Love Takes Time (Christian Romance) (17 page)

He
looked in her eyes, unwavering and determined.  He reached into his coat
pocket, pulled out the small white box and opened it.  

Chelsea
couldn’t believe it was happening to her.  It was like a dream and she
didn’t have to wake up from it.  Happy tears streamed down her face.

“Chelsea
Blair Warner, will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

“Yes!
 Yes, yes, yes!  I love you Ryder.”

“I
love you too Chelsea.”

He
slid the ring on her finger and picked her up, pulling her into a tight
embrace.  

“Congratulations
honey.”

Chelsea turned around and her parents were
there, her father grinning from ear-to-ear and her mother possibly crying even more
than she was.  As she embraced her parents, she realized that her life was
everything she could have ever asked for.

*****

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Continue reading
for an excerpt from SUMMER IN STANTON, from the Stanton Falls series.

Chapter
1 (Excerpt)

“We’re running out of time on this guys.  I mean we are
literally hours away from losing one of our biggest clients and if that
happens, it’s on us.  All of us.  So let’s pull this together and get
it done.  Nick, Rachel, I need something big like yesterday.  Robbie
and Jo, you run point on the sponsorship angle and for goodness sakes, call me
back soon with something good.”

Tessa pressed the hang up button on her speakerphone--abruptly
ending the conference call that she was on with her direct team members.  

This is not good.  Definitely not good.  

She moved her hair from her face.   She was so
frustrated that she was about ready to pull it out.  In fact, she was so
desperate that she would have seriously considered doing just that if she
thought it would help make a good enough Product Placement Proposal to keep the
client happy.   She figured that she at least had a little more time
to right the ship before she had to present it to her boss.  When her
phone rang no more than ten seconds after she finished her conference call, she
was surprised.  She had specifically asked her secretary to make sure she
not be disturbed this morning.   She pressed the button on her phone.
  

“Beth, I thought I said no interruptions.”

The girl sounded flustered.

“Right. I-I wouldn’t bother you Ms. McGuire but it is important.
  I just took a call from Mr. Atwell’s secretary.  He wants to
see you in his office as soon as possible.”

Tessa looked at the watch on her hand.  It was eleven a.m.

“Okay.  Let them know that I’ll be there before noon.”

“I’m sorry ma’am.  I probably should have said exactly what
she told me.”

Now this woman is just frustrating.  Why doesn’t she ever
just spit out what she has to say instead of making me pull it out of her.
 

On more than one occasion, Tessa had seriously considered
replacing the woman.  This only made her mind up for her.  Here she
was working the biggest client the company had and her secretary apparently
thought she could read minds.  Still, she didn’t want to fire her.
 No one deserved that.  She gave herself a mental note to have her
moved to a role that would probably be better for her and get herself a new
secretary.  In the meantime, she sighed in frustration before responding.
 

“Which was what exactly?”

“Oh, sorry.  Mr. Atwell wanted you to come immediately but I
told her you were on a conference call.  She said you were to head over
once you were finished.”

“Okay then.  Tell them I’m on my way up now.”

“Yes ma’am.”

The phone clicked off and Tessa grabbed some of her documents.
 She didn’t want to keep them waiting any more than she already had but
she had to show them that there were going to be positive results.  

She walked down the long hallway, her heels clicking as she made
her way across the shiny, tiled floor.  She looked around as she walked.
 

You’d think someone died by the looks I’m getting.  

People who normally talked to her at length every time they saw
her were averting their eyes.   All around people were pretending to
be working when she knew they were watching her.  No.  This was
really weird.  It was quiet.  That was the last thing that an ad
agency in the heart of New York City should be.  

I haven’t seen it like this in here since the day . . . oh no.

The door to Mr. Atwell’s office opened slowly and a very
displeased looking man walked out.  It was David
Drabst
,
the CEO of the company she worked for.  Her boss was the head of her
division but he reported directly to Mr.
Drabst
.
 Unfortunately, Mr.
Drabst
was never seen on
this floor unless there was really bad news.  He walked right past her
without looking at her or saying a word.  That was when she realized why
everyone was looking at her like that.  They all thought they were looking
at a woman who was on her way out.

Boy did they have the wrong woman.  She was not going out
without a fight.  That was the thing about her job.  She had to
scratch and crawl to make it to the top.  It took hard work, sacrifice and
time but it was worth it.  Being a top marketing executive for a major
advertising firm in a city like New York had its perks.  She was paid a
handsome sum of money and commanded respect from anyone in the industry.
 The job was basically a doorway to all the things she could want in life.
 

Of course, that was when things went like they were supposed to.
 

When it didn’t work out right, there had to be someone to blame.
 Naturally they had to be high enough up the chain that they could show
that when the company did take action, they were taking the right person
accountable.  At the same time, they couldn’t really fire someone who was
so important that the firing made the company look like they were in disarray.
 

