What's Left of Her (11 page)

BOOK: What's Left of Her

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“We can’t afford to fall prey to another person’s sentimental wanderings. If we can’t get the package this time, we don’t do the deal.”

“I’ll get it, Uncle Walter.” She hadn’t missed the flecks of disappointment in his voice. Even though he’d told her he didn’t hold her responsible for Mr. Oshanski’s thirteen-month delayed response, she
felt
responsible. She should have been able to persuade him to sell off his land and buy a condo in the suburbs. But looking at him, sitting in his rocker on the front porch of the old farmhouse where he and his deceased wife, Lena, had raised seven children, it hadn’t seemed appropriate or plausible to mention. He wasn’t the type who would look forward to central vacuuming or maintenance-free lawns. His children were scattered all over the country, busy with lives of their own and all he had left were memories… and a tree. Uncle Walter would never understand about the tree, or the memories, for that matter.

“What else do you know about the area?”

“Well, it looks like there are two families who run the place.” She scanned her notes. “The Kraziaks… and the Androvichs. A Mr. Norman Kraziak owns a sawmill company and a furniture manufacturing plant. They make specialty rocking chairs. And the Androvichs, looks like a Nicholas, owns five hundred acres and a logging business.”

“Interesting.”

Alex glanced up. “How so?”

Uncle Walter’s lips pulled into a semblance of a smile. “It’s obvious the businesses are interdependent. They may even have relatives on both sides, through marriage and whatnot. One can’t survive without the other. All you have to do is win one of them over...”

“And the other won’t be able to survive.”

“Or at the very least, surviving would prove very difficult. That’s where we come in and offer them a way out.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Alex jotted down a few notes.
Meet Mr. Kraziak and Mr. Androvich, ASAP.
“I thought I’d leave in a couple of days. Get myself settled.”
Show you I haven’t lost my touch. I can do this, I can get the whole package.

“What? Not even a buying trip to New York?”

“No.” She gave him a sheepish look. “I hate to admit it, but I’ve got half a closet stuffed with clothes that still have Bloomingdale and Neiman
Marcus tags on them. I really think I should pass.”

“Eric said something about Maui.”

Here it comes.
“Good. He should take a vacation. He’s been working hard.”

Uncle Walter cleared his throat. “Actually, he said the same thing about you. He thinks you’ve been working very hard and need a break.” He paused, cleared his throat again. “I think he was intending to ask you to go with him.”

Alex underlined the names Kraziak and Androvich three times. “Sorry.” She looked up, gave him a half-smile. “I really want to get started on this project. It’s already May and I want to see the area in the summer. I figure two months for research”—she tapped her pen against her chin—“that should put us well into July.”

“I’ll expect to hear from you at least once a week,” Uncle Walter said. “And monthly visits. You’re not that far from home that you can’t make the trip once a month.”

“Of course,” Alex said, dipping her head to hide a smile. He got like this every time she told him she was going away somewhere.
Call. Visit. Don’t forget to
…. “Of course I’ll come home.”

“Good.” He picked at a piece of lint on the sleeve of his gray suit. “I want to be kept informed.” He looked up, met her gaze. “Remember, all or nothing.”

“I’ll remember.” He was never going to let her forget unless she redeemed herself with this next project.

He stood, brushed a hand over his slacks and said, “This place you’re going to, does it have a name?”

“Restalline. It’s called Restalline.”

Simple Riches
is available for purchase at all major retailers.

WHAT’S LEFT OF HER is a work of fiction. Names, characters, and situations are all products of the author’s imagination and any resemblance to real persons, locales, or events are purely coincidental.

About the Author

Mary Campisi should have known she’d become a writer when at age thirteen she began changing the ending to all the books she read. It took several years and a number of jobs, including registered nurse, receptionist in a swanky hair salon, accounts payable clerk, and practice manager in an OB/GYN office, for her to rediscover writing. Enter a mouse-less computer, a floppy disk, and a dream large enough to fill a zip drive. The rest of the story lives on in every book she writes.

When she’s not working on her craft or following the lives of five young adult children, Mary’s digging in the dirt with her flowers and herbs, cooking, reading, walking her rescue lab mix, Cooper, or on the perfect day, riding off into the sunset with her very own ‘hero’ husband on his Ultra Limited aka Harley.

Mary has published with Kensington, Carina Press, The Wild Rose Press, and Jocelyn Hollow Romance.

website:
www.marycampisi.com

e-mail:
[email protected]

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Other Books by Mary Campisi:

At Amazon:

Contemporary Romance

A Family Affair (Truth in Lies Series-Book One)-
link

A Family Affair: Spring (Truth in Lies Series-Book Two) Coming late 2013

Pulling Home (That Second Chance Series-Book One) -
link