Summer In Stanton (Stanton Falls #3) (7 page)

“Well the muffins smell
done.”

She walked over towards the
oven to take them out when he came up behind her.  

“Let me get them for
you.”

She quickly turned back
to him.

“Oh don’t worry I’ve…”

She started to slip on
the floor.  Thankfully Connor was behind her before she reached the
ground.  He held her there for a few seconds, just looking into her eyes.
 Then Libby’s voice came from around the corner.  

“Tessa, have you seen
Connor…  I’m sorry, did I interrupt something?”

The smile on Libby’s
face said exactly what she thought she interrupted.  

“Not at all.  I
slipped and Connor was helping me up.”

“Yeah that’s Connor.
 Ever the gentleman.  I’m sorry but I am going to have to steal him
from you.”

Connor helped steady
Tessa on her feet and then spoke to Libby.  

“What’s going on?”

“There’s someone out
here that wants to see you.”

“Do you know what they
want?”

“She told me but I’d
rather she tell you herself.  Actually, maybe you should come too Tessa,
since you’re the main reason she’s here.”

“Me?”

“So it seems.  Besides,
we wouldn’t want you to fall without him here to catch you, right?”

“Uh right.”

Tessa followed him out
of the kitchen.

***

Connor walked up to the
elderly woman who was sitting on the wingback chair.  

“Can I help you?”

“Why you must be Connor.
 I swear you are the spitting image of him?”

“I’m sorry. I don’t
follow.”

“Your granddad, Clark.”

“You knew grandpa
Clark?”

“Knew him?  Well he
and Camellia were two of my closest friends growing up.”

“Really?”

“Don’t tell me the two of
them never talked about me?  Jasmine Beaumont.”

“Wait, you mean
the
Jasmine Beaumont from this picture
here?”

Connor turned around and
brought the photo off the wall for everyone to see.

“One in the same.”

“Well I was young when
grandpa died so grandma didn’t talk about those days except to say that the
three of you started this place together and that you sold your share to them
when you moved clear across Texas.”

“Yes I did.  My
husband was a politician and had to be in the thick of things so we moved to
the state capital.  I love every single place in this state but I really
loved it here.  Miss it a lot sometimes.”

“Well if it’s any
consolation, your room is just as beautiful as ever.”

“Oh did those two really
go and name all the rooms after women they knew?”

“Yes.  I’ll have
you know that your room is one of the most elegant in the house.”

“Of course.”

“So to what do we owe
the pleasure?”

“Well my grandniece was
online looking for a place to honeymoon.  She is the type that
doesn’t want to travel all over the world.  She’s looking for intimate and
nice, you know.  When she showed me the list of places she was thinking
about, I couldn’t believe my eyes.  Who would have thought the place would
be still standing after all this time?  It looks beautiful.”

“Yeah, we recently did
some renovations.  Place has been worn down over the years.  Now all
we need is the customers and we will be good.”

“Well with that website,
I’m sure you’ll be getting more customers.  Speaking of which, I didn’t just
come because I wanted to see the place.  I want to talk shop.”

“Talk shop?  I’m
sorry Ms. Beaumont, but the building isn’t for sale.”

“Oh heavens no, I don’t
want to buy the place.  That’s too much work.  I wanna rent it out
for my grand niece’s wedding.”

“Are you serious?”

“Well of course.
 It says on your website that you do everything.  Catering, flowers,
service.  They want a destination wedding and this is one of the most
beautiful places I know and the price is in their budget.  Of course we will
need rooms for all the guest so you may be booked up for that whole week.”

Connor couldn’t believe
it.  Everything else that had happened in getting the place together was
great but this would be a game changer.  A packed house for a whole week
would go a long way to staying out of the red.  Combined with the other
reservations that they had already started getting because of the website and
the hotel would have a decent capacity for the rest of the year.  Things
were starting to turn around and he knew that it was all Tessa’s fault.

Connor knocked on
Tessa’s door.  They were all supposed to be going out tonight to celebrate
the successes that they were having.  Everything was turning around so
well.  He couldn’t tell by the way that she looked when she opened her
door.

“What’s wrong?”

“Nothing technically.”

“Then why do you look
like the world as you know it just changed?”

“I just got off the
phone with my former boss and it turns out that they realize how much of an
asset that I am for the company.  It turns out them firing me didn’t have
the intended effect.  I was the only one there that really knew what I was
doing and now they want me to come back.  They want to spin it as an administrative
leave rather than them firing me and rehiring me.”

