by Sienna Ciles
Holly
I never thought that I could be this happy. If someone would have told me six months ago that I would be where I am today, I probably would have looked them directly in the eye, narrowed my own eyes until they were thin, constricted slits, and called them all kinds of crazy while also bursting into a huge fit of laughter right there in front of their face. However, I would have been all kinds of wrong…
After Alex surprised me with the deed to the Sanello’s Sweetery, I felt like I had literally died and gone to heaven, I was so overjoyed and surprised. I fought with myself for days over whether to change the name of the bakery to something else—especially since everyone in the entire area already knew it by its original family name, and had probably known it by that name since they were younger. But, in the end, however, I decided to change the name to something more modern and a little bit more snazzy-sounding.
I decided to change the name of the bakery to Home Sweet Holly’s.
Corny? Maybe. But it was my idea and my bakery, so I could name it whatever the hell I damn well pleased. Besides, I figured that the new name was pretty catchy in its own way and that it would also be something that everyone who came to check it out would likely remember.
Alex was a dream when it came to helping me get everything together, obtaining all of the supplies, materials, and equipment, finding and hiring a crew to help me remodel and get the place set up, and providing the support and confidence I never even knew I needed. He was the most wonderful, thoughtful, and supportive boyfriend I’d ever had. And yes, he was officially my boyfriend. We made things official between us the night he surprised me with the deed to the bakery building.
No man I had ever dated had ever been anything quite like Alex Westbrooke. Yes, he was a billionaire, yes, he was incredibly handsome. He was loaded, that’s a fact, but the honest-to-God truth of the matter was, even if he wasn’t wealthy, I would still feel exactly the same way about him. The fact that he was loaded with a practically unlimited bank account was merely a bonus—a huge bonus—but a bonus, nonetheless. I truly believed that even if he wasn’t so blessed with such a huge bank account that he still would have found some way to make my dream a reality just because that was how much he truly loved me.
We had the grand opening exactly six months after the day he surprised me with the deed, and it was every bit as wonderful as I had fantasized it would be. It was a total blast! At least two hundred people showed up all throughout the day. I gave away a free dessert of their choice with every ten-dollar order and it all went down wonderfully, without a single hitch.
Alex took the day off from his office and came down to the bakery to be with me for the grand opening celebration.
What really surprised me the most was the fact that Alicia—the woman who I had seen with Alex—came to the grand opening of my newly purchased and remodeled bakery. At first, I wasn’t quite sure why she had shown up, and my heart started beating faster and my palms began to perspire.
She was wearing a powder-blue sundress that dipped down into a U-shape around her huge, perky, obviously-augmented breasts. I could tell immediately that she was wearing a push-up bra underneath her dress because her tits were pressed tightly together and her cleavage was pretty fucking close to popping all the way up out of the top. She also had on a matching straw-like sunhat that hung down over her blond bangs, which dangled loosely next to the silver and blue-framed sunglasses she wore.
Her strappy, backless five-inch stiletto sandals were the exact same shade of blue as her dress, glasses, and hat, and she also had a silver and blue purse draped over her right shoulder as she walked into the front entrance of the bakery with a huge grin on her flawlessly made-up, photo-shoot-ready face.
“Congratulations,” she said in a pleasant tone of voice as the smile on her face widened even further. “This place looks absolutely amazing! You guys have really done an incredible job!”
She looked around the large front area of the newly-remodeled bakery with seemingly genuine awe. Her stilettos click-clacked against the tile floor of the shop as she approached the front counter, where I was standing behind the cash register with Alex by my side.
“Thank you,” I said with a somewhat forced smile. “Can I get you anything in particular?”
“Actually, yes. I’d like ten dollars’ worth of cannolis please,” she said, pointing to the freshly-made desserts sitting behind the glass. “And for my free selection, I’d like one of those macadamia nut cookies.” She looked at me, then glanced over at Alex, and then looked back at me again.
“Certainly,” I replied and proceeded to fill her order.
“Hey, by the way,” she said, gazing intently into my face. “I wanted to apologize to you, Holly. Please believe me, I honestly never meant to cause any confusion between you and Alex. I totally misconstrued the situation that night, and I wanted to apologize to you in person for the problems that it caused.”
I was literally blown away. I could hardly believe that she had actually come right up to me and apologized to my face. Perhaps she really wasn’t one of those stuck-up, conceited, thinking she’s God’s-gift-to-every-man kind of chicks.
“Oh,” I said, taken off guard. I glanced over at Alex, who had a pleasant smile on his face. “Thank you so much for that, Alicia. Apology accepted. Water under the bridge.”
I returned her smile as I handed her a bag with all of her items in it.
“And thank you for coming down to help us celebrate,” I added.
“You’re very welcome! See you at the office, Alex,” she said before turning around and heading back out the front door.
“That was very classy and mature of you,” Alex said with a grin.
“Well, she did apologize,” I said, returning his grin with my own. “That was pretty classy, too. Did you put her up to that?” Suddenly, I was wondering if he’d had anything to do with her showing up unexpectedly like that.
