by Lisa Dyson
He waved to Charlotte, hoping the hostess would come forward quickly to seat him far away from the women.
“Come join us,” Charlotte said, to which Allie said, “Shh!”
He took the few steps to their table. “I don’t want to intrude.”
Allie didn’t look at him.
“You’re not intruding, is he, Allie?”
Allie didn’t reply, but then he could clearly read the answer on her face.
Charlotte looked from Allie to Jack to Allie again. She slid over in her seat to make room for Jack. “Sit down,” she ordered, which was very unlike Charlotte. “I know you’re both after the same client, but you need to work out your other issues. I want to be friends with both of you, but I can’t play referee.”
He sat down, unwilling to make a scene in the restaurant.
Charlotte folded her hands on the table and demanded, “Who’s going to talk first?”
* * *
ALLIE HAD NEVER wanted to force Charlotte to take sides.
“I’m waiting,” Charlotte said through a clenched jaw.
Not wanting to upset Charlotte even more, Allie spoke up. “Jack doesn’t like how I found out about Fairleigh.” She looked directly at Charlotte as if Jack wasn’t even there.
“I can understand that,” Charlotte said. “But why can’t you apologize and move forward?”
“I have nothing to apologize for,” Allie said.
Jack spoke up before Allie could continue. “She doesn’t think she’s done anything wrong.”
“Is that what you want? An apology?” Allie finally looked at him, her eyes narrowed. “Fine. I’m sorry. Now are you happy? I’m sorry that you left your phone out where I could read your text message.”
Jack’s eyes widened. “You call that an apology?”
“Move over.” Charlotte nudged Jack. “I need to get out.”
He stood and then so did she. After he sat down again at her urging, Charlotte stood at the end of the table and said very distinctly, “I’m going to the ladies’ room. When I get back, I expect you’ll have worked things out. If not, then pretend you did, because I care a lot about both of you, and I won’t stand by and have you mad at each other.” She spun on her heel and walked away, leaving Allie stunned by her vehement outburst.
“She’s pretty upset,” Jack said.
“No kidding.” Allie couldn’t contain her sarcasm.
“Maybe for Charlotte’s sake, we could be civil. At least when she’s around.”
She stared at him. He had a good point. “I could do that. For Charlotte’s sake.”
“I probably should be more careful about where I leave my phone.”
“And I should keep my eyes to myself.”
His mouth turned up ever so slightly. “I know you’re having a hard time keeping your business afloat. I can appreciate how desperate you must be.”
“Desperate? How do you know about my finances?”
He hesitated. “Your dad mentioned it.”
“My dad?” She lowered her voice when she realized she’d practically shouted. “My dad? What did he say?”
“Just that he knew you were struggling financially after losing your job.”
That was putting it mildly. More like bobbing in the ocean and trying to stay afloat long enough to suck in oxygen before being dragged under the water again.
She looked at her hands and then up at him. “Does he also know that I was blacklisted by every advertising agency in New England? Empire wouldn’t even give me an entry-level job.” Jack’s eyes widened and she added, “You and I agreed to not discuss business, so I never brought it up.”
“I didn’t know that,” he said. “I’m not involved in the hiring process, although I do know we haven’t been able to hire anyone new for at least two years. The only new hires have been as replacements for employees who left the firm.”
He stretched his hand out to her, palm up. “I’m sorry for what I said earlier. I don’t believe you knew about your ex’s illegal activities.”
She hesitated long enough that he had to know she felt pressured, then placed her hand in his. “Thank you.”
Charlotte was suddenly standing at the end of the table. “Good. I’m happy to see we’re getting along again. It’s about time. I’ve been standing near the door watching you.” She nudged Jack, and he made room for her on the bench seat. “The waitress over there says this place is known for their lobster roll, so that’s what I’m having. What about you two?”
* * *
AFTER THEIR FOOD CAME—all three ordered lobster rolls—none of them spoke as they ate. Jack had to agree that this was a great choice for lunch.
