Lost & Found
Page 23

“But your uncle fired your aunt.”
“Circumstances were much different.”
“How so?”
Ed only smiled. “They have their secrets.” He nipped her forehead with a kiss. “By the way, I don’t intend on keeping us a secret. I’m heading upstairs to tell my brother to stay dressed when you’re around and to keep his hands off of you.”
“He’s never had his hands on me,” she growled out.
“That’s very reassuring.”
Darcy was having second thoughts about this. He made her sound like a paid girlfriend—a kept woman perhaps. That wasn’t what she was thinking when she’d said, so childishly, that she’d be his girlfriend.
“Goodnight.” Ed turned and raced up the stairs.
Darcy shut and locked the door. She walked back to the couch and dropped down onto it.
Ed Keller was an interesting man, to say the least.
She buried her face in her hands. What was she doing? She liked him. She really did. And she was going to need a cold shower too, but getting involved with Ed was going to cost her everything. He held her job in his hands. Her house was under his control, too. Even her neighbor was part of this intertwined life. Now if something went wrong she’d lose her man, her job, her house, and a family she was falling in love with as much as she was with Ed.
What if she had stumbled upon the truth of her birth parents? Would that eventually mean the end of everything? And what kind of secrets did Zach and Regan have that caused him to fire her? Had Regan found out about him and Mary Ellen?
Chapter Nine
There was a different zip in Ed’s step when he walked into the office with a bouquet of flowers and Darcy’s coffee in his hand. It had been freeing to tell her how he felt and to kiss her on Saturday night.
Things were going to work out. He’d be damned if they didn’t.
But, because he was a man who liked to thoroughly think things out and this thing with Darcy was the most spontaneous thing he’d ever done, he decided that if they didn’t work out he’d relocate her in the company and they’d keep her rental agreement intact. That would ensure that she wouldn’t have to run home to Kentucky just because he was an ass—because there was a great chance that just might prove to be his downfall.
He sat at his desk and started sifting through the bid sheets. By nine, he still hadn’t heard what had become the familiar sound of her desk drawer opening. Maybe the bus was late.
Ed walked to the door and looked down the hall toward his uncle’s office. Perhaps she’d stopped by Mary Ellen’s desk. It wouldn’t be odd for him to just walk down that way, poke his head in, and say hello.
Mary Ellen was attending to a phone call and gave him a nod to go into his uncle’s office.
Darcy walked through the doors of the human resource office with her new friend, Candy. Fate was working in some very strange ways when it came to her mission to find her birth parents.
Sure, Saturday night she’d warded it off, but today when she’d met Candy, things had changed.
She’d seen her on the bus all week, but one, thirty-minute conversation with the young woman, who had just been promoted in the department, and Darcy knew that maybe by the end of the day she could have all the answers to all of her questions.
However, she also knew that a job and her relationship with Ed hung in the balance. And if Candy got in trouble, Darcy would have to find a new route to work—if she kept her job.
Candy walked into her office and Darcy followed, shutting the door.
Candy turned on her computer. “This is kinda fun. Like being a private investigator.”
Darcy nodded. Candy had never met Zach or Ed personally. She was just one of the hundreds of people that made the big corporation work. There was no fear, yet, that she’d cross paths with Ed.
She had, for some reason, told Candy everything about coming to Tennessee. Though she hadn’t shared her story about Ed. As far as Candy knew, Darcy was a secretary two floors up.
“So you said you’re twenty-four?” Candy asked.
“Yes.”
“So you were born…” She did the calculation in her head and then hit a few keys on the computer.
Darcy sat down in the chair next to Candy’s desk and waited for something…anything.
“Okay, what month?”
“August.”
Candy nodded and wrinkled up her face. “So we’re assuming the woman would have left in August, right? Perhaps on maternity leave or just quit.”
Darcy shrugged as Candy scrolled through the list.
“I have seventeen people who left on maternity leave that year, but none in August.”
That didn’t seem right. Mary Ellen, Regan had said, had gone into labor the day she’d started.
“Look for Regan Keller and see what day she started working that year.”
The name hadn’t meant anything to Candy, obviously. She typed it in.
“Regan Keller was hired…” she searched, “in the spring and it says her job was terminated in August, but not until the year after you were born.”
“After?” That couldn’t be right. She swallowed hard. “Mary Ellen Rothchild. When did she go on maternity leave?”
Again, Candy typed in the name. “It says her last day before maternity leave was the same as Regan Keller’s in the spring, but the year after you were born.” Candy turned to her. “Are you sure they led you to the right place?”
Darcy wondered. She was sure the dates would add up, and she’d have something to take to Mary Ellen and Zach, if the opportunity offered itself.
“Well, I guess we hit a dead end,” Candy said and closed the file. “But if you get more information, I’d love to help you. And I promise I won’t tell a soul. I mean, I could lose my job for telling you what I did.”
“I really appreciate it.” Darcy stood to leave.
“Hey maybe we could go out some time. You know, double date. You said your boyfriend is native to Nashville. Maybe he could show us around.”
Darcy didn’t see that happening. Candy might not have met Ed, but she was sure she’d recognize him.
Darcy nodded. “Yeah, I’ll see when he’s free.”
She gave her a wave and headed toward the elevator.
As the door closed and she watched the lit numbers in the elevator climb, she looked at her watch. It was already twenty after nine. Certainly Ed was going to notice she wasn’t there. Their little relationship wasn’t starting off on the best foot.