Finally Found (9 page)

Those eyes. So blue. So rich. So enthralling.

“Oh, Adam, can I ask questions now?” She smiled shyly. It was a completely new look to her. Maybe there was a sweet side that he had never noticed previously.

Two hours later, she had exhausted all her questions…and Adam. “Seriously, I’m getting practically nothing out of this. My only benefit is getting rid of Kiki! You get a career, a campaign, and clients!” He growled. “Frankly, I don’t see a down side!”

“I’m stuck with you! You don’t see the down side? We can’t be in the same room for more than a few minutes before we are fighting, pushing each other’s buttons. And you want me to subject myself to that for an entire week! Honestly, from the sound of i
t, it would be longer, too! My entire holiday season could be ruined while I get stuck hanging out with you!” She stood up and paced around the room.

“Oh, like you have any better options! And you! You have the temperament of a spoiled child. You were an only child, right?” He smirked and casually crossed his legs.

“Not long enough.” She sighed. In that moment, he knew that she was coming to the conclusion that this was in fact the best option for her. What else could be frustrating her so intensely?

Then he realized how she had responded. “What does that mean? Not long enough?”

“There are fourteen months between me and my sister. What else could I mean?” She turned to face him. “You don’t know me at all. Have you not figured that out yet? You know nothing about the kind of person I am. You know nothing about the kind of life I’ve led. Yet here you are trying to bend me to your will.”

He leaned in. This was less enjoyable. She really was struggling over some aspect of his deal. It was beginning to pain him, watching her. He stood and walked over to her. She was staring out the window over the back gardens. His mother had always kept these immaculate gardens, grew vegetables and every herb known to man. He stood behind her for a moment. Then just because it seemed right, he reached out and held her upper arms. “What’s wrong sweet?”

She leaned her head back, lightly rested it on his chest as she looked up at him. “Sweet?”

He sighed. “You keep making these claims. I’d like to believe if I start calling you by that name, you will be inspired to act that way.” He bent his head closer to hers and tried to behave. It was all he could do to not plant another kiss on her nose. She was adorable. And there was a soft side to her when she was troubled.

“I don’t know. I don’t know what my true objection is. There’s just this nagging feeling within me that I shouldn’t do this.” She was exasperated. She sighed. Her head snapped forward once more.

Adam spun her to face him, but her head was looking down at the floor. So instead, he did what he had thought about doing since the night before. It wasn’t unusual for him to give in to temptation. What was unusual was for him to have waited as long as he had. He crushed her to him. And while he fully expected her to fight him, instead she relaxed against his chest. And he heard her sniff. “Are you crying?” He asked incredulously as he pushed her back so that he could study her face. But her face was clear and dry and curious.

“No,” she admitted, as her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink. “I was trying to decide what cologne you were wearing.” She pushed back until he completely released her from his arms. Then she walked back over to the chair, collected her bag, and headed out of the room.

“Where are you going?” He asked, alarmed.

“Looks like I’m going to need to get the big bag,” she said. “You know…since I’m going to be here a while.” With that, she bowed her head and walked out of the room headed towards the door and her car.

He sat there and pondered his next move. There was a lot to cons
ider. Since it was nearing lunchtime, he kept expecting to hear from Sam any moment. Then he remembered that he no longer had a cell phone to keep up with and smiled. To his surprise, he heard the distant ringing of the house phone. Wandering into the kitchen, he answered it without even glancing at the Caller ID. That was a big mistake.

“Where are you?” Sam growled, the minute the phone connected.

“Well, since you called me in the Hamptons house, I should think that would be obvious,” Adam replied with a chuckle. He knew taking his older brother lightly was only going to inflame the situation, but that was a risk he was willing to take.

“You know what I mean! Why are you there? How did you get there? And when will you be coming back to the city?” Sam’s voice was angry and impatient.

In the background, Adam could hear Haley trying to calm him down. He could tell that it wasn’t working, and finally he heard his brother pass the phone off after saying something that sounded remarkably like
you deal with him then!

“Hi, Adam,” Haley began.

“You sound tired. Sam keep you up?” He asked the question fully expecting to embarrass and distract her.

“Nice try,” she said with a weak laugh. “You had us worried.”

“You two were worried? Really? Because you didn’t seem worried when you left me with Kiki. You didn’t seem worried when you two rushed off to enjoy some alone time. And you didn’t seem worried when you left me without money, keys, or a phone!” His frustration was showing and he felt guilty because he doubted that Haley knew any of this. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t yell at you.”

“Wait. What was that last part?” There was an edge to her voice. He imagined she was about to confront Sam. He could certainly play this up.

“My wallet, phone, and keys are gone. Did you know that Sam took them?” He asked his question quietly and waited for her response.

“Sam!” Her voice was muffled. He figured she was either holding it against her chest as he had seen her do so often, or she had her finger over the speaker.

