by Mary Campisi
When he left, Uncle Walter stretched out his legs and sighed. “Ah, Alex, there’s nothing like the thrill of a good deal pulsing through your veins to keep you going.”
She smiled. “I think any deal, good or bad, would keep you going, Uncle Walter.”
His mouth twitched. “True, but you aren’t much different from me, young lady. You love the chase as much as I do.”
He was right, of course. She did enjoy the challenge of finding locations for WEC resorts. It was like putting together a thousand-piece puzzle of an ocean where three quarters of the pieces were blue, a slightly different shade perhaps, but still blue. Selecting the ideal site was a lot like that, at least initially. There was only one major criterion, the same one for every project: the location needed to be within a one-hour proximity to a metropolitan area. Once Alex established those boundaries, she gathered charts, maps, and graphs, studied water tables, terrain, and climates. Depending on the type of resort they were considering—summer, winter, or a combination—she made her initial recommendations and then went to scout out the place.
That’s where it got interesting, living in the town for two or three months, finding out who was in charge (and it was never the mayor), who had an alliance or a relationship to whom, who could be persuaded, who needed money. These were things you couldn’t find out from studying a piece of paper; you had to get in the trenches, imbed yourself among them, kind of like a computer virus, absorbing information, collecting data without anyone’s knowledge, but unlike the virus that corrupts and destroys, Alex thought of her methods as a way to help those who couldn’t or didn’t know how to help themselves. Consider the widowed part-time Super Duper cashier who’d never been farther than an hour from her home. Buying up her property enabled her to go on a cruise with her women friends and purchase a condo near her son in North Carolina. Or the fifty-year-old man who’d been laboring in the same factory for thirty-two years. He sold his land, moved his family to a suburb outside of Jacksonville, Florida, and opened up a pizza shop.
With research, care, and timing, everybody got what they wanted. In the seven years she’d been involved with the property research division of WEC Management, there’d only been two times when an individual had refused to sell. The first happened years ago, when Alex had just taken over the division. There was a farmer in Roanoke, Virginia, Leon “Rusty” Dade, who owned fifty acres of land. He farmed some, rented out some, and kept the biggest section for his most prized possessions, his Black Angus. And no amount of cash incentives could persuade Rusty to sell. The land was his legacy, could be traced all the way back to his great-granddaddy’s granddaddy, and would be his five children’s legacy, too. The last Alex inquired, a year ago, Rusty was still farming and ranching and living out his legacy.
The only other time anyone had refused a WEC Management offer was two years ago when its chief competitor, Cora Ltd., slid in and bought up a track of land an hour from Portland, Oregon. Alex had been sure WEC would get the deal, had been shocked when they didn’t. Until she heard that the CEO’s son, Sam Cora, was keeping very close company with Lilly Arbogast, whose father, Jed, owned thirty-five of the fifty acres in question. And it didn’t surprise anyone, except maybe Lilly, that once the deal was done, so was Lilly.
“So do you want to tell me about the next venture?” Uncle Walter asked, straightening his gray silk tie.
This was when she felt the closest to her uncle, here in this room, poring over charts and graphs, watching his eyes spark with interest as she drew him into the planning stages of a certain piece of property, considering and discussing all of its possibilities. The usual stern expression on his face smoothed out, the brackets around his mouth faded, and he seemed almost…relaxed. If you could call a man who spent six and a half days at the office, had his hair trimmed every five days, and never went anywhere without at least a sport coat, relaxed. There was a oneness here, a unity, intangible yet real, that bound them to each other when they were planning a project. Alex felt it; he had to feel it, too. So, maybe her uncle didn’t say the words, but she knew he cared. When he nodded his silver head in agreement, she felt like a child who’d just been given an ice cream cone on a hot summer’s day. Pure delight.
“Alex? Plan on keeping it all to yourself?”
“No.” She laughed, ran a hand through her hair. “Actually, I think I may have found the ideal location for our next project.” She tried to control her excitement but it burst out. “A year-round resort.”
“That’s quite a statement, young lady.”
“I know. But it looks perfect, at least the specs do. It’s an area in the northwestern section of Pennsylvania, about an hour from Pittsburgh. Lots of trees, birds, deer, a lake even…the whole nature bit.” She waved a hand in front of her. “The kind of landscape tourists love. And, get this—” She leaned forward, rested her elbows on the top of her cherry desk. “The first snowfall last year was October twenty-second.”
His pale blue eyes lit up. “Mix it with a little powder…”
“And by mid-November the slopes would be ideal.” She swiveled her chair around, pulled a large portfolio off the credenza, and spread the contents on the desk. “Here, we’ve got a map of the area. There’s the Allegheny River, running west, which seems to be right in the town’s backyard.” She traced a thin blue line. “And over here—” she pointed to a small, blue shape “—is Sapphire Lake. The water alone is enough to get excited about, but they’ve got mountains and steep hills, too. I can just picture them with lights and ski lifts.”
Her uncle picked up the map, studied it, rubbed his jaw. “I don’t want another piecemeal project, Alex. This time, I want the whole thing. One deal, period.”
“I agree.” She shifted in her chair. “I know you were disappointed Mr. Oshanski didn’t sell out sooner.” Her voice dipped. “He had a lot of issues to deal with…”
“We can’t afford to fall prey to another person’s sentimental wanderings. If we can’t get the package this time, we don’t do the deal.”
