Finding Bliss (Bliss #1)

by Cassie Strickland

  Books by Cassie Strickland

  The Armstrong Securities Series

  Beautiful Duplicity

  Second Chance Sunshine

  The Bliss Series

  Finding Bliss

  Digital Edition, License Notes

  All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your favorite ebook retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Finding Bliss, by Cassie Strickland

  Copyright 2015 by Cassie Strickland

  First eBook edition: September 18, 2015

  ISBN-13 - 978-1517191955

  ISBN-10 - 1517191955

  ASIN: B011GGSQ4S

  Cover Design: Cassie Strickland

  Author’s Photo: Larissa Parsons

  www.cassiestrickland.com

  For survivors and the ones still hurting,

  may God give you strength.

  A Novel

  Cassie Strickland

  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Epilogue

  About the Author

  Chapter 1

  Clara

  There was a small knock on my office door as Paige’s head popped in. “About ready?” she asked, smiling.

  I puffed out my cheeks as I exhaled. God, I was the worst friend in existence. She was going to kill me for this.

  “No,” I replied after my moment of guilt.

  Paige forced the door the rest of the way open and stared down at me from the doorway, her hands on her hips. Her dazzling chestnut eyes narrowed at me in irritation. “Seriously, Clara? You’ve canceled on me three different times in the last month.”

  I held up my hands, surrendering, as I leaned back in my chair. “I know. It’s…” I huffed, disappointed in myself. “Just give me ten minutes. Ten minutes, and I promise I’ll be done.”

  I hated doing this to my best friend, but my job was extremely important to me. Being an executive assistant to a partner of one of the most prestigious law firms in Chicago, it had to be. My days started at eight in the morning and usually ended at seven in the evening, if I was lucky. Sometimes it was six AM – a lot of the time it was sooner – to ten or eleven at night. My job was my life.

  Paige didn’t understand this. She held the same position with another partner, though her boss, Tom Talbert – my boss’s brother – was different from mine. He was about to retire and rarely took on cases anymore, so she wasn’t all that busy.

  My boss, Galen, was much younger than Tom – he’d just turned fifty last month – and was still going strong. He had me running around like a chicken with its head cut off most of the time. Still, I loved it. I loved the fast paced days, the unexpectedness of each hour, and the thrill that came with every win. It left no time to think about anything else.

  And that worked for me in a big way.

  “You know-” she started to say, but she was cut off by the sharp ring of my office phone. She rolled her eyes, gesturing for me to answer, before flipping her toffee colored locks over one shoulder.

  I picked the phone up as I mouthed, “Sorry,” and said into the receiver, “Mr. Talbert’s office, this is Clara Vincent. How may I help you?”

  Paige held up ten fingers, signaling she’d be back in ten minutes, and then spun on a heel.

  And what heels they were.

  Paige always wore high heels, tight skirts, and ridiculously low cut shirts to enhance every delicate curve of her body. Where I was stylishly demure in how I dressed, Paige liked to push boundaries, embrace her femininity. I envied her for this, because it worked exceedingly well for my beautiful friend. Men’s eyes usually bugged out when they saw her sashaying wherever she went.

  Galen’s voice sounded in my ear as he asked, “Why are you still there?”

  I smiled, forgetting Paige. Galen might be my boss, but he was more like my father. I loved him fiercely, just like he did me. He made me feel that adoration every, single day, too.

  Our relationship was strange from an outsider’s perspective. There’d been rumors around the office because people suspected more going on behind closed doors. I didn’t care what they thought, though – we were far from that. Galen had known me since I was a little girl; a fact that no one beside Paige and Tom Talbert knew. He had saved me in more ways than anyone could imagine, and I owed him so much for that.

  “Some of us do have to work,” I teased, knowing he worked harder than I did.

  His boisterous laugh echoed in me, washing over me. Galen was full of life, even for a man that worked so much. His wife had died about ten years ago, leaving him a widower, but you never saw that sadness in him. They were about to adopt when she was killed in a car accident suddenly, so he had no children. I’d asked him once why he never dated or remarried since he was only forty when Ava died – he wasn’t too old to start a family. He told me that you only find one great love in life, and he had his with Ava. He’d be full of that until the day he died.

  Who was I to argue?

  “Are you saying I don’t work?” he asked in mock anger, his voice carrying a hint of humor.

  “Never.”

  He chuckled, questioning, “Why are you still there? Didn’t you have plans with Paige?”

  Uh oh.

  I should have anticipated this.

  I sighed heavily, dreading the imminent conversation. “I’m finishing up a few last minute things.”

