“What do you mean they won’t buy it?” Rosemary asked. “It’s the truth.”
“Doesn’t matter. You think people who read these rags care about truth? No, they don’t. They care about sensationalism.” Seeing Rosemary accept the declaration with bad grace, Cami pushed forward. “Mentioning you completed two full internships in different specialties should go over better. In fact, I think it would be good if we all—including Delphi—wrote up a paragraph or two detailing our professional histories and accomplishments as far as how they prepared us for our roles here. We’ll post them up on the website, and create a press release. I’ll work with the corporate media specialists and contact Alex to firm things up.” They had to do something before this totally got out of control.
The first article had been an irritation; this one took things to a new level.
She stood and moved to the stairs. “Lana, can you contact the others? I’ll tweak my own bio. If the past week or two is anything to go by, we need to anticipate more media attacks coming up. If there’s anything in any of our pasts that can be dug up or twisted to suit the papers, they’ll find it.” She glanced back over her shoulders to see Lana’s face was white, and Sage’s eyes were as big as bagels. Though Cami considered asking what they could possibly be hiding, she didn’t have the energy for it.
The night had gone from fabulous to fraught, and Cami felt wrung out. When she shut the bedroom door, she went through the motions of changing out of her eveningwear into pajamas, doing her facial cleansing and moisturizing routine and sat at the computer. It was too late to call Alex, though she desperately wanted to. He would soothe her and help solve the problem—two things she could use now. She pulled up her bio and made some tweaks to it.
She emailed the PR people at corporate headquarters, directed them to the articles in question—on the off chance they hadn’t seen them yet—and copied Alex. Cami mentioned the women would all come up with something to post on the website, and could they please call her at their earliest convenience to discuss strategy.
Though Lana would be the hotel’s general manager, it was clear she wanted Cami to deal with the debacle. It was Cami’s forte, so she would handle it. It was one more thing to squeeze into her time as she prepared for the hotel opening in seven weeks.
She was already tired.
Chapter 18
“Who’s behind this, a competitor?” Alex asked when Cami got him on the phone the next day.
“I don’t have any reason to believe it is, but it feels too targeted to be run-of-the-mill gossip.” Cami sat back in her chair and stretched her aching back.
“I agree. Is there anything else we should be ready to deal with?”
“Who knows? Most of what’s been printed was only loosely based on reality. You know how these scandal sheets are.” Cami pushed her auburn curls back from her face and thought again of the treadmill downstairs. She ought to have been on it two hours ago, but had spent every moment since she’d woken trying to do damage control. The other inhabitants of the house had already emailed her their bios, and Lana said Delphi would send hers before day’s end.
“Normally I wouldn’t worry about it, but with all of the negatives blasting back at the hotel, we could be in for some trouble. The reviews of the hotel in the first month and how we handle this will be paramount.” A rhythm came through the phone, indicating Alex was tapping his pencil on a notebook—as she’d often seen him do.
“Then we’ll make it work, better than work. We’ll make it shine.”
“I know you will. You ladies make your plans and I’ll see if we can figure out where the trouble is coming from.”
“Thanks, Alex.” Cami said goodbye. She snatched her curls back into a loose ponytail so she could head down to the exercise room. She didn’t exercise often, but when her mind was really turning she liked a brisk walk. Some of the others had already done their Zumba DVD and hit the showers, so she should have the space to herself.
She clicked on the news and started walking, letting her mind wander as she moved. Thoughts of her date with Vince the previous night wove in and out of her professional plans, distracting her.
When Cami came out of her room an hour and a half later, fresh from the shower, she heard the doorbell ring and hurried to answer it. Joel stood on the porch, biceps bulging as he crossed his arms. “Hey, I got a call from Alex. He wanted me to stop in and check out your system, make sure everything’s extra secure here after the latest news reports.”
