Lost and Found (books 1-3): Small-Town Romantic Comedy

by Elizabeth Lynx

  I knew the answer before I even thought up the question. What hurt the most was I knew my parents didn’t love me. Not healthy, deep love.

  Not the type of love Mica or Chloe had for Shelby. My parents only saw what I couldn’t do, what I didn’t have. Mica and Chloe saw what Shelby could do and all that she had.

  There was a soft knock at the bathroom door.

  “Hey, you okay?”

  No. I wasn’t.

  “Yup. Just fixing my makeup before showtime.”

  Please go away. I can’t have you see me like this.

  “You know we have a little time before the meeting,” he said and made a weird song noise.

  “What was that? A song?”

  “You know . . . the porn song.” And he sang it again.

  I smiled and went over to open the door. He was dancing. At least, I think he was dancing. He kept thrusting his hips to what he was singing.

  My hand flew to my mouth as I tried to hold back a snort, but it was too late. I snorted, and it wasn’t a pleasant sight. I had been crying, so it was snottier than usual. I ran back into the bathroom to clean myself up.

  “What? That didn’t turn you on?” Mica came up behind me and bit his lower lip, put his hands behind his head, and pretended to hump me from behind.

  I kept laughing.

  “Oh God, please stop before I die of laughter.”

  He did as I asked but smiled, wrapping his arms around me from behind. “I can’t help it. I like seeing you smile,” he said before nuzzling into my neck.

  What was I going to do with this man? He was too perfect. A little stubborn. Okay, a lot stubborn, but he was that way to protect the people he loved. I couldn’t fault him for that.

  “I think we should go over what I’m planning to talk about at the meeting,” I said more for me than him.

  I was trying to stay focused, but it was hard. He felt so good. Was it possible for someone to give the best hugs in the world? If so, Mica would win the award.

  “If we must.”

  “You know, for someone who needs money so much, you don’t seem to care a lot about the meeting.”

  He stiffened and then took a step back.

  His eyes narrowed. “Just because my family could use the money doesn’t mean my world ends if this doesn’t work out. There are always other options.”

  What was he talking about?

  I turned to face him. “What other options? Keep doing what you have been doing? I don’t know if your sister would approve.”

  He shrugged. “She’s not here.”

  “But she is part of the company. She works just as hard as you do for Fire Lake Coffee. I don’t think she’d be very happy if she thought this whole time you were here working toward a lucrative contract, but really, you were here for the free chocolates on the pillow at night.”

  “They are good,” he mumbled.

  “What?”

  He threw his hands up and said, “Look, I don’t put all my eggs into one basket. I knew this wasn’t a done deal, so I thought up other ideas to make money. If this meeting doesn’t work out, I can try my other idea.”

  My mouth fell open. He didn’t trust me. This whole time he thought I’d come here with him only to fail. That I wasn’t good enough to get him his deal with The Blue Spot.

  “So, you think this whole trip was a waste of time?”

  “No, not at all.”

  My shoulders fell. Maybe I was overreacting. Maybe he did believe I could get him the money.

  “Good, because I know the team here will be impressed with what I have to say about Fire Lake Coffee.”

  Mica folded his arms. “Right.”

  “Right what?”

  “It’s obviously important to you, so let’s see what happens.” He smiled and reached over to pat my arm. “If this doesn’t work, I plan to try to sell my coffee to diners and coffee shops up and down the East Coast. On my drive back to Maine tomorrow, I can stop by some to start.” He shrugged before heading back into the room.

  I was dumbfounded. I wasn’t overreacting. Mica didn’t believe I could do it. He might as well have patted me on the head and said good girl.

  My father said the same thing to me when he found out I faked my name to get hired by Love Foods.

  A backup plan? If that didn’t scream doubt, then I don’t know what does.

  I obviously had some warped daddy issues because it seemed I was attracted to a man who treated me just as bad as my father. Perhaps I should speak with the on-site therapist after the meeting.

