Page 58 of Bachelor CEO

Chapter Thirteen

Chase resisted the urge to loosen his tie.He’d been in the hot seat for the past ten minutes.

“Chase, you have no real experience,” Waltersaid. As soon as the meeting began, he’d made his proposal to remove him.

“Neither does Miranda,” Chase replied as heglanced around the conference room. About half the board members were noddingin agreement. “She’s been here a little over seven weeks. I’ve been herenineteen years counting my part-time employment during high school.”

“That’s true,” Kathleen Kennedy pointed out.The president of the board, she’d been the one solidly in Chase’s corner fromthe very start of the meeting. “Walter, we know you’ve trained Miranda well,and you favor her because she’s your protégée, but this is McDanielManufacturing and Chase is heir apparent. What type of message would it send ifwe went over his head and replaced him with an outsider, and an inexperiencedone at that? It’s not as if he’s incompetent.”

“True,” Nick Cissna agreed.

As much as he wanted, Chase didn’t squirm.Being dissected and discussed wasn’t very pleasant, but itwas a necessary part of the process.

Kathleen continued. “Chase met with Mike Stormand the governor Friday afternoon regarding Rhodes Printing perhaps choosingChenille for their expansion. He’s already leading this company. I spoke withMike on Saturday and he said Chase played an instrumental role. Everyone wasvery impressed.”

“Did anyone ask Miranda to be at that meeting?Where is she, anyway?” Logan Bennett asked.

“She was hired to be vice president, not CEO.I’m ahead of her in my grandfather’s chain of command,” Chase replied. As forthe second question, he’d expected Miranda to be in attendance. “I haven’t seenher in the office since Thursday.”

“She should be here,” Nick stated.

Everyone looked at Walter, who shrugged. “Ihave no idea where she is. I spoke with her last night at length and expectedher to be present. Maybe she had car trouble.”

“Considering the importance of this meeting,she should have called.” Kathleen folded her hands on the table in front ofher. “We’ve been here a half hour with no word. Unless there’s anything else,shall we vote? It’s basically Miranda or Chase. My vote goes to Chase.”

“Miranda,” Walter said.

Chase watched as two more people voted forhim. There were twelve board members total. Two were absent—Jake Palenske andLeroy McDaniel. The vote was five-two in Chase’s favor when the door to theboardroom opened.

Chase frowned. No one ever disturbed a boardmeeting. No one would be allowed inside except for…

“Sorry I’m late,” Leroy said as his nursewheeled him in. “Over there,” he told her, and she helped him intoan empty conference table chair before leaving. He glanced around the table.“What’d I miss?”

Chase gripped his seat to keep himself fromstanding. His grandfather was not supposed to be leaving the house except to goto the doctor. He wasn’t well enough yet. He’d been forbidden to stress himselfwith work, yet here he was.

“We were voting. Chase has five. Miranda hastwo,” Kathleen said.

Leroy nodded. “Ah. So if I vote for Mirandaand everyone left follows what I choose…”

“Then she’d be our new CEO until you return,”Kathleen replied, not looking too pleased with his interruption.

Leroy drew himself up. “Oh, I have to return.Not that I’ll stay past next May. I promised Chase that he’d be CEO after hisone-year leave of absence, if that is what he really wants. I’m not retractingthat promise.”

“Then what is going on?” Kathleen asked. “Youtold us Chase wanted this vacation. Are you saying you forced him to go onsabbatical?”

Leroy had the decency to look sheepish. “Idid. Call it the eccentricity of an old man. I wanted Chase to have a year tofind out if he really wanted to fill my shoes. He’s been here since it’s beenlegal for him to work.”

The old man glanced down the table at hisgrandson. “Have you ever worked for anyone else?”

“No,” Chase said. Once again Leroy had throwna wrench into the cogs. This also couldn’t be good.

“I wanted to give him a choice. Taking overMcDaniel shouldn’t be an obligation, but a well thought out decision.”

The board members began nodding, agreeing withLeroy. Chase managed not to wince.

“I would say we know where you stand, Chase,”Logan said, and everyone swiveled to look in Chase’s direction. “You want to beCEO.”

He tried to project a calm and self-assureddemeanor. “I do. I definitely want to take over when my grandfather retires. Iwill admit that I didn’t want this vacation, but I agreed to it since it was soimportant to Leroy.”

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