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Winning Charlotte Back
Kathy Douglass
When the man who left her at the altar moves in next door…Charlotte Shields had left that heartbreaking day and this heartbreaking man behind.Dr. Rick Tyler works hard to make amends. He needs this move to Sweet Briar to work to give his son a second chance. Will he get a second chance with Charlotte in the bargain?
When the man who left her at the altar
Moves in next door...
This could not be happening. Charlotte Shields had left both that heartbreaking day and this heartbreaking man behind. Even worse, their mutual attraction is back to betray her. Especially as Dr. Rick Tyler works hard to make amends. He’s got to make this move to Sweet Briar work to give his son a second chance. Will he get a second chance with Charlotte in the bargain?
KATHY DOUGLASS came by her love of reading naturally—both of her parents were readers. She would finish one book and pick up another. Then she attended law schooland traded romances for legal opinions.
After the birth of her two children, her love of reading turned into a love of writing. Kathy now spends her days writing the small-town contemporary novels she enjoys reading.
Also by Kathy Douglass
How to Steal the Lawman’s Heart
The Waitress’s Secret
The Rancher and the City Girl
Winning Charlotte Back
Discover more at millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Winning Charlotte Back
Kathy Douglass
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ISBN: 978-1-474-09062-9
WINNING CHARLOTTE BACK
© 2018 Kathleen Gregory
Published in Great Britain 2018
by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF
All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.
By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.
® and ™ are trademarks owned and used by the trademark owner and/or its licensee. Trademarks marked with ® are registered with the United Kingdom Patent Office and/or the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market and in other countries.
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
This book is dedicated to my husband and sons,
who love and support me in all that I do.
I love you all very much.
This book is also dedicated to Della
for her constant support and encouragement.
Contents
Cover (#u11ac96dd-c362-560b-9b8c-954bf81e1256)
Back Cover Text (#ua595236a-7085-53c7-b4bc-03d44616bb04)
About the Author (#u60ad2a4b-8df8-5e7f-a485-f0a4bdb0a954)
Booklist (#ufa45e292-e61a-5bde-9a6b-93ac6405fb46)
Title Page (#ubf89ef38-20a3-5c25-b1a9-4243d655fa7f)
Copyright (#u980f1944-325e-5f64-9da0-14f7044ec958)
Dedication (#ue0ad7d7b-0b07-5eee-8033-e2b4fee8e2bf)
Chapter One (#ud4016038-b8cb-558c-b4a5-0cf6eae51e57)
Chapter Two (#u193f015e-221a-5d00-9113-fa1ffcddfe4c)
Chapter Three (#u57d5b25f-89ca-5bc6-a330-83e3da706f9f)
Chapter Four (#ufb06b83b-8f28-50c2-ba3a-04d53a93d803)
Chapter Five (#u7a888b9f-6e51-5956-bfef-7a05c0e1a37c)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One (#ud331756f-56b2-54e4-9246-e72215417a01)
As Charlotte Shields passed the secretaries’ lunch room on her way to her corner office, the off-key strains of the happy birthday song wafted through the open door. Her steps slowed. Stopped.
“Open my gift first,” a voice cried out.
“Wait until after the cake,” someone said and female laughter followed.
Charlotte yearned to join the celebration, but she knew she wouldn’t be welcome. Not now. Early in her career several of the other women had invited her to join them on a girls’ night out. She’d longed to say yes, but she’d known better. The morning of her first day, her father had called her into his office and given her a list of rules designed especially for her. Primary among them was that she was not to mingle with the employees. To his way of thinking, it would be hard to discipline or terminate a friend. She’d been eager to please and convinced that her father knew better than she how to run a business, so she’d complied.
After a while, the invitations slowed and finally stopped. The offers of friendship dried up. The other women came to regard her as conceited and unfriendly, a reputation she’d lived up to over the years. She regretted her behavior now, but years ago she’d been willing to do anything to avoid disappointing her father.
Charlotte’s need to please her father had always been her downfall.
She forced the longing and regrets away and continued through the maze of cubicles, pausing when she got to her secretary’s desk. “Did anyone call while I was out?”
“Yes, Ms. Shields.” Anita handed her a stack of pink paper. “Your father has scheduled a meeting in the conference room for three this afternoon.”
“Thank you.”
Although Anita was only a year younger than Charlotte’s own thirty-four, she never addressed Charlotte by her first name, something that hadn’t bothered Charlotte before. For some reason, the distance it created between them bugged her now.
Charlotte opened her mouth to ask how the other woman’s pregnancy was progressing, but she couldn’t find the words.
“Is there something else, Ms. Shields?” Anita asked when Charlotte continued to stand there. Anita’s voice was professional, lacking the warmth that was there when she interacted with the other secretaries, and Charlotte’s heart sank.
“No, nothing.”
Stepping through the door to her office, Charlotte riffled through the messages. Nothing urgent. Her mind returned to the meeting her father had scheduled for that afternoon. Charles was a creature of habit and had established a schedule that hadn’t changed in all the years she’d worked here. The fact that he’d called an impromptu meeting was unsettling. But there was no sense asking him about the agenda beforehand because he wouldn’t tell her. Although she was his daughter, he never treated her better than anyone else. If anything, he was harder on her.
