Deliberate Steps: (Along a Familiar Path)

It's October 1968. Just as Rob Grant is preparing to leave for a conference in Las Vegas, his attorney calls and tells him his divorce is final. Rob is now a single parent living in Connecticut with two teenage sons. The younger one, Greg, gets into drugs, and Rob takes immediate steps to find help. Now twice divorced, Rob is wary of committing to a permanent relationship. While in Vegas, he meets Kate Skowron, a pretty face who follows him back East. She is the first of several women he romances as he searches for a new companion and a surrogate mother for his boys. They hope to see immediate results-especially Greg, who needs firm maternal guidance. But a conflict arises when Rob finds that his personal timetable and cautious approach aren't compatible with either the boys' hopes or those of the women he dates. Rob then encounters a professional setback when the oil company he works for in New York becomes the target of an acquisition. This unforeseen complication tests his resilience, but a new woman enters his life and brings Rob love and support. Will it be enough to help him face the uncertainties that lie ahead? Author's web address: www.dg-books.com

It was the middle Friday in August, and amazingly the deadline for the brochure had somehow been met. While Rob was immersed in a new project, Helen came into his office and shut the door. He looked up and saw a mischievous grin on her face. "What s with the closed door?" "There s a Melanie Goldman here to see you." A cute giggle was attached to her news. "What?" Helen laughed. "Wish I had a photograph of the expression on your face. It s priceless." "I do not believe this!" "Says she knows you from Mexico City. Looks like you had an interesting stopover." "She has a very good reason to remember me. Well, show her in, I guess. If her visit lasts for more than ten minutes, come in and say the boss wants me in a meeting." "Your wish is my command." Mel marched in, smiled, and behaved like she owned the place. Helen, grinning, closed the door behind her. "Hello, Rob. Great to see you again." "Guess I don t have to say I m surprised. No, stunned is more like it. What brings you to town unannounced?" "You! No, that s not quite fair because it s only half accurate. Papa asked me if I d like to come east to poke around in the clothing district. I thought of you and said yes. Immediately." "Where are you staying?" "With a girlfriend up on East 37th Street. She s leaving this afternoon to spend the weekend someplace up in New England. Why don t you stop by for a drink after work? We could visit for a while." Her smile turned naughty. Rob knew exactly where this was leading and decided there was no reason not to "visit". "OK. I know the neighborhood. What s the address?" "It s 164 East 37th, apartment 1A. What time do you think you ll be by?" "Rob looked again at what he d just written down and started to laugh. "Believe it or not, I know the building. Is six too early?" he asked, still chuckling. "Guess you get around. But six o clock is fine. You turned me on in Mexico. Now you can reap the benefits. Again." "I recall that you didn t have any trouble speaking your mind in early June. You haven t changed a bit." Still sounding like a major stockholder, Mel said, "Good. Then we understand what the harvesting program is all about." "You don t by any chance own stock in the company, do you?" "As a matter of fact we do. After I got back to Kansas City, we had our broker look up your company details, went over them, got his recommendation, and Papa bought some. Why?" "Just curious. You behave like a stockholder." Mel laughed and ignored his comment. "I like your office, by the way. You re exactly as you represented yourself. And I love those two paintings." "A gift from a cute little artist. My reward for having unscrewed her eyeballs over the Christmas holidays. More accurately, it was the other way around." Mel laughed. "You re somethin else, Rob Grant. And so was the way you treated me at the Mexicana Sol. I remember it verrry well. Obviously. See you at around six." With that, the shock of the month marched out of Rob s office just as she had marched in. The first word that came to his mind was "irrepressible". Then before Mel left their floor, she thanked Helen and wore that same naughty grin while doing it. Helen came in and added yet another smile to the collection. She had evil in her eyes and Rob assumed that he was about to be roasted. "Well, lover. An on-the-road escapade has caught up with you. You must be something special, and not just here from nine to five. Sorry I never had a chance to find out for myself." "You know my feelings about in-house talent. Marianne was the exception. Mel and I met at the hotel bar in Mexico. There was a group of Americans sitting around some small tables that had been pushed together to make a bigger one. The only other one free was about the size of a large pizza and it happened to be right next to theirs. We struck up a conversation and the next thing I knew, she attacked me. Really. She s from Kansas City, and on the strength of that one night, she talked her father into buying a big block of our stock. See? I m good for the company, and I even work nights to help things along. It s called investor relations." Helen couldn t control herself. She laughed until she had tears running down her cheeks. "Rob Grant, if I didn t have my Danny, I d chase after you if only so you could tell a story like that about me. It s all fantasy, but I love the idea!" "It s only part fiction because there is a thin strand of truth in there somewhere. Her papa did buy stock on her advice after she got back to Kansas City. And obviously I made her happy, otherwise she wouldn t have made the effort to interrupt my day." "I don t know about you. Kate, and now this Melanie. Guess I should be ready for some cute chick to follow you from Sydney when you re there or wherever else in the world you re going. I m impressed that young women everywhere want to check out my partner s prowess." "Good word, Helen. I ll file it away it for future use."