“Where are you two staying?” he asked. “I’m assuming you’re spending the night?”
“We don’t have a room yet,” Charlotte said.
Jack raised his eyebrows. “You’re gonna have trouble if you don’t already have a reservation. My assistant could only get me a room at a local bed-and-breakfast. According to her, it was the last place in town.”
“Oh, no. Maybe we should find ourselves a room before we do anything else,” Charlotte suggested to Allie, who hadn’t said anything for a while.
“I’m staying at Fairleigh Manor,” Jack told them and mentioned a few other places for them to try.
“If we can’t find something,” Allie finally said, “then we can drive home late tonight.”
For some odd reason, Jack didn’t want her to leave. Now that they’d forged a peace agreement, however temporary, he wanted to continue where they’d left off when he had departed from her bed early that morning.
Had it only been half a day ago that he hadn’t wanted to leave her?
So much had happened since then.
He watched as the two women discussed the pros and cons of leaving late tonight. They were so similar, yet so different. It was easy to see how he could have been confused at Emily’s wedding, but now that he knew both women, he would never confuse them again.
He picked up the bill the server dropped off. “I’d better get going. I’ll pay this on the way out.” He pulled out a credit card and started to get up. “Listen, let me know if you don’t find a room. Mine’s pretty big, and we could probably scrounge up a rollaway bed. You two could take the king bed.” He was looking at Allie as he spoke. “I’m sure we could make it work.” He gave them a little wave and stepped to the cash register, his back to the two women.
All he could think about was how good Allie would look and feel if she were in that king-size bed with him tonight.
* * *
“I’M GLAD HE’S finally gone,” Allie said when Jack left the restaurant.
“No, you’re not,” Charlotte said.
She was right. Allie’s mouth had begun to water when he was talking about his king-size bed. Her body tingled in all the places he’d touched over and over again during the night.
How had everything gone so wrong?
“Allie, did you hear me?” Charlotte said.
“What did you say?” Allie blinked a few times to clear her head.
“I asked if you were ready to go. If Jack’s right, getting a room will be difficult.”
“I don’t understand why they need an advertising campaign to bring in tourists if they don’t have enough hotel rooms for the ones they’re already attracting.” Allie wiped her mouth and took a last sip of her soda. “Let’s go to the coffee shop around the corner. They advertised free Wi-Fi. I can pull up a list of hotels on my laptop and we’ll make some calls.”
With that decided, they headed to the coffee shop, giving Allie an opportunity to see another small business in town.
Soon they were already halfway through their list with no luck. “I don’t think we’re going to find a room,” Charlotte said. “Why don’t we take Jack up on his offer?”
Allie wasn’t about to commit to staying with Jack unless absolutely necessary. “Let’s go meet the deputy mayor and then decide. We might not need to spend the night if we can se
e enough of the town before dark.”
Charlotte seemed reluctant to agree, but they headed to the town hall anyway.
They went through a lax security check and were directed to a reception desk. “We’d like to speak to Deputy Mayor Wittmer, please.”
“I’m sorry,” the young woman at the desk told her. “The Deputy Mayor is in a meeting. Do you have an appointment?”
“No, but I’m sure he’ll want to speak to us.” Allie gave their names. She knew she should have called ahead, and she would have in any other situation. She’d blame that slip-up on Jack for being such a distraction.
“You can wait over there if you’d like.” The woman pointed to a small seating area with a few vinyl-covered chairs. “Although I can’t guarantee he’ll see you.”
Charlotte and Allie sat down. “Why don’t we continue to go down the list of hotels?” Allie suggested.
“I don’t think we’re going to find anything,” Charlotte said, but she opened her phone and dialed the next number on their hand-written list.
Allie was about to dial the last hotel on the list when she got an incoming call. She didn’t recognize the number, but it was from Rhode Island.
She stood up. “I’ll take this outside,” she whispered to Charlotte, who nodded while listening on her own phone.
