A house call wasn’t something listed on my duties as Advertising Exec, but I was willing to go the extra mile when that extra mile would take me back to my old stomping grounds.
As well as earn me a pretty bundle in the upcoming months if Gandy liked our ideas.
Pressing the intercom, I waited for someone to answer and to open the gate.
I’d surprised myself by making good time. I wanted this project underway.
Either Gandy would be signing the papers I’d brought with me today, or I’d be enjoying the next two weeks free from the pressures of work.
For a second, a sensation akin to panic flooded me.
Two weeks without work?
I’d brought my laptop with me, and there was always shit I could catch up on even from this distance. But no active tasks? No meetings?
I gulped.
Could I cope?
For a second, I wasn’t sure if I could, and then, the other side of the intercom buzzed, and a pleasant voice murmured, “Justin Gandy’s Estate.”
For a second, I was swept back into the past. When a voice tinged with that accent and the perfect amount of sugar had whispered sweet nothings into my ear…
Then, I remembered that was gone. Over. I’d ruined it, destroyed something pure and beautiful to make sure Lauren would have no regrets.
Suddenly, the prospect of being here for two weeks seemed like a nightmare.
What had I been thinking of? Reserving a place for all that time, thinking I’d be able to stay here and relax if Gandy didn’t sign on the dotted line?
I sucked down a breath.
I’d just have to make sure Gandy would sign, and then there’d be no problem.
When a throat cleared, and the voice repeated those same three words, I murmured, “Cooper Daniels. I’m here to see Mr. Gandy.”
Without a word, the gates swept inward, and I drove forward.
Chapter 2
LAUREN
The sound of his voice sent shivers down my spine.
I almost hated myself for having such a strong reaction to him, after all these damn years, but the truth was, I’d never gotten over him.
Had never managed to look past the first and only man I’d ever loved.
As dramatic as that sounded, it actually wasn’t.
Cooper had been special. So special that the idiot had dumped.
I hated him for giving me up so easily, for putting us through the torment of separation.
Six years after I’d last seen him, five years and six months after I’d last heard his voice, he was back in Maine.
More than that, he was in Willow Hearth. More importantly, he was at the Gandy Estate.
Call me Cupid but I’d orchestrated this. I wasn’t chasing him. My love hadn’t died, but that didn’t make me a fool. I just… I wanted to see him. Wanted to know the man he’d become and wanted to learn if he was as talented as I’d always known he was.