  FOURTEEN

  Mica

  “Looking forward to what you have to say, Ms. Love,” Rock Diaz said after he introduced himself and the other executives in the large conference room.

  He looked more like he belonged on the cover of GQ than running a resort. And I didn’t like the way he was looking at Bea.

  And Bea seemed to be eating him up with her eyes.

  “Oh, Rock, we’ve known each other for years. Please, call me Bea,” she said and batted her eyelashes at him way too aggressively.

  It was obvious what Bea cared about. The people in this room . . . they were her people. The modelesque Rock or Coleman McEwan, who sat there in his wheelchair with a knowing smile on his face. He had the biggest arms in the room, and Bea ate that up. She had a thing for arms. I noticed her staring at mine. She’d be after Coleman’s beefed-up arms in a heartbeat.

  “All right,” he winked at Bea, and I wanted to lunge across the large rectangular wooden table and punch him, “Bea it is. And you want to talk to us about coffee?”

  She nodded and waved for me to have a seat in the black leather swivel chair. I did, but I made sure I was right next to her in case these executives got a little too frisky. Even Sylvie Golla was gazing at Bea with lustful eyes. At least, I thought they were lust-filled.

  Were they getting ready to gangbang her?

  I shook my head and tried to focus. After a breath, I realized I was being ridiculous. I didn’t have a lot of experience with dating women, especially recently. Maybe I was rusty. Bea was a smart woman. She would never dump me for men with money. She probably had more than they did anyway.

  I was thankful she was here to help me because I think I was reading the room all wrong.

  “Yes. If you open your folders I placed in front of you, you’ll see that your plan to fill all fifty-two rooms by the end of the year means that you’ll have at least one hundred people on the premises at all times. Factoring in the staff . . .”

  I zoned out as she went on about numbers. I found it more interesting to watch her lips move. It’s not as if I ever wanted this meeting to begin with.

  Glancing around the long room with a window on the end overlooking the mountains, I noticed the same sleek but rustic décor in here. A bit more scaled back. No marble, but even the wood conference table had a sleekness. And the people, they seemed different than who I knew back home. They probably had never heard of my town and would never visit even if they had heard of it.

  I suspected they were only here in this small town in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia because this old mansion was here.

  They didn’t look like small-town folk with their expensive suits and perfectly styled hair. But they were here, and I needed money and had good coffee to offer.

  I remembered how I didn’t trust Bea when I first met her because of the way she looked. Her perfectly tailored clothes made me instantly know she didn’t belong in my town. But I got to know her.

  And while she wasn’t from my town, she wasn’t trying to use me. Maybe I should give these people the benefit of the doubt, too.

  Shifting in my seat, I contemplated what would happen if they didn’t accept Bea’s pitch. What if, for some reason, they had a family member who made coffee too and were only listening to Bea to appear more open, instead of keeping it in the family.

  I couldn’t fault them for that, but how would that help me or Bea? It wouldn’t. That’s why I was thinki
ng of letting Bea in on my plan to help me with selling my coffee to local shops and diners up and down the East Coast.

  She seemed surprised when I told her about my plan up in our room. I don’t blame her for being a little angry. I was wrong not to let her in on it.

  “Wow, everything you said sounds wonderful, but I think the most important question is, how does it taste? I won’t serve my guests anything less than the best. If it’s half as good as the coffee I had this morning with breakfast at the restaurant downstairs, then I think I could be persuaded.”

  Rock slid his eyes to mine, and for a moment, I thought he winked at me. He probably had something in his eye.

  “Yes, that coffee was amazing, and I’m not much of a coffee drinker. But I didn’t have time to work out this morning, so I had some of that coffee with breakfast when I got here,” Coleman said with a nod.

  “Now you’re making me want to try it, and I only ever drink tea,” Sylvie said.

  “I’m glad to hear you say that . . .” Bea said with a smile. “Last night I gave the restaurant a large bag of the coffee to serve to guests. So, what you tasted was the Dirty Blend from Fire Lake Coffee.”