“I’ll get it, Uncle Walter.” She hadn’t missed the note of disappointment in his voice. Even though he’d told her he didn’t hold her responsible for Mr. Oshanski’s thirteen-month delayed response, she felt responsible. She should have been able to persuade him to sell off his land and buy a condo in the suburbs. But looking at him, sitting in his rocker on the front porch of the old farmhouse where he and his deceased wife, Lena, had raised seven children, it hadn’t seemed appropriate or plausible to mention. He wasn’t the type who would look forward to central vacuuming or maintenance-free lawns. His children were scattered all over the country, busy with lives of their own, and all he had left were memories…and a tree. Uncle Walter would never understand about the tree, or the memories, for that matter.
“What else do you know about the area?”
“Well, it looks like there are two families who run the place.” She scanned her notes. “The Kraziaks…and the Androviches. A Mr. Norman Kraziak owns a sawmill company and a furniture manufacturing plant. They make specialty rocking chairs. And the Androviches, looks like a Nicholas, owns five hundred acres and a logging business.”
“Interesting.”
Alex glanced up. “How so?”
Uncle Walter’s lips pulled into a semblance of a smile. “It’s obvious the businesses are interdependent. They may even have relatives on both sides, through marriage and whatnot. One can’t survive without the other. All you have to do is win one of them over...”
“And the other won’t be able to survive.”
“Or at the very least, surviving would prove very difficult. That’s where we come in and offer them a way out.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Alex jotted down a few notes. Meet Mr. Kraziak and Mr. Androvich, ASAP. “I thought I’d leave in a couple of days. Get myself settled.” Show you I haven’t lost my touch. I can do this; I can get the whole package.
“What? Not even a buying trip to New York?”
&nb
sp; “No.” She gave him a sheepish look. “I hate to admit it, but I’ve got half a closet stuffed with clothes that still have tags on them. I really think I should pass.”
“Eric said something about Maui.”
Here it comes. “Good. He should take a vacation. He’s been working hard.”
Uncle Walter cleared his throat. “Actually, he said the same thing about you. He thinks you’ve been working very hard and need a break.” He paused, cleared his throat again. “I think he was intending to ask you to go with him.”
Alex underlined the names Kraziak and Androvich three times. “Sorry.” She looked up, gave him a half-smile. “I really want to get started on this project. It’s already May and I want to see the area in the summer. I figure two months for research—” she tapped her pen against her chin “—that should put us well into July.”
“I’ll expect to hear from you at least once a week,” Uncle Walter said. “And monthly visits. You’re not that far from home that you can’t make the trip once a month.”
“Of course,” Alex said, dipping her head to hide a smile. He got like this every time she told him she was going away somewhere. Call. Visit. Don’t forget to…. “Of course I’ll come home.”
“Good.” He picked at a piece of lint on the sleeve of his gray suit. “I want to be kept informed.” He looked up, met her gaze. “Remember, all or nothing.”
“I’ll remember.” He was never going to let her forget unless she redeemed herself with this next project.
He stood, brushed a hand over his slacks, and said, “This place you’re going to, does it have a name?”
“Restalline. It’s called Restalline.”
Simple Riches is available at all major retailers: Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Copyright 2014 by Mary Campisi
A Family Affair: Christmas is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and situations are all products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to real persons, locales, or events, are purely coincidental. This e-book is copyright protected. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
About the Author
Mary Campisi writes emotion-packed books about second chances. Whether contemporary romances, women's fiction, or Regency historicals, her books all center on belief in the beauty of that second chance.
Mary should have known she’d become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.
When she’s not working on her craft or following the lives of five adult children, Mary’s digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab mix, Cooper, or on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own ‘hero’ husband on his Ultra Limited aka Harley.
Mary has published with Kensington, Carina Press, and The Wild Rose Press. She is currently working on her next A Family Affair book as the saga continues…
website: www.marycampisi.com
e-mail: [email protected]
twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/MaryCampisi
blog: http://www.marycampisi.com/blog/
facebook: http://www.facebook.com/marycampisibooks
Other Books by Mary Campisi:
Contemporary Romance:
Truth in Lies Series
Book One: A Family Affair – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo Audible
Book Two: A Family Affair: Spring– Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Three: A Family Affair: Summer– Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Four: A Family Affair: Fall– Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Five: A Family Affair: Christmas– iTunes Pre-Order
Book Six: A Family Affair: Winter (2015) iTunes Pre-Order
Book Seven: A Family Affair: ... (TBA)
That Second Chance Series
Book One: Pulling Home – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo Audible
Book Two: The Way They Were – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo Audible
Book Three: Simple Riches – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Four: Paradise Found – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo Audible
Book Five: Not Your Everyday Housewife – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Six: The Butterfly Garden – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
The Betrayed Trilogy
Book One: Pieces of You – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Two: Secrets of You – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Three: What’s Left of Her: a novella – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
The Betrayed Trilogy Boxed Set – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Begin Again: Short stories from the heart – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
The Sweetest Deal – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Regency Historical:
An Unlikely Husband Series
Book One: The Seduction of Sophie Seacrest– Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Two: A Taste of Seduction – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Book Three: A Touch of Seduction, a novella– (2015)
Book Four: A Scent of Seduction – (2015)
The Model Wife Series
Book One: The Redemption of Madeline Munrove – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
Young Adult:
Pretending Normal – Kindle Nook iTunes Kobo
