Crossroad to Love (Fab Five Series) - By Anna Kristell Page 0,2

Angie was free to go home and begin preparing for her vacation. An entire week of freedom with no phones, no blueprints, no hotel, no casino… just a week with her friends in the Big D. She was spearheading an expansion for the hotel-casino she worked in and hiring the most sought after architectural firm in Iowa had been quite a feather in her cap. Now if she could just get this meeting over with, things could get started, both at the hotel and with her vacation plans.

Angie’s thoughts were interrupted by a knock on the door. Her secretary, Lynne, stuck her perky, blonde head in the door. “The architect is here. Should I show him in?”

“Please do, Lynne, thank you. You can go as soon as you’ve finished the letters I dictated earlier. Have a good week and I’ll see you when I get back from Dallas.”

“Thanks, Angie. You get some rest while you’re away. It’ll be crazy when you get back.”

“I intend to.” Angie smiled as Lynne closed the door. She was a good friend and a very efficient secretary. What a find she had been. Angie had gone through many applicants before Lynne had waltzed through her door and impressed her with both her enthusiasm and her knowledge.

A minute later, the door opened again and Lynne admitted the architect, showing him to the chair facing Angie.

“Have a seat, please.” Angie said as she looked up from the multitude of papers on her desk. Her heart suddenly skipped a beat, tiny beads of perspiration appeared on her forehead and just for a minute her breath caught in her throat. It can’t be, she thought as she looked into the face of the man seated across from her.

Obviously enjoying her momentary loss of composure, the man gave her a crooked grin, cocked his handsome head to the side and spoke in a familiar voice, “Hello, Angela. How are you?”

Quickly regaining her professional demeanor, she answered with a smile, “I’m just fine, Michael. How long have you been working with James & James?”

“Not too long. I actually started with them a few months ago when I moved to the Quad Cities from Des Moines. They made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”

“Better than the firm in the city?” she asked, finding it hard to believe he had left the city to come to a smaller town after all this time. She had resigned herself to the fact that he was out of her life for good.

“You might say that.” His velvety brown eyes locked with her saucy green ones as he spoke.

It had been three years since they had last spoken, but to Angie it seemed like only yesterday. She started to remember the day they last said goodbye, but quickly geared her thoughts back to the present. It would do no good to go down memory lane, especially not that memory.

“Well, let’s get to it. Show me what you’ve come up with,” she went on in the most business-like voice she could muster under the circumstances. It was not every day a blast from the past breezed into her office and sat across from her. And what a blast he was. As he took the blueprints from their casing, she allowed her gaze to wander slowly over his features. He was still handsome, still well-built. He probably still works out, she thought as she remembered the old days in the gym. He had just a hint of graying at his temples, enough to make him look distinguished. Michael had always been the best looking thing she had ever seen, with his brown hair and chocolate eyes. He had stolen her heart in college and never given it back. And now, fifteen years after she had divorced the only man she would ever love, he had waltzed back into her life on a sunny, autumn afternoon. What kind of karma was that?

“I thought we could connect the new tower to the old part of the hotel with this concept…” he began as he spread his work on her desk, obviously confident in his ideas.

An hour later, pleased with the progress they had made, Angie called a halt to the meeting.

“I really need to get going, Michael. I have a plane to catch in the morning and I need to get home. I look forward to working with you. I trust you’ll be here the Monday after next, bright and early.”

“You can bet on it. I think we’ll work well together.