Lost And Found
Genre:Fiction,
Romance, Contemporary
Series: The Keller Family Series
Publisher:5 Prince Books
Formats
Available In:All eBook formats
Release
Date: 9th May 2013
Digital: ISBN
13:978-1-939217-54-7 ISBN
10:1-939217-54-7
Print: ISBN 13:978-1-939217-53-0 ISBN 10:1-939217-53-9
Blurb:Darcy McCary came to Nashville
with some big expectations--to find her birth parents. She had no plans of
making a life in Tennessee. But when her sources lead her to Eduardo Keller,
her heart took over, and plans changed.
Eduardo Keller is a man who goes after what he wants and he
doesn't have time for playing games. Darcy is exactly the woman he's been
looking for to assist him in business and be his partner in life.
Because he loves Darcy, Ed promises to help her find the answers
she seeks. What he doesn't know is that if Darcy finds the secret to her past
it might mend her curiosity; however, it might also tear apart a branch of the
Keller family.
Excerpt:
Ed Keller
leaned back in his chair
and kicked his
feet up on his desk. The view from his office would never cease to amaze
him. The view
from his uncle’s
office was much more spectacular, but he had no reason
to complain.
Who would
have thought, nearly twenty years ago when he’d
asked for an
after-school job to
afford a limo
ride to take a
girl to prom, that he’d end
up with the
title Vice President on his
business cards.
He laughed.
He couldn’t even
think of the
girl’s name that had
squeezed at his
heart. She’d been
older. That he remembered. But
he’d never done well with older women.
Now he
sat atop an empire that his uncle’s grandfather had started and his uncle’s
father had carried on. But it was Zach Benson who made it what it was
today.
Benson, Benson,
and Hart built
big—built on time—and built under budget. Nothing had
changed.
Ed didn’t
have a foreman
like Zach had.
His other uncle, John
Forrester, had been
the best foreman
any company could have asked for. A loyal employee until Ed’s Aunt Arianna
made him retire
only two years
earlier. But another would come
along. Right now he had to focus on a new assistant.
Interviewing people
for a position
shouldn’t be an issue. He’d been doing it for years. But a
personal assistant had to be in your business, and he didn’t like that.
He’d
fought it for years. Temps were good. They came, did the work, and left. He
figured it was kind of like dating the
wrong girl. There
weren’t any he
wanted to spend
his life with.
Perhaps his
expectations were too high.
After all, his Aunt Regan had been Zach’s assistant.
They’d been married nearly
twenty-five years, and she
still took care
of him. It wouldn’t
be long before
Tyler and Spencer,
their sons, would be sitting in Ed’s
seat.
Ed dropped
his feet to
the floor and
pushed up from his chair. When the time was right, he’d
find the assistant of his dreams. He’d given up on the woman of his dreams, so
an assistant would have to do.
He walked
to the elevator and pressed the button to go down to
the lobby. There
was a Starbucks
there now, and he’d grown very
fond of caramel lattes, thanks to his Aunt Arianna, though
he didn’t go
for the skinny
version. His Uncle John
would say it
was a bit
too frilly a
drink for a man
in the construction
business. His Uncle Zach, on
the other hand, would argue that it was a good stress reliever.
Ed laughed
at himself. What
an eclectic bunch
of people he had
in his family. And
even without them
there with him, he still enjoyed them.
The gathering
of the masses
in the Starbucks
also entertained him, almost
as much
as the thoughts
of his family and their
differences.
Ed ordered
his drink and
stood at the
counter waiting for it to be
handed to him.
As he
looked around the store, he mentally spotted and named each kind
of person. There was
the tourist, the executive, and
the assistant. There
was a couple, obviously just
downtown for the day and…hmmm, one that stumped him.
She was
professional, probably interviewing by the way she was
dressed, but she
wasn’t comfortable with
the big building and
the mass of
people. She was
using Starbucks as a
common ground, something
familiar, to ease
her nerves.
He listened
as she ordered
her drink—decaf and nonfat. What fun was in that, he
wondered.
She tucked
her change back
into her purse, walked
to the end of the counter, and stood behind to Ed to wait for her drink.
Flowery
perfume filled his nose. She had a sweet side.
The lady
behind the counter
handed Ed his
iced caramel latte. He
turned to leave and, he’d say
so himself, that was when things
got interesting.
The woman
who had been
standing behind him, searching in
her bag for
something, looked up just
as Ed turned around.
She shifted to
move out of
his way, but instead she moved right into him.
Ed’s hands
slipped from the
condensation on the
cup, and the entire,
cold drink poured
down the front
of the woman.
She let
out a stifled scream, and her hands went into the air. “Oh-my-God!”
“I’m very
sorry.”
Ed turned
toward the counter and grabbed a handful of napkins. He would have helped to
mop up her clothes, but he noticed that the white, silk shirt clung to her and
decided it just wasn’t a good idea to try.
“Look
what you did!” She ripped the napkins from his hand and began to blot away the
coffee, which had already stained the shirt.
“Sorry,
but I think you ran into me.”
She snapped
her head up
again. “Oh, men.
You’re not always right, you
know. Sometimes you do make mistakes.”
Not only
was she not as sweet as her flowery perfume, she was jaded. Bad news.
“Again, I’m
very sorry. How
can I help
you?” He turned and reached for
more napkins, but when she pulled them from his hand, he noticed she was
crying.
“I think
you’ve done enough.”
“I still
think I can help in some way.”
“Listen.
My suit is ruined. This is the only one I have. I was searching
for a job, and I
can’t do that
now. I can’t hand out resumes looking like this.”
Ed watched
as the woman
continued to wipe
off her blouse, but
to no avail. It
was ruined, but
he still wasn’t going to take the blame.
“Are you
looking for a job in this building?”
She let
out a grunt. “Why else would I be here?”
“I was
just asking. I know most of the businesses in the building. Perhaps I can help
you out.”
The woman
pursed her lips.
“I don’t need
your charity.”
“It’s not
charity. You seem to be in need of a job, and
I’m sure
I can help you find one.”
“What, do
you own this place?” She waved her arms in the air.
“Let me
see your resume.”
The woman
stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. That wasn’t new. You didn’t run a
multi-million dollar company in your mid-thirties without people giving you a
shifty eye.
Her
coffee was set on the counter. He moved in to grab it, but
she moved quicker.
“I’ll get this.
I can’t afford
to waste a sip of this. It’s my breakfast and lunch.”
She picked
up the coffee
and moved to
a table where she set
down the cup
and pulled a
resume from her
bag.
She handed
it to Ed.
“Here it is.
I hate to say it,
but I’m desperate. If I don’t
find a job
in three days, I
have to go home.”
“Why? Does
that suit turn
back into a
pumpkin and your glass slipper
breaks?”
“Have you
ever been desperate
for anything in
your life?”
About Bernadette
Marie:
Bernadette
Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill
notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends.
Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her
father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you
would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would
continue to write for the next 22 years.
In 2007 –
after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five
children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being
published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was
contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In
2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house,
5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and began the process
of taking on other authors in other genres.
In 2012
Bernadette Marie found herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes and Amazon to
name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorfulPostIt notes with the
titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that
they too will grace the bestsellers lists.
Bernadette
spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events. She
is also an accomplished martial artist who will earn her conditional second
degree black belt in Tang Soo Do in October 2012. An avid reader, she
enjoys most, the works of Nora Roberts, Karen White, Megan Hart, to name a few.
She loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she
always promises Happily Ever After.
Author Contact Info:
Website: www.bernadettemarie.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie
Blogspot: www.authorbernadettemarie.blogspot.com
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