Lost and Found (13 page)

Mary Ellen was attending to a phone
call and gave him a nod to go into his uncle’s office.

Darcy walked through the doors of the
human resource office with her new friend, Candy. Fate was working
in some very strange ways when it came to her mission to find her
birth parents.

Sure, Saturday night she’d warded it
off, but today when she’d met Candy, things had changed.

She’d seen her on the bus all week,
but one, thirty-minute conversation with the young woman, who had
just been promoted in the department, and Darcy knew that maybe by
the end of the day she could have all the answers to all of her
questions.

However, she also knew that a job and
her relationship with Ed hung in the balance. And if Candy got in
trouble, Darcy would have to find a new route to work—if she kept
her job.

Candy walked into her office and Darcy
followed, shutting the door.

Candy turned on her computer. “This is
kinda fun. Like being a private investigator.”

Darcy nodded. Candy had never met Zach
or Ed personally. She was just one of the hundreds of people that
made the big corporation work. There was no fear, yet, that she’d
cross paths with Ed.

She had, for some reason, told Candy
everything about coming to Tennessee. Though she hadn’t shared her
story about Ed. As far as Candy knew, Darcy was a secretary two
floors up.

“
So you said you’re
twenty-four?” Candy asked.

“
Yes.”

“
So you were born…” She did
the calculation in her head and then hit a few keys on the
computer.

Darcy sat down in the chair next to
Candy’s desk and waited for something…anything.

“
Okay, what
month?”

“
August.”

Candy nodded and wrinkled up her face.
“So we’re assuming the woman would have left in August, right?
Perhaps on maternity leave or just quit.”

Darcy shrugged as Candy scrolled
through the list.

“
I have seventeen people
who left on maternity leave that year, but none in
August.”

That didn’t seem right. Mary Ellen,
Regan had said, had gone into labor the day she’d
started.

“
Look for Regan Keller and
see what day she started working that year.”

The name hadn’t meant anything to
Candy, obviously. She typed it in.

“
Regan Keller was hired…”
she searched, “in the spring and it says her job was terminated in
August, but not until the year after you were born.”

“
After?” That couldn’t be
right. She swallowed hard. “Mary Ellen Rothchild. When did she go
on maternity leave?”

Again, Candy typed in the name. “It
says her last day before maternity leave was the same as Regan
Keller’s in the spring, but the year after you were born.” Candy
turned to her. “Are you sure they led you to the right
place?”

Darcy wondered. She was sure the dates
would add up, and she’d have something to take to Mary Ellen and
Zach, if the opportunity offered itself.

“
Well, I guess we hit a
dead end,” Candy said and closed the file. “But if you get more
information, I’d love to help you. And I promise I won’t tell a
soul. I mean, I could lose my job for telling you what I
did.”

“
I really appreciate it.”
Darcy stood to leave.

“
Hey maybe we could go out
some time. You know, double date. You said your boyfriend is native
to Nashville. Maybe he could show us around.”

Darcy didn’t see that happening. Candy
might not have met Ed, but she was sure she’d recognize
him.

Darcy nodded. “Yeah, I’ll see when
he’s free.”

She gave her a wave and headed toward
the elevator.

As the door closed and she watched the
lit numbers in the elevator climb, she looked at her watch. It was
already twenty after nine. Certainly Ed was going to notice she
wasn’t there. Their little relationship wasn’t starting off on the
best foot.

When the door opened, Darcy hurried
down the hallway toward her desk, but stopped when Mary Ellen waved
her over.

“
Your boss was looking for
you,” she said with a grin.

“
Oh. Yeah, I’m a little
late. I stopped by HR to drop something off.”

Mary Ellen waved it off. “I don’t
think he was worried. I think he just missed you.”

Darcy nodded nervously. “I should get
to my desk.”

“
Ed is in Zach’s office.
They said to have you come in when you get here.”

Her mouth went dry. “They didn’t say
why, did they?”

Mary Ellen laughed. “You’re jumpy this
morning. Is everything all right?”

“
Yes. I’m fine.” Darcy
looked at the closed office door. “Should I just go in?”

“
I’ll announce you.” She
stood from behind her desk and went to the door that separated the
small outer office with Zach’s. She tapped lightly and then pushed
open the door. “Darcy is here.”

She heard Zach say, “Send her
in.”

Mary Ellen stepped back with her grin
straining to turn upward into an enormous smile. “Go on
in.”

Darcy adjusted her purse on her
shoulder and headed into the office. Zach and Ed were there, seated
at the desk, but on the couch, Regan and Simone sat drinking
coffee.

“
I thought maybe I’d scared
you off.” Ed stood and crossed to her as Mary Ellen shut the door.
He took her hands in his and gave her a kiss on the
cheek.

Darcy felt the surge of nerves rattle
in her breathing as she realized everyone in the room was watching
them. She hadn’t even been this uncomfortable when she’d gone to
the fundraiser and met Ed’s family—alone.

Ed stepped back and looked her over.
“Everything okay? Was your bus late?”

Darcy shook her head. “No. I just had
to drop some things off at HR.” It wasn’t a right out lie. She’d
walked Candy to her desk and lingered, that’s all.

“
Oh, good.” He turned
toward Regan and Simone, who both sat on the couch hiding their
grins behind gourmet coffee cups. “Simone and Regan want to take
you to brunch and shopping.”

Darcy bit down on her lip. “Oh, thank
you, but I have so much to do. And I was late. Really, thank you,
but I’m just getting settled. I can’t really go
shopping.”

Simone stood first and crossed to
them. “Brunch then. It is a perk to being one of the Benson/Keller
women.”