  What? How did I not know that Bea had done that? I knew she left the room for a while last night after Shelby returned, but I thought she was going to ask about the meeting. Maybe find out where it would be located and that sort of thing. I guess she was giving the restaurant one of the samples we brought with us. We had several other smaller bags with us, which I planned to use when we drove back to convince shops and diners to use my coffee.

  Rock’s teeth gleamed as he grinned. “That coffee was delicious. And I’m quite picky with coffee.”

  “Oh, Rock, you’re picky with everything,” Sylvie said with a laugh.

  “I’m sold. I think our guests would love to drink your coffee,” Rock added as he stood.

  “The restaurant had many compliments about the coffee this morning. If they already like it, then I’m sold, too,” Sylvie added.

  “Agreed. I’m already thinking of some marketing campaigns I could do to entice people. Make it exclusive to our resort.”

  “Wait,” I said as I held up my hand, but they kept talking.

  “Maybe serve the coffee whenever we have a meeting with a potential client. Word of mouth. When they ask where to get it, tell them they can only experience the coffee at The Blue Spot. Call it Blue Coffee,” Coleman continued.

  Rock nodded. “I like that.”

  “Wait a minute.” I stood, but no one was listening.

  I turned to Bea, but she was watching them and nodding along as if this was totally fine with her.

  “Maybe hold a brunch for potential guests serving Blue Coffee—”

  “Hey!” I yelled.

  It wasn’t that I wanted to raise my voice, but this was my coffee, and they were acting as if they owned it.

  Bea placed her hand on my arm. “Mica, what’s wrong?”

  Normally, that helped. Something about her touch relaxed me but not this time.

  “It’s my coffee. I make it. It’s called Fire Lake Coffee, not Blue Coffee.”

  The three execs side-eyed each other before Rock cleared his throat. “I understand that, Mr. Angrov, but once we sign the contract, it will be exclusive to us. You will make coffee for us. This is a resort for billionaires. You can’t expect them to drink coffee that they can get at some diner in New Jersey.”

  Everyone erupted in laughter.

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “Why not?”

  Rock seemed surprised by my response.

  “Mica,” Bea said, moving toward the door, “can you step outside with me. I think I can clear this up.”

  I took one last look at the others in the room before I reluctantly stepped outside the conference room with Bea.

  As much as I didn’t care if I got the contract or not, I wasn’t about to sell the rights to my coffee. It was my coffee. I created the company. My sister came up with the name and logo.

  It was a family business. Not something that a bunch of billionaires would own and tell me what to do and how to do it.

  Bea jumped up and down, clapping her hands. “It worked, Mica. Can you believe it? I knew once they tasted the coffee, they’d be hooked.”

  She ran into my chest and wrapped her arms around me. I stumbled back as she tackled me. This woman wasn’t capable of giving a normal hug.

  “Of course, they liked the coffee. I was never in doubt of that.”

  “Oh.” She pulled back and nodded. “It was me then. You were in doubt of me.”

  “What?”

  She gazed at the floor, refusing to look up at me. What was she talking about?

  “Doubt you? Why would I doubt you, Bea? If you could get me to agree to come here to sell my coffee, then you can make any deal you want.”

  She tilted her head to the side, and I saw a crack of a smile. “Really?”

  “Yes, really. I may be stubborn, but I’m nothing compared to you. You could sell pennies for a dollar to a billionaire.”

  Her head lifted, and her grin ate her face. “So, what you’re saying is I’m the best businessperson you’ve ever met? That everyone should bow down to my awesomeness?”

  I rolled my eyes. “Yes. Of course.”

  “Then why were you getting upset in there? They agreed to the two hundred grand. What’s the big deal?”

  I stared at her for a moment. Bea had no idea why I was upset.

  “What if it was Love Foods? What if they were coming to you and saying Love Foods was exclusive to them and they were changing the name to Blue Foods. That you still had to do all the work you’d been doing, but they made all the decisions.”