“Hello?” Allie said as soon as she was outside on the sidewalk.
“Is this Allie Miller?” At Allie’s confirmation, the male caller said, “This is Peter Stone. I’m Gerard Stone’s son.”
“Yes, Peter, thank you for calling.”
“My sister filled me in. She says you’re looking for your adoption file.”
“That’s right. I believe your father handled my adoption. Do you have any idea where the file might be?”
“Look, I know my father did bad things in his life, and he made mistakes. But if you need this file because you’re looking to sue his estate, then you’re out of luck. He died deep in debt. There’s no money to be had.”
Allie was so taken aback by his assumption that she was speechless for a moment. “Oh, no,” she said when she got her voice back. “This is a personal matter. I don’t care what your father did or didn’t do. I’m just trying to find my birth parents.” She went on to explain about meeting Charlotte. “We believe your father may have been the lawyer who also brokered her adoption.”
“If that’s the case, then I think I can help.”
“Oh! That would be wonderful.” Allie’s heart leaped at the news. They made arrangements for Allie and Charlotte to meet him at his family’s storage locker the next night.
She disconnected and hurried back inside to tell Charlotte the good news.
Before she could open her mouth, Jack and a man she could only assume was the deputy mayor came walking down the hall to the reception area.
“Thanks for your time, Chuck,” Jack said as he shook the man’s hand. “I’ll be in touch.”
Jack nodded as he walked past Charlotte and Allie. The man was so damn cocky. If he thought he already had the account, he didn’t know who he was up against.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
ALLIE TURNED AWAY from Jack and his obvious satisfaction at having spoken with the deputy mayor first. Did she have time to tell Charlotte about her phone call from Peter Stone?
She whispered to Charlotte, “Let’s go over to the receptionist’s desk so the deputy mayor can’t walk by us.” Allie took Charlotte’s elbow and guided her. “That was Gerard Stone’s son, Peter, on the phone,” she said quietly.
Charlotte’s head swiveled in Allie’s direction, her eyes wide. “What did he say?”
“He wants to meet us at the storage place tomorrow night to go through his dad’s files.”
Charlotte pursed her lips. “That doesn’t sound like the safest place to meet a stranger.”
Allie waved away her doubt. “He’s not a stranger. He’s the son of the man who probably has a lot of the answers we’ve been searching for.” She put a finger to her lips when the deputy mayor began walking past them toward his office.
“Mr. Deputy Mayor.” Allie greeted him with an outstretched arm, hoping she’d used the correct title to address him.
He slowly put his hand out to shake hers, looking to the receptionist for answers.
“These women were hoping to speak to you,” the receptionist told him.
Allie didn’t wait for her to continue. “I’m Allie Miller and this is Charlotte Harrington. We spoke over the phone.”
As soon as Allie mentioned Charlotte’s name, Deputy Mayor Charles Wittmer—or Chuck as she’d heard Jack call him—gave Charlotte his immediate attention.
“Ms. Harrington,” he gushed as he put out a hand and held hers in both of his for an awkward amount of time. “What a privilege to meet you.”
Charlotte withdrew her hand and said, “Thank you, Mr. Deputy Mayor.”
“Please, call me Chuck. We’re very informal around here.” He addressed Allie. “I must say, you told me you were cousins, but you look like twins.”
Charlotte smiled and the man nearly melted.
Thinking quickly, and hoping it would help their cause, Allie said, “Yes, we are twins. It’s a long, complicated story.”
She was afraid to look at Charlotte after telling the lie, but Allie had to use every trick in her arsenal to get the Fairleigh account.
Then Charlotte took the lead. “Would it be possible for us to speak somewhere private? Like your office?”
“Oh, come right this way, Ms. Harrington.” He gestured down the short hall, and they followed him.
“Please, call me Charlotte,” she told him when they were seated in his office. “I believe you and Allie spoke on the phone about increasing tourism.” She looked to Allie. “I’ll let the two of you speak about that since it’s not my area of expertise.”
