A Perfect Fit (13 page)

Rosemary rolled her eyes. “Get this woman a shot of
something to calm her down before she has a come-apart.”

“You know,” Cami said evenly, “For someone who lived in
Europe for two years, you sure come across as an inner-city delinquent.”

Rosemary grinned. “I grew up in D.C. I can be as smooth and
cultured as the next person. I just prefer to be myself most of the time.”

“Wonderful. Well, we can’t do anything about the school
expulsion except say it was a misunderstanding, but no one’s going to buy it,
so let’s avoid discussing it at all if possible.”

“What do you mean they won’t buy it?” Rosemary asked. “It’s
the truth.”

“Doesn’t matter. You think people who read these rags care
about truth? No, they don’t. They care about sensationalism.” Seeing Rosemary
accept the declaration with bad grace, Cami pushed forward. “Mentioning you
completed two full internships in different specialties should go over better.
In fact, I think it would be good if we all—including Delphi—wrote up a
paragraph or two detailing our professional histories and accomplishments as
far as how they prepared us for our roles here. We’ll post them up on the
website, and create a press release. I’ll work with the corporate media
specialists and contact Alex to firm things up.” They had to do something
before this totally got out of control.

The first article had been an irritation; this one took
things to a new level.

She stood and moved to the stairs. “Lana, can you contact
the others? I’ll tweak my own bio. If the past week or two is anything to go
by, we need to anticipate more media attacks coming up. If there’s anything in
any of our pasts that can be dug up or twisted to suit the papers, they’ll find
it.” She glanced back over her shoulders to see Lana’s face was white, and Sage’s
eyes were as big as bagels. Though Cami considered asking what they could
possibly be hiding, she didn’t have the energy for it.

The night had gone from fabulous to fraught, and Cami felt
wrung out. When she shut the bedroom door, she went through the motions of
changing out of her eveningwear into pajamas, doing her facial cleansing and
moisturizing routine and sat at the computer. It was too late to call Alex,
though she desperately wanted to. He would soothe her and help solve the
problem—two things she could use now. She pulled up her bio and made some
tweaks to it.

She emailed the PR people at corporate headquarters,
directed them to the articles in question—on the off chance they hadn’t seen
them yet—and copied Alex. Cami mentioned the women would all come up with
something to post on the website, and could they please call her at their
earliest convenience to discuss strategy.

Though Lana would be the hotel’s general manager, it was
clear she wanted Cami to deal with the debacle. It was Cami’s forte, so she
would handle it. It was one more thing to squeeze into her time as she prepared
for the hotel opening in seven weeks.

She was already tired.

“Who’s behind this, a competitor?” Alex asked when Cami got
him on the phone the next day.

“I don’t have any reason to believe it is, but it feels too
targeted to be run-of-the-mill gossip.” Cami sat back in her chair and
stretched her aching back.

“I agree. Is there anything else we should be ready to deal
with?”

“Who knows? Most of what’s been printed was only loosely
based on reality. You know how these scandal sheets are.” Cami pushed her
auburn curls back from her face and thought again of the treadmill downstairs.
She ought to have been on it two hours ago, but had spent every moment since
she’d woken trying to do damage control. The other inhabitants of the house had
already emailed her their bios, and Lana said Delphi would send hers before day’s
end.

“Normally I wouldn’t worry about it, but with all of the
negatives blasting back at the hotel, we could be in for some trouble. The
reviews of the hotel in the first month and how we handle this will be
paramount.” A rhythm came through the phone, indicating Alex was tapping his
pencil on a notebook—as she’d often seen him do.

“Then we’ll make it work, better than work. We’ll make it
shine.”

“I know you will. You ladies make your plans and I’ll see if
we can figure out where the trouble is coming from.”

“Thanks, Alex.” Cami said goodbye. She snatched her curls
back into a loose ponytail so she could head down to the exercise room. She
didn’t exercise often, but when her mind was really turning she liked a brisk
walk. Some of the others had already done their Zumba DVD and hit the showers,
so she should have the space to herself.

