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Daniel knew the owner of that voice.
Joshua.
He glanced behind him and saw that Joshua had indeed left the table. And Daniel didn’t need to guess who he was yelling at.
Ashton.
Daniel wiped his mouth with the napkin from his lap. “Excuse me for just a moment,” he said, and quickly left the private dining area.
He found Joshua and Ashton both standing outside the open doors. “Do you have any idea that everyone can hear you?” Daniel snapped, closing the double doors behind him.
“I’m trying to explain to this dinosaur that he’s stuck in the Stone Age,” Joshua replied. “We need to be capitalizing on all the positive press that a social media blitz and good press could do for The Aunt Penny Foundation. Hell, for us, too, but he refuses to see it.” Joshua paced back and forth as he ranted.
“There is no such thing as good publicity,” Ashton replied, calmly. “Not in this day and age. Are you so blinded by your animosity toward me that you can’t see that? Prescott George is about lifting people up. All the press knows how to do is bring people down. Furthermore, now isn’t the time to be discussing this.”
“You have to know how to spin publicity,” Joshua replied, “which clearly you don’t but I do. I’m a master puppeteer at getting the press to report exactly what I want them to.”
“Like the fact that you steal other people’s money?” Ashton said. “Did you give them that tidbit, too?”
Joshua steamed beside him and Daniel thought he might deck Ashton, but instead he turned to Daniel. “Tell him.” He pointed to Ashton. “Tell him I’m right.”
Both pairs of eyes turned to Daniel. He hated that Joshua was putting him on the spot like this.
“I think both of you are upset right now and need to let cooler heads prevail,” Daniel returned. “Ashton is right. Now isn’t the right time to discuss this.” He watched a smirk cross Ashton’s face. “But I think Joshua’s suggestion merits further discussion.”
“You’re agreeing with him?” Ashton wasn’t happy that Daniel wasn’t taking his side. It was clear that Ashton was not a fan of Joshua’s. Daniel had long since suspected that he thought Joshua was an interloper who’d smooth-talked his way into the organization. It certainly had been one of the younger members who’d invited Joshua to join Prescott George. If Ashton had his way, Daniel was sure there would be only legacy members. But it was a new dawn and a new day, and Ashton was soon going to realize that Prescott George had to change with the times.
“I’m keeping the peace,” Daniel said. “As leaders of the organization, you both need to go back in that room and show them there is no friction.”
Ashton huffed, but opened the doors and walked back in while Joshua fumed outside.
“Why do you always try to play mediator?” he countered to Daniel. “Eventually you’ll have to choose sides. Mine or his.”
Daniel rolled his eyes. “How about neither?” he responded, and turned on his heel and walked back into the room.
When he returned to the table, Angela asked, “Is everything okay?”
He nodded. “Yes, everything is fine. Just a difference of opinion. Sometimes we men get rather loud.”
But Daniel feared this wasn’t the end of Joshua’s beef with Ashton; he suspected that the stakes were about to get significantly higher.
* * *
His mind was elsewhere, Angela thought when Daniel returned to the table. She tried reengaging him in conversation, but it was clear that the night was over. She supposed she should be thankful that the electricity she’d been feeling earlier in the evening had cooled. She’d felt stirred by Daniel, and that would never do. He was her boss who’d asked her to accompany him to a business dinner. She mustn’t forget that.
As the evening came to a close, Angela and Daniel said their goodbyes, and shortly after they were seated back in the town car.
“Would you like us to drop you home?” he asked her.
“I left my car at the office, remember?”
“Oh, of course. I’m sorry,” he apologized. “I’ve been a bit distracted this evening.”
