Finally Found

by Nicole Andrews Moore

  “Depends. Does it start before or after you finish talking?” He gave her an annoyed look.

  She laughed. “And…go!”

  “I know that you are starting a new company. I know this means a lot to you. And you know that I have the ability to make it wildly successful.” He watched her for a reaction. While her mouth gave away nothing, those incredible eyes of hers spoke volumes. They were sparkling, belying her true interest in what he was about to explain. “I would love to begin by offering that I create an advertising campaign for you. You would get my services for free.”

  “Are you any good?”

  “Has it been seven minutes already?” He crossed his arms over his chest and sat back silently, determined not to speak again until she had stopped. Though he couldn’t be certain, he knew his history, and he could out stubborn and outsmart practically anyone. Case in point, he was in the Hamptons instead of stuck in the city, shut in at his loft as Sam intended.

  “Fine, I’m sorry.”

  He could tell she spoke those words grudgingly. He suspected that she wasn’t in the habit of apologizing, that she was not in the habit of making mistakes, or at least being called out on them. He smirked at the thought that he brought out the dark side of her supposedly light personality.

  “Now, here’s the thing. In addition, I’d like to even get you some business. I’d like to see that you have some testimonials. This is the perfect time of year for it. As you well know, I have tons of…acquaintances…that entertain regularly. Certainly some of them will be looking for catering over the next few weeks. By the end of the holiday season, I could have you up and running, looking like a premier catering company in this vast city. And you know it.” He leaned in, challenging her to find a flaw with his plan. He had years of practice in arguing his case and anticipating the arguments he would be presented with. His mother had often said that if this whole advertising thing didn’t work out and he ever felt like applying himself, he might want to consider being a lawyer. However, since he was a barely an advertising executive, he decided to stick with the sure money. He was the only one in the family likely to ever need a lawyer anyway.

  Cammie began licking her lips. She was leaning forward, looking down at the floor. He knew that the carpet couldn’t possibly hold that much interest. Instead it was obvious that this was her thinking posture. She rubbed her face, as if the thinking had really been painful. After what seemed like forever, she finally spoke. “I think your idea has merit.” She sat up and stared at him.

  Those eyes. So blue. So rich. So enthralling.

  “Oh, Adam, can I ask questions now?” She smiled shyly. It was a completely new look to her. Maybe there was a sweet side that he had never noticed previously.

  Two hours later, she had exhausted all her questions…and Adam. “Seriously, I’m getting practically nothing out of this. My only benefit is getting rid of Kiki! You get a career, a campaign, and clients!” He growled. “Frankly, I don’t see a down side!”

  “I’m stuck with you! You don’t see the down side? We can’t be in the same room for more than a few minutes before we are fighting, pushing each other’s buttons. And you want me to subject myself to that for an entire week! Honestly, from the sound of it, it would be longer, too! My entire holiday season could be ruined while I get stuck hanging out with you!” She stood up and paced around the room.

  “Oh, like you have any better options! And you! You have the temperament of a spoiled child. You were an only child, right?” He smirked and casually crossed his legs.

  “Not long enough.” She sighed. In that moment, he knew that she was coming to the conclusion that this was in fact the best option for her. What else could be frustrating her so intensely?

  Then he realized how she had responded. “What does that mean? Not long enough?”

  “There are fourteen months between me and my sister. What else could I mean?” She turned to face him. “You don’t know me at all. Have you not figured that out yet? You know nothing about the kind of person I am. You know nothing about the kind of life I’ve led. Yet here you are trying to bend me to your will.”

  He leaned in. This was less enjoyable. She really was struggling over some aspect of his deal. It was beginning to pain him, watching her. He stood and walked over to her. She was staring out the window over the back gardens. His mother had always kept these immaculate gardens, grew vegetables and every herb known to man. He stood behind her for a moment. Then just because it seemed right, he reached out and held her upper arms. “What’s wrong sweet?”

  She leaned her head back, lightly rested it on his chest as she looked up at him. “Sweet?”

  He sighed. “You keep making these claims. I’d like to believe if I start calling you by that name, you will be inspired to act that way.” He bent his head closer to hers and tried to behave. It was all he could do to not plant another kiss on her nose. She was adorable. And there was a soft side to her when she was troubled.

  “I don’t know. I don’t know what my true objection is. There’s just this nagging feeling within me that I shouldn’t do this.” She was exasperated. She sighed. Her head snapped forward once more.

  Adam spun her to face him, but her head was looking down at the floor. So instead, he did what he had thought about doing since the night before. It wasn’t unusual for him to give in to temptation. What was unusual was for him to have waited as long as he had. He crushed her to him. And while he fully expected her to fight him, instead she relaxed against his chest. And he heard her sniff. “Are you crying?” He asked incredulously as he pushed her back so that he could study her face. But her face was clear and dry and curious.

