Title: Lost & Found
Genre: Fiction, romance, contemporary
Series: The Keller Family Series
Publisher: 5 Prince Books
Formats available: All ebook formats
Release date: 9 May, 2013
Digital: ISBN 13:978-1-939217-54-7 / ISBN 10:1-939217-54-7
Print: ISBN 13:978-1-939217-53-0 / ISBN
10:1-939217-53-9
Book blurb:
Darcy McCary
came to Nashville with some big expectations--to find her birth parents. She
had no plans of making a life in Tennessee. But when her sources lead her to
Eduardo Keller, her heart took over, and plans changed.
Eduardo Keller is a man who goes after what he wants and he
doesn't have time for playing games. Darcy is exactly the woman he's been
looking for to assist him in business and be his partner in life.
Because he loves Darcy, Ed promises to help her find the answers
she seeks. What he doesn't know is that if Darcy finds the secret to her past
it might mend her curiosity; however, it might also tear apart a branch of the
Keller family.
Excerpt:
Ed Keller
leaned back in his chair
and kicked his
feet up on his desk. The view from his office would never cease to amaze
him. The view
from his uncle’s
office was much more spectacular, but he had no reason
to complain.
Who would have
thought, nearly twenty years ago when he’d
asked for an
after-school job to
afford a limo
ride to take a
girl to prom, that he’d end
up with the
title Vice President on his
business cards.
He laughed.
He couldn’t even
think of the
girl’s name that had
squeezed at his
heart. She’d been
older. That he remembered. But
he’d never done well with older women.
Now he sat atop an
empire that his uncle’s grandfather had started and his uncle’s father had
carried on. But it was Zach Benson who made it what it was today.
Benson, Benson,
and Hart built
big—built on time—and built under budget. Nothing had
changed.
Ed didn’t
have a foreman
like Zach had.
His other uncle, John
Forrester, had been
the best foreman
any company could have asked for. A loyal employee until Ed’s Aunt Arianna
made him retire
only two years
earlier. But another would come
along. Right now he had to focus on a new assistant.
Interviewing people
for a position
shouldn’t be an issue. He’d been doing it for years. But a
personal assistant had to be in your business, and he didn’t like that.
He’d fought it for
years. Temps were good. They came, did the work, and left. He figured it was
kind of like dating the wrong girl.
There weren’t any
he wanted to
spend his life with.
Perhaps his
expectations were too high.
After all, his Aunt Regan had been Zach’s assistant.
They’d been married nearly
twenty-five years, and she
still took care
of him. It wouldn’t
be long before
Tyler and Spencer,
their sons, would be sitting in Ed’s
seat.
Ed dropped
his feet to
the floor and
pushed up from his chair. When the time was right, he’d
find the assistant of his dreams. He’d given up on the woman of his dreams, so
an assistant would have to do.
He walked to the
elevator and pressed the button to go down
to the lobby.
There was a
Starbucks there now, and he’d grown very fond of caramel
lattes, thanks to his Aunt Arianna,
though he didn’t
go for the
skinny version. His Uncle
John would say
it was a bit too
frilly a drink
for a man in
the construction business.
His Uncle Zach, on the other hand, would argue that it was a
good stress reliever.
Ed laughed
at himself. What
an eclectic bunch
of people he had
in his family. And
even without them
there with him, he still enjoyed them.
The gathering
of the masses
in the Starbucks
also entertained him, almost
as much
as the thoughts
of his family and their
differences.
Ed ordered
his drink and
stood at the
counter waiting for it to be
handed to him.
As he looked around
the store, he mentally spotted and named each
kind of person.
There was the tourist,
the executive, and the
assistant. There was a couple,
obviously just downtown for the day and…hmmm, one that stumped him.
She was
professional, probably interviewing by the way she was
dressed, but she
wasn’t comfortable with
the big building and
the mass of
people. She was
using Starbucks as a
common ground, something
familiar, to ease
her nerves.
He listened
as she ordered
her drink—decaf and nonfat. What fun was in that, he
wondered.
She tucked
her change back
into her purse, walked
to the end of the counter, and stood behind to Ed to wait for her drink.
Flowery perfume
filled his nose. She had a sweet side.
The lady
behind the counter
handed Ed his
iced caramel latte. He
turned to leave and, he’d say
so himself, that was when things
got interesting.
The woman
who had been
standing behind him, searching in
her bag for
something, looked up just
as Ed turned around.
She shifted to
move out of
his way, but instead she moved right into him.
Ed’s hands
slipped from the
condensation on the
cup, and the entire,
cold drink poured
down the front
of the woman.
She let out a
stifled scream, and her hands went into the air. “Oh-my-God!”
“I’m very
sorry.”
Ed turned toward the
counter and grabbed a handful of napkins. He would have helped to mop up her
clothes, but he noticed that the white, silk shirt clung to her and decided it
just wasn’t a good idea to try.
“Look what you did!”
She ripped the napkins from his hand and began to blot away the coffee, which
had already stained the shirt.
“Sorry, but I think
you ran into me.”
She snapped
her head up
again. “Oh, men.
You’re not always right, you
know. Sometimes you do make mistakes.”
Not only was she not
as sweet as her flowery perfume, she was jaded. Bad news.
“Again, I’m
very sorry. How
can I help
you?” He turned and reached for
more napkins, but when she pulled them from his hand, he noticed she was
crying.
“I think you’ve done
enough.”
“I still think I can
help in some way.”
“Listen. My suit is
ruined. This is the only one I have. I was
searching for a job, and
I can’t do
that now. I
can’t hand out resumes looking like this.”
Ed watched
as the woman
continued to wipe
off her blouse, but
to no avail. It
was ruined, but
he still wasn’t going to take the blame.
“Are you looking for
a job in this building?”
She let out a grunt.
“Why else would I be here?”
“I was just asking.
I know most of the businesses in the building. Perhaps I can help you out.”
The woman
pursed her lips.
“I don’t need
your charity.”
“It’s not charity.
You seem to be in need of a job, and
I’m sure I can help
you find one.”
“What, do you own
this place?” She waved her arms in the air.
“Let me see your
resume.”
The woman stared at
him as if he’d lost his mind. That wasn’t new. You didn’t run a multi-million
dollar company in your mid-thirties without people giving you a shifty eye.
Her coffee was set
on the counter. He moved in to grab it,
but she moved
quicker. “I’ll get
this. I can’t
afford to waste a sip of this.
It’s my breakfast and lunch.”
She picked
up the coffee
and moved to
a table where she set
down the cup
and pulled a
resume from her
bag.
She handed
it to Ed.
“Here it is.
I hate to say it,
but I’m desperate. If I don’t
find a job
in three days, I
have to go home.”
“Why? Does
that suit turn
back into a
pumpkin and your glass slipper
breaks?”
“Have you
ever been desperate
for anything in
your life?”
About Bernadette Marie:
Bernadette Marie has
been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after
notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into
novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her
an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her
on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for
the next 22 years.
In 2007 – after
marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children –
Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published.
That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her
first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the
entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing,
and has released contemporary titles and began the process of taking on other
authors in other genres.
In 2012 Bernadette
Marie found herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes and Amazon to name a
few. Her office wall is lined with colorfulPostIt notes with the titles
of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too
will grace the bestsellers lists.
Bernadette spends
most of her free time driving her kids to their many events. She is also
an accomplished martial artist who will earn her conditional second degree
black belt in Tang Soo Do in October 2012. An avid reader, she enjoys
most, the works of Nora Roberts, Karen White, Megan Hart, to name a few. She
loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always
promises Happily Ever After.
Author Contact Info:
Posted as supplied.