“Adam, let me call you back.” And without waiting for his response, she ended the call. He was left to do something he hadn’t done in a very long time. He hung up a phone. The only place he ever used a landline was the office. Even then it was rare.

Well, Sam knew where he was. Now he was forced to deal with Haley. That should keep Sam busy for a while. There was plenty to keep him busy here. He had an ad campaign to create. He had a week to keep Cammie busy. He had just a matter of days before Sam would no doubt descend upon the Hamptons home. That was the first thought that had made him scowl all day.

The beach outside of the window was his focus at the moment. Soon Cammie came and cleared her throat. He recognized it as a gentle distraction technique.

“Just lost in thought,” he said as he turned to face her. For the first time since he had known her, she looked relaxed. She looked shy. She looked like she might even be happy. He hoped that he had a little something to do with that.

“So when did you want to get to work?” She asked. “Or is there something you need from me first?”

“Well, since we’re already in the kitchen, let’s talk food. More importantly, let’s order food for lunch. Oh, and do you have any plans for Thanksgiving. I only ask because I was thinking it might be a nice opportunity for you to demonstrate your catering abilities and even meet some potential clients…” He had pulled that idea out of nowhere. Huh. At the same time, it wasn’t a bad idea.

“Do you normally entertain for Thanksgiving? I thought it was more of a family holiday.” She was curious more than judgmental. Cammie realized she had a lot to learn about her dream clientele.

“I just thought we might have a special cocktail party on Friday. It’s the official kick off for the holiday season. If we work our butts off, we can have catering menus available for people to pick up, business cards for them to carry home with them, and even a calendar to start booking. If you don’t get at least three parties booked from that event alone, then you suck.” He leaned across the counter and smiled at her. The gauntlet had been thrown.

He watched her for a reaction. This would tell him everything he needed to know. If she backed up, she probably didn’t have the stamina or backbone for the business. If she met his challenge, then she had a chance.

Cammie was beaming. “You say three? I’m going to book no fewer than five parties from this event.” She glanced around. “We’re hosting it here?”

He nodded, fascinated by her reaction. “Great. So where are the Christmas decorations?”

“Decorations?” He stood up and glanced around. They had never decorated the Hamptons house for the holidays. All the winter parties were held in the city. This idea of his was going to be unusual, to say the least, but selling ideas was his business. Okay, selling ideas was supposed to be his business and this was his chance to prove himself, just as much as it was Cammie’s chance to prove that catering was hers. He smiled. “Guess we just will have to go shopping, after we discuss your vision for this event.”

All the times he had seen Haley and Sam working together, they had adjourned to the library. This house didn’t have a library. This house didn’t even have a study. This house was a place to relax and get away from work. Only he would bring it with him. He shook his head.

“What? You doubt me?” She stood up even straighter, threw her shoulders back, brushed her hair away from her face, and gathered it up in a messy bun. “Hope you ate Wheaties for breakfast. We have lots of work to do in the next few days.”

Then she turned her back on him and began to acclimate herself with the kitchen. Adam watched in fascination as she looked over what pots and pans they had, the serving dishes. She was making notes on her phone as she worked. A good thirty minutes later, she looked up and caught him sitting there with his head propped up on his hand.

“What are you doing?” She stood there with her hands on her hips.

“I’m just…thinking,” he responded shyly. He had been caught.

“Why aren’t you working on ideas for this advertising campaign? I’m checking out the kitchen and thinking food and décor and I can’t even get you to keep your part of the bargain. Ad campaign. Now!” She sighed in frustration to punctuate her discontent.

“Yes, ma’am.” He stood and left the room. He would never get anything done while watching her. Yet she was such a surprise that he couldn’t imagine doing anything but sitting around watching her. Damn it. What would Sam do in this situation? He was always so much more controlled, so confident. He never would have made this kind of rookie mistake. He wouldn’t have been caught looking. Hell, he probably had never been distracted in his life, as single minded as he was.

Searching through the sofa table drawers, he soon realized that he had left the kitchen just a bit too hastily. He had to go back in there to get a pad and paper. He looked like an idiot. He had no phone, no iPad, and instead he was forced to work with the most rudimentary methods of note making. He snuck back into the kitchen, afraid of disrupting her chain of thought.

“Did you have something you wanted to run by me?” She glanced up at him, completely serious.

“What if we meet in an hour? We’ll go over the groceries first. Do you want to order take out and then go grocery shopping, or do you want to get groceries while picking up take out?” He tried to act like that was the reason he was in there, but as he opened the kitchen drawer and pulled out a pad and pen from the drawer in the island, she smirked.

“Well, genius, in an hour, let’s go out for a working lunch and then pick up groceries on the way back here.” She smiled and batted her eyelashes at him playfully.

Frozen for a moment, completely lost in her eyes, he struggled to regain his composure and head out of the room while she looked on slightly confused. “So, I’ll just go now. And I’ll just see you in an hour.” He backed out of the room.