She clicked on the news and started walking, letting her
mind wander as she moved. Thoughts of her date with Vince the previous night wove
in and out of her professional plans, distracting her.

When Cami came out of her room an hour and a half later,
fresh from the shower, she heard the doorbell ring and hurried to answer it.
Joel stood on the porch, biceps bulging as he crossed his arms. “Hey, I got a
call from Alex. He wanted me to stop in and check out your system, make sure
everything’s extra secure here after the latest news reports.”

“Great.” Cami used the hand towel to mop at her damp curls. “Go
ahead and poke around. I’m not sure how many people are still here, and who’s
gone down to the hotel, but the recording equipment for the cameras and other
security stuff is in the closet off the kitchen.” She pointed to the door.

“Perfect. I’ll get to it, then.” He headed that way and Cami
took the stairs to her room.

When she came down again, she found Jonquil sitting at the
table, her laptop open. Sage was at the other end of the table reading a book
and munching on a bowl of something resembling twigs, with dried cranberries
for interest. The woman seriously needed to broaden her food choices.

Cami grimaced and headed for the bag of bagels she’d
purchased the previous day. She thought nothing of the crinkling sound behind
her until Sage spoke up.

“How can you eat that? Don’t you know it’s loaded with
preservatives and stuff?”

Cami turned toward them.

“Leave my
Ho Hos
alone,” Jonquil shot back, her mouth
already full.

“Rosemary, side with me on this one,” Sage said as the chef
came down the open staircase.

“
Ho Hos
are the food of the gods,” Jonquil stated,
stubbornly eating the other half of the first snack cake.

Rosemary came to a stop at the side of the table. “I can’t
believe we share DNA. You’re such a philistine.” She grabbed the remaining cake,
moved to the sink, and shoved it down the garbage disposal drowning out Jonquil’s
vibrant arguments. “You’ll kill yourself eating those nasty things. It amazes
me you can gag them down.” She searched through the cupboards.

“I can’t believe you did that. Those are mine. And I’m not
hoarding a box of them anywhere, so you don’t have to go on a
search-and-destroy mission. No need for an intervention.” The mutinous look on Jonquil’s
face said she’d like to fight about it. Cami wondered if the memory of Rosemary
mentioning her self-defense training held her back.

Rosemary peeked over her shoulder. “That’s what you think.”
She plunked some ingredients onto the cupboard and continued digging. “I have
nothing against desserts—I studied with a pastry chef, didn’t I? But if you’re
going to eat them, they should at least taste like actual food. There’s no cake
flour in this house!” She rooted around some more and moved to the next
cupboard.

“
Ho Hos
do taste like actual food. Millions of people
eat them every day.”

“Yes, and millions of people fill their bodies with illegal
drugs, but you wouldn’t do it just because they think it’s okay.” She set a
couple more things on the counter and moved to the fridge.

“These aren’t illegal.”

“They should be,” Sage said. “Chemical preservatives have so
many drawbacks.”

Cami watched in amusement at the byplay. Sometimes living
with them reminded her of college dorm life—minus the hunky guys dropping by.
She glanced outside and saw Vince’s truck pull up, she thought of Joel poking
at the security system, and amended her thought. No, this was almost exactly
like the dorms.

“No butter? All we have is margarine?” Rosemary turned to
Sage. “I thought you were a health nut. How can you put this crap in your body?
I thought you were all about natural ingredients.”

Sage grinned from where she leaned against the counter on
the other side of the island. “I’ve been getting by with cooking in olive oil,
but real butter would be nice.”

Rosemary looked at both Sage and Jonquil. “Get your purses
and shoes. We’re going shopping.”

“Busy here,” Jonquil crossed her arms over her chest. “And
as long as you’re going shopping, you can replace my
Ho Hos
.”

“Tough. I’m going to teach you a thing or two about buying
food. And we’ll let Sage tag along, because she probably knows more about the
stores and can back me up.” Rosemary’s blue eyes flashed. “When we get back, I’ll
show you how pathetic your snack cakes are.”

“Actually, Cami’s the resident expert about stores and local
food sources,” Sage said, turning to Cami. “She’s been making the rounds.”