Darcy looked at Ed, who nodded. She
now wished he’d kept them a secret a bit longer.

Regan crossed over to them. “I wasn’t
very comfortable when she did this to me either.” She laughed.
“Zach threw me into the limo with Simone and sent me to his
mother.”

“
I didn’t throw you in a
limo,” he scoffed from across the room.

“
If I’m not mistaken
though, you did make me go to lunch at your mother’s, and you
didn’t show up.”

Darcy saw Ed’s jaw clench and then
turned back as she heard Regan laugh.

“
He set me up,” she
whispered. Regan turned back to the couch and picked up her purse.
“Ed, we’ll have her back in a few hours.”

“
Take care of her,” he said
as he reached for Darcy’s hand at her side and gave it a
squeeze.

“
As if she were my own
daughter,” Regan said, holding her hand up in a pledge.

They had a car waiting out front and
Darcy, though comfortable with the women, felt as though her nerves
were going to have her sticking her head out the window and
throwing up. How could she be so nervous?

Simone examined her manicure as they
pulled away from the building. She spoke eloquent as a princess,
Darcy thought. What could possibly make a woman give up the
oil-heiress life to move to America and live in the
South?

Regan, though very put together in her
own right, had a more laid-back style. Her dark hair had a few
steaks of silver, but she didn’t seem worried by it. And her
clothes, though very nice, were obviously off the rack, where as
Simone might have had her white suit pants custom made, they fit so
well.

“
So how do you like your
job?” Regan asked, setting a gentle hand on Darcy’s clenched
ones.

“
So far it has been very
nice.”

“
Ed is a super kid.” She
laughed. “Oh, he’s in his thirties, and I still think he’s a
kid.”

Simone crossed her legs and bounced
her foot. “He is very much in love with you.”

Darcy felt the blood drain from her
cheeks. “Oh, I don’t think it’s love. We certainly have an
attraction and a comfort, but…”

“
You do not believe in love
at first sight?”

Had Ed put them up to this? “No. Well,
I don’t think I do.”

“
I do.” Simone looked out
the window. “My Curtis was mine from the moment I laid eyes on
him.”

“
As soon as she left my
husband alone,” Regan retorted and both women laughed.

Simone shifted a glance to Darcy.
“Regan, we scared her.”

Regan’s soft eyes soothed her. There
was great comfort in this woman. “Simone grew up with
Zach.”

“
Oh.”

“
We went to boarding school
with each other in France. I loved him with my whole heart, that
silly American boy. And he loved me like a sister.” Simone let out
a grunt and that made Darcy finally smile.

“
You might imagine I was a
bit threatened by her,” Regan added.

“
And you were
foolish.”

Regan shrugged and then turned her
attention back to Darcy. “Do you have any brothers or
sisters?”

“
No. I’m an only child. My
parents are much older, and I lost my mother last year to
cancer.”

Simone’s hand went to her chest, and
her eyes grew sad. Regan, again, touched Darcy’s hands, and a
tranquil feeling filled her.

“
I’m sorry to hear
that.”

“
Thank you.”

Regan sat back. “So your father, he’s
still back in Kentucky? Isn’t that where you’re from?”

“
Yes, ma’am. I needed to,”
she chose her words carefully, “find myself.”

Regan’s eyes darkened, and the corners
of her mouth turned down. “I understand that. I tried to find
myself once, too.”

This time, Simone rested her hand on
Regan’s, and they both gave each other an understanding look, which
meant something to both of them.

But only a moment later, Simone’s
smile returned. “Tell me, Darcy, why did you choose to come here
and work?”

There was little she could tell these
two women, even though she was now having doubts about Mary Ellen
and Zach being her birth parents. That, she figured, had just been
quick, wishful thinking. She’d fallen into everything else so
easily.

“
I was born in Nashville. I
suppose I felt as though I had some connection.”

Regan’s eyes seemed to catch hers.
“You were born in Nashville, and then your family moved to
Kentucky?”

“
My father was a military
doctor. We did a lot of moving around the first few years of my
life.”

Regan’s face softened. “That sounds
nice.”

Simone waved her hands. “Do you know
if you were born at Nashville General?”

“
Yes. I know that I was.”
Had she said too much?

“
My husband was in
emergency medicine for years there. Funny that you might have been
born while he was there.”

Darcy swallowed hard. Interesting. She
wondered how she could get a lunch date with Curtis
Keller.

Darcy’s brunch with Simone and Regan
proved to be absolutely wonderful. Those two women could talk up a
storm, giggle like little girls, and eerily read each other’s
thoughts.

Darcy walked back to her desk and
realized it was nearly one o’clock. There would be no catching the
express bus tonight. However, she was sure she could convince her
boss to drive her home.

Her heart gave a little hitch when she
thought of just how much she did want to take him home.

She tapped on Ed’s door after she’d
deposited her purse in her desk drawer. As she opened it, she could
see him at his desk, his head in his hand and the phone pressed to
his ear with his other hand.

His morning hadn’t looked to be as
pleasant as hers had.

When he noticed her, he waved her in
as though he needed her urgently. Then he pointed to the chair as
if she was a child and he needed her to sit.

She did so. There was no need to think
things were going to be nice and sweet at the office.

Darcy hadn’t quite picked up on what
was happening, but there was something wrong with a build. She also
noticed that the phone was on an internal line. Could the voice on
the other end of that call, which she could almost hear perfectly,
be Zach?

“
I got it. I got it.” Ed
shook his head. “I can get there by eight if I can catch a flight.”
He nodded. “No. This is my responsibility, and I’ll take care of
it. I’m not fifteen anymore. I don’t need to take you or John with
me.”