LavenderLaceTrilogy_Bundle

by Lynn LaFleur

  She felt better when Marci chuckled. “That’s true.”

  “Or maybe you’d like something the shade of an Irish hillside.”

  “Or maybe both.”

  Ashlyn smiled. It pleased her to feel the sadness fade away from Marci’s body. “There you go. A woman should always pamper herself.”

  “I agree with that.”

  “Then let me show you the green display. Okay?”

  Marci nodded. “Please.”

  *

  The sun shone in a brilliant blue sky when Keefe drove his car into the parking garage at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. He’d always believed that it rained constantly in the Pacific Northwest, despite Linsey and Davin telling him that wasn’t true. He’d quickly learned after moving here that his friends had been right and he’d been wrong.

  He took the elevator to the fourth floor. Marci had said she’d meet him at the main terminal, right inside the entrance. Hefting his carryon higher on his shoulder, he exited the elevator and walked across the skybridge into the terminal.

  He found her exactly where she said she’d be. He stood still for a moment and admired her. It was the first time he’d seen her dressed casually in slim jeans and a light brown v-necked sweater. She held several sheets of paper in her hands, apparently engrossed in whatever was on them…so engrossed she didn’t see the men giving her a second glance as they walked past her.

  She lifted her head and looked directly at him, as if she felt him watching her. It took her a few seconds longer than Keefe thought it should have for her to wave. Grabbing the handle of her small rolling suitcase, she met him halfway.

  “Good morning,” she said.

  Marci smiled, but Keefe thought he detected a hint of trepidation in her expression. Perhaps she was nervous about the plane ride. Keefe knew a lot of people didn’t like to fly. “Good morning.”

  “I printed out our boarding passes so we can go straight to the gate, unless you need to check your bag.”

  “No, I’m taking it on the plane. I learned a long time ago to pack light.”

  “I try to. Mr. Wilson told me not to dress up for him and suggested jeans and sweaters.” She glanced down at herself and grinned. “I took his advice.”

  Keefe hadn’t spoken to Mr. Wilson, but had opted for jeans and a sweater too. He believed in comfort when he flew.

  He fell into step behind Marci to the security checkpoint. After they were standing in line, Marci handed him his ticket and boarding pass. Keefe glanced at both, noting it would be a six-hour flight with one stop in Vancouver.

  “Long flight. I didn’t realize how far Prince George is from Seattle.”

  “We’ll be working a lot of that time.” She patted the tote bag on her shoulder. “I asked Mr. Wilson if he’d be willing to email me a copy of his book so I could print it out and make notes. He did. Lauren made two copies for us.”

  “Smart idea.”

  “I went through some of it last night and made several notations. I want your opinion on them.”

  “I’m good at giving my opinion.”

  He grinned, and she returned it. “I haven’t met a man yet who wasn’t willing to give me his opinion.”

  “That’s because we believe we’re always right.”

  Keefe followed Marci through the metal detector and picked up his bag from the conveyor belt. “Which way, boss?”

  “Are you hungry? I didn’t have breakfast.”

  “Me either.”

  She glanced at her watch. “We have ninety minutes until our flight, so that’s plenty of time to eat.”

  “Lead the way.”

  Keefe followed Marci to a full-service restaurant a few yards from the security checkpoint. He waited until she sat, then slid into the booth opposite her. He nodded when the waitress offered coffee. Several cups and he might wake up. He’d tossed and turned most of the night…partly in anticipation of this trip, and partly in dread.

  Sometimes he’d get a gentle whiff of Marci’s flowery perfume, and his gut would tighten with the need to take her in his arms. Spending the weekend with Marci and knowing he couldn’t touch her wouldn’t be easy.

  “I am ravenous this morning,” Marci said, opening her menu. “Flying always makes me hungry.”

  No matter how much he wanted her, he’d promised her he wouldn’t cross the line between professional and personal. He meant to keep that promise.

