Lost and Found

Lost and
Found
by

Bernadette Marie

This is a fictional work.
The names, characters, incidents, places, and locations are solely
the concepts and products of the author’s imagination or are used
to create a fictitious story and should not be construed as
real.

5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND
BOOKS, LLC

PO Box 16507

Denver, CO 80216

www.5PrinceBooks.com

ISBN 13: 978-1-939217-54-7 ISBN
10:1-939217-54-7

Lost and Found

Bernadette Marie

Copyright Bernadette Marie
2013

Published by 5 Prince Publishing
Smashwords Edition

Author Photo: Damon Kappell
2009

All rights reserved. No
part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner
whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief
quotations, reviews, and articles. For any other permission please
contact 5 Prince Publishing and Books, LLC.

First Edition/First
Printing May 2013 Printed U.S.A.

5 PRINCE PUBLISHING AND
BOOKS, LLC.

Other books by bestselling
author

Bernadette
Marie

Bestselling
Series

The Keller Family
Series

The Executive’s Decision

A Second Chance

Opposite Attraction

Center Stage

Lost and Found

Love Songs (10/2013)

Home Run (2/2014)

Bestselling
Series

Aspen Creek
Series

First Kiss

Unexpected Admirer

On Thin Ice (9/2013)

Other Bestselling
Titles

Cart Before the Horse

Candy Kisses

Matchmakers
Series

Matchmakers (6/2013)

Encore (7/2013)

Finding Hope (8/2013)

5 Prince Publishing, Denver
Colorado

To Stan,

Whenever I was lost, you
were always there to find me.

To my husband and our fantastic 5:

Your amazing support and love help me write
every one of these stories. I am blessed to know what family is all
about.

To Mom, Dad, and NitNat:

What would the Keller Family be if I didn’t
understand family dynamics? Thank you for giving me a wonderful
family.

To Connie:

The “family” that brought us together taught
us a lot. And funny how we became so close outside that “family
circle.” You’re my right hand, my left arm, my brain at times. I
thank you.

To Kelyn, Connie, Sandy, Jill, Missy, Amy,
and Holly:

So many of you have been “my family” in one
way or another. Some I grew up with, some I met through martial
arts, others through my husband. Family is so strong. Thank you for
helping me make this family saga so incredible.

To Cousin Randy:

Thanks for letting me name drop, bounce
ideas, and share in your successes. His cousins have always been a
great support to him and me. I’m glad you’re one of them.

Dear Reader,

Eduardo Keller has been a long time
favorite of readers since he was twelve. Now as a thirty-five year
old man, he is due for some happily ever after.

Eduardo has always been a source of
joy for me to write. What I found interesting was bringing
Christian into adulthood. I’ve decided he will be as much fun to
write when we get to Home Run as Eduardo was.

One of the fun things about
setting my book in Nashville is that I’ve had the opportunity to
share some of my love of country music and artists. Randy Sayner
was kind enough to lend me himself for this book and Love Songs.
Randy is on the path to stardom and it’s a lot of fun to watch him
climb. Take a moment, if you will, to check him out.
www.randysayner.com
.

So sit back and enjoy this fifth
installment of the Keller Family Series. Look for Clara Keller’s
book Love Songs in October 2013.

Happy Reading,

Bernadette Marie

Lost and Found

Ed Keller leaned back in his chair and
kicked his feet up on his desk. The view from his office would
never cease to amaze him. The view from his uncle’s office was much
more spectacular, but he had no reason to complain.

Who would have thought, nearly twenty
years ago when he’d asked for an after-school job to afford a limo
ride to take a girl to prom, that he’d end up with the title Vice
President on his business cards.

He laughed. He couldn’t even think of
the girl’s name that had squeezed at his heart. She’d been older.
That he remembered. But he’d never done well with older
women.

Now he sat atop an empire that his
uncle’s grandfather had started and his uncle’s father had carried
on. But it was Zach Benson who made it what it was
today.

Benson, Benson, and Hart built
big—built on time—and built under budget. Nothing had
changed.

Ed didn’t have a foreman like Zach
had. His other uncle, John Forrester, had been the best foreman any
company could have asked for. A loyal employee until Ed’s Aunt
Arianna made him retire only two years earlier. But another would
come along. Right now he had to focus on a new
assistant.

Interviewing people for a position
shouldn’t be an issue. He’d been doing it for years. But a personal
assistant had to be in your business, and he didn’t like
that.

He’d fought it for years. Temps were
good. They came, did the work, and left. He figured it was kind of
like dating the wrong girl. There weren’t any he wanted to spend
his life with.

Perhaps his expectations were too
high. After all, his Aunt Regan had been Zach’s assistant. They’d
been married nearly twenty-five years, and she still took care of
him. It wouldn’t be long before Tyler and Spencer, their sons,
would be sitting in Ed’s seat.

