Calling Kupid (Kupid's Cove Book 1) (3 page)

Kate

“Rosie?” I called. “Rosie, where are you?”

I was hoping the tone of my voice would have her running back here to see why I wanted her, but after five minutes, she still hadn’t appeared. I hit the intercom on the phone instead. “Rosie, what in the heck are you doing?”

The words weren’t out of my mouth before she was standing in the doorway. “I was doing my job, which involved talking on the phone in a friendly manner, not yelling over my shoulder at my pesky boss!”

I held up my hands. “Sorry, I’m a little cranky today.”

She folded her arms over her chest. “You don’t say. What did you need?”

“I want to know who this Gideon Armstrong guy is. He’s coming at eleven and I didn’t make that appointment. I knew a Gideon Armstrong, but he’s been dead for years.”

“I made that appointment. He called late yesterday afternoon and I forgot to mention it when you came in. Before he gets here, I’m afraid I have some bad news.”

I went around my desk and took her arm, guiding her to a chair. I knelt next to her and patted her shoulder. “Is it your mom?”

She shook her head. “No, mom is doing great. Ever since Winifred got her that gym membership, she’s in the pool every day.”

“Good, so if it’s not your mom, then what’s the bad news?”

“Mrs. Armstrong has passed on.”

I put my hand to my mouth. “Karen Armstrong?”

She nodded and I frowned, thinking about the last time I had seen Karen in the office. It was almost six months ago now.

“What happened? She wasn’t that old.”

“Breast cancer. By the time they found it, she was too far gone.”

“So Gideon is Karen’s son?”

“Gideon Armstrong Jr.”

“Ahh, okay. She told me the last time she was here, that she would be sending over new requests for the pharmacy, but I never received them.”

Rosie frowned. “I wonder if I gave it to Attorney Kadlec because he was her lawyer for years. I’ll check his files.”

“Please do. I’ll need to read it over before Junior gets here, so I don’t look like I’m unfamiliar with his mother’s case.”

She looked sad and I patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry about it, Rosie. Case crossover is going to happen with Kadlec retiring.”

“I’m just worried about what’s going to happen to the pharmacy now that Mrs. Armstrong is dead. I hope they don’t close it. I mean Hank’s been running it since her husband died, but he might not want to buy it. If he doesn’t, how will we get our medications? We’ll have to go to Rochester, which is just too far to drive to for most of the older people in town.”

I kept my hand on her shoulder. “Rosie, relax. Get me the file and I’ll do my best to make sure the pharmacy stays open.”

She pushed herself out of the chair, nodding as though she was still trying to find a solution to the pharmacy closing. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to go on about it.”

I patted her back before she went to the door. “You love this town. I get it.”

“Okay, I’ll find that file and be right back,” she said, but I called her name from my desk.

“Before you go, tell me about Junior.”

She grimaced a little. “He’s high society, very well known as a corporate shark, and very unhappy to be coming today.”

“Fabulous,” I muttered, my lips in a frown.

“He’s knows he has to get this taken care of and wants to do it as fast as possible, so I don’t think he will give you much trouble.”

Something was niggling at the edge of my brain until I finally latched onto it. “Wait a minute, Rosie. Gideon and Karen Armstrong were Mormon.”

She didn’t even make a sound or a motion, but her facial expression said it all. I moaned, laying my head down on my arms. “Please tell me Junior isn’t devout Mormon.”

“That’s where you two will have plenty in common. He’s about as devout a Mormon as you are.”

“That’s something,” I muttered. “Thanks for the info. Now, let’s find that file.”

She saluted, turning sharply to scurry away to Kadlec’s office. I glanced at the clock. I had less than thirty minutes until he would be standing in my office. Not only did I have to read the changes to his mother’s will, but I had to find out as much as I could about him. I opened my laptop and typed in the name, ‘Gideon Armstrong, Junior.’

I tapped my fingers on the desk while Google did its job. Article after article about his business came up on the screen. I hit the toggle for images and leaned in towards the screen a little closer.  A man stared back at me with a pair of smoky green eyes covered in tortoiseshell glasses.

“Oh, hells to the bells, no!” I yelled, slamming the laptop closed. “Google has got to be wrong.”

“That’s exactly what I said,” came a familiar voice from the door.

I looked up to see ‘Google man’ standing comfortably in my office. He was dressed in an expensive Italian suit with even more expensive Italian loafers adorning his feet. He hadn’t changed a bit in the last eleven months other than, if possible, becoming oodles more handsome. He was majorly swoon worthy, but I was majorly angry like a ticked off hornet. Rosie stood behind him, smiling sweetly.

“Did you find the file, Rosie?” I asked, gritting my teeth. She shook her head no, so I shooed her away with my hand.

“I’ll find it, be right back,” she fretted. “He came early.” She disappeared down the hall and I took a deep breath. I pointed at the door with my finger, wagging it. “Out! Out of my office!”

He reached out to lower my hand, “No can do. I have an appointment.”

He stuck his hand out. “Gideon Armstrong, Junior.”

“Known as Strong to your employees and friends,” I seethed, slapping his hand away.

“You’ve got nothing to say to me about not using my real name. What kind of name is Penny, anyway? I can’t believe I fell for that.”