  He opened his menu and located the breakfast items. “Yeah, me too.”

  “I think I’ll have ham and eggs.” Marci closed her menu and laid it on the end of the table. “Of course, the eggs won’t be nearly as good as the ones you made…“ She stopped. Her gaze flew to his, her eyes wide. “I didn’t mean… That is…”

  She stopped again, obviously at a loss as to what to say. Keefe tried to ease her discomfort by smiling. “Hey, it’s okay. We had a wild weekend together. We both enjoyed it. Now it’s time to get back to work.” He gestured toward the tote on the seat next to her. “Why don’t we look at Mr. Wilson’s book while we wait for breakfast?”

  A look of relief crossed her face. “Okay.”

  *

  Marci liked to fly, but more often than not fell asleep during the flight. Something about the constant hum of the engines lulled her to sleep. Not this time. She and Keefe talked practically nonstop for the entire trip.

  They’d spent so much time discussing plot points of Tyler Wilson’s book at breakfast that they had to hurry to catch their plane. Once onboard and settled, she and Keefe took out their copies again and got back to work.

  A passage in the book often led to a memory of something in one of their lives. The heroine in the book had a ditzy sister who reminded Keefe of his younger sister. Whenever the heroine’s sister did something dumb, Keefe would tell Marci another story about his sister. She’d study him while he talked, noting the way his eyes would light up when he spoke about his family. He obviously loved them very much.

  How lucky he was to be close to his siblings. She wished things could’ve been different for her and Mary.

  Her sister had made her decision ten years ago when their parents died. She could’ve done the decent thing, or the selfish thing. At a time when they should’ve leaned on each other, comforted each other in their loss, Mary had chosen selfish.

  The landing announcement came over the speaker. Marci quickly pushed all thoughts of her sister from her mind. Dwelling on the past wouldn’t solve anything.

  Keefe began to gather up his paperwork. “What’s the plan?”

  “Mr. Wilson lives about an hour’s drive outside Prince George. We’ll pick up our rental car at the airport and drive to his house. He gave me detailed instructions in an email. The lodge where we’ll stay is about fifteen miles from him.”

  “We’re in Canada. It isn’t miles, it’s kilometers.”

  “I can’t compute miles to kilometers in my head.”

  “Fifteen miles is about twenty-four kilometers.”

  Marci frowned. “How did you do that so fast?”

  He grinned. “Because men are always right.”

  She rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh. “The next thing you’ll want is for me to call you Mr. Knowledge.”

  “Now there’s an idea.”

  “Forget it.”

  “You’re no fun.”

  It was getting harder for her to hold back her laughter, especially when she saw the humor in his eyes.

  He was so much fun.

  He stepped into the aisle when the plane stopped and reached up to take their bags from the overhead bin. She was blessed with a glimpse of his hair-dusted belly before he lowered his arms again. She glanced toward the front of the plane. The young stewardess stared at Keefe with lust in her eyes.

  An emotion surged inside Marci, one she hadn’t felt in a long time—jealousy. She wanted to scratch out that stewardess’s eyes for daring to look at Keefe.

  “You okay?” Keefe asked.

  “Yes. Of course.” M
arci quickly picked up her tote and stepped into the aisle in front of Keefe.

  They were forced to stop next to the galley when someone retrieved something from a closet close to the door. The stewardess inched closer to Keefe and turned her brightest smile on him.

  “Did you enjoy your flight?”

  “It was great. Thanks.”

  “Will you be in Prince George long?”

  Marci turned her body so she could see Keefe’s face. He wore a polite smile, not one of interest.

  “Until Sunday. We’re here on business.”

  The stewardess gave Marci a haughty glance, the same kind she might give a bug she was about to squash, then turned her attention back to Keefe. Her smile clearly said she’d take him right there in the galley if he said yes. “If you’d like to know more about the area, I’d be glad to help.” She pressed a small piece of paper in his hand.

