Lost and Found (2 page)

“
You’re into
architecture?”

He watched as she swallowed hard, but
the color hadn’t returned to her cheeks yet. “Not exactly, but you
think you can get me in there?”

“
I’m sure I
can.”

She nodded and picked up her coffee.
“You don’t think Mr. Keller will mind my attire?”

Ed smiled. “I guarantee he will be
fine. Your resume is impressive. I’m sure that he’d understand that
accidents happen.”

She nodded again, nervously. “I’m
still mad that you ruined my suit.”

“
And I’m sorry that you
bumped into me. But if you’ll come with me, I’ll get you a job.
And, if you’re hungry for lunch later, there is a hot dog cart out
back. I’d love to buy you some lunch.”

Darcy watched the elevator doors
close. She was alone with the man who had ruined her day, but also
had offered her an opportunity. She was scared to death.

She’d planned this day for so long.
Now she was in the building, and she was headed to the company
offices of Benson, Benson, and Hart.

Her heart pounded in her chest. She
hadn’t expected this. It was in her plans, but as the doors opened
to the floor and the name was before her on the wall in big, shiny
letters, she thought she might just throw up.

She only knew one thing about
herself—her past—and it had led her to Benson, Benson, and Hart.
She’d planned to attempt to, at least, get in the door since all
the other jobs she’d applied for had fallen through. The journey to
find out about herself wasn’t supposed to drop her in the office
where she knew her all her answers would lie. This was supposed to
be months down the road when she’d had time to explore more about
herself and where she’d come from. Now what?

The man exited the elevator and looked
at her. “Are you coming?”

“
I seem to be very
nervous.”

He reached for her hand and pulled her
gently from the elevator. He took off his suit coat and draped it
over her shoulders. It was a courteous move to hide the huge stain
on her blouse, which she knew she’d caused because she wasn’t
paying attention, but she still wasn’t going to let him think he
didn’t do it. Men would use you if you weren’t careful.

The man led her to an office, and the
name on the door read EDUARDO KELLER. She sucked in a breath as he
opened the door and walked in.

“
Have a seat.” He pointed
to the chairs in front of the desk.

Darcy took a seat, set her bag to the
side, and then slid her arms through the sleeves of the jacket he’d
draped on her. She probably looked ridiculous. He was at least six
feet tall and broad shouldered. She wasn’t very tall at all, and
she didn’t even come close to filling out the jacket.

The man sat behind the desk and turned
on the computer monitor.

“
Should you be doing that?”
she asked.

“
I need to find the
application information to fill out for the human resource
department.”

“
You’re going to fill it
out?”

“
I usually do when I’m
hiring people.”

She looked around the office. Eduardo
Keller had no personal affects. The man must be all
business.

“
Why are you doing the
hiring?”

The man stopped what he was doing. He
folded his hands on the top of the desk and gazed at her with dark
brown eyes.

“
Because I’m Ed
Keller.”

Ed had seen his share of angry women
in his life. When this woman’s face turned the color of Santa’s
suit, he knew he’d crossed the line.

She stood from the chair and grabbed
her bag. “Do you think this is funny? You’re messing with my
life.”

“
Whoa.” He stood from his
seat. “Calm down.”

“
Calm down? I will not calm
down.”

“
I’ve seen your resume.
You’re very qualified for the position I need to fill, and I’d like
to help you.”

“
Help me?” She lifted the
bag onto her shoulder. “Help me? Why would you want to do that?
You’re just some stuck-up executive who can play with people, like
spilling coffee on a woman to get her into your office. Is this
what you do here?”

Ed planted his hands firmly on his
desk and looked at her. “You told me you had three days to find a
job. You told me I ruined all your chances by messing up your
blouse. So you can either hear me out, or you can leave here with
your stained clothing, your wrinkled resume, and your bad attitude
and find a job.”

The woman sucked in a breath and let
it out slowly. “What is the job?”

“
Executive
assistant.”

“
To you?”

“
Yes.”

Her shoulders dropped, and she bit her
bottom lip. She was contemplating, but he didn’t know, in his own
heart, which way he wanted her to go now. It was very likely he’d
just made a big mistake offering it to her if she was so
volatile.

The woman set her bag back on the
ground and extended her hand to him. “Darcy McCary, your new
assistant.”

Darcy studied Eduardo Keller as he
shook her hand. Was he happy? Mad? Oh, he’d been messing with her,
and now she really felt stupid. But she needed the job, and he was
right—she was very qualified. She needed to find an apartment and
establish some savings. Private investigators hadn’t been cheap,
and she couldn’t tell her father that she’d hired them.

She had a debt to pay and a life to
understand—her life.

Darcy McCary was in Tennessee to find
her birth mother, and the investigator told her that all ties led
to Nashville and to Benson, Benson, and Hart.

Darcy had accepted the job and now
walked out the front door of the Riverside Building into the early
July heat.

Eduardo Keller had told her
to come back in the morning, and he would personally see that human
resources got her
processed
first thing. He said they had a lot of work to
do.

Darcy walked around the side of the
building to a courtyard that overlooked the river. She noticed the
hot dog stand and realized that Eduardo Keller had also promised
her lunch. He must have forgotten that part.

