Page 34 of Second Chances (Passion and Perseverance #2)

Chapter Seventeen

There was a bounce in her step and a smile on her face as Beth walked into her office Monday morning.

Last weekend had been wonderful, hell, the week before had been wonderful.

The weekend of Renée’s party, which had gone from questionable to worse, had somehow managed to end on a warm note.

It seemed like it had happened months ago, even though it had only been a little over a week since.

After she and Darcy had talked that day, everything between them started to click.

Even though his ex-girlfriend was still out there, lurking in the background, they’d been so wrapped up and focused on each other that the woman hadn’t even crossed Beth’s mind.

Ok, not quite true.

He’d admitted last Monday that his ex-girlfriend had shown up at his office building requesting to see him, but the security staff in the lobby had told her that he wasn’t in the office right now; it was a lie, but he didn’t want there to be a scene.

Better to just insist that he wasn’t there than to have an employee tell her she wasn’t allowed to see him.

After that, he’d been on edge, assuming she would try again to accost him in private.

He’d begun using a different exit to the building and entrance to the hotel, more security personnel.

When he came home from work each day Beth could see his stress dissolve the moment he closed the apartment door behind him, knowing that another day had passed where this woman hadn’t tried to contact him.

She couldn’t speak for his time at work, but once he got home, they’d decided not to let this woman steal any more time from them, refusing to conjecture about her, to worry about her, unless there was something concrete that happened to be worried about.

The decision had worked out wonderfully.

Instead, they spent time talking about themselves and their favorite things, their childhood, their dreams, their relationship - about anything to bring them closer .

All the sex certainly brought them closer, too…in several ways.

Beth blushed when the thought came unbidden to her mind, stirring up vivid memories of those moments over the past week.

This Monday morning though, she was in the office a half an hour earlier than usual - a half an hour earlier than everyone else, which meant she had the place to herself to get some serious work done.

The place was peaceful, like the calm before the storm of the workday.

She enjoyed the silence, letting her mind linger on those happy, and arousing, moments of the past week, just for a moment while she settled into her desk.

She hadn’t planned on coming into the office early, but Darcy had to be into work at eight, so he had woken up and made them breakfast. He tried to insist that she stay in bed for another forty-five minutes, but the deep, sated sleep that had engulfed her the night before, had her alert and energized for the day.

Beth smiled, thinking about how natural their morning had felt - waking up together, getting ready for work as Darcy made breakfast, cleaning up while he got dressed for work…

It was a stupid little thing, but when so many things in their relationship were a struggle, when there were so many situations where their instincts and desires were either misinterpreted or miscommunicated, or both, the natural cohesiveness in their morning routine was a small, welcome reassurance that everything was going to be ok.

It’s the little things…

Opening up her computer, she eagerly clicked on her email to get a jump start on the day.

Twenty-five new messages rolled in from over the weekend - some of them junk, others forwarded on to her assistants from clients that they were working with.

One message was the guest list from Caro; Beth opened up her spreadsheet for the exhibition and copied over the names and addresses, saving the file and updating the recipient list in her mass email software.

She shot Caroline back a quick response letting her know that the email invites would go out at eight AM tomorrow morning to let her know if there were any changes.

Shit .

She forgot to email her about Jane’s shower.

Opening another, blank message, she quickly apologized for the multiple contacts and let her know that she had talked to her mom, confirming everything for this coming Saturday for Jane’s party.

Beth let her know that the food and decorations were going to be delivered 2 hours before the party.

Jane was expecting Caro to pick her up around that time to go look at wedding bands for Charles.

While Caro took her to do that, Beth and her mom would set up and make sure all the guests had arrived, at which point, Caro would ‘need to stop at her house really quickly’ on their way back from the jeweler, and ‘SURPRISE!’ Beth thanked her again for letting them use her house to maintain the element of surprise.

Done.

With a smile, Beth took a deep, satisfied breath for having sorted through all her email still before anyone had arrived.