  Marci curled her fingers into her palms to keep from snatching the paper away from Keefe. He seemed to be embarrassed by the woman’s forwardness, but he didn’t refuse the paper.

  “Thanks, but like I said, we’re here on business.”

  “If you change your mind, I’ll be happy to give you a tour.”

  Yeah, probably of your bedroom.

  He gave her another polite smile, then fell in step behind Marci when she moved forward. She shouldn’t be surprised at the stewardess. Some women at Sea-Tac had literally stopped in their tracks and stared at Keefe as he walked by. Marci couldn’t blame them. If there was such a thing as a hotness scale, Keefe would be rated way at the top.

  At the first trashcan they came to, Keefe threw away the paper with the stewardess’s phone number.

  “Are you sure you want to throw that away?” Marci asked.

  “I’m sure.”

  “She’s pretty.” Saying that made Marci’s stomach turn. “She seemed very interested in you.”

  “This is a business trip. I’m not here to pick up women. Or have them pick up me.”

  She hiked her tote up on her shoulder and waited for him to say more. He didn’t. Apparently it was time to change the subject. “Let’s find the rental car place.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Keefe accepted the rental car keys and paperwork from the clerk behind the counter. He moved aside so the next person in line could be helped. Leaning on the end of the counter, he watched Marci talking on her cell phone. She took a few steps, looked up at the ceiling, retraced her steps. She frowned. Whoever was on the phone must be telling Marci something she didn’t want to hear.

  Still frowning, she slapped her phone shut. She took two steps toward him when it rang again. Rolling her eyes, she opened the cell and turned away from him.

  The life of a corporate president couldn’t be easy. Keefe was happy in his VP position. That was as high as he wanted to go up the corporate ladder.

  This call didn’t upset her as much as the last one. She wasn’t smiling when she ended the call, but at least she wasn’t frowning.

  “Trouble?” he asked when she walked up to him.

  “A delay in filming of our current project. One of the major co-stars went to the hospital with appendicitis.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Yeah. I’m sorry he’s ill, but we’re already running behind schedule due to some equipment failure and this doesn’t help.” She tossed her hair behind her shoulder. “And speaking of ill, the second call was from Tyler Wilson. He’s better now, but was throwing up earlier today. He asked if we could postpone our meeting until tomorrow. I told him that wouldn’t be a problem.”

  “No, of course not.” So that meant they had an entire evening to themselves. “What do you want to do?”

  “I think we should check in at the lodge first. Then maybe we could drive around a bit and scout out the area.”

  “We only have a couple of hours of sunlight left.”

  “That’s a couple of hours we can look.”

  “Okay.” He jiggled the car keys in his hand. “Do you want me to drive or would you rather do it?”

  “You drive. That’ll let me look and take notes.”

  *

  The sun had dropped behind the horizon when Keefe once again pulled into the parking lot of the lodge. As per Marci’s suggestion, they’d checked into their rooms first. With map in hand and suggestions from the lodge’s manager, they’d driven off to get a feel of the area.

  Keefe had fallen in love with the beauty of the Pacific Northwest the first time he’d visited his friends in Seattle. It wouldn’t be any hardship for him to spend time in British Columbia while scouting out places to shoot Wilson’s movie, if Wilson agreed to the movie.

  Marci met Keefe at the hood of the vehicle. Her eyes sparkled with excitement. “This is perfect! We’ll definitely shoot a lot of the exterior scenes in the area.”

  “Interior shots locally or on the set?”

  “I don’t know yet. We’ll have to check out more of the area. I thought we’d take Saturday and explore.”

  “Sounds good to me.”

  He fell into step beside Marci as she walked toward the lodge’s entrance. “Why aren’t we talking to Wilson’s agent instead of meeting directly with him?”

  “He doesn’t have an agent. He’s an attorney, or was until a couple of years ago when he started writing full-time. He represents himself.”

  Keefe pushed open the front door and let Marci enter before him. “Might not be a smart thing for him to do. Just because he’s an attorney doesn’t mean he knows the ins and outs of publishing.”