I sanely, and calmly, closed the door then leaned my forehead against it for three breaths that were supposed to calm me. When I turned, I stuck my finger in his chest. “It’s a nickname for Penelope, which happens to be my middle name. Katie Penelope Kupid is my name and dealing with showboating, overblown, ostentatious, la-di-das in fancy suits, is not my game.”

He grabbed my finger and clucked his tongue at me, “Such a temper, Penny.”

I sucked in a breath trying to regain control of my breathing, “Don’t ever call me that again.”

“Because?”

“My brother was the only one who called me that.”

“Yet, you introduced yourself as Penny to me months ago. I say that’s fair game.”

I wrenched my finger from his grasp. “Fine,
Gideon
.”

I said his name in a sarcastic tone I had hoped would make him angry, but instead he just grinned wider. There was a knock on the door and I wrenched it open. Rosie was standing there with the file. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, of course, you can go back to work.” I smiled reassuringly, but she wasn’t looking at me, she was eyeing my showboating la-di-da. My? No, he was only my la-di-da until he got my clothes off and didn’t like what he saw.

“I can’t work because of all the yelling going on in here,” she whispered.

I leaned in close to her. “Then I’ll make sure to yell softer!”

She practically ran back to the front desk to get away from the spectacle in my office. I closed the door very precisely, straightened my blouse, and went around behind my desk. He straightened his suit, unbuttoned the middle button, and sat in the most uncomfortable chair in my office.

Don’t get comfortable, buddy; you aren’t staying.

I picked up my phone receiver. “Now then, let me get Attorney Kadlec in to help you with your needs.”

He leaned over my desk and pushed the receiver back down. “Kadlec has retired.”

“Be that as it may, considering our past, he should be dealing with your case.”

“Listen, Katie. We’re both professionals here. We don’t have to be middle-schoolers about this. So we had a Netflix and chill thing months ago. We can put that behind us in order to get this taken care of.”

I groaned inwardly at the use of Katie, and tried not to let my blood pressure go up any further.

“Netflix and chill? What are you, a college frat boy?”

He lifted one side of his lip in response and shook his head. “No, I’m a thirty-six-year-old corporate lawyer, but I still enjoy an occasional Netflix and chill kind of night.”

I waved my hand. “You’re thirty-six and a lawyer? You told me you owned that resort.”

“I do own that resort, and several others, but I’m also a corporate lawyer. I have a firm that runs itself, so I can run around and showboat as a ‘la-di-da’ the rest of the time.”

I laughed sarcastically and pushed the paperwork towards him. “Well, if you’re a lawyer then you should be able to handle this all yourself. You don’t need my services. Have a nice life.”

He pushed it back at me. “That’s where you’re wrong, Katie. I’m a corporate lawyer, not a family lawyer. Since this falls in both categories, I need it handled by someone who can keep it all on the up-and-up. I’ll be selling the pharmacy and need someone to make sure my parents’ interests are protected.”

“You mean your interests, because they’re dead.”

He did the weighing motion with his hands, “Potato-potatoe. Believe me when I say Snowberry Pharmacy is small potatoes to me.”

I pulled the folder back to me, scanning the info inside. “It says here you aren’t allowed to sell it for at least six months. That you are to manage it for that period of time before you consider putting it up for sale.”

He rolled his eyes a little, fixed his tie, and cleared his throat. “My mother, God rest her soul, was trying to be a matchmaker. She had her heart set on grandkids when she made that will. Seeing as how she’s dead now, I’m sure that part of the will can be overlooked.”

I read it again and shook my head. “No, no, I’m not seeing how it can be overlooked. She makes it pretty clear that she wants you running the pharmacy for the next six months.”

He threw his Hugo Bossed arms up in the air. “I don’t know anything about running a pharmacy!”

I stared at him waiting for him to tell me something that I didn’t know.

He motioned at the paperwork again. “Does it say in there that I have to live in Snowberry in order to manage it?”

I looked through the paperwork again, finally shaking my head. “Not that I can see, but how are you going to manage a business like a pharmacy if you aren’t here?”

“I’m going to manage the manager managing the pharmacy for the next six months from my home office in Chicago. I can always come to town if necessary, but Hank has been doing this for the last five years. He can handle another six months until he can buy the place himself.”

“So Hank is your buyer?” I asked, making notes.

“As of this moment in time, yes.”

“Is he purchasing the business or just the building?”

He cocked his head. “Well all of it, of course. We own the building as well as the name. He can change the name if he wants, once he owns it, but that’s none of my concern.”

“Of course it’s not,” I mumbled.

“What?” he asked, leaning towards me and resting his sexy arms on his muscled legs. His tanned hands were perfectly manicured, which made me wonder if he had regular spa days scheduled.

I refused to look at him from under my bangs. I was still trying to process the fact that I had to deal with him for six more months.

“You know, Katie. What happened in Hawaii isn’t what you think happened.”

I slammed my pen down on the folder, my angry glare meeting his beautiful green eyes. “You called me thick-waisted and deceptive, after you got my clothes off. But please, tell me what you think happened.”

He grimaced when I threw the words back at him. Maybe he was finally seeing it from my eyes. “Okay, I’ll admit that wasn’t the best choice of words, but when I realized just how drunk you were I couldn’t take advantage of you. I tried saying no, but you kept saying yes.”

“So you insulted me? You were the one to invite me up to your room!”

He held up his hands to calm me. “I know I did, but you couldn’t tell me if you were on birth control. I didn’t have anything in my room, so I couldn’t let it go too far.”