“Great.” Cami used the hand towel to mop at her damp curls. “Go ahead and poke around. I’m not sure how many people are still here, and who’s gone down to the hotel, but the recording equipment for the cameras and other security stuff is in the closet off the kitchen.” She pointed to the door.
“Perfect. I’ll get to it, then.” He headed that way and Cami took the stairs to her room.
When she came down again, she found Jonquil sitting at the table, her laptop open. Sage was at the other end of the table reading a book and munching on a bowl of something resembling twigs, with dried cranberries for interest. The woman seriously needed to broaden her food choices.
Cami grimaced and headed for the bag of bagels she’d purchased the previous day. She thought nothing of the crinkling sound behind her until Sage spoke up.
“How can you eat that? Don’t you know it’s loaded with preservatives and stuff?”
Cami turned toward them.
“Leave my Ho Hos alone,” Jonquil shot back, her mouth already full.
“Rosemary, side with me on this one,” Sage said as the chef came down the open staircase.
“Ho Hos are the food of the gods,” Jonquil stated, stubbornly eating the other half of the first snack cake.
Rosemary came to a stop at the side of the table. “I can’t believe we share DNA. You’re such a philistine.” She grabbed the remaining cake, moved to the sink, and shoved it down the garbage disposal drowning out Jonquil’s vibrant arguments. “You’ll kill yourself eating those nasty things. It amazes me you can gag them down.” She searched through the cupboards.
“I can’t believe you did that. Those are mine. And I’m not hoarding a box of them anywhere, so you don’t have to go on a search-and-destroy mission. No need for an intervention.” The mutinous look on Jonquil’s face said she’d like to fight about it. Cami wondered if the memory of Rosemary mentioning her self-defense training held her back.
Rosemary peeked over her shoulder. “That’s what you think.” She plunked some ingredients onto the cupboard and continued digging. “I have nothing against desserts—I studied with a pastry chef, didn’t I? But if you’re going to eat them, they should at least taste like actual food. There’s no cake flour in this house!” She rooted around some more and moved to the next cupboard.
“Ho Hos do taste like actual food. Millions of people eat them every day.”
“Yes, and millions of people fill their bodies with illegal drugs, but you wouldn’t do it just because they think it’s okay.” She set a couple more things on the counter and moved to the fridge.
“These aren’t illegal.”
“They should be,” Sage said. “Chemical preservatives have so many drawbacks.”
Cami watched in amusement at the byplay. Sometimes living with them reminded her of college dorm life—minus the hunky guys dropping by. She glanced outside and saw Vince’s truck pull up, she thought of Joel poking at the security system, and amended her thought. No, this was almost exactly like the dorms.
“No butter? All we have is margarine?” Rosemary turned to Sage. “I thought you were a health nut. How can you put this crap in your body? I thought you were all about natural ingredients.”
Sage grinned from where she leaned against the counter on the other side of the island. “I’ve been getting by with cooking in olive oil, but real butter would be nice.”
Rosemary looked at both Sage and Jonquil. “Get your purses and shoes. We’re going shopping.”
“Busy here,” Jonquil crossed her arms over her chest. “And as long as you’re going shopping, you can replace my Ho Hos.”
“Tough. I’m going to teach you a thing or two about buying food. And we’ll let Sage tag along, because she probably knows more about the stores and can back me up.” Rosemary’s blue eyes flashed. “When we get back, I’ll show you how pathetic your snack cakes are.”
“Actually, Cami’s the resident expert about stores and local food sources,” Sage said, turning to Cami. “She’s been making the rounds.”
“I’ll pull up the file and print a page for you while you grab your things.” Cami checked again and realized it wasn’t Vince outside, but one of his employees there to mow the lawn. Disappointment filled her. “I was going to pass it along anyway. I thought you could use some of the local growers to supply the restaurant.”
“You betcha. Thanks.” Rosemary moved for the staircase ahead of Cami. She shot back over her shoulder to Jonquil, “You’re coming with us whether you have shoes on or not. I suggest you find a pair.”
