Green Broke Woman by Zoey Marcel Page A

a sense of
security come over her. Call it gut instinct or feminine intuition, but somehow
she knew she could trust the cowboy.

Chapter
Three: Bonding
     
    Six months later
     
    Beverly Hills, California
     
    Kayla sat at the table with Virgil outside
the café. She twirled her straw in her icy pink lemonade, trying not to smile
too big as he spoke. They’d been meeting several times a week for the past six
months, mostly to discuss whether or not she’d found any information on his missing
sister, Gretchen, but Kayla never had.
    She felt bad for the poor guy, but she had to
admit she enjoyed their time together immensely. In a posh world of fakeness
and glamour, he was the only one who seemed real to her. His country charm
reminded her of home.
    Virgil sighed and palmed his tall, frosty
glass. “Beck Hammond might not have had anything to do with her going missing.
Just because Gretchen worked for him, doesn’t mean…” His voice trailed off. “I
don’t know what it is. I just don’t trust him.”
    “I’ll keep looking.” Kayla reached across the
table and took his hand in hers, giving it a light squeeze. “We’ll find her.”
    He flashed her an appreciative smile and turned in his seat to face her. “Enough
about that. How have you been?”
    “Okay.”
    The playful smile on his face made her
insides rise with giddiness. “Just okay?”
    She couldn’t fight the smile this time. “Really good … now that you’re here.”
    He kissed the top of her hand, making her
skin tingle. “I noticed you got a new tattoo.”
    “I did.”
    “Those look kind of like the flowers I got
you for your birthday.”
    She blushed and took a drink from her
lemonade. “They are.”
    “Are those your favorite flower?”
    “One of them. Mainly I got it because it meant a lot to
me, that you remembered my birthday and got me flowers.”
    Virgil smiled at her when she looked up at
him again. Caressing her hand with his thumb, his focus lowered to the table
briefly. “I know this started about business, but sometimes I think about
taking you out on a proper date.”
    Her pulse rushed, and she was beaming. “I’d
like that.”
    ****
    Three months later
    Virgil Paisley sat in his truck in the dark,
tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. His baby sister, Gretchen, had been
missing for about fifteen months. The police never found her. It was possible
the feisty young woman had been abducted and murdered walking home from work
one night.
    Then again, somewhere in the back of his mind
was a restlessness that left him ill at ease. He’d always wondered about her
employer, Beck Hammond. She'd worked for him for a month or so and then
disappeared. It could all be a coincidence, but the highly guarded Hammond
estate reeked of suspicion as equally as it boasted wealth and glitz.
    Virgil had hated the idea of Kayla applying
for Gretchen's old position as Beck Hammond's assistant nine months ago, and he
still wasn't crazy about her working for the playboy rich guy. She'd agreed to
it, though, after he'd rescued her that night months back and told her about
his missing sister.
    Hugh would probably blow a gasket if he knew
that Virgil had placed Kayla in a household that was currently under suspicion,
but Virgil had needed an attractive, qualified, young woman to apply for the
position. Then along came Kayla Sanders.
    Waiting for her to meet with him now in his
truck like he was, put an easy smile on his face. She was spunky and adorable
with equal parts innocence and the occasional attitude. He'd been smitten
almost since he'd laid eyes on her. That had likely been mere physical
attraction, but after spending nine months meeting with her a few times a week
in public to give an account of her assessment of Beck Hammond's affairs,
Virgil knew he'd fallen for the curvy country girl.
    He felt his pulse quicken when he saw her
coming and unlocked the door for her. He took her by the hand and pulled her up
into his truck. The sound of the