“I’ll pull up the file and print a page for you while you
grab your things.” Cami checked again and realized it wasn’t Vince outside, but
one of his employees there to mow the lawn. Disappointment filled her. “I was going
to pass it along anyway. I thought you could use some of the local growers to
supply the restaurant.”

“You betcha. Thanks.” Rosemary moved for the staircase ahead
of Cami. She shot back over her shoulder to Jonquil, “You’re coming with us
whether you have shoes on or not. I suggest you find a pair.”

Jonquil must have believed the threat since she headed
toward her bedroom.

Cami printed her list and handed it to Rosemary as she
dragged Jonquil out the door behind her. When Jonquil turned and winked, Cami
had to struggle to hold back a laugh at the feigned reluctance until they were
out of earshot. She was still grinning when the three of them pulled onto the
road in Sage’s Ford Fusion.

Looping her purse strap over her shoulder, Cami grabbed her
bagel and a bottled orange juice, and headed for her own car. Maybe she’d run
into Vince at the hotel.

When Cami arrived at the hotel, she found four guys putting
in trays of perennials, but no Vince. She stopped to check out what they were
doing. The grounds were going to be beautiful, and she couldn’t wait to see how
the meandering flowerbeds filled in when the last plants were in place. When
Cory, the freckled kid who’d helped with the ballooning adventure, greeted her,
she asked, “So where’s the boss today? On another property?”

“He’s probably still at the nursery digging through
paperwork.” His grin was quick. “He was grumbling over it when we left there a
few hours back.”

“Nursery?” Vince worked in a nursery too? Why did he hire
out guys to do the work here if he had to have all these extra jobs?

“Yeah, Nature’s Garden on Oak Drive.”

She paused for a moment. “So how many guys does he have
working for him, and are you part time?”

“Full time from the day after school gets out until I go
back, part time in the spring and fall, usually. There are about twenty of us
on this end of things. Another dozen or so at the nursery.” He grinned. “Vince
always mutters about tracking inventory and payroll when we ask for a raise,
but he’s a good boss. Everyone loves him.”

The answer gave her pause. So not a small business—at least,
not nearly as small as she’d thought. “He owns the nursery, too?”

“Among other things. My mom says he can’t keep his fingers
out of anyone’s pies.” He pressed dirt around the plant and rose, collecting
the empty plant flats. “I keep thinking I’m going to convince him to take me up
in the balloon for free, but he’s holding me at the employee discount and
working ground crew in exchange for air time. Guess I’m not pretty enough.” He
chuckled at his own joke and moved to the truck.

Cami considered his words for a couple of seconds before
moving back to her car. She pulled up the nursery address and popped it into
her phone mapping software before heading off.

Twenty minutes later she found Vince swearing at a computer
monitor and riffling through a stack of papers on his desk in what was an
otherwise meticulously organized garden center. She shut the office door behind
her and stared at him, her arms crossed over her chest and tapping the toe of
her Ferragamo pumps.

His expression changed from irritation to happy surprise. “Hey,
I didn’t expect you to drop by.” He rose. The smile dimmed as he approached and
he took on a wary expression in his eye. “What’s wrong?”

“You have a gnat-sized business? Because thirty-odd
employees, even if only for half the year, doesn’t seem so gnat sized to me.”

He came around the edge of the desk and leaned back against
it. “I said compared to the number of employees the hotel was going to be
running, it was gnat sized.”

“Right. And you’re just a small town boy with a good work
ethic and big dreams.” She’d been had, and she didn’t appreciate it in the
least. She should have known with a father and two siblings who were lawyers,
that Vince wouldn’t be content with small potatoes. And hadn’t he come across
as smooth and educated?

His eyes grew cool. “What’s wrong, Cami? Upset I’m not
practically a beggar? Harder to blow me off at the end of the summer as a
fling—one you indulged in just to get back at your dad—if I’m a real business
man?”

“That’s not it at all.” Except she was starting to wonder if
it was. At least partly. She’d thought this was all lighthearted fun and games,
and then he ended up being more than she expected. “Tell me, do you have a
degree?”