Today was the day she’d dreamt about for the past few years—Kensi was certain of that fact as she strode into the editor-in-chief’s office, dressed in her favorite burgundy colored suit with matching pumps, pearls around her neck and hair straightened down her back. She was dressed for the occasion. When she entered Mrs. Samantha Elkins’ office, she accepted the bottled water offered to her, sat at the edge of her seat and crossed her legs at the ankles, excitement bottled up within her. She was ready. She smiled and nodded anxiously as her boss gave her accolades over her past assignments, one of which was the high profile story of Joshua Archer’s retirement from the NBA. Samantha Elkins’ praise was nice, but Kensi’s nods were intended to move her on to the good part—the part where they discussed her promotion.
“I’m impressed, Ms. Jacobson. You’ve outdone yourself this time and your efforts have not gone unnoticed.” Samantha tapped the most recent issue of The Big Apple Arts Chronicle as she spoke.
“Thank you, ma’am.” Kensi’s response was rushed. She’d been rehearsing this scene in her mind all morning and it was moving much slower than she’d anticipated.
“And you know what this means, right?” Samantha smiled, waiting on Kensi’s nod of confirmation. “I have an even more perfect assignment for you. You’re so talented, Kensi, and the world of journalism could use more journalists with your skills, so you’ll be working in Pepperton, Texas, training a few newly hired journalists for the Pepperton Quad. You’ll also be covering Pepperton’s Christmas celebration festivities, which I believe will be the perfect piece for our Christmas issue. Something new and refreshing,” Samantha dramatized with her hands. “It’s a lengthy assignment, but I know it’s nothing that you can’t handle,” Samantha finished and handed the file to Kensi. With electronic media being a preferred method of communication for most, Samantha still preferred paper, as evidenced by the paper file she handed to Kensi; she needed something that she could feel between her fingers, she’d always said.
Kensi slowly reached for the file, waiting for the rest of the news. However, Samantha’s attention had turned to her computer and it seemed that Kensi had been dismissed. Kensi stood to leave when Adam walked into Samantha’s office, uninvited.
“What a great opportunity! Kensi, since you’re leaving, I’d like to inform you that Adam is going to be our new assistant editor-in-chief!”
Kensi glanced from Adam to Samantha, attempting to mask the scowl, confusion, and disappointment that crept across her features. Was she supposed to offer congratulatory remarks?
“Give us a minute, will you, Adam?”
“Yes ma’am.” Adam gave Kensi a pitiful look before turning to leave. He wanted to be the one to tell her about the promotion. He hated that she had to find out this way, especially since they were more than just coworkers.
“Sit down.” Samantha gestured toward the seat that Kensi sat in just moments before.
Samantha rested her chin on her linked fingers. “Kensi, I know you’ve been working hard for the promotion, but you’re so good in the field, and you have so much to offer and teach journalists who are just starting out. I know you may not see it just now, but this is going to be good for your career. Besides, I can’t lose you in the field just yet—no one is as brilliant and resourceful as you!” Samantha worked to help Kensi see the best in the situation, but Kensi was not soothed by Samantha’s compliments. She sat perched on the edge of her chair with stone-like features, clenching her teeth, to keep from bawling.
“You’re disappointed, I know. But you’re so great at what you do and you know I have to groom Adam to take over the newspaper when I retire. He’s my grandson and I have to look after him and our family first. You do understand that, right?”
“No, no, I understand,” Kensi stammered, attempting to keep her emotions and tears in check. But actually, she didn’t understand. She’d worked far too hard for the position for it to be given to someone else just because he was a relative. And what made it worse is that she’d been dating Adam and he knew how much she wanted the position. He could have told her about it before now—but that was a situation she could fix.