“Wow.  That’s a
good thing right?”

“I don’t know.  I
mean I guess so.  It’ll be easier than going out on my own.”

“There’s a but there.”

“Of course there is.
 There is always a but.  They would need me to come back tomorrow for
a big presentation.  There’s no way they can spin it like that and not
have me there for the shareholders meeting.”

“Then there isn’t a but.
 You have to go.”

He saw the puzzled look
on her face.

“What?  Did you
expect me to beg you to stay?  To tell you that we have something real
here and that we should check it out.  See it to the end?”

“I guess kind of.”

Connor sighed.
  He put his hands on her shoulders and stared into her eyes.

“Tessa, I don’t have to
tell you all that.  You already know it.  What I can tell you is that
I want you to be happy.  I can’t keep you from your life in New York.
 That’s not my call.  I mean let’s be honest with ourselves.
 
We both knew all along that you were going to
have to go back.”

He saw the tear roll
down her cheek.  

“I guess so.  I
just didn’t expect it to be so soon.  I don’t even get a chance to let it
soak all in yet and here you are taking it like it’s nothing.”

“You really believe
that?”

“I don’t want to but what
am I supposed to think when you seem all emotionless about it?”

“That I’m honoring my
promise to not do exactly what I want to.”

“What promise?”

“You made me promise to
not get all touchy when you finally left, so I won’t.  It’s kind of obvious
that both of us care about each other but we are fundamentally different.
 You can’t stay here and there is no way a country boy like me is moving
to New York so I guess we’ll just have to enjoy the time that we do have
tonight until then.”

“Okay, but do me a
favor.  Don’t tell anybody yet.  I’d rather tell them when we get
back.  I don’t want to ruin their good time.”

“I promise, now let’s go
before they think something is up.  You know Ms. Celia.”

“Do I ever.”

He watched her lock the
door and they headed downstairs.  At least he got one more night with her
in Stanton Falls.  

***

Tessa sat in the
conference room with her manager and a representative for Cobali Services.
 This was the latest important meeting about ad services for the latest
high profile new client that corporate was desperately wooing.  They were
presenting the client with a Product Placement Proposal.  Tessa remembered
how it felt when she first got back.  That first day it seemed like the
amount of work that they had given her had quadrupled.  It wasn’t until
now, almost three weeks later, that she realized nothing had changed.  She
didn’t have more work.  She just had less drive.  Less of a desire to
do the work she was doing.  The more she was back in New York, the more she
felt like she didn’t belong anymore.

She wasn’t even
listening as the video rolled showing past commercials for the company.
 It wasn’t until Mr. Atwell directly addressed her that she remembered
where she was and what she was doing.  

“Tessa, you’ve been
oddly quiet since this meeting started.  What are your feelings on this
proposal?”

“My… feelings?”

“Yeah.  You know,
how does the ad make you feel?”

“Oh right.  The ad.
 Well I suppose I can’t say what I really think about it until I get a little
more understanding about the company.  This ad just feels like soup in a
can.  It doesn’t feel homemade.  It doesn’t feel like something I
want to eat when I’m sick.”  She turned her attention to the client.
 “Excuse me for asking sir, but is this what you want people to think of
your company?”

The client smiled at
her.  

“That’s why I’m glad we
hired your company.  You saw our challenge immediately.  We don’t
want to be thought of as the big company.  When people think of our soup
we want them to think of sitting down with friends that are as close as family
and sharing more than just food.  Sharing an experience.  And I want
different images.  You know.  Something homely . . .um. . .rustic.
 That’s it.  Our brand should remind people of a place that you go
and never want to leave.   You know what I mean?”

“Yeah.  I think I
do.”  Tessa stood up and walked towards the exit.  “I’m really sorry
but I’ve got to go.”

She couldn’t explain it
and she might regret it one day but for now she knew that she didn’t belong
where she was.  Not anymore.

***

Connor pulled his pickup
truck to the house and parked.  It was the first time in years that the
parking lot had more than a few cars in it.  If things kept up at this
pace, he might need to expand the parking lot by a few spaces, but that was a
good problem.

What wasn’t so good was
how he was feeling.  Everything was going great for the business but he
felt horrible.  He knew he’d promised that he wouldn’t make it hard for
her to leave but he wished inside that he had.  That he had begged her to
stay because he truly felt like they had something special.  