She had master’s degrees in both business and marketing, but she’d still had to start at the bottom and work her way up to the position of executive vice president of marketing. There was not the slightest doubt in her mind that had she been a son, her path would have been easier. By now, she’d be president.
She got down to work, determined to have her desk cleared in case her father passed out new assignments.
At promptly 2:55 she stepped into the conference room. Several executives mingled, talking quietly among themselves. They nodded at her and she did the same. She was too jittery to engage in conversation, so she stared at the framed newspaper and magazine articles lining the walls. The articles chronicled the progression of Shields Manufacturing from a small company specializing in bookcases to one of the top furniture manufacturing companies in the world.
Five minutes later her father entered, followed by a man she’d never seen before.
“Have a seat,” Charles said. The man he’d brought with him took the chair at her father’s right—her chair—so she was forced to sit in the next chair. She glowered at the trespasser but he didn’t seem to notice.
Instead of immediately getting to the point of the meeting as was his habit, Charles’s eyes traveled the same path hers had only moments ago, a small smile on his face as he seemed to relive the history of the company. For the briefest moment, her father seemed reflective. Charles was many things, but introspective wasn’t one of them.
Was he ill? He’d lost weight since her mother’s death two years ago, but she’d attributed it to lack of appetite due to grief. She looked at him closely. She didn’t notice anything different.
“I know you’re all wondering why I called this meeting today.” Charles smiled. Smiled! He never smiled. Charlotte’s heart sped up as worry gnawed at her.
“Let me put you at ease,” Charles continued. “I’m not sick. And you all know the company is doing well.”
Relief whooshed through Charlotte. Although Charles wasn’t the warmest person, he was for all intents and purposes the only family she had, as she was currently estranged from her sisters.
She realized her father was still speaking and forced herself to listen. Charles gestured to the wall. “We’ve come a long way from where we started to where we are now. I want to ensure that the next thirty-five years are just as successful as the past thirty-five. To that end, I’m stepping aside as president to make room for someone new. I’ll stay on as CEO to make sure the company continues to go in the right direction.”
Everyone in the room began to talk, but Charlotte couldn’t find her voice. Her heart drummed in anticipation. Her father was finally going to reward her with the job she’d worked and sacrificed for. All her hard work, her long days and lonely nights were finally going to pay off.
Charles cleared his throat and the room grew silent. He smiled at the man beside him and unease began to churn in Charlotte’s stomach. “This is Gabriel Jenkins. As of noon today, he’s the new president.”
Her father continued to talk, but Charlotte couldn’t make out any of the words over the buzzing in her head. He couldn’t do this to her. She’d dedicated her life to him. To this company. And he was bringing in a stranger to run it! Someone who hadn’t shed one tear or sweated one ounce of blood to make Shields Manufacturing the success that it was. He’d betrayed her. And he expected her to join in the applause and well wishes?
She fought against the dizziness and the black hole that threatened to swallow her. She ignored the pain that resulted from her heart being ripped out of her chest and focused her attention on her father. He wasn’t even looking at her, but rather was paying rapt attention to the interloper who was now rambling about his Harvard education.
She looked around the room at the rest of the executives. Most seemed embarrassed or hurt for her and looked away. Only Toby Baker met her eyes, and he was smirking. He’d asked her out a couple of times, but even with her limited experience with men, she’d known he was only looking to get ahead by dating the boss’s daughter. Get ahead. That was a laugh.
She’d sacrificed everything for her father and this stupid company. And what had that blind loyalty gotten her? No friends. No family of her own. No relationship with her sisters. Nothing.
Anger burned her stomach and grew into a raging inferno. She stood, pushing her chair so hard that, despite the thick carpet, it slammed against the wall. Every eye turned in her direction and the new president stopped babbling. Her father raised an imperial eyebrow that in the past would have had her cowering and slinking back into her seat. Not this time. She’d lost everything that mattered. There was nothing more for her to lose.
“Charlotte.” Her father’s tone was severe. Cold. No different from the look in his eyes or the ice encasing his heart.
“I quit.” She glanced at her watch. “Effective three thirteen p.m.”
Her father didn’t blink or acknowledge her words in the slightest. Milton Hayes, an old-timer and the closest thing she had to a friend in the company, nodded once as if agreeing with her move. The new president looked startled and opened his mouth as if to speak, but she no longer had to listen to anyone. Brushing past him, she walked to her office. She had very few personal items there, only a throw on the back of her chair that she used on damp or chilly days to keep her feet warm and an old snapshot of her with her mother and sisters. She dropped the picture into her purse, grabbed the throw and turned off the light.
“Mr. Adams from the First Bank of America is holding on line four,” Anita said when Charlotte approached.
“He is no longer my problem,” Charlotte said, not slowing as she passed the woman who could have been a friend if Charlotte had taken her up on one of her many overtures. Another foolish move she’d made in the futile effort to gain her father’s approval. Charlotte stalked to the elevator then pressed the button several times, anxious to get out of this place.
Finally the elevator door slid open. Blinking back hot tears, she stepped inside. She refused to let even one teardrop fall. She squeezed her eyes shut and breathed deeply until she’d smothered the urge to cry. Crying didn’t change anything; it only gave someone else power over you.
After dumping her belongings onto the passenger seat of her car, she sped out of the garage. Shields Manufacturing was in her past and she wasn’t looking back.
