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Fine, so he messed up when he found the photo. There was time to fix everything. Admitting anything else wasn’t an option—even if she wouldn’t answer her phone.
Being away, even for only a day, had shown him he had fallen hard for her.
Now he just had to tell her.
Leather briefcase slung over his shoulder, he hurried to his truck parked across the lot at what would soon be the flagship station for Crestone.
“William!”
He glanced up as one of the Colorado Springs executives he had met with rushed toward him.
“Jim.” William nodded as the older man came closer. “Everything okay?”
“It is.” Jim clapped him on the back. “Wanted to catch you before you left town.”
Jim had been the lead troublemaker on the buyout, waffling back and forth. They had made headway today, though.
“Looks like it’ll be a tough road on this merger.” William glanced around the lot again.
Sadness played across Jim’s face. He jerked his head toward the building behind him. “This station’s been in my family for three generations. A lot of good people have worked here for years.”
William waited, understanding that Jim needed to say whatever he came to say. He had to let Jim come to the conclusion the rest of the executives had already arrived at—Crestone was the best answer for everyone. Jim, unfortunately, was still holding firmly onto the past.
His Adam’s apple bobbed in his wrinkled throat. “Think it might be time to let her go. You’re a stand-up guy. I can see that now.”
Damn, it was hard to witness a leader make the decision to give up everything his family had built. “I’ll take good care of your company,” William assured him.
“Wouldn’t sign it away if I didn’t believe that.” Jim shifted slightly. “I hope you’ll give our employees a chance to prove themselves.”
“I can’t promise anything. You know how these things go.”
“Son, when you’ve been around as long as I have you’ll find out there’s always a different way. Usually a better way. Especially when you’re talking about laying off good people. Brenda in accounting’s got a sick husband. Tony, our master control operator, has six kids and shows up to work every morning at seven. On the dot. Twenty years. These are the people your merger puts out of work.”
That was a knife to the heart. Jim was right. There had to be a solution that didn’t leave all these people without jobs. William had been over it and over it, but there was no way he could keep them on once Crestone took over. The extra overhead made no sense and would drain the company.
And then it hit him like a brick over the head.
“What if you had an individual investor? This person comes in and infuses enough operating cash to get the station back on its feet. Can you convince the board to go for that?”
Jim’s expression changed. “No investor’s going to bet on a race horse that’s losing.”
“He will if the horse can win. And the people are worth it.” William walked back to the building with Jim at his side. “This horse is a winner. I’m willing to bet my personal money on it. I’ll need to have one of my guys here to watch over things. Make sure everything’s on track.”
“Fine.” Jim clapped him on the back. “That’d be fine.”
“You’ll get me the votes?” William put his hand out.
This handshake agreement would mean more to Jim than any ink and paper ever would.
“I’ll get those votes. There’ll be a lot of relief all around.” Jim squeezed his hand. “You’ve turned out well. Patricia did good with you.”
“You knew my mom?”
If he wasn’t mistaken, Jim’s eyes misted over.
“That I did. Used to spend quite a lot of time with her and your dad, back before you were born.”
William’s parents had never mentioned Jim. “No kidding? I had no idea.”