Allie couldn’t have coached Charlotte any better when it came to this meeting, even if Chuck did look a little disappointed about his lack of interaction with Charlotte. “Thank you so much for your time, Chuck,” Allie began. “I’m sure you and Charlotte will have plenty of time to talk about Charlotte’s art and what Fairleigh has planned for local artists.”
Chuck looked decidedly more relaxed when he heard that. Now that she had his attention, she brought up the lack of hotel rooms. “I imagine that’s because of the craft show?” At his nod, she asked, “What else do you have scheduled over the next three months?”
He opened the calendar on his desktop computer, and Allie was surprised to see there was very little scheduled until September.
Chuck named several summer celebrations and small conventions that previously met in town but had found other locations after Fairleigh was devastated by the hurricane.
They discussed several options that could be managed quickly. “My feeling is that if you get the year-round residents excited about tourism and their town, then they’ll invite friends and relatives to visit, and that will be the beginning of a new wave of tourism. Word of mouth is a great place to start.”
“I like how you think, Allie.”
“Then you’d like us to proceed with an advertising campaign?”
Chuck squinted. “Well, I can’t go that far, but I do like where you’re headed. We have another company we asked to help us.”
“Yes, we know. And I’m not afraid to say that we can definitely do a better job for you.”
“And why is that?”
Allie spit out the first thing she could think of. “Well, first of all, we have Charlotte here to entice artists and art lovers like yourself. She’ll convince them Fairleigh is a town they need to check out.”
Chuck beamed when she spoke about him being an art lover. “That does give you a one-up, but they are a bigger firm and have more assets to draw from.”
“More assets aren’t always a good thing,” she countered.
“Why’s that?”
“Because the more people you have involved in something, the more ideas need to
come together. In my case, I’m the only person who needs to agree and, if I say so myself, I’m pretty agreeable.” She gave him her biggest grin, and he blushed as she expected him to.
Before he could speak, she added, “I also know his company recently took on a large client, so their time will be divided. Whereas my time would be completely yours.” Using the fact that Jack had won the animal-food account was something she would have used no matter who he was. At least that’s what she told herself.
Chuck scratched his chin. “You do bring up some good points. But I have to say, Mr. Fletcher made some excellent suggestions, too.”
“I’m sure he did,” Allie said as sweetly as she could. “Charlotte and I are well acquainted with him. He’s very good at his job.” And excellent at things not at all related to his job. She put her hands to her cheeks when she felt them heat.
“Are you feeling okay?” Chuck asked solicitously.
“What? Oh, I’m fine. Just a little warm.” Allie took a few deep breaths and changed the subject back to what she could offer the town. “Maybe we should visit the artists’ workplace?”
Chuck looked at the clock. “Oh, dear. I’m afraid they’re closed for the day. You will be staying the night, won’t you?”
“There’s not a room to be had in town,” Allie told him. “I don’t suppose you know of a town close by that we could try?”
“I’m sure the neighboring towns are full, too. This has always been our biggest week for tourism. Folks from across the country come just for the artisans we have. It’s a juried show, so we don’t take any and all craftspeople who apply. We’re quite choosy.”
“Good for you,” Allie acknowledged, but that didn’t get them a room for the night. She’d be damned if she’d accept Jack’s offer, but right now she wasn’t seeing an alternative. Going home, even if they both stayed at Charlotte’s, would be several hours taken away from making any points with Chuck or even seeing the rest of the town. “We’ll figure something out as far as spending the night, but we’d love to take you to dinner and hear more about the town.”
“Unfortunately, I’ve already made plans for dinner.”
“With Mr. Fletcher?” Allie knew the answer before the red-faced Chuck nodded. “Then we can all go to dinner together. Jack won’t mind—he’s actually Charlotte’s neighbor.” She spoke quickly, rising from her chair as if he’d already agreed. “That will give you and Charlotte time to talk.”