“Who sends an employee on an extended assignment during the holiday season anyway?” Kensi fussed, though it was not unusual for her to travel during the holiday season because she had done so in the past. Yes, she was having a conversation with herself outside in the open, and she couldn’t care less if someone saw her and thought she was losing her mind. Although it was about fifteen degrees and she was bundled up in her wool coat, scarf and gloves, she could still feel the heat rising on the back of her neck as she made the walk from the train station to her apartment.
Unlike the week-long work trips she was used to taking, this project was set to last at least a couple of months. When she arrived inside of her Manhattan studio apartment, she shrugged out of her coat and winter accessories and tossed them on the sofa. She headed straight for the closet and threw just about every piece of clothing she owned onto her bed. Wire hangers dangled in the closet. Pumps and the only pair of sneakers she owned were strewn across the floor.
This was not her idea of a promotion. She was so certain that she’d be up for the assistant chief editor position after breaking Joshua’s NBA retirement story. Hands down, he was the best player in the league. Her story was perfect and included direct quotes from him that no other journalist had access to. And her reward was being shipped to some small town in Texas to train newly hired journalists and cover some small-town coach and his annual holiday event. Kensi and Samantha’s ideas of career growth were on opposite ends of the spectrum.
Kensi had never even heard of Pepperton, Texas. In her mounting frustration, she hadn’t taken the time to see how close Pepperton was to Houston. Maybe she’d be close enough to her best friend, Raegan, and that would make the situation a little more bearable.
If she had good sense, she would just quit and find a position at a newspaper or magazine that would value her resourcefulness, dedication and innate abilities.
The light but persistent tapping on her front door brought her inward battle to a halt. She had yanked the last few blouses off the hangers in frustration and now she tossed them onto the heap that lay on her bed. She took a couple of deep breaths and went to answer the door. Not giving much thought to the way she looked, hair disheveled, wrinkled pink T-shirt and a pair of yoga pants, she tiptoed to glance through the peephole at her uninvited guest. She quickly unlocked the deadbolt to allow her friend and coworker Adam access to her studio apartment.
“Ken-Ken, looks like you’re almost ready to go?” Adam chuckled nervously as his eyes traveled to the pile of clothes on her bed. He stood with his hands planted in his pockets after giving her a tight squeeze, one that she didn’t return.
“Something like that. You come by to say good riddance?” Kensi tossed over her shoulder, taking a few steps from the door to the refrigerator to grab a bottle of water. She offered one to Adam but he declined. He took a seat on the sofa and motioned for her to join him.
“I’m sorry. I know how much that promotion meant to you.”
“Well, why didn’t you turn it down when they gave it to you? That, my friend, would be showing me that you’re sorry.” She tilted the bottle in his direction before taking another sip.
“Would you have turned it down?”
“Heck no! But I wouldn’t have showed up to your apartment apologizing either.” Kensi eyed him carefully. “So are you here to see if I’ve got beef with you?”
“I just want to make sure we’re good, you know? I don’t want this getting in between us.” He smiled and tried to lean in for a kiss but Kensi leaned back and turned her head.
“Nah, we’re good, but maybe we should cool it. I’m going away for a couple of months and there’s no telling where I’ll be going after that. I can’t be certain of anything anymore.” She may have been a little over dramatic, but she was confused; she thought the promotion was part of her path and now sh
e didn’t know what her next steps were going to be. She didn’t have a plan B.
Adam didn’t buy it. He leaned back and allowed his head to rest over the edge of the couch. He had seen this coming. Not because she was leaving, but because he had been given the promotion over her. This somehow validated Kensi’s thoughts that no matter how hard she worked, they wouldn’t see her as equal to any of the male journalists who worked alongside her. He cared for her, but his career was more important, so he acquiesced. Besides, how could he say no to “his Gigi”?
“Okay, well, I guess I’ll see you around. Hug?”
