In fewer than ten minutes, he’d figured out that she wasn’t quite the parasitic gold digger he’d assumed she must be when Nora had first brought up her name. But then again, she wasn’t exactly a helpless damsel in distress, either. He’d found that out when he tried to run roughshod over her pitch to save The Benton Girls Revue and gotten an earful back.
She wasn’t jaded, but she wasn’t easily manipulated, either. Cole valued frankness and candor in many of his business dealings. But in this case he had the feeling that straight-up asking her to help him deal with his grandmother’s outrageous demand wouldn’t go over too well, even if she truly did need money to fund her move to New York.
“My grandmother...she likes you a lot,” he said carefully. Then he waited for her to respond.
“I like her, too,” Sunny answered. “She’s a wonderful woman, and she always made sure my grandmother had a place at The Benton. I’m fortunate to call her a friend.”
Cole didn’t know whether to be annoyed or impressed that his grandmother apparently wanted him to marry her biggest fan.
“Yes, she is an extraordinary woman.” Extraordinarily presumptuous, he thought to himself. “And unfortunately, she’s in declining health these days.”
Declining mental health—and that was technically only Cole’s opinion as of now, but tomato-to-mah-to.
Sunny’s eyes widened and she seemed truly worried. “Oh, no, I’m sorry to hear that. I saw her at one of our shows last week and she seemed in perfect health. She never said anything.”
Cole lowered his eyes, which he hoped was a good enough approximation of upset. It had been so long since he’d allowed himself to show any feeling at all during a business negotiation, he wasn’t sure what it would even look like. “It’s not something she likes to talk about. Her good days are pretty good, but her bad days...” He deliberately let that sentence trail off. “Her bad days aren’t something I like to talk about, either.”
Especially now, when he was trying to convince this showgirl that his tough-as-nails grandmother was in declining health.
He pushed forward to the next topic. “But you’re right. I’ve been focused mainly on establishing The Benton Group as a national contender in the hotel industry over the last few years, but my grandmother had an episode this morning, and it made me realize, blood really is more powerful than money.”
Especially when that blood holds more power than she should in your corporation, he thought with an inner glare. Why his grandfather had willed Nora so many shares without limiting her power to use them, he had no idea. But if and when he ever got married, Cole knew he wouldn’t make the same error in judgment with his own wife.
Sunny put a hand over her chest and her eyes went soft as she said, “It is. It truly is. I miss my own grandma every day.”
“Ms. Johnson, I’m just going to level with you. My grandmother doesn’t have long. To the end of the year if she’s lucky, and it’s become important to me to make her happy during these next few months.”
Sunny nodded. “Of course. I completely understand.” She pursed her lips. “But how do you figure cancelling The Revue will make her happy?”
Cole kept his face composed while scrambling for an answer to her question. “The truth is cancelling the show was my way of trying to put some limits on her activities. I want her to get the rest she needs.”
Sunny frowned. “Knowing Nora, she definitely wouldn’t appreciate that.”
“No, I suppose she wouldn’t. But now that I know there’s a sympathetic person on staff who knows about the situation, maybe I could see my way to reopening the show, at least for the next few months. Especially if it would make Nora happy.”
Sunny sat forward, her eyes full of worry for his grandmother. “I will do anything to make sure she doesn’t overdo it when she’s visiting us.”
“She won’t appreciate being coddled,” Cole warned her sharply.
“I know she won’t. And I won’t coddle her, I’ll just make things easier for her, I promise. If you put the show back on, you won’t regret it.”
He nodded as if he were giving her idea of helping out serious consideration as opposed to leading her straight into his trap. “The only thing is that even the show isn’t enough to make her happy these days. You won’t believe what she— No, I don’t want to drag you into this.”
But Sunny shook her head. “No, tell me. Maybe I can help.”
“You could, but it would be weird. I couldn’t...”
“Please tell me, Mr. Benton.”
Cole put a reluctant tone into his voice as he answered. “The thing is my grandmother is very fond of you.”
He pretended to hesitate some more and waited for Sunny to prod him along, so that she could think this whole conversation was her idea.
“Yes, you told me that,” she said, right on cue. “But what does that have to do with the state of her health?”
“She’s so fond of you, that her wish—I guess you could call it her dying wish is that I...”
Again he stopped and waited.
Sunny was leaning all the way forward in her seat now, her pretty brown eyes wide with curiosity.
“That you what?” she asked.
“Marry you.”
He could hear Sunny’s breath catch, and he again went silent. Biding his time. Like the predator she had no idea he was when it came to business.
“Are you serious?” she finally asked after a few opens and closes of her mouth.
He laid a solemn hand on his chest. “Believe me, Ms. Johnson, I would never ever joke about something like this.” Lie through his teeth, yes. But joke? Never.
“I don’t...I don’t know what to say.”
“You don’t have to say anything right now,” he answered, his mind working furiously behind his calm eyes to figure out how to make this next thing sound less like a threat and more like a win-win for both of them. “You want something from me and I need something from you for my grandmother.”
“You want me to help you trick her?” Sunny asked. He could practically see her struggling with her conscience.
It must be tiring to have one of those, he thought to himself. “I want you to help me make my grandmother happy,” he rephrased.
“And making Nora happy...what would that entail?” Sunny’s voice was hesitant, but Cole could tell she was mulling the idea over, which meant he was in.
He somehow kept the smirk off his face as he answered. “There would be a whirlwind romance for a couple of months, and then we’d announce our engagement—probably at one of my grandmother’s events.”
“Like her August Children’s Charity ball?”
He pointed at her. “Perfect.” Nora had been nagging him to attend that stupid event for years and this year it would be the weekend before the end of summer board meeting. Why not kill two birds with one stone?
“It would make Nora very happy to have us announce it there.”
“And if I agreed to this...to making Nora happy, it would just be pretend, right? We wouldn’t have to...be intimate. Would we?”
This time Cole let the silence drift on for much longer than he knew was suitable, even in business. He was aware this question was meant to be a deal closer. He