Tessa knew how things ran in the city all too well.  She knew
the risks of taking the position before she took the promotion two years ago.
 Like her predecessor, she was well aware before she signed on the dotted
line that she was going to be the person in everyone’s crosshairs whenever
something went wrong.  It was a given.  For her part, she was always
determined to never make that happen.  

She did that well for two years but she was in trouble now and she
knew it.  That didn’t discourage her.  All she had to do was make Mr.
Atwell see things from her perspective.  She walked up to his secretary’s
desk and smiled and listened to her while she notified him of her arrival.

“You can go in now.”

Tessa walked over to the door of his corner office and turned the
handle.  

“Mr. Atwell.  You wanted to see me sir.”

He looked up from his paperwork with tired eyes.  She almost
felt bad for him after having to deal with
Mr
Drabst
.

“Yes.  Come on in.”

“Yes sir.”  She took the offensive.  “Now I realize this
is probably about the Yamaguchi Company Toy Proposal and I can assure you that
they will completely love what we have planned.  If you’ll take a look
at--”

He interrupted her.  

“There’s no need for that.”

Huh?

“I’m sorry sir?”

“Sit Tessa.  Please just sit.”

She saw the serious look on his face and her countenance dropped.
 She was no fool.  

Definitely not good.

***

The tall ladder leaned against the side of the great house as
Connor worked on some repairs.  He looked down from the top of the ladder
when he heard a car door slam.  There was an older couple walking towards
the building.  He was glad to see that they finally would have some
business.  

Oh no.

The couple had been inside for about a minute before it hit
Connor.  Libby was at lunch.  That meant that there was no one
downstairs watching the front desk.  That’s what he was supposed to be
doing but he got caught up in some handyman work since it was so slow.  He
climbed down as quickly as he could, being careful not to fall.  As
exciting as it was to have a guest at the
Cammelia
,
him getting hurt rushing to check them in was
not
a good idea.  

When he reached the bottom rung of the ladder, he hopped off and
ran to the large wooden door.  The old door creaked in protest as he
tugged to pull it open.  He took a mental note to oil the rusted hinges
pretty good later, but first things first.  He heard them before he even
saw them.  They were at the front desk making enough noise to wake up the
other guests.  

If there were any.   

Connor tried not to roll his eyes, but the way the woman was
repeatedly dinging the service bell would make a person think they had been
waiting forever for service.  The truth was that it couldn’t have been
more than a minute or two.  He had to hold his tongue.  There was a
part of him that truly wanted to tell her that she could take her annoying
attitude and leave his bed and breakfast.  Instead he shook his head as he
watched her.    

“Hello?  Oh never mind.  This is a stupid waste of time.
 Let’s go.”

For his part the old man, most likely her husband, was trying his best
to keep her in check.   Chances are he was used to this kind of
behavior.  

“Calm down Dorothy.”

“Don’t you tell me to calm down Jack.  I told you we should
have gone to that big place we saw on the way here but you wanted quaint and
cozy.  You need to listen to me sometimes.  As you can see, that
equals poor service.   Now let’s go.”

Connor saw the resigned look on the man’s face as he grabbed his
bag and turned towards the exit.  Connor sighed before putting on his most
welcoming face.  As unpleasant as it may be, he needed to keep them there
rather than letting them take the twenty-mile drive that he hated.  

“Hi there.  Sorry for the wait.  Can I help you?”

“Not now.  Two minutes ago you could have but I don’t have
time for this backwater town.  Excuse us.”

Connor didn’t try to stop them.  He was pretty sure of where
they were going and it was probably more their speed than The
Cammelia
.   She wanted to go to one of the cookie
cutter, frequent stayer, chain hotels in the town next door.  He didn’t
have anything against the big chains. They had their place with the corporate
types or people that were making a stop on their drive to one of the major
cities.  

Those were never his customers.   He catered to the
people who wanted to get
away
from all that.  The problem was that
it seemed like less people were looking for what his place had to offer.
 Recently it had gotten pretty bad and the traffic to the bed and
breakfast had become practically nonexistent.  He had to stop it or The
Cammelia
would go out of business permanently and he
couldn’t let that happen.   

It had been in his family for generations.  The inn, as well
as his family, had been a mainstay of the very close town since his grandfather
bought the old great house.  It was named after his wife whom he
constantly called the single love of his life.  Despite all of its rich
history in the area, the bed and breakfast had fallen on hard times.
  In a community so loyal, most local businesses did well because everyone
bought from one another.  That was a major problem for Connor.  

Call it whatever, but a bed and breakfast is nothing more than a
hotel and in Stanton Falls that meant a great majority of their business had
been historically based on travelers looking for a small town getaway.
 For the past year and a half, tourism in the area slowed down and the inn
was going through a serious drought.