Ed dropped his feet to the floor and
pushed up from his chair. When the time was right, he’d find the
assistant of his dreams. He’d given up on the woman of his dreams,
so an assistant would have to do.

He walked to the elevator and pressed
the button to go down to the lobby. There was a Starbucks there
now, and he’d grown very fond of caramel lattes, thanks to his Aunt
Arianna, though he didn’t go for the skinny version. His Uncle John
would say it was a bit too frilly a drink for a man in the
construction business. His Uncle Zach, on the other hand, would
argue that it was a good stress reliever.

Ed laughed at himself. What an
eclectic bunch of people he had in his family. And even without
them there with him, he still enjoyed them.

The gathering of the masses in the
Starbucks also entertained him, almost as much as the thoughts of
his family and their differences.

Ed ordered his drink and stood at the
counter waiting for it to be handed to him.

As he looked around the store, he
mentally spotted and named each kind of person. There was the
tourist, the executive, and the assistant. There was a couple,
obviously just downtown for the day and…hmmm, one that stumped
him.

She was professional, probably
interviewing by the way she was dressed, but she wasn’t comfortable
with the big building and the mass of people. She was using
Starbucks as a common ground, something familiar, to ease her
nerves.

He listened as she ordered her
drink—decaf and nonfat. What fun was in that, he
wondered.

She tucked her change back into her
purse, walked to the end of the counter, and stood behind Ed to
wait for her drink.

Flowery perfume filled his nose. She
had a sweet side.

The lady behind the counter handed Ed
his iced caramel latte. He turned to leave and, he’d say so
himself, that was when things got interesting.

The woman who had been standing behind
him, searching in her bag for something, looked up just as Ed
turned around. She shifted to move out of his way, but instead she
moved right into him.

Ed’s hands slipped from the
condensation on the cup, and the entire, cold drink poured down the
front of the woman.

She let out a stifled scream, and her
hands went into the air. “Oh-my-God!”

“
I’m very
sorry.”

Ed turned toward the counter and
grabbed a handful of napkins. He would have helped to mop up her
clothes, but he noticed that the white, silk shirt clung to her and
decided it just wasn’t a good idea to try.

“
Look what you did!” She
ripped the napkins from his hand and began to blot away the coffee,
which had already stained the shirt.

“
Sorry, but I think you ran
into me.”

She snapped her head up again. “Oh,
men. You’re not always right, you know. Sometimes you do make
mistakes.”

Not only was she not as sweet as her
flowery perfume, she was jaded. Bad news.

“
Again, I’m very sorry. How
can I help you?” He turned and reached for more napkins, but when
she pulled them from his hand, he noticed she was
crying.

“
I think you’ve done
enough.”

“
I still think I can help
in some way.”

“
Listen. My suit is ruined.
This is the only one I have. I was searching for a job, and I can’t
do that now. I can’t hand out resumes looking like
this.”

Ed watched as the woman continued to
wipe off her blouse, but to no avail. It was ruined, but he still
wasn’t going to take the blame.

“
Are you looking for a job
in this building?”

She let out a grunt. “Why else would I
be here?”

“
I was just asking. I know
most of the businesses in the building. Perhaps I can help you
out.”

The woman pursed her lips. “I don’t
need your charity.”

“
It’s not charity. You seem
to be in need of a job, and I’m sure I can help you find
one.”

“
What, do you own this
place?” She waved her arms in the air.

“
Let me see your
resume.”

The woman stared at him as if he’d
lost his mind. That wasn’t new. You didn’t run a multi-million
dollar company in your mid-thirties without people giving you a
shifty eye.

Her coffee was set on the counter. He
moved in to grab it, but she moved quicker. “I’ll get this. I can’t
afford to waste a sip of this. It’s my breakfast and
lunch.”

She picked up the coffee and moved to
a table where she set down the cup and pulled a resume from her
bag. She handed it to Ed. “Here it is. I hate to say it, but I’m
desperate. If I don’t find a job in three days, I have to go
home.”

“
Why? Does that suit turn
back into a pumpkin and your glass slipper breaks?”

“
Have you ever been
desperate for anything in your life?”

He didn’t have anything to say. The
only desperate thing he’d ever done was ask his uncle for a job at
fifteen so he could get that limo to prom. Look where it landed him
twenty years later. She was right. He’d never been desperate for
anything.

“
How do you feel about
assistant work for a commercial builder?”

“
You actually know of a
job?”

“
I actually know of a job.”
He folded her resume and tucked it into his pocket. “Ed Keller is
an executive at Benson, Benson, and Hart. He needs an
assistant.”

Her face went pale, and her lips
parted. This reaction went beyond her reaction to his spilling his
drink on her. “That was the business I was going to leave my resume
with.”