Jonquil must have believed the threat since she headed toward her bedroom.
Cami printed her list and handed it to Rosemary as she dragged Jonquil out the door behind her. When Jonquil turned and winked, Cami had to struggle to hold back a laugh at the feigned reluctance until they were out of earshot. She was still grinning when the three of them pulled onto the road in Sage’s Ford Fusion.
Looping her purse strap over her shoulder, Cami grabbed her bagel and a bottled orange juice, and headed for her own car. Maybe she’d run into Vince at the hotel.
Chapter 19
When Cami arrived at the hotel, she found four guys putting in trays of perennials, but no Vince. She stopped to check out what they were doing. The grounds were going to be beautiful, and she couldn’t wait to see how the meandering flowerbeds filled in when the last plants were in place. When Cory, the freckled kid who’d helped with the ballooning adventure, greeted her, she asked, “So where’s the boss today? On another property?”
“He’s probably still at the nursery digging through paperwork.” His grin was quick. “He was grumbling over it when we left there a few hours back.”
“Nursery?” Vince worked in a nursery too? Why did he hire out guys to do the work here if he had to have all these extra jobs?
“Yeah, Nature’s Garden on Oak Drive.”
She paused for a moment. “So how many guys does he have working for him, and are you part time?”
“Full time from the day after school gets out until I go back, part time in the spring and fall, usually. There are about twenty of us on this end of things. Another dozen or so at the nursery.” He grinned. “Vince always mutters about tracking inventory and payroll when we ask for a raise, but he’s a good boss. Everyone loves him.”
The answer gave her pause. So not a small business—at least, not nearly as small as she’d thought. “He owns the nursery, too?”
“Among other things. My mom says he can’t keep his fingers out of anyone’s pies.” He pressed dirt around the plant and rose, collecting the empty plant flats. “I keep thinking I’m going to convince him to take me up in the balloon for free, but he’s holding me at the employee discount and working ground crew in exchange for air time. Guess I’m not pretty enough.” He chuckled at his own joke and moved to the truck.
Cami considered his words for a couple of seconds before moving back to her car. She pulled up the nursery address and popped it into her phone mapping software before heading off.
Twenty minutes later she found Vince swearing at a computer monitor and riffling through a stack of papers on his desk in what was an otherwise meticulously organized garden center. She shut the office door behind her and stared at him, her arms crossed over her chest and tapping the toe of her Ferragamo pumps.
His expression changed from irritation to happy surprise. “Hey, I didn’t expect you to drop by.” He rose. The smile dimmed as he approached and he took on a wary expression in his eye. “What’s wrong?”
“You have a gnat-sized business? Because thirty-odd employees, even if only for half the year, doesn’t seem so gnat sized to me.”
He came around the edge of the desk and leaned back against it. “I said compared to the number of employees the hotel was going to be running, it was gnat sized.”
“Right. And you’re just a small town boy with a good work ethic and big dreams.” She’d been had, and she didn’t appreciate it in the least. She should have known with a father and two siblings who were lawyers, that Vince wouldn’t be content with small potatoes. And hadn’t he come across as smooth and educated?
His eyes grew cool. “What’s wrong, Cami? Upset I’m not practically a beggar? Harder to blow me off at the end of the summer as a fling—one you indulged in just to get back at your dad—if I’m a real business man?”
“That’s not it at all.” Except she was starting to wonder if it was. At least partly. She’d thought this was all lighthearted fun and games, and then he ended up being more than she expected. “Tell me, do you have a degree?”
Vince straightened. “I have a master’s degree in landscape architecture with a business minor from Cornell.” He stepped toward her. “Do you have a problem with that?”
Yes, her mind screamed, but she couldn’t admit it. Didn’t understand her internal reaction. “I have a problem with being lied to.”
“I didn’t lie to you. I told you your dad had some dream about us getting together. I told you I owned a business. I’m a landscaper.”