  “Clara-”

  “I’m leaving in ten minutes. I promise.”

  “What am I going to do with you?” He didn’t mask his exasperation.

  Hoping to stop this before it went where I knew it was going, I joked, “Love me?”

  He wasn’t having it, though, and continued as if I hadn’t said anything at all. “I know I can be demanding, but I thought we agreed to cut it back some, Clara. You’re working too much these days.”

  I groaned my aggravation. We’d had this conversation too many times over the last few months.

  I’d worked for Galen since I was twenty. It was a very young age to be in the position I was in, but Galen said
he needed only me. Ava had been gone a little over a year, and he was lonely. He needed to see my face every day to cheer him up. I knew this was a lie, even then. Yes, I understood that he’d forever feel the pain of losing Ava, but at the time, he was very worried about me. And that was putting it mildly. I wasn’t in a very good place; it was dark, ugly, and full of despair. It was one of the many ways he’d saved me.

  As soon as I started working for him, the job and Galen became my whole world. Now, eight years later, it still was. He didn’t agree with this anymore. He wanted me to have what he had with Ava. I didn’t think it was in the cards for me. I didn’t have the courage to put myself out there, either. I was pleased with how I was, who I was, and where I was – I didn’t want a change.

  We were at an impasse.

  “And I’ve told you countless times that I’m fine. I’m happy.”

  “I don’t care what you think. Your way of life isn’t healthy, Clara. You are a beautiful, twenty-eight-year-old woman. You need to be enjoying these years, not spending them in an office, hiding from the world.”

  “I’m not hiding from the world, Galen.”

  “That’s exactly what you are doing, girly. Remember, I’ve known you for a long time – I know you.”

  Grrr.

  I hated when he said that.

  “Galen-”

  “Since I can’t convince you of this – this evening being the perfect example – I’m forcing it. If you don’t start cutting back your hours, I’ll fire you.”

  I gasped, utterly floored. I was not expecting this new tactic.

  “How can you do this to me? You know how much this job means to me. How much you mean to me.” I ended in a whisper.

  “And that’s the point – you are too young to be wrapped up in work so much. You need a life outside of it. Eventually, your life will pass you by, and you’ll have nothing to show for it. Nothing. I can’t let that happen, Clara. You are too important to me.”

  “That’s…that’s… I don’t know what it is, but it’s crazy!” I glanced down at my feet to make sure the ground wasn’t opening up underneath me.

  “You’re going on vacation, too. When you come in on Monday, you and I will look over my schedule and find a time for you to take two weeks off. You haven’t left Chicago, or taken any time for yourself, since we went to Aspen for Christmas…and that was three years ago, Clara.”

  “But I don’t want a vacation!”

  “See…that right there isn’t healthy,” he argued, vehemently. “What sane person turns down vacation time?”

  It would have hurt less if he’d struck me.

  In barely a whisper, I stated, “We both know I’m not all that sane. If you remember-”

  “Shit,” he muttered, the word very unlike Galen. “Don’t start that BS again, Clarabelle. You’re saner than me. And you know that’s not what I meant. I’m just saying that what you’re doing to yourself isn’t good for you. You’ll regret this one day, and I’d hate for that happen to you.”

  “But I like my life,” I meekly reiterated.

  “I know you do. You are comfortable – I get that – but you are too comfortable, Clarabelle. For you to grow and live a normal life, you have to do things that feel awkward and tough. You know I’m right.”

  I did, but I wasn’t giving him the satisfaction of knowing that.

  “Let me think about this before you do anything hasty,” I suggested instead.

  “Nope,” he replied instantly.

  “No?”

  This unwavering side of Galen was new. He was always so patient and kind with me. I didn’t get it.

  “I mean it, Clara. Cut back your hours and take some time off. I’ll pay for you to go anywhere you want. You can take Paige with you if you’d like.”

  It was a kind offer, but there was no way I was taking it.

  “I’ll think about it.”

  “Either take it or you’ll find yourself unemployed. I don’t want to do it, Clara. I really don’t. You know how much I love seeing you every day. You are the light of my life, girly, but I’ll sacrifice that to help you.”

  “Galen-”

  “This is non-negotiable.” He was final, resolute.

  “Galen-”

  “You’ve always been my girl,” he whispered with pride and love in his tone, but I detected a hint of worry. “I don’t want you to end up alone one day, wondering what happened to your life.”

  I didn’t want that either. However, taking a step away from the life I’d created wasn’t something I was comfortable with. In fact, it scared the living hell out of me.