This time Kensi leaned in for a hug. She did have feelings for him, and it seemed that their relationship was blossoming into something. But there was no way she could be with anyone who took her job, and no matter the circumstances surrounding Samantha choosing Adam over her, Kensi would only see it as Adam stealing her promotion and no room to trust him again. He was good, but he didn’t deserve that promotion as much as she did, and Samantha knew that. This had more to do with keeping the company within her family, but Kensi didn’t feel the need to spend energy trying to figure it out at the moment.
She would make sure that she got her own promotion after this, even if it meant she had to go somewhere else.
CHAPTER 2
Where in the heck are they sending me? Kensi thought as she changed planes in Houston. She should have known something was up when she was directed to go to what seemed like the basement area of the airport. The crowd thinned the closer she walked toward that area. No more shops and only one terminal. It looked pitiful. When she neared the area, her eyes locked on a crop duster. This has to be a joke, she mused.
“Ma’am, am I in the right area?” she asked the airline representative, handing over her ticket.
“You sure are. Have a seat in the waiting area; we’ll be boarding in just a moment.”
That excuse for a plane told her all she needed to know about Pepperton. No one was there. Both Thanksgiving and Christmas were sure to turn out to be lonely. She’d give anything to be going home to her family instead of working this assignment, even though she hadn’t been there in about two years and she’d have to deal with the questions regarding when she’d get married and have children. Even that had to be better than this situation.
After boarding, she had a flight of a little more than an hour to Pepperton. She pulled out the file her boss had given her and read it over, something she hadn’t bothered to do before; she was too upset over not getting the promotion.
“This is nice, but I don’t understand why it needs to be in a paper distributed in New York,” she grumbled as she flipped through the pages. It was all about a small-town coach who dedicated time during the holiday season to bring the community together by hosting the town’s Christmas extravaganza. She was about to close the file when a picture of the coach tumbled out of it and onto her lap. Dark eyes, flawless skin and perfect teeth. She even found the bald head and mole next to his right eye becoming. He was handsome. His smile was captivating.
She didn’t realize that she was returning a smile to the image on the paper until the flight attendant interrupted her, asking if she wanted more peanuts. She quickly tossed the photo back into the file and returned the file to her briefcase that was stored under the seat in front of her. This was business, not pleasure. She wasn’t on her way to Pepperton looking for love; she was looking for a promotion.
∞
Coach Darren Shaw sat on the edge of his desk giving his ninth grade Algebra class a pep talk about staying safe and enjoying the Thanksgiving holiday. Not only was it the end of the day, but it was the day before school recessed for a holiday, and the students still gave him their full attention. His students respected him and saw him as a role model; so whenever he spoke, he commanded their attention, no matter the time of day. When the bell rang, several of his students stopped to shake his hand on their way out of the door. When the last student left, he vacated his seat on the edge of the wooden desk and walked to his post outside the building for afterschool duty.
“Hey Coach!” Marcus, one of the tenth grade basketball players, called to Darren, who was walking down the hall toward an exit.
“Hey Marcus, ready for the break?”
“Yes sir! Just wanted to thank you again for helping me with my Algebra. I passed my test.”
“You worked hard so I’m not surprised. Congrats man!” Darren added a fist bump before Marcus jogged ahead toward the exit with Darren following behind.
Darren waved off his students as they loaded the buses, heading home for the Thanksgiving break. When the school yard settled down and the buses had all driven away, he walked back to his classroom. After cleaning the dry erase board and putting away a few books that wouldn’t be used over the next week, he returned to his seat and pulled out a framed photo of him and Jessica that he kept in his desk. He ran his fingers across the picture of him with his late wife. When she died in a car accident five years ago, so did his dreams of having children and spending all of this treasured holiday time with family.
To keep from feeling sorry for himself, he vowed to spend this time helping the kids that he loved so much. It also gave their parents a break during the recess. He smiled at the picture and whispered I love you as he often did. He made it a point not to feel sorry for himself, and he wasn’t going to start now. He returned the frame to his drawer, grabbed his backpack and stood to go home. He had some planning to do for his holiday festivities for the kids this year. He also had to get the details to the local paper. They printed a story about it every year. He figured he’d get a jump start on it this year so that he wouldn’t have to be bothered while he and the students were concentrating on their projects. He was certain that whoever the Pepperton Quad had working on the story this year would be pleased.