  Bea turned her head and stared at the door we came out of. She was silent for a moment.

  “I don’t know how you feel about Love Foods, but Fire Lake Coffee is like another member of my family. I created it. Nurtured it. Did all that work to make people happy. And for some money, I’m willing to give all that up? No.”

  I let out a breath and said, “I know Shelby needs those tests, and they cost money, but I’ll find a way. Like I said, I have other ideas.”

  She turned her head back to me. “That’s why you came up with an alternative in case this deal didn’t work out. So, you’d have money for Shelby. I thought it was because you didn’t think I could pull off this deal.”

  I shook my head. Now I was laughing. “Are you kidding? Even if they had never tasted that coffee, I knew you could sell it to them. I wasn’t worried about getting the deal . . . I was worried about if I’d want it once I got it.”

  She rubbed her forehead. “And here I was worried you didn’t think I was smart enough. And the terms. The exclusivity. You don’t want that?”

  “No.” There was nothing else to say. I had to protect the things I cared about.

  I loved my family, but with that came me, too. My happiness. I wouldn’t feel whole if I sold my business to a bunch of billionaires at a resort.

  “I think I get it now.” Bea glanced over at the door before turning back to me and cupping my cheeks. “Why don’t you go back to the room. Relax. I know they have an Olympic-sized pool in the basement. Why don’t you go for a swim? I’ll go back in there and explain to them that they aren’t buying Fire Lake Coffee.”

  I covered her hands with mine and placed my forehead on hers. “Are you sure? I can tell them if you want. I know landing this contract was a big deal for you. To prove to your father that you could do that.”

  “I’ve seen what’s really important over the last couple of days. And it isn’t big contracts or proving to an old sexist that his own flesh and blood is a good worker. Don’t worry about me. Relax, and then maybe after we can go for a nature walk. Isn’t that what you mountain people do?”

  I puffed out a laugh and pulled her into a hug. “Something like that. That might mean you’d have to wear two-inch heels.”

  She pushed me away but there was humor dancing in her e
yes. “I can still make it through the woods in three-inch heels. My sister made it around the side of a mountain in February in a wedding dress. It’s what the Love women do best—wear inappropriate clothing for the environment.” She waved at me before slipping back into the room.

  Was it too early in our relationship to be falling for her? Probably, but nothing I had done recently seemed rational.

  FIFTEEN

  Bea

  “Why are we still here?” Mica asked, glancing around The Blue Spot restaurant.

  It was the morning after the meeting, and we were in the restaurant having breakfast. Shelby sat in the sleekest highchair I had ever seen playing with her scrambled eggs. And I had seen a lot of high-end baby gear when I attended friends’ baby showers.

  Mica had ordered their Blue Spot Special. He was lifting his fork filled with quail egg and fingerling hash browns when he sniffed the air. As he chewed, he looked at me expectantly.

  I didn’t want to tell him yet, but I suspected he was figuring it out.

  After he swallowed, he asked, “Why do I smell Fire Lake Coffee?”

  The waiter, moments ago, had placed two cups on saucers in front of us. I knew this moment would come. I hadn’t told him what I did when I walked back into the meeting yesterday.

  He thought I went in there to turn the offer down.

  But that’s not what I did.

  “Because that’s what’s in your cup.” I waved at it and ticked up the corner of my mouth as if all this was natural.

  He narrowed his eyes at me and lifted the cup, taking a sip. I watched and tried my best not to show fear.

  Thankfully, I was used to dealing with my father in high-pressure situations and had learned since I was a little girl how to pretend everything was well when it wasn’t at all.

  “Did they have some left over from yesterday?”

  No.

  I shrugged and lifted my cup. “Perhaps.”

  As I took a sip, the drink burned my throat, punishing me for my lies.

  “I would have thought they ran out. Debbie from the Fire and Ice Diner was always complaining that she ran out before the new order arrived.”