“Of course not. But would it really make any difference if I had?” he teased, wrapping his strong, masculine arms around my waist.
“I don’t know, maybe,” I said, throwing my arms around his neck.
“You know what I think?” he asked playfully.
“What?”
“I think it’s time we closed down for the night and christened this place,” he said with a wink.
“I think you read my mind,” I replied, pressing my lips to his.
Lost and Found
(A Bad BoyRomance)
By
Sienna Ciles
www.SiennaCiles.com
Copyright
First Edition, October 2017
Copyright © 2017 by Sienna Ciles
This book is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is entirely coincidental. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, places, events and situations are the product of the author's imagination.
All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written consent from the author.
License
This book is available exclusively on Amazon.com. If you found this book for free or from a site other than an Amazon.com country specific website it means the author was not compensated for this book and you have likely obtained this book through an unapproved distribution channel.
Book Description
Brains, brawn, money and ambition.
I’ve been the man every woman has wanted, except for one.
And the reason why she didn’t has haunted me, my entire life.
Until now. A simple deal has unlocked the answers I need,
but it comes with a price even a billionaire can’t afford.
She needs me to play the part; rich, successful, her boyfriend.
All things I can do without even acting, but she’s about to get the full package and everything that comes along with it. Her first real experience, with a real man.
I’m about to shake up her corporat
e world and show her what she’s been missing.
She’s about to hand me the answers I’ve been searching for my entire life. A secret I’ve held from everyone. I never expected such a simple deal, would change my entire life.
What once was lost, is now found.
Chapter One
Bethany
When I saw the sign for the Greenleaf Diner, I knew I needed a break from driving. I needed to stop and get something in my stomach in order to finish up the trip back home. I changed lanes and turned off of the highway at the exit, fighting off the brief flurry of irritable anxiety that I was somehow going to be “late,” even though I didn’t technically have a deadline for getting into town.
I’d been planning my tactics for my homecoming for weeks--for months, even--ever since I confirmed that I would be going. It might seem silly to put so much stock into a stupid high school reunion, but I wanted to make as much of a splash as possible.
I yawned as I turned off of the highway and pulled into the parking lot for the diner. It had been years since I’d been this close to my hometown; even for holidays, my parents and I would go to my grandparents’ place, or to my aunts’ and uncles’ houses. I found a parking spot--not hard, so late at night--and turned off the engine to my car. Closing my eyes, I rested my head on the seat.
I’d worked up to the last possible moment, making sure that everything at the office was taken care of so that I would be able to hit the ground running when I got back in a few days. I’d made sure to pack my laptop, my charger, and my work phone--just in case. If something happened at the agency, I would need to be in contact, and if I had some spare time during the trip, I planned on at least looking over paperwork and reading a few emails, so I’d be as prepared as possible when I got back.
The fact was, as pathetic as it was to admit it, I was as close as a human being could come to being addicted to work. I tried to tell myself at first that it was because I was doing something that I loved and it was because I was doing Important Work, but the truth was--as I realized a few months before the reunion announcement--that I really didn’t have anything else going on in my life.
I opened my eyes and rubbed at my face before making myself get out of the car. “A cup of coffee, and something to eat, and then I’ll get back on the road and get to the house,” I told myself, even as I locked the car up behind me and crunched on the icy-cold asphalt of the parking lot. My parents’ home would be abandoned because my parents were spending the winter in Italy, and they’d given me the keys to the house when I’d told them I was going to my high school reunion.
The door to the diner creaked on its hinges in a welcoming, homey kind of way when I opened it, and a gust of hot air, full of the scents of cooking meat, hot oil, and frying starch blew against my face. This was definitely a warmer welcome than I would have gotten at my parents’ house, and my stomach lurched in my body, reminding me that I’d started feeling hungry about thirty minutes ago.
I stepped into the diner and let the door shut behind me. The place was decorated with old, classic photos and knickknacks. At just before midnight, it wasn’t that busy; there were maybe three people seated at the tables, and a guy sitting at one end of the bar, hunched over the counter with his back to me. I spotted a couple of waitresses moving around, and the cook behind the counter, working away.
“Come on in, honey--it’s raw out there,” one of the waitresses said. I had to agree with her; it hadn’t been so cold when I’d left the city after work, but as soon as the sun had gone down, it had gotten colder and colder. According to my Prius, it was thirty-five degrees outside, and the weather forecast stated that it would get even colder, dipping below freezing overnight.
I sat at the bar and one of the waitresses brought me a menu, giving me a quick smile and telling me to take my time as she poured me a glass of water. “I definitely want a nice, big cup of coffee, if nothing else,” I told her, and she nodded.
“I’ll bring you a pot, how about that? Maybe some hot chocolate, too? On the house,” she said quickly.
I smiled up at her.
“You’re just trying to make it look like you’re not giving our Casanova here special treatment,” one of the other waitresses called out from behind the counter, where she was doing something to the register.
