, looking away from him across the office. Then she straightened her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “I can help with this, Travis. I know I can.”

Admiration warmed him inside. She was strong. Not afraid of anything. The vulnerability he’d seen last night was in no way a sign of weakness. He couldn’t prevent the faint smile that curved his lips.

“That’s what we’ll talk about this afternoon.”

“I don’t want to have that meeting this afternoon.”

“What?” He stared at her. “You’re the one who wanted it, Samara.”

She shook her head, her mouth flat. “I don’t feel prepared enough. I want some time to look at the financials, get up to speed on the problems.”

Travis shook his head. Would he ever understand her? “No,” he said. “I want the meeting.”

She made a frustrated sound. “Of course you do. You’re just going to make me look like an idiot so you can take over. That was your plan all along, wasn’t it?”

His body slumped with disappointment as he sat back in his chair. She really didn’t think much of him. Certainly didn’t trust him. The depressing realization of that weighed on his shoulders, seeping down into his bones.

“That is not my plan,” he said heavily. God, he was tired. And it wasn’t even ten o’clock yet. “Okay, fine. We’ll put the meeting off for a week to give you time to get up to speed. I’ll start on getting some things together for you.” She did have a right to know, dammit. He’d let her draw her own conclusions from the documentation he gave her about how they’d gotten into this little mess.

“Fine.” She stood and tugged her skirt down. “I’ll be in my office.”

He watched her walk out of the office, spine straight, head high, her cute little butt twitching under the snug skirt.

He sighed again and leaned his head back against the chair. Damn you, Parker!

Now that Samara had some idea of what was going on, there’d be no stopping her. The struggle between her right to know, as Parker’s heir and a forty percent shareholder in the company, and Travis’s desire to protect her and shelter her, battled inside him, leaving his gut knotted and his energy drained. He couldn’t go on like this.

The truth was, as she’d pointed out so many times, she wasn’t a child. She was a grown woman, educated, with good knowledge of the coffee business, more than any other regional manager, certainly. As much as he wanted to see her as a young girl, as much as he wanted to protect her and look after her, he had to acknowledge her abilities. Yeah, he could tell himself Parker would want him to look after her, but Parker had wanted him to have nothing to do with Samara. And even though he was trying to preserve Samara’s high regard for her father, he couldn’t lie to her.

He needed to figure out a new strategy.

Chapter Eleven