Prologue

Jacobsen Enterprises Internal Email
From: Joe Jacobsen, CEO
To: Harry Sanders
CC: Andrew Sanders, president
Re: Jacobsen Stars Program

Harry,

I just wanted, to give you a heads up on the newest Jacobsen Enterprises program to recruit and retain upper-level management. With your sister Darci now in New York for the past year with her husband Cameron, it is imperative for the overall growth and stability of the company that we keep any management talent we develop. My proposal will be instituted in two weeks, and a copy is attached. I would like you to personally consider being a mentor. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact me.

J.J.

Jacobsen Enterprises Internal Email
From: Joe Jacobsen, CEO
To: Andrew Sanders, president
Re: Harry/Jacobsen Stars

As you can see from my previous email, I have informed your son about the Jacobsen Stars program and have indicated that I would like him to be a mentor. My personal choice for him is Megan MacGregor. I will drop in on him Monday morning to tell him. She’s in Mergers and Acquisitions.

J.J.

Jacobsen Enterprises Internal Email
From: Andrew Sanders, president
To: Joe Jacobsen, CEO
Re: Harry/Jacobsen Stars

You old coot. The only merger you really want is for your grandson to get married. But setting up Harry with Megan MacGregor? She’ll eat him alive. Don’t you ever stop matchmaking?

A.S.

Jacobsen Enterprises Internal Email
From: Joe Jacobsen, CEO
To: Andrew Sanders, president
Re: Harry/Jacobsen Stars

No.

J.J.

Chapter One

Even though it was a Monday, it had all the makings of a wonderful day. As the only person in the executive elevator, Harry Sanders whistled the entire journey to his office on the twenty-second floor of the Jacobsen Enterprises world headquarters.

“You’re chipper this morning.” Peggy, his secretary for the past five years, rose as he strode over the plush carpet. Ten minutes before 9:00 a.m., she had already sorted his mail and the day’s itinerary.

“Absolutely.” Harry took the stack of papers without stopping to look through them as he usually did.

He registered Peggy’s words as he entered his office. “There’s something from your grandfather.”

There had better be. Harry smiled as he entered his corner office, and he took a minute to look out the window. Despite the beautiful May day, his office faced west and south, giving him a boring view of Highway 64 as it wound toward Jefferson Avenue.

The eastern-facing offices of the Jacobsen Building looked down Market Street, the view encompassing Memorial Plaza, Union Station, the Mississippi riverfront, the Old Courthouse and the Gateway Arch. His office view was not the best or even on the top floor, that was the twenty-fifth floor, but all that was about to change.

It was about time.

He pushed a strand of blond hair off his face. He’d been waiting for the past two years, and with his sister Darci happily out of the way, it was finally Harry’s time to shine.

He took a minute to think about that. Don’t get him wrong, he loved his academically brilliant sister with the Harvard MBA. However, three years his junior, Darci had held a higher title and position in Jacobsen Enterprises before her resignation and subsequent move to New York City to be with Cameron O’Brien, her husband. They’d been happily married one year.

Darci’s fast rise through the company still rankled Harry, that and the fact that after she’d resigned, he hadn’t been promoted into her spot. But given his grandfather’s eccentricities and obvious favoritism toward his granddaughters, no one had been too surprised to see Darci’s job left unfilled. The vice president of development position she’d held had sort of faded away.

“Good, you’re here early.” Speaking of the devil. The voice that momentarily startled Harry from his reverie belonged to none other than Joe Jacobsen, who stood in Harry’s office doorway.

“I’m always on time,” Harry replied. It was the truth. One thing Harry managed well was timeliness.

Standing there looking like a thin version of Santa Claus, Grandpa Joe didn’t even blink at Harry’s answer. Even though the blue-eyed gene was recessive, every Jacobsen grandchild, including Harry, had the same blue eyes with a rim of dark blue that their grandfather had.

“Didn’t say you were late. I know your schedule,” Grandpa Joe said in the tone that meant no excuses, boy. “Did you read my email yet?”

“No,” Harry said as a sense of foreboding filled Harry. He knew his eccentric if not business-brilliant grandfather too well. And, although at six foot two Harry often towered over other men, the dynamic Grandpa Joe still made Harry occasionally feel like a small wayward child.

“That’s why I also sent it through interoffice mail as a memo.”

Harry began to sort through the papers Peggy had given him. As he found a copy, he said, “Here it is.”

Grandpa Joe nodded, his thin white beard bobbing slightly. “Why don’t you take a minute to read it?”

Harry read the words aloud. “I just wanted to give you advance warning on the newest Jacobsen Enterprises program to recruit and retain upper-level management.”

He looked up at Grandpa Joe, who was staring out the window. Harry’s gaze flew over the rest of the email outlining the new Jacobsen Stars program. A worried thought started in the pit of his stomach as he looked over at the spiral-bound presentation folder that was with the other mail on his desk. The sinking feeling spread through the rest of his body.

“You’re starting a mentor program?”

Grandpa Joe slowly turned around, his face a neutral mask. He gave a curt nod. “Absolutely.”

Harry stared as his grandfather continued. “I quite like my idea, and given your position in the company, it will be a good way to expand your horizons and help out the Jacobsen team. I think it will be a good experience for you.”