Unfortunately, that just
wasn’t how it went down.  He sighed as he headed into the house.
  

“Ready?” Libby asked.

“For?”

“Ms. Celia is waiting for
you.”  

“Please tell me you’re
joking.   What I’m ready for is to go to my room, shower and relax
until you call me for dinner.”

“I’m not joking.
 Now you can try running that by her if you like.”

“No.  Where is this
supposed intervention being held?”

“In the dining room.”

“Okay.  I guess on
to the intervention.”

“Don’t worry.  I
have a feeling this is going to help you more than you could imagine.”

Libby pushed Connor
through the kitchen door and he saw all kinds of delicious looking food on the
table.  

“I’m not sure if you two
misunderstood how an intervention works because I don’t think it’s just a bunch
of food.  Not that I’m upset about that.”

Ms. Celia playfully
snapped at him.

“Boy will you be quiet
and sit down?  I didn’t say we were going to do an intervention.  I
said we might if you didn’t get your act together.”

“Lucky me then.  I
must have pleased you with my attitude today because this looks wonderful.”

“No, your moping is
still contagious and I almost did have to talk some sense into you but
something happened today that I think will cheer you up really quickly.”

“I don’t know about
that.  Unless you can change time and let me go back three weeks ago.”

The older woman laughed
at him.  

“I can do you one
better.”

He scoffed.

“I doubt it.”

“You shouldn’t.”

Connor froze in place.
 He knew that voice.  Well.  When she came through the kitchen
door, he couldn’t help but grin from ear-to-ear as he stood up from his seat.
 

“Tessa?  What are you
doing here?”

“Well I hear you’ve been
moping ever since I left.  Didn’t I make you promise to not get all sappy
when I was leaving?”

“Yes but in all fairness
I didn’t know how hard it was to let you go.”

“Okay.  Humor me
then.  If you could go back, what would you say?”

“It doesn’t matter.
 You know I don’t like the idea of changing the past.  And I don’t
need to.  Not when you’re here now.  I guess the question is how long
are you going to be here?”

“That all depends on
what you would have said.”

“In that case, it would
have been something along the lines of, ‘I know you think you have to go but
you don’t.  You belong here, with me.  And you know that.’
  That’s how I would have started.”

“Nice.  Smooth.”

“Wait.  I’m not
done yet.”

“I see.”

“Then I would have said,
‘Why don’t I just ask you to be Mrs. Connor Armstrong so that we can make sure
that you stay and never leave.”

“Well then I would have
probably had no choice but to stay.”

He crossed the room and pulled her into a tight hug;
sweeping her off her feet and swinging her around.

*****

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Continue reading for an excerpt from Kaci Hart’s
book, PURSUING ANNA.

Chapter
1 (Excerpt)

Anna saw the woman as she walked into her office
and she knew exactly what it meant.
 
She
coaxed herself to be calm.
 

Don’t
kill the messenger.

Still, she was finding it a bit hard not to at
least entertain the idea of doing so.
 
Not like it mattered.
 
No act of
violence or anger was going to make the stacks of documentation that were coming
in her direction go away any faster.
 
Besides, she knew it wasn’t the woman’s fault.
   

“I’m
sorry.”

Callie
mouthed the silent apology and quickly scurried out of the room with a look on
her face that made Anna feel bad.
 
She
must not have been doing the best job hiding her frustration.
  
Even such, her momentary sarcasm arose when
she looked at the small mountain of paperwork that had found a temporary home
on her desk.
 
She thumbed through the
stack, taking inventory of all that was there.

“Now
this is exactly what I needed today.
 
One, two, three new quality control reports for review and I don’t know
how much other stuff is here.
 
I swear
that the fun never stops here.”

Anna
reminded herself to apologize to Callie later.
 
She knew the girl wasn’t the thickest skinned.
 
The last thing she ever wanted to do was hurt
her feelings.
 
That’s not the type of
person Anna was and even if she was mean, she had absolutely nothing against
Callie.
 
It was just that she hadn’t
planned on starting her day out with a gift like this, and unfortunately for
Callie, delivering those reports was one of her daily functions.
 

Anna
sat back in her chair, and looked around her office.
 
She could have done worse but that didn’t
mean she was completely happy.
 
She
certainly wasn’t living the life that she had dreamed of.
 
Being a professional didn’t turn out to be
anything like she had thought it would when she was so easily excitable in
college.
 
Back then she was ready to take
on the world.