“No, I’m just a nice person all around,” my waitress countered. Casanova? I looked around the diner to try and figure out who they could possibly be talking about. The booth across the dining room had an old man seated at it with one of his buddies, both of them reading newspapers over cups of coffee and the remains of some kind of deep-fried feast. Clearly not them--or at least, I was pretty sure it wasn’t them. One of the other tables had a few college-age girls seated at it, and obviously it wasn’t them.
That just left the guy sitting a few seats away from me, hunched over the counter, looking down at his phone. From behind, I wouldn’t have ever called him any kind of Casanova, and even in profile I couldn’t really see the allure at first; he had dark hair combed and slicked into a weird 1950s style, and from the side, his nose looked a bit too big for his face. He was wearing heavy jeans and a thick, dark green hoodie, with worn-down, washed-out boots on his feet and a leather jacket slung over the back of his chair.
“She’s just jealous, Lucy, don’t pay her any attention,” the guy said, turning to look in our direction, speaking to my waitress.
Seeing his face, I had to admit he was handsome. His nose wasn’t as big looking at it from the front, and the lean, sharp jawline--speckled with some stubble--balanced it. He had the nicest eyebrows I’d ever seen on a guy, framing big, dark brown eyes, and a smiling, cupid’s bow mouth that had the faintest little twist at the corners like he knew the punchline to a joke he wasn’t telling anyone just yet.
“Of course I’m jealous; she got to you first,” the other waitress said.
I had to chuckle at that, and turned my attention back to the menu, listening as the two women continued to banter back and forth about the guy, with him occasionally chiming in. It took longer than I would have believed possible for me to finally decide on something to eat; my waitress brought me coffee and hot chocolate both, and I’d even taken a couple of sips, by the time I figured out what I actually wanted.
“Made up your mind?” There wasn’t any impatience in the waitress’ voice as she asked me, for which I was grateful.
“I’ll have the steak and eggs--and can I get some spinach in those? I saw you have a spinach and cheese scramble.”
“Absolutely--not a problem,” the waitress replied; I watched her scribble some notes on her pad. “Do you want pancakes or french toast with that?”
“French toast, I think,” I said.
“Good choice--the pancakes here have always been a little on the dry side,” the man at the other end of the counter said. I glanced at him and in spite of myself I felt a little rush of heat in my cheeks. Whatever charm he’d already worked on the waitresses at the diner, apparently I wasn’t immune to it, either.
While the waitresses playfully scolded the handsome stranger, I felt my phone buzzing in my purse. I took it out and checked the flashing screen to see my friend Jess’s name. I figured she was probably worried she hadn’t heard from me yet.
“Hey,” I said as soon as the line connected. “I’m fine; just got off the road to eat some dinner finally.”
“How far are you from town?”
I thought about it for a moment. “About forty minutes, maybe an hour?”
“Oh--where did you stop off at?”
“Green Leaf Diner,” I replied.
“Ah, so yeah, you’re not too far,” Jess agreed. “You ready for the whole shebang?”
“I’m just about as ready as I’ll ever be,” I said, thinking about the level of planning that I put into something as simple as a high school reunion.
“I mean, realistically, it’s not like you have to worry that much; you legitimately are one of the most successful people in our
graduating class,” Jess pointed out.
“I know, I know,” I said, sighing. “I just...well, you know.”
“I know,” Jess agreed. “What about that last detail we talked about?”
I grinned wryly to myself. “The contingency? That, I had a little bit of trouble trying to arrange,” I admitted. I glanced over at the good-looking stranger still holding down the other end of the bar. “Though there’s a possibility I can take care of it before getting to town.”
“Do tell,” Jess said.
“I don’t know for sure. It’s just an idea, anyway. If I can’t stand on my own two feet and make my reputation, I shouldn’t even try, right?”
“Well, as far as I’m concerned, you shouldn’t try just because there’s no point,” Jess pointed out. “But since you’re determined to be Queen Shit of Turd Mountain, you might as well do it big.”
I laughed at that, and looking around again I saw the waitress bringing my food.
“Hey--I gotta go, but I’ll let you know when I’m home safely,” I told Jess. I ended the call quickly and set my phone down on the counter.
“Steak and spinach-egg scramble, with french toast,” Lucy said, setting it down in front of me. “Enjoy, hon.” She turned and stepped away with a polite smile and then badgered the handsome guy a little more for his attention, flirting and being coy with him. She had to be a least forty, I thought, starting in on my dinner; not that it mattered, but the guy looked closer to my age than the waitress’s.
He was a good sport about it, though, giving as good as he got from both of the waitresses until the cook behind the counter yelled at them to focus on their side work if they weren’t serving customers. Then the man went back to staring at his phone, occasionally taking sips of his coffee or picking at a piece of pie.
I couldn’t resist the urge to talk to him. Even if I hadn’t had a plan in mind, I probably would have managed to at least pass the time of day--or technically night--while we were both sitting there. Also, the idea that had started to percolate in my mind when Jess called me was too good to pass up.