“A good experience for me?” Incredulity filled Harry’s voice. “From the way you were talking two days ago, I thought you were going to fill the vice president of development position. With me.”

Grandpa Joe rolled his shoulders. “I’m still not sure about that yet.”

At that moment, business relationship be darned. This was personal, this was family. Whatever his grandfather had up his sleeve a few days ago, it hadn’t been this.

“You’re going to promote someone else over my head, aren’t you? How is that going to be a good experience for me?” Harry asked. “Have I not proven myself enough?”

The neutral expression on his grandfather’s face never changed. “No one said anything about promoting people. Stop putting words into my mouth. This program is about keeping top talent in the company. We don’t want them lured away by any of our competitors, especially after we’ve put so much investment into training them.”

“What about me? Where do I fit into all this?” Especially if he wasn’t being promoted.

Now Grandpa Joe blinked. “That’s obvious, Harry, my boy, you’re going to be a mentor.”

Oh no, his grandfather was not roping him into another scheme.

But Grandpa Joe didn’t pause. “In fact, that’s why I’m here. I’ve got the perfect person picked out for you. She’s a recent hire. Well, I guess a year ago isn’t too recent. We hired her after Darci left. You know Megan MacGregor. She’s in Mergers and Acquisitions. An absolute gem that girl is, and I want to make sure she stays with us. She has raw talent, and I think you can help develop it.”

Megan MacGregor. Harry bit back the bile that immediately came to his throat upon hearing her name. He certainly did not want to mentor her. “I develop business opportunities and future growth,” he said. “I do not develop talent in females.”

Grandpa Joe’s eyebrow lifted. “Your playboy reputation tells me that you at least try to develop something with females.”

There was hard, unyielding steel underlining his grandfather’s voice. “And let me remind you that Working Mother named this company one of the best places to work in America. At Jacobsen Enterprises we take pride in knocking down the glass ceiling. But don’t worry. You don’t have to participate, Harry. After all, you are family, and you will always have a place in the company. I made that promise to your mother when you graduated high school and went off to Vanderbilt.”

Wonderful, Harry thought. Grandpa Joe had wanted Harry, his oldest grandson, to go to Princeton. Accepted at both colleges, Harry had wanted to stay closer to Saint Louis. So he’d chosen Vanderbilt in Tennessee instead of the Ivy League Princeton in New Jersey, much to Grandpa Joe’s disappointment. Grandpa Joe had graduated from Princeton.

And by his grandfather bringing up Harry’s choice of alma mater, Harry recognized his grandfather’s displeasure—that Harry had once again disappointed him by discounting the mentor program and his grandfather’s choice of mentee.

Which probably meant that Harry was about to be passed over once again for a better spot in the company. In reality, being family didn’t even mean that much. Look at poor Shane, the youngest of all the grandchildren and Harry’s cousin. Grandpa Joe didn’t even want him around, and hence Shane didn’t work anywhere in the company. Instead, he lived in his parents’ pool house, and sponged off his trust fund. All the grandchildren had gotten a trust fund at age twenty-one, and Harry had tripled its value already while Shane, well, who knew what his brother did with his.

Not that Grandpa Joe had ever mentioned that Harry’s financial prowess, a formidable. accomplishment given the current stock market crisis.

Heavy silence fell as Harry contemplated his options. How to get out of this situation gracefully? “I’d prefer that if I was going to mentor someone it be someone other than Megan MacGregor,” Harry said finally. “Someone male preferably. I don’t need to even get close to putting myself into a potential sexual harassment case.”

“So you think Megan MacGregor is a sexual harassment case waiting to happen?”

Uh-oh. That tone again.

Harry squared his chin. He knew Megan’s type, but he should have kept his mouth shut about his opinion of her. Too late now. “Yes. Yes, I do.”

“Interesting,” Grandpa Joe said. He tilted his head as if he was contemplating a new electronics purchase. “You may be right. I’ll have to see what I can do. I have just about everyone else assigned, so it might take some juggling to move people around. If it won’t work out, you just won’t mentor. Let me get back to you.” And with that said, Grandpa Joe left the office.

Harry blinked. Just like that, Grandpa Joe was really gone. Had Harry missed something? Where had the night-and-day change in his grandfather come from?

Or had there really been a change? Harry leaned forward. The leather chair thumped his back as he picked up the spiral-bound Jacobsen Stars binder. He thumbed through it, skimming the highlights of the program.

He tossed the binder down. The program was like handing Megan MacGregor the keys to the Jacobsen kingdom. Couldn’t his grandfather see through her? She was a piranha both in business and her personal life. Although he hated listening to office gossip, according to the grapevine, she’d landed a man twenty years her senior for her fiancé. He’d been seen in her office.

Even the former floor receptionist, before she’d left, had blasted Megan MacGregor. No, Harry didn’t want anything to do with her. She was the type that would stop at nothing to get what she wanted, even if it meant crawling over his dead body to do it.

The real claw was that Grandpa Joe obviously adored Megan. He’d discovered her, so to speak, and had personally overseen her Jacobsen career. Megan had replaced Darci. That meant Harry really needed to be on his toes. He couldn’t let his guard down, especially when Megan MacGregor was involved.