Page 58 of Third Time is the Charm (Passion and Perseverance #3)

With a brief nod, she heard as he relayed what she’d said to Darcy. Arnie walked back in the room at that moment to let them both know that the flowers were brought up by one of the security guards and that they had been delivered to the front desk by the florist they were ordered from.

Beth couldn’t help the small sigh of relief knowing that Caroline hadn’t stepped foot into the building.

She wouldn’t give Caroline the upper hand at unnerving her – not anymore. She snapped a few photos of the vase with her phone and then picked it up, handing it to Arnie.

“I think these should make their way into the dumpster,” she said. The very large man nodded in response, exiting the room with the flowers in search of a large enough trash can to hold them.

“Miss Bennet,” came John’s voice from behind her. “Mr. Darcy would like to talk to you.”

Beth nodded, taking the phone from his hand. “Hello?”

“Are you sure you’re ok? Are you sure you don’t want me there?” His voice was tight and on edge, but he still remained calm.

“Yes, I’m fine. She wasn’t here – the flowers were just delivered,” Beth replied softly. “Are you outside?”

“I am.” He sighed. “But, I’m not coming in unless you want me to.”

“I’m really ok – and I have work to do.” She bit her lip, knowing it was killing him to be sitting out there – so close, yet so far away from her.

“Was there a note?”

Beth let out a shaky sigh and picked up the card from her desk.

“Yeah, I ahh…” She broke off as she saw Colin heading for the door to her office, his face drawn tight – whether it was from the stress of the Contest situation or having to see her after she’d told him she was back with Darcy, Beth couldn’t be sure.

“Colin’s about to walk in and I know we are in damage control mode so I’ll send you a photo of it. ”

“Ok,” Darcy replied gruffly. “I’m going to head back over to the station now and show it to them.”

“Ok.” She wasn’t sure what else it would possibly do – they already had given her the restraining her and the note wasn’t explicitly threatening. “I’ll see you later. You’ll pick me up here when I’m done?”

“Of course.”

“I love you.”

“I love you.”

Beth hung up the phone, handing it back to John as Colin walked in the room. He raised his eyebrows at her and then back at John, wondering who the very large, strange man was in her office.

“Colin, this is John. He’s a ahh… friend of Darcy’s,” she explained weakly.

Eyebrows still raised at her, Beth watched Colin turn towards the other man, not buying the whole ‘friend’ bit.

“Nice to meet you.” Col extended his hand and the men shook in greeting.

John turned back to her. “Arnie and I will be out in the hall if you need us, Miss Bennet.” With a nod to both her and Colin, he left them alone.

Col looked back at her, his arched brow returning, wordlessly asking what the deal was.

“They’re going to be with me for the next few days. I hope that’s ok,” she said meekly.

“Is everything ok?” His expression changing from intrigue to concern. “Does this have to do with the woman who screwed with our permits?”

Her eyes dropped from his as she nodded. “It will be ok. Darcy and I… well, we have a plan, I think.”

“Beth,” he said sternly. Her head popped back up at his tone, meeting his gaze. “You know if you need anything you let me know. This is my town up here, I know a lot of people; if you are in trouble, I will do anything to help you.”

Beth inwardly groaned at the kindness and concern he showed her after she’d broken his heart the other night.

“Thank you, Col. I really appreciate it. I know this… can’t be easy for you, but your support means a lot to me.

I will let you know if we need anything,” she replied, attempting a warm smile before changing the subject.

“So, what is going on? What can I do?” Her focus back on the task at hand – getting the Contest back up and running.

“Did you speak to anyone in charge yet? Have they called?”

Colin sighed, his hand coming up to pinch the bridge of his nose. “Yeah, there was a voicemail waiting for me this morning when I got in from the head of the Board of Supervisors.”

“And…” Beth said, fearing the worst based on his stunned expression.

“It’s fixed, Beth,” he continued in shock. “Everything is fine. The guy – I don’t even remember his name – apologized for the confusion and inconvenience and said that all of the permits were in order and we are good to go.”

“I don’t understand. How is that possible? Did the woman you spoke to talk to him? Or maybe the people you know at City Hall?”

“I mean, unless she called the board over the weekend – which I highly doubt.” Disbelief clear in his voice.

“No, my guy isn’t on the board, he’s below the board, but would have at least been able to talk to them.

I have no idea how this happened, but someone spoke directly with the head of the Board and had this fixed over the weekend.

I mean, I’m going to call them now and confirm that the voicemail wasn’t some random prank or something, but I doubt it… ”

Beth felt her brow furrowing. She wasn’t going to question or complain that the threat of having to cancel the Contest was gone.

“Was it Pat? Could he have gotten involved?” She couldn’t stop herself from wondering. It just seemed so unbelievable that this huge problem was suddenly, miraculously resolved.

“No, I hadn’t even told him what happened. I was trying to get all of the information first. He’s the only person I could think of who would be well-known enough to be able to speak directly to the board – except he has no idea that any of this happened.”

Beth felt her face relax in realization at his words. Pat wasn’t the only one who would be that well-connected.

Darcy.

“It was Darcy,” she murmured. Now, the shock was written all over her face.

That must have been what he was on the phone about the other morning.

“What? Seriously?”

“I told him after our dinner on Friday what was happening – mostly because I needed to tell him about Caroline and what she was doing and the only way to explain that was to tell him the issues we ran into.”

“Holy shit,” Col replied. “Well, tell him ‘thank you’ for me. Can’t say I’m still not wary about him… and you… but, he didn’t need to do this; I’m sure he didn’t want to do this for me, but, shit… just tell him thank you.”

“I will,” Beth said with a small smile.

“Alright, I’m going to call and confirm with the city, just to ease my mind…” With a brief nod, he opened her office door and walked out, leaving her alone in her office.

Picking up her cell, she opened a text to Darcy.

~ Thank you.

- For what? He texted back.

~ For fixing the permit situation that I told you about. I know it was you.

- You’re welcome.

~ I don’t know how you did it, but I do know you didn’t have to. Colin says thank you, also.

- I did have to do it, and I didn’t do it for him. I know how important this is to you.

~ Well, thank you.

- For you – anything.

Beth smiled to herself, clicking off her phone and with a deep exhale, she sunk down into her desk chair. Opening up her computer, she was finally able to begin her morning and all the work that lay in front of her to get everything ready for this weekend.