  “No,” she admitted, as her cheeks turned a deeper shade of pink. “I was trying to decide what cologne you were wearing.” She pushed back until he completely released her from his arms. Then she walked back over to the chair, collected her bag, and headed out of the room.

  “Where are you going?” He asked, alarmed.

  “Looks like I’m going to need to get the big bag,” she said. “You know…since I’m going to be here a while.” With that, she bowed her head and walked out of the room headed towards the door and her car.

  He sat there and pondered his next move. There was a lot to consider. Since it was nearing lunchtime, he kept expecting to hear from Sam any moment. Then he remembered that he no longer had a cell phone to keep up with and smiled. To his surprise, he heard the distant ringing of the house phone. Wandering into the kitchen, he answered it without even glancing at the Caller ID. That was a big mistake.

  “Where are you?” Sam growled, the minute the phone connected.

  “Well, since you called me in the Hamptons house, I should think that would be obvious,” Adam replied with a chuckle. He knew taking his older brother lightly was only going to inflame the situation, but that was a risk he was willing to take.

  “You know what I mean! Why are you there? How did you get there? And when will you be coming back to the city?” Sam’s voice was angry and impatient.

  In the background, Adam could hear Haley trying to calm him down. He could tell that it wasn’t working, and finally he heard his brother pass the phone off after saying something that sounded remarkably like you deal with him then!

  “Hi, Adam,” Haley began.

  “You sound tired. Sam keep you up?” He asked the question fully expecting to embarrass and distract her.

  “Nice try,” she said with a weak laugh. “You had us worried.”

  “You two were worried? Really? Because you didn’t seem worried when you left me with Kiki. You didn’t seem worried when you two rushed off to enjoy some alone time. And you didn’t seem worried when you left me without money, keys, or a phone!” His frustration was showing and he felt guilty because he doubted that Haley knew any of this. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t yell at you.”

  “Wait. What was that last part?” There was an edge to her voice. He imagined she was about to confront Sam. He could cert
ainly play this up.

  “My wallet, phone, and keys are gone. Did you know that Sam took them?” He asked his question quietly and waited for her response.

  “Sam!” Her voice was muffled. He figured she was either holding it against her chest as he had seen her do so often, or she had her finger over the speaker.

  “Adam, let me call you back.” And without waiting for his response, she ended the call. He was left to do something he hadn’t done in a very long time. He hung up a phone. The only place he ever used a landline was the office. Even then it was rare.

  Well, Sam knew where he was. Now he was forced to deal with Haley. That should keep Sam busy for a while. There was plenty to keep him busy here. He had an ad campaign to create. He had a week to keep Cammie busy. He had just a matter of days before Sam would no doubt descend upon the Hamptons home. That was the first thought that had made him scowl all day.

  The beach outside of the window was his focus at the moment. Soon Cammie came and cleared her throat. He recognized it as a gentle distraction technique.

  “Just lost in thought,” he said as he turned to face her. For the first time since he had known her, she looked relaxed. She looked shy. She looked like she might even be happy. He hoped that he had a little something to do with that.

  “So when did you want to get to work?” She asked. “Or is there something you need from me first?”

  “Well, since we’re already in the kitchen, let’s talk food. More importantly, let’s order food for lunch. Oh, and do you have any plans for Thanksgiving. I only ask because I was thinking it might be a nice opportunity for you to demonstrate your catering abilities and even meet some potential clients…” He had pulled that idea out of nowhere. Huh. At the same time, it wasn’t a bad idea.

  “Do you normally entertain for Thanksgiving? I thought it was more of a family holiday.” She was curious more than judgmental. Cammie realized she had a lot to learn about her dream clientele.

  “I just thought we might have a special cocktail party on Friday. It’s the official kick off for the holiday season. If we work our butts off, we can have catering menus available for people to pick up, business cards for them to carry home with them, and even a calendar to start booking. If you don’t get at least three parties booked from that event alone, then you suck.” He leaned across the counter and smiled at her. The gauntlet had been thrown.

  He watched her for a reaction. This would tell him everything he needed to know. If she backed up, she probably didn’t have the stamina or backbone for the business. If she met his challenge, then she had a chance.

  Cammie was beaming. “You say three? I’m going to book no fewer than five parties from this event.” She glanced around. “We’re hosting it here?”

  He nodded, fascinated by her reaction. “Great. So where are the Christmas decorations?”

  “Decorations?” He stood up and glanced around. They had never decorated the Hamptons house for the holidays. All the winter parties were held in the city. This idea of his was going to be unusual, to say the least, but selling ideas was his business. Okay, selling ideas was supposed to be his business and this was his chance to prove himself, just as much as it was Cammie’s chance to prove that catering was hers. He smiled. “Guess we just will have to go shopping, after we discuss your vision for this event.”

