When the door opened, Darcy hurried down the hallway toward her desk, but stopped when Mary Ellen waved her over.
“Your boss was looking for you,” she said with a grin.
“Oh. Yeah, I’m a little late. I stopped by HR to drop something off.”
Mary Ellen waved it off. “I don’t think he was worried. I think he just missed you.”
Darcy nodded nervously. “I should get to my desk.”
“Ed is in Zach’s office. They said to have you come in when you get here.”
Her mouth went dry. “They didn’t say why, did they?”
Mary Ellen laughed. “You’re jumpy this morning. Is everything all right?”
“Yes. I’m fine.” Darcy looked at the closed office door. “Should I just go in?”
“I’ll announce you.” She stood from behind her desk and went to the door that separated the small outer office with Zach’s. She tapped lightly and then pushed open the door. “Darcy is here.”
She heard Zach say, “Send her in.”
Mary Ellen stepped back with her grin straining to turn upward into an enormous smile. “Go on in.”
Darcy adjusted her purse on her shoulder and headed into the office. Zach and Ed were there, seated at the desk, but on the couch, Regan and Simone sat drinking coffee.
“I thought maybe I’d scared you off.” Ed stood and crossed to her as Mary Ellen shut the door. He took her hands in his and gave her a kiss on the cheek.
Darcy felt the surge of nerves rattle in her breathing as she realized everyone in the room was watching them. She hadn’t even been this uncomfortable when she’d gone to the fundraiser and met Ed’s family—alone.
Ed stepped back and looked her over. “Everything okay? Was your bus late?”
Darcy shook her head. “No. I just had to drop some things off at HR.” It wasn’t a right out lie. She’d walked Candy to her desk and lingered, that’s all.
“Oh, good.” He turned toward Regan and Simone, who both sat on the couch hiding their grins behind gourmet coffee cups. “Simone and Regan want to take you to brunch and shopping.”
Darcy bit down on her lip. “Oh, thank you, but I have so much to do. And I was late. Really, thank you, but I’m just getting settled. I can’t really go shopping.”
Simone stood first and crossed to them. “Brunch then. It is a perk to being one of the Benson/Keller women.”
Darcy looked at Ed, who nodded. She now wished he’d kept them a secret a bit longer.
Regan crossed over to them. “I wasn’t very comfortable when she did this to me either.” She laughed. “Zach threw me into the limo with Simone and sent me to his mother.”
“I didn’t throw you in a limo,” he scoffed from across the room.
“If I’m not mistaken though, you did make me go to lunch at your mother’s, and you didn’t show up.”
Darcy saw Ed’s jaw clench and then turned back as she heard Regan laugh.
“He set me up,” she whispered. Regan turned back to the couch and picked up her purse. “Ed, we’ll have her back in a few hours.”
“Take care of her,” he said as he reached for Darcy’s hand at her side and gave it a squeeze.
“As if she were my own daughter,” Regan said, holding her hand up in a pledge.
They had a car waiting out front and Darcy, though comfortable with the women, felt as though her nerves were going to have her sticking her head out the window and throwing up. How could she be so nervous?
Simone examined her manicure as they pulled away from the building. She spoke eloquent as a princess, Darcy thought. What could possibly make a woman give up the oil-heiress life to move to America and live in the South?
Regan, though very put together in her own right, had a more laid-back style. Her dark hair had a few steaks of silver, but she didn’t seem worried by it. And her clothes, though very nice, were obviously off the rack, where as Simone might have had her white suit pants custom made, they fit so well.
“So how do you like your job?” Regan asked, setting a gentle hand on Darcy’s clenched ones.
“So far it has been very nice.”
“Ed is a super kid.” She laughed. “Oh, he’s in his thirties, and I still think he’s a kid.”
Simone crossed her legs and bounced her foot. “He is very much in love with you.”
Darcy felt the blood drain from her cheeks. “Oh, I don’t think it’s love. We certainly have an attraction and a comfort, but…”
“You do not believe in love at first sight?”
Had Ed put them up to this? “No. Well, I don’t think I do.”
“I do.” Simone looked out the window. “My Curtis was mine from the moment I laid eyes on him.”
“As soon as she left my husband alone,” Regan retorted and both women laughed.
Simone shifted a glance to Darcy. “Regan, we scared her.”
Regan’s soft eyes soothed her. There was great comfort in this woman. “Simone grew up with Zach.”
“Oh.”
“We went to boarding school with each other in France. I loved him with my whole heart, that silly American boy. And he loved me like a sister.” Simone let out a grunt and that made Darcy finally smile.
“You might imagine I was a bit threatened by her,” Regan added.
“And you were foolish.”
Regan shrugged and then turned her attention back to Darcy. “Do you have any brothers or sisters?”
“No. I’m an only child. My parents are much older, and I lost my mother last year to cancer.”
Simone’s hand went to her chest, and her eyes grew sad. Regan, again, touched Darcy’s hands, and a tranquil feeling filled her.
“I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Thank you.”
Regan sat back. “So your father, he’s still back in Kentucky? Isn’t that where you’re from?”
“Yes, ma’am. I needed to,” she chose her words carefully, “find myself.”
Regan’s eyes darkened, and the corners of her mouth turned down. “I understand that. I tried to find myself once, too.”
This time, Simone rested her hand on Regan’s, and they both gave each other an understanding look, which meant something to both of them.