She opened her purse and pulled out
her wallet. That Starbucks coffee had cost her nearly her last
dime, but it had landed her a job. But she was starving. Maybe she
could find the three dollars for a hot dog.

She was in luck. Stuck
behind an Old Navy credit card, which wasn’t even active since
she’d forgotten to pay the bill on time, there was a five dollar
bill. She pulled it out and headed to the stand that said
Frank and Sons.

“
What can I get
ya?”

She looked over the menu. “I think
just a regular dog, please.”

“
Anything else?”

She looked at the five dollar bill
wadded in her hand. “No, that’ll do.”

As the vendor went about getting her
hot dog, she felt a man walk up behind her. She didn’t turn to look
at him, but the man behind the cart gave him a nod.

“
The usual, Ed?”

“
You bet. And I’m paying
for hers, too.”

Darcy turned and noticed Eduardo
Keller standing right behind her. “You don’t need to do
that.”

“
I think the deal was I’d
get you a job and buy you a hot dog.”

“
So, you did remember
that?” She turned back to toward the cart and took the hot dog as
the man handed it to her.

“
Frank, get us each a soda
and a bag of chips, too.” He walked up next to her and pulled two
napkins out of the dispenser. “You can’t have a dog without soda
and chips.”

“
You can if you’re being
conservative.”

He only nodded as he reached for his
hot dog. Frank handed them each a soda, and they pulled their chips
from the display.

“
There’s a table over
there.” He pointed toward the river with his elbow.

Darcy followed him to the table, and
they both sat down.

She’d always loved Nashville, though
she’d only been a few times. Her parents never seemed to want to be
there too long, and she guessed it had something to do with the
fact that perhaps her birth mother was there. It was a mystery to
her. Maybe they didn’t even know her birth mother.

She looked up to see Eduardo watching
her.

He opened his soda. “You look like you
have a lot going on in that head of yours.”

“
I usually do. My father
says I have more conversations with myself than I do with other
people.”

He found that amusing as he bit into
his hot dog. “That keeps you company then, right?”

“
I guess.”

She took her first bite into the hot
dog. She hadn’t realized just how hungry she was until she’d sat
down to eat.

“
Thank you for
lunch.”

“
You’re welcome. Thank you
for ending my search for an assistant. I was seriously dreading
having to give it more thought.”

She wasn’t sure that was very
positive. “Have the applicants been bad?”

He shook his head. “No. I just have a
hard time with finding one I want to keep around. Maybe I have a
personality flaw.”

A crude comment came right to mind,
but she pushed it back. “I’ll do my best. I promise.”

“
I know you will. You can
tell when someone needs a job and will do the job. Trust me, after
this many years, I’ve seen every kind of employee out
there.”

“
How long have you been at
this company?”

“
Twenty years. My first job
was working a site after school when I was fifteen. My uncle, well
he wasn’t my uncle then, but he used to have me work with a
different kind of craftsman every week. I thought he was just
trying to keep me busy. He was pretty smart. He was teaching me
every job on a site.”

“
He sounds like a very
smart man.”

“
Oh, he is. The first job
he gave me was to design an office for my aunt. It was a
masterpiece. She loved it.”

“
How old were
you?”

“
I was just about sixteen.
I wish we had some pictures of it.”

Darcy opened her soda and took a sip.
“She doesn’t work in it anymore?”

“
It burnt down just days
after I got it done.”

She watched him as he talked about it.
He didn’t seem too saddened by the loss, but she could see it had
been a big deal to him at the time.

“
Did you design her a new
one?”

“
You bet I did. It was even
better.” That brought the glimmer back to his dark eyes.

“
What about you? You said
if you didn’t find a job you’d have to go home. Where is
that?”

“
Kentucky.”

“
Oh, you’re not too far
from home then.”

“
Far enough.” The pang of
guilt and sadness was just enough to bring tears to her eyes that
she batted away quickly.

“
So, why come to Nashville
for a job?”

“
Something I had to do.”
She wasn’t going to tell him that somewhere within the organization
of Benson, Benson, and Hart the truth to who she was lay hidden—and
for the time being, it was hidden from her, too.

The private investigator got her that
far, but without more funds, he wouldn’t keep searching. At this
point, she was on her own.

“
You also said you needed a
place to live.” He opened his bag of Doritos and crunched one
between his teeth.

“
Yes. I’m on my last two
days at the motel.”

“
I know of a nice basement
apartment just about twenty minutes from here.”

“
Really?” This guy really
was into helping people, or he had an ulterior motive.

“
My aunt has a house with a
very nice basement apartment. My brother lives upstairs right
now…when he’s in town.”

“
He travels a
lot?”

“
He’s a semi-professional
baseball player.”

“
No kidding?” This guy had
an amazing group of people he knew. Already he’d mentioned aunts,
uncles, brothers…who else did he know?

“
Do you have a
car?”

Darcy shook her head. She’d sold it to
pay for her trip.

“
Well, it’s on a bus line,
and I know for a fact the bus comes straight here. The rent is
decent if you’d like to look at it.”

She’d be a fool not to accept the
offer to look at it. After all, at eleven the next morning she was
going to be homeless.

“
I’d like that.”

“
Let’s finish lunch, and
we’ll head over and take a look.”

Darcy sat quietly in his black GMC
Yukon Denali. She was taking in all the little things about Eduardo
Keller that she could gather without asking.