  All the times he had seen Haley and Sam working together, they had adjourned to the library. This house didn’t have a library. This house didn’t even have a study. This house was a place to relax and get away from work. Only he would bring it with him. He shook his head.

  “What? You doubt me?” She stood up even straighter, threw her shoulders back, brushed her hair away from her face, and gathered it up in a messy bun. “Hope you ate Wheaties for breakfast. We have lots of work to do in the next few days.”

  Then she turned her back on him and began to acclimate herself with the kitchen. Adam watched in fascination as she looked over what pots and pans they had, the serving dishes. She was making notes on her phone as she worked. A good thirty minutes later, she looked up and caught him sitting there with his head propped up on his hand.

  “What are you doing?” She stood there with her hands on her hips.

  “I’m just…thinking,” he responded shyly. He had been caught.

  “Why aren’t you working on ideas for this advertising campaign? I’m checking out the kitchen and thinking food and décor and I can’t even get you to keep your part of the bargain. Ad campaign. Now!” She sighed in frustration to punctuate her discontent.

  “Yes, ma’am.” He stood and left the room. He would never get anything done while watching her. Yet she was such a surprise that he couldn’t imagine doing anything but sitting around watching her. Damn it. What would Sam do in this situation? He was always so much more controlled, so confident. He never would have made this kind of rookie mistake. He wouldn’t have been caught looking. Hell, he probably had never been distracted in his life, as single minded as he was.

  Searching through the sofa table drawers, he soon realized that he had left the kitchen just a bit too hastily. He had to go back in there to get a pad and paper. He looked like an idiot. He had no phone, no iPad, and instead he was forced to work with the most rudimentary methods of note making. He snuck back into the kitchen, afraid of disrupting her chain of thought.

  “Did you have something you wanted to run by me?” She glanced up at him, completely serious.

  “What if we meet in an hour? We’ll go over the groceries first. Do you want to order take out and then go grocery shopping, or do you want to get groceries while picking up take out?” He tried to act like that was the reason he was in there, but as he opened the kitchen drawer and pulled out a pad and pen from the drawer in the island, she smirked.

  “Well, genius, in an hour, let’s go out for a working lunch and then pick up groceries on the way back here.” She smiled and batted her eyelashes at him playfully.

  Frozen for a moment, completely lost in her eyes, he struggled to regain his composure and head out of the room while she looked on slightly confused. “So, I’ll just go now. And I’ll just see you in an hour.” He backed out of the room.

  There was something about a kitchen that always made Cammie feel so calm, so in control, so at home. Adam’s kitchen here in the Hamptons was no different. In fact, it might have been even better, since it was so well equipped. She could make pretty much anything she wanted. Oh, and given the guest list she was anticipating, she wanted to make practically everything.

  After careful thought, she envisioned a nice candlelight event. There were some questions about the music, but she was leaning toward quiet music playing over the sound system instead of a live group. There would be a heavy buffet to go along with the cocktails. She was picturing a lot of seasonal drinks…egg nog, wassail, and mulled cider. There would be a two carving stations for ham and prime rib. This could be the party of the season…the party to start it all.

  There were so many ideas competing in her head. Would the hour never be up? Would she never get to share these ideas with Adam? She smirked at the idea that she was actually excited to talk to Adam. Venturing into the great room, she saw him instantly, sleeping in the chair. Her initial reaction was pretty Camstandard. That’s what her family would call it. Yes, around the house there was the Camstandard and Cinnystyle. Her sister had a way, flair, while Cammie was simply predictable.

  When she saw Adam sleeping, first her thought was that once again she was reminded that he couldn’t be trusted. He couldn’t even be left unattended or she would return to find no work had been accomplished. Then there was that moment of guilt as she walked closer and realized that he had scribbled notes and more notes. There were pages and pages of concepts and ideas. No wonder he was worn out. That, and the fact that he had been up early to ensure she had breakfast and coffee.

  With a sigh she backed away. The very least she could do would be to make sure he had food when he woke up. They had pas
sed a grocery store and a market on the way in the night before. She would simply retrace her drive and go there. It wouldn’t take long. She could whip up something amazing in no time and he would realize that his efforts to promote her would not be in vain. She was talented. She was capable. She was totally worth it.

  When Adam woke, startled by the ringing of the phone, he realized as he rushed into the kitchen that Cammie wasn’t there. How long had he been asleep? Had she given up and run off on him. He picked up the phone distractedly, hoping that somehow it might be her.

  “Hello?” He asked both confused and concerned.

  “Adam, it’s Haley…” She began seriously.

  “I’ll have to call you back.” Without even thinking, he hung up the phone. He could see that her vehicle was gone, but the question was whether or not she was coming back. Wandering through the house, he explored the guest room and discovered all of her belongings were still there, nice and neat in a big black duffle bag. He shivered. Did every woman have a big black duffle bag to squish her life into and run off? He was headed back out of the room when he heard a car door slam.