Page 10 of Unforgettable

“He’s coming in a few weeks with his wife and daughter. You’ll love—” He pauses and seems to rethink whatever he was about to say. He glances down at his watch, the large face looking too good on his arm. “If we’re all set here, I’ll head to the conference room so I can be there to greet everyone,” he tells me. “Lorena, it was so nice to meet you. Scarlett made the right decision when she chose you.” He grins at her and it drops when he sees my narrowed eyes.

He walks away, disappearing through the door to the offices.

“I’m sorry I don’t have time to linger, Lorena,” I tell her, still looking over my shoulder after Jamison. “You nailed the order, thank you.”

Elsie and Doug continue to move the arrangements into place as Lorena fluffs and positions flowers here and there.

“I’m so glad you like everything,” she says. “I’ll be back with the small vases this evening at five thirty. They’ll be ready before then, but until I can hire help, I’ll have to wait until the shop closes.” She smiles sweetly, her round cheeks lifting. “Are you still good with one hundred even?”

“Five thirty will be perfect. And yes, I believe one hundred is still right. I’ll let you know if we have a bunch of surprise check-ins.”

“Thank you, Scarlett,” she says.

“Thankyou.”

I ask Bill, one of the porters who just came on duty, to help Lorena with her carts and hustle down the hall toward the conference room. Jamison is already there, placing the black and white boxes of pastries from Happy Cow on a side table, two industrial-sized dispensers of coffee next to that. He straightens a little bowl of sugar and creamer and then the plates and cups. How he managed to pull all of this off is beyond me. Who told him about Happy Cow anyway?

“Don’t do that,” I say, when he looks up.

“Don’t do…what exactly?” he asks, his lips twitching. He thinks this is funny?

“Don’t brown-nose me with our employees. It won’t win you any points with me. I can handle myself, thank you very much.”

He studies me, his eyes drifting down my black pantsuit and lingering on my hot pink floral blouse so briefly, I almost think I’ve imagined it. I’m glad I dressed to impress this morning. I know I look good. I almost went the other direction and intentionally looked like a hot mess so the new management would worry about what he’d gotten himself into. I can at least be grateful I didn’t go that route.

He nods slowly, his tongue dipping out over his lips making it hard for me to concentrate. “I have no doubt you can handle yourself just fine,” he finally says. “In fact, I know you can.”

Flustered, I turn and walk closer to the entrance, stopping in the doorway.

Jamison moves to stand next to me, and I second-guess my decision to not just go sit down and wait for everyone to arrive. My legs feel weirdly shaky.

“I’d like to run something by you,” he says.

I don’t respond.

“I’d like to have a cocktail party,” he says. “By next Friday night if possible. We’ll invite all the business owners here for a happy hour…let them know I’m here to help them in any way I can.”

“We’re already helping the business owners in Landmark,” I say, folding my arms across my chest as I turn to stare at him. “They don’t need a party to know we send business their way every chance we get.”

He turns to face me, mirroring my stance. It’s sexy as all hell.

“Okay, it’ll be a chance for them to get to know me and vice versa then,” he says, smiling calmly.

I drop my arms and groan inside.

“Fine,” I say through my teeth.

“Excellent.”

Vera and Albert are the first to walk through the door, and Albert greets Jamison like they’re old friends already. I don’t know why that feels like a betrayal, but it does. I can’t be mad at Albert though, he’s as sweet as they come.

He introduces his wife Vera and she glances over at me, her eyes twinkling as she says, “Albert didn’t tell me the new owner was such a looker.”

I grit my teeth and laugh with the three of them, faking it even more when Jamison says, “You must be confusing me with my brother.”

“And he’s humble to boot,” Vera cries, patting the top of Jamison’s hand as they shake.

Since some of the staff has to watch the front and be available to guests, everyone isn’t able to attend the meeting, but Doug comes in, and Bill and Andy are next. Deb, the head of housekeeping, also swoons when she sees Jamison. It’s an epidemic. And then finally, my brothers trickle in, one after the other. They didn’t have to be here today, but they promised me they would come to show their support, for the new owners and for me.

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