  “He hasn’t done badly for himself. He negotiated a high five-figure advance for the book he’s writing now.”

  She took her room key from her tote, opened the door and stepped into her room. She left the door open, as if she expected Keefe to follow her. He hesitated a few seconds, then entered her room and closed the door behind him.

  A quick glance showed him her room had a small seating area and fireplace that his didn’t. Otherwise, the furnishings were the same.

  “How about if we order room service?” Marci asked, laying her tote on the table close to the fireplace. “We could eat while we work. Unless you’re sick of looking at Wilson’s book already.”

  “I’d better not be since I’ll be looking at it for a while. Yeah, eating in is fine.”

  “Thank you,” Marci said, the relief evident in her voice. “I don’t feel like going out again, not even to the restaurant here in the lodge.”

  She located the room service menu on the small desk in the corner. “There isn’t a huge selection, but what’s available looks good.” She walked back to stand next to him. “What are you hungry for?”

  You, he wanted to say, but he didn’t think she’d appreciate that. This was business, not pleasure. He had to remember that. “A steak would be good. Medium rare.”

  “Baked potato with the works and a nice red wine?”

  “Perfect.”

  “I’ll order it while you get your printout of Wilson’s book.”

  Keefe crossed the hall to his own room. Closing the door behind him, he leaned against it and blew out a deep breath. He’d known being close to Marci wouldn’t be easy.

  He hadn’t suspected it would be torture.

  There had been casual touches all day—a hand on the small of her back to guide her, a bump of their shoulders on the airplane, a brush of their fingers when they both reached for the same thing. Twice, he had to stop himself from entwining their fingers and bringing her hand to his mouth to kiss.

  Marci was a very lovely woman and he wanted her in his bed, but his attraction was so much more than sexual. He liked talking to her, listening to her. She was bright, intelligent. She had to be strong to run a large corporation, yet he saw her vulnerable side too. She’d told him she didn’t have any family in the area. He wondered who she leaned on when times were rough for her.

  He wanted to be that man.

  As long as he worked for Marshall Media, he couldn’t have a relatio
nship with Marci. She wouldn’t allow it.

  Keefe located his printout of Wilson’s book and headed back to Marci’s room. He found her sitting at the table, her printout and legal pad in front of her. She looked up as he walked toward her.

  “Dinner will be here in about half an hour.”

  “Great.” He took the chair opposite her. “All that clomping around in the woods made me hungry.”

  “Speaking of the woods, look on page 209 of your printout. The area with the creek we looked at would be perfect for the chase scene.”

  “I agree.” He flipped to the page she’d indicated. “You’re doing a lot of work for a project that isn’t finalized yet.”

  “Tyler Wilson is going to love our ideas. All this work will be a great head start for the script, and the director. He’ll make changes, of course, but he’ll know the vision I have for the film.”

  “You believe in positive thinking.”

  “Always.”

  “Did your parents instill that sunny outlook?”

  A tender smile crossed Marci’s lips. “My mom. She was the eternal optimist.”

  Keefe laid down his pen and leaned back in his chair. “I rambled about my family on the plane. Tell me about your folks.”

  He wasn’t sure if she’d open up to him since it took her several moments to speak again. “They were the best, and died much too young.”

  “What happened?”

  “They were flying back from a trip to Georgia with two friends in a small plane. It went down in the mountains of Colorado. Everyone on board was killed.”

  Keefe winced. How horrible for her to lose both parents at once. “I’m sorry.”

  “They died upon impact, but they must have had time to realize what was happening. For months and months, I thought about how scared they were before the crash.”

  “Hey.” He reached across the table and squeezed her hand, wanting to chase the sadness from her eyes. “They were together. They drew strength from each other. That’s what you should remember.” He rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand. “Tell me a happy memory about them.”

  “I have so many, I wouldn’t know which one to pick.”

  “How about…best birthday present?”