Just as the air had started to release from her lips, her computer dinged with another incoming email.

She assumed it was a response from Caroline, but her breath caught in her throat when she saw the email address of the sender: [email protected] .

There was no subject and her hand trembled as she maneuvered the mouse to click on the message, hoping, praying that this was some sort of silly joke.

Hello, Beth.

I’m so glad we can speak openly. I tried to catch you on your way into work today, but I didn’t feel like dealing with your little bodyguards. Nice sweater, by the way; royal blue was always Darcy’s favorite color on me.

Beth felt the wind go completely out of her. This woman had found her and stalked her to her workplace .

I’m sure you’re very busy so, I will make this quick.

Darcy is mine; he has always been mine. Whatever cute little thing you have going on is nothing compared to the love that he has for me.

You’ll never be able to make him happy, I’m sure you can see that.

I’d hate for something bad to happen to you or your family.

Leave him or you’ll see that Catherine DeBourgh is a saint compared to me.

The Future Mrs. Darcy

Every word she read was a blow, crushing the air out of her lungs, but the last was like a knife to her heart.

Mrs. Darcy. Had she ever even thought of herself in those terms?

Yet, here was this woman, who hadn’t seen him or wanted him in years, referring to herself as his future wife; her confidence in herself would have been laughable if Beth hadn’t been so legitimately concerned about what this woman was capable of doing in order to achieve it.

Knock, knock.

Beth jumped out of her chair, slamming her computer shut as Phil walked into her office, a very perplexed look coming over his face at her ashen expression and erratic movement.

“Are you ok?” he asked, concerned, “I didn’t mean to startle you. I wasn’t sure if I heard someone in here or not, but the light was on.”

“Yes, yes,” Beth replied shakily, with a laugh.

She was definitely not ok. Her heart was pounding out of her chest; she felt like she couldn’t breathe, even though she knew her breaths were coming out rapid and shallow.

“Sorry, I was working and I didn’t hear you, or anyone, so you just scared me. I lost track of what time it was,” she continued, trying to allay Phil’s concerns; she couldn’t tell him what had happened

She barely had processed what had happened.

“Ok,” he replied, seemingly convinced. “I’m glad to see you in the office early, that sounds like the old Beth is back. It’s also nice not to be the only early bird in today after my vacation last week. ”

Beth just smiled at his assertion - if he only knew. He said it, though, more to convince himself that she was ok than anything else; Phil had been out on vacation so he’d missed her high spirits and motivation all last week.

“Anyway, I won’t disturb you for long, but while I’m here I thought I’d ask how the party went the other weekend?”

“Ahh... Good! Very good. I spoke to Renée afterward and she was very happy with everything. It was a little bigger this year than previous years, but the Ritz handled everything really well. I think we should get a lot of good press about it today - just based on the few people I spoke with at the event and then some of the social news I saw trending over that weekend and last week,” Beth responded, trying to maneuver through the maze of thoughts bombarding her, back to that Friday night.

“Wonderful,” Phil said, “Renée actually sent me an email to tell me how great a job that you did and what a pleasure it is to work with you every year. I meant to send it along but service was questionable at the resort and then I just forgot. I’ll forward it along to you today though, but I just thought I would let you know. ”

“I would appreciate that; she’s a really great client,” Beth said, a smile breaking on her face. Even after Beth had to duck out of the party early, Renée hadn’t mentioned any of that to Phil.

“Oh, before I forget, I also got an email last Friday from a ‘Mr. Dempsey,’ wanting to meet with you over the potential to plan and publicize some upcoming events for him. He requested you specifically, and he wouldn’t give me any further details on the type of events.

Do you know him or is this some sort of scam? ” Phil said skeptically.

Beth laughed at Phil’s sometimes lack of pop culture awareness. “Yes, he’s a friend of Renée’s. I see him every year at her party and he mentioned something to me about getting together.”

“Oh, ok. Wait, is he who I think he is? Is he the actor, Patrick Dempsey? ”