Free Fire And Ice by Diana Palmer Page A

the car and decided that running is something you only do when the odds are stacked against you.”
    “Same here,” Jan said with a rare show of spirit. “Cannon may not like me, but by gosh, he’s going to accept me one of these days.”
    Margie grinned at them. “That’s the spirit. I’ll help any way I can, right down to supporting the two of you while you get started if it comes to that.”
    Andy gave her a warm smile. “I wouldn’t let you do that,” he said gently. “But having your support means a lot. Thanks.”
    “What are future sisters-in-law for?” Margie shrugged theatrically.
    “By the way,” Andy asked, “was old man Long actually smiling at you when we came in? He hates people. Mostly he stands in corners and sneers into his drink until it’s time to talk business, and then he disagrees with everything that’s been said.”
    “That name sounds familiar,” Jan murmured.
    “It ought to—I’ve been moaning over it for weeks.” He glanced at Margie. “Cal’s trying to talk Long into merging his knitting mill with our corporation. Long won’t budge. They’ve had meeting after meeting after meeting, and Cal’s had to do all the negotiating himself—but with every junior executive in Long’s company. This is the first time Long’s even agreed to meet with him face-to-face.”
    “I think I’m flattered,” Margie murmured with a smile.
    * * *
    At dinner, she wasn’t surprised to find herself seated next to Bob Long, who turned out to be a former planning commission member. They didn’t run out of subjects all through the meal. In fact, Bob Long was the last to leave—a totally different man from the sour-faced executive of a few hours before.
    “You still haven’t given me an answer on the merger proposal, Bob,” Cannon re-minded him with a hard glance in Margie’s direction.
    “Oh, that.” Bob waved airily. “Go ahead with it. You have your people draw up the contracts and send them over. I’ll sign them. It’s been a pleasure, Mrs. Silver,” he added, holding Margie’s slender hand in his bony one and smiling down at her. “I hope we’ll meet again sometime.”
    “So do I, Mr. Long,” she said with a genuine smile of her own. “Good night.”
    He nodded, waving at the others, and went smiling out the door.
    “My God,” Cannon said shortly, staring at Margie with glittering eyes. “I’ve been trying for months to get him to agree to the damned thing so that Harry and I could go ahead with our expansion plans. He wouldn’t budge. He wouldn’t even meet with us. And he spends a couple of hours talking to you and acts as if he couldn’t care less about the whole thing!”
    “He’s an introvert,” Margie told him. “He doesn’t mix well, and that makes him argumentative. He only wants to be treated like everyone else, to be part of the conversation, but he doesn’t know how.”
    “You did,” Cannon pointed out.
    “I was a reporter,” she reminded him. “An old editor told me years ago that there are no dull people—only interviewers with no imagination. After that, I went the extra mile to draw people out. It’s not hard. You simply find things they like to talk about, and listen as much as you talk.”
    “How simple you make it sound, dear,” Victorine said. “It isn’t, you know.”
    “Anyway, I enjoyed it,” Margie said. “We had quite a talk about water usage and restrictions….”
    “Both my sons sat on committees dealing with conservation issues in Chicago,” Victorine remarked. “Cannon went on television about it.”
    “I didn’t know Bob was even interested in water conservation,” Cannon muttered, and looked at Margie as if that were her fault.
    “I think we’ll go watch television,” Andy said, holding Jan’s hand tightly and smiling down at her.
    “Well, don’t sit too close,” Cannon warned with a faint smile. “To the set, I mean. You know what they say about radiation.”
    Andy managed to smile back. “So they