∞
Kensi fumbled with her carry-on bags as she walked to claim her luggage. This airport was a small fraction of the size of New York City’s airport. From the time she took about five hundred steps from the terminal and turned the corner, she could see the rest of the airport: baggage claim, passenger pick-up and rental car area.
While waiting for the rest of her bags at baggage claim, she took in her surroundings and noticed that she seemed to be the only one in a rush. The other passengers and their families all moved at a much slower speed, taking time for hugs and conversation as if they had nowhere to be. She smiled and figured it must be that easy-going country life that she’d heard so much about.
“You’re not from around here, are you?” Kensi turned to find an older white-haired gentleman assessing her.
“No, I’m not,” she answered. “How do you know?”
“I’ve never seen you before,” he said and smiled. “Pepperton is about this big.” He snapped his fingers. “I run the general store and I’ve seen everyone in there a time or two. And I’ve never seen you in church either.”
“I’ll be here for a while, so I’m sure I’ll get a chance to come to both your store and church. Is there really only one church around here?”
“Yep! Nice place with a lot of nice people.” When her bags came rolling around on the conveyor, he picked them up and placed them on the floor next to her. “Need help with these?”
“I can handle it. I’m just going to roll them. See?” she popped the handle up.
“Well, anytime you need anything, just stop by the general store,” the older gentleman offered, grabbed his duffle bag, tipped his hat and headed toward the passenger pick-up doors. Kensi nodded and went to get her rental car.
After tossing her luggage into the rental, she put the hotel address into her phone’s GPS, noticing it wasn’t far away. She was quite surprised to see that there were actually two hotels in town. With a town so small, she wondered why anyone would want to travel here. What would they do?
Pepperton was much prettier than she imagined. The hills were covered in green grass as if it were summer. Only ten minutes away from the
airport, she passed a beautiful blue lake where little children and their parents were out feeding ducks. It was pretty warm for a November day. Nothing like the chilly temperatures in New York.
Upon check-in, she came to the conclusion that most everyone in the town was friendly. Strangers who were entering and exiting the hotel spoke with her and held open doors. She wasn’t exactly used to that anymore, since she’d been living in New York for nearly ten years.
“So what brings you here?” the hotel clerk asked as he went through the process of checking her in. His voice was chipper and welcoming. Hospitality suited him well, Kensi thought.
“Work.” She didn’t offer any details.
“In Pepperton? Mind if I ask what you do?”
“I’m a journalist for The Big Apple Arts Chronicle in New York. Ever heard of it?”
“I haven’t but it sounds fancy. They sent you all the way to Pepperton to do your journaling?”
“Something like that.”
“Well, in your free time check out this brochure of our little town. There are lots of great things going on around here for the holidays. Hopefully you’ll find everything you need while you’re here. Just give us a buzz if you need anything, we’ll be more than happy to assist you Ms. Jacobson. Enjoy your stay.” With a friendly smile pasted across his face, he handed her the town’s brochure along with the room key shaped like the state of Texas.
She was pretty tired from the trip; her plan was to relax for the rest of the day and get started first thing tomorrow. When she entered the room and tossed her luggage into the closet, she plopped across the bed and thumbed through the brochure. There he was again: Mr. Darren Shaw, posing with a group of students. Is he the town’s celebrity? She wondered. That was the only page she read, telling herself that she was doing research for work. But she had to admit that he was very handsome. His piercing dark eyes and strong jawline were attention grabbing. As much as she didn’t want to be in Pepperton, she looked forward to learning what made Mr. Darren Shaw special enough for Samantha to cover his story while she was in Pepperton on her training assignment.
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