  “Galen-”

  “Nope. Stop. I’ve got to go. My other line is ringing. Go out with Paige tonight and do what every girl in her twenties does – let your hair down.”

  My jaw dropped. “You’re serious?! Do you know what you’re telling me to do?”

  No father tells their daughter to go out and party.

  He chuckled, finding this highly amusing. “Of course. I was your age once. Have fun.”

  “Galen, I don’t think-”

  The line was dead.

  I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at it.

  He’d hung up on me.

  Wonderful.

  Chapter 2

  Clara

  I dunked a savory piece of sashimi into my soy sauce as Paige stared at me, bewildered, and popped it into my mouth, moaning.

  Delicious.

  We were having dinner at one of the best sushi restaurants in Chicago, and I was telling Paige about the conversation I had with Galen. She was my best friend, so I had to fill her in. Plus, I needed to unload a bit to process it.

  “He’s forcing you to cut back your hours?”

  “Yep.” I waved my chopsticks in a small circle. “I’m also about to be on a forced vacation, too.” I grabbed another piece and put the gorgeous morsel of food in my mouth.

  To say I loved sushi was an understatement.

  She lifted her glass of wine in the air and waited for me to toast her. I titled my head to the side, but she gave me the evil eye as a warning. Not able to refuse, I grabbed my wine and clinked the glass against hers.

  “Here’s to Galen!” She took a sip, grinning the whole time, before she asked, “Where are you going?”

  The wine was beautiful with the sushi; I savored it before I could reply. “Probably just stay in. I don’t know, maybe reorganize my closet.”

  “You’re serious?” she asked, incredulous. “That’s ridiculous!”

  I shrugged, not offended in the least – I expected this reaction from her. “Why not? It’s not like I want to go on vacation…alone.”

  If I told her that Galen extended the trip to her, there would be no denying her. Paige was a whirlwind that got what she wanted when she wanted it.

  Then I remembered another thing Galen said. “He also told me to go out and party tonight. To get drunk.”

  She snickered. “He really said that to you?”

  I nodded as I chewed another piece. Once I swallowed, I told her, “He specifically said to let your hair down.”

  Paige’s eyes shined with glee. “That’s amazing!” She punctuated that fact by snatching up a piece of her sushi roll and eating it, moaning in delight.

  I laughed, staring at her like she was crazy. “You’re kidding, right? I’m not doing that. I…it’s been a long time since I’ve done anything remotely like that, and it didn’t end all that well. I wouldn’t know how to act in a social setting.”

  She choked on her wine, giggling. “Only you, Bella!”

  I glowered at her. “Don’t call me that. You know I hate it.” The amazing food turned sour in my stomach, damn her.

  Paige raised a brow, telling me without words that I needed to let that go. “That’s ridiculous, too. I think it’s beautiful.”

  “Honestly?” I looked down at my plate, not wanting this conversation to ruin the night. I knew where it was about to go. And this pissed me off – I was
having fun.

  Her hand found mine on the table, squeezing it affectionately. “Look at me.” I did, reluctantly, before she continued, watching me steadily. “I know why, and I get it. Still, you don’t need to let that dictate your life anymore. What do you think you are doing now? With Galen and your work? You’ve built a little bubble around yourself, and no one gets through it. You’re isolated.” She grinned. “As far as social settings are concerned, when you sit in on any of Galen’s meetings or go to any of the events he makes you attend, you charm every man there. They practically eat out of the palm of your hand within minutes. You’re beautiful, Clara. Half the men in the office are in love with you, too.”

  I blinked at her, stunned by the revelation, before I returned, “That’s not true! And as far as business stuff goes, that’s work. Even the events. I have to talk to people. It would be rude if I didn’t. Besides, it’s all a façade.”

  She gave a look that said really and put her head in her hands. “What am I going to do with you, Clarabelle? It’s most definitely not a façade. That is all you, baby.” She sighed and settled back in her chair, determination glinting in her eyes. “You need to get a life outside of work. You’re twenty-eight years old for Christ’s sake! When was the last time you went on a date?”

  Oh, no.

  Not this conversation again.

  “Why does it feel as if everyone I care about is ganging up on me? I love you both, but first Galen and now you! What is this?!”

  She gave me a pointed expression. “An intervention. A much needed one.”

  “I’m happy with my life. I don’t want to change.”

  She let out a small growl, surprising me. “You go to work, and you go home. You go to dinner with Galen and me very rarely. You go to work functions, and that’s it. You don’t have a life!” She ended in a shout that turned heads.

  “Shhh,” I whispered and leaned forward, over the table. “Don’t yell. I do have one – one that I like very much.”