“And what other pies do you have your fingers in? I should have known when your dad was such a hotshot lawyer. Your family makes such a pretty picture, all successful and bright and moneyed.” She thought about the start-up costs for his business after he attended an expensive university. “Do you have a trust fund, too?” She couldn’t believe she bought into all of this. Hadn’t she learned anything from Trent? No one was what they seemed, were they?
“Don’t be a hypocrite, Cami. You’re every bit the trust fund baby I am. And more, since I have the funny feeling yours is far larger than mine was. And I have my fingers in a few pies. Diversifying is a good bet in a small area like this. Some years the weather doesn’t cooperate and we have a bad winter, or a bad snow removal season, or I get a disease blight and lose a bunch of seedlings and have to start over in the spring. It’s the whole principle of not putting all your eggs in one basket.”
He stepped closer, so there were only inches between them. “And before you ask, yes, I have ties to Gage’s ski resort. He, Jeremy, and I have a partnership—if extremely unequal—and that’s why I help out with the mountain bike festival and the hot air balloon rides.”
She backed into the door as he crowded her, thunder in his eyes, but she kept her head erect and met his gaze. “You’ve been keeping this from me?”
He raised his hands in disbelief. “If you wanted to know, it’s pretty much public record around here. Well, except for the ownership issue at the ski resort. Most people think some big corporation owns it and Gage just manages the thing. It keeps the pressure off some. We admit to the ballooning though.”
That didn’t make her feel better. “I don’t appreciate being made a fool of.”
“I don’t appreciate you only wanting to be with me if I’m a washed up nobody. You say you’re enlightened and don’t care about status or money, but then you prove otherwise—only it’s the opposite of what one would expect.” He whirled back and returned to his seat. “You can leave now.”
“I will. And don’t expect to see me back here, either.” She pulled the door open and stalked out, refraining from slamming the door behind her.
~*~
As soon as she was out of sight, Vince stood and shut the door to give himself some privacy. He swore up a blue streak, kicking at his oak desk, swearing more when it hurt his toes, even through his cowboy boots. He’d never had a woman upset with him for being more successful than she’d first though
t.
Things had been going great between them, great conversation, plenty in common, oodles of chemistry. He thought she’d felt the mind-to-mind connection he’d experienced. What was her problem?
When someone came knocking at his office door, he took a calming breath before returning to his chair. “Come in.” He had piles of paperwork to catch up on before he could go to a job site and work off his anger with a good sweat. He smiled at the young woman who ran one of his registers and moved back to work mode. There was time to worry about the rest later.
~*~
Cami took another survey of the progress at the hotel, and stopped by the local office for the Colorado Department of Labor & Employment to pick up the job applications waiting there. They would do a mass-interview period in three days under Harrison’ organized hands, and there would undoubtedly be more interviews to come. They would likely end up interviewing over a thousand people before all of the spots were filled, and she was glad she’d only have to be in on the appointments for her small department, leaving the rest for the others.
Through it all, she thought of her argument with Vince and though she told herself she was in the right, she couldn’t let it go.
She returned home to find Rosemary giving Jonquil what was probably an unwanted cooking lesson. Sage sat on the sofa in the great room, setting out lotions and masks, sugar glows and bottles and tubs of things Cami couldn’t identify.
Sage smiled at her. “Delphi’s catching the red eye and will be here in the morning.”
“Great. I’ve got applications for every department.” Cami held up the sheaf she’d picked up, then set them on the kitchen table. “Read them over when you get a minute. Harrison said he’d be here bright and early Saturday to discuss strategy.” Retreat was her best option right now, as she didn’t think she was fit company, even if she had wanted to spend time with these women—which she didn’t.
“As soon as they put the cake in the oven, we’re going to test out some new products I’m considering for the spa. Care to join us?” Sage asked.
A Perfect Fit Page 10