A Beauty Uncovered (Secrets of Eden 2)

She had only thought the fallout from the mess with Luke was bad. Sam hadn’t loved Luke the way she loved Brody. This time, she couldn’t even bear to watch movies on the Hallmark Channel. The big upswept happy endings where the hero did the right thing and won the love of the heroine only made her cry, and not with happy tears. She wanted her own big upswept happy ending. But without a single word from Brody in a week, the odds were that she was out of luck. She wasn’t even the leading lady of her own life. From the looks of Amanda and Matt’s fast-moving romance, it seemed that Sam was playing the role of the supportive best friend.

The only hiccup in her day so far had been the call Sam received from Agnes. Her godmother was back in the office. She didn’t mention Brody at all but asked how Sam was and what she was doing. Sam was happy to tell her she’d found a new job and the people she worked with were all great. She hoped Agnes would relay the information to Brody so he could stew about it.

Several times as they’d spoken, Sam had wanted to ask about him. But she wouldn’t. She really didn’t want to know if he was doing fine without her. In her fantasies, he was a mess and she liked it that way. It made her feel better when she lay alone in bed and wished she could see the stars overhead like she could on Joya Verde.

Sam’s fingers sought out the golden sun pendant at her throat. She should’ve given the necklace back. Knowing Brody, she guessed it cost more than a year of her salary, but she couldn’t make herself do it. It was all she had left of him, and she needed that near to her heart if she was going to make it through this breakup.

“Hey, Sam?”

She turned to find one of the women in the department heading toward her desk. She wasn’t certain, but she thought her name was Kristi. “Yes?”

“Do you know where the human resources office is?”

“I think so. I had an in-processing there this morning, so hopefully I can find my way back.” It might take her three tries, but she was confident she could do it.

“Great. Could you take this file down to them?”

“Sure.” Sam was glad to get up from her desk and move around for a while. If this was going to be her new workplace, she wanted to get familiar with the layout and meet the people. She was always quick to make friends with her coworkers, so hopefully she could fill up her social circle and be too busy to think about Brody.

Luckily, the HR office was right where she left it. She dropped the file off with their assistant and grabbed a bottle of water from the break room before heading back to her desk. She was about to sit back down when something caught her eye and sent the water in her mouth sputtering into her lungs.

There was a bright pink rose on her desk in a silver bud vase.

Sam coughed violently, the water stinging her lungs and drawing pain-filled tears to her eyes. She tried to look around her for the person who had left the rose there, but she could barely see two feet in front of her, much less down the hallway.

When she had finally soothed her lungs and the blood rushed back out of her face, Sam wiped her eyes. The rose was still sitting on her desk. She hadn’t imagined it. She walked up to examine it more closely. It was the same vase. She’d left it behind in her hasty departure from ESS.

“You know, the employees that work at the front desk of my building are very nice people.”

Sam spun on her heels at the sound of a man’s voice behind her. Brody was standing a few feet away, another single fuchsia rose in his hand. She blinked her eyes a few times to make sure she wasn’t seeing things.

Brody was still there and looking as handsome as ever in a black suit and a flaming red shirt. But it couldn’t be real. Brody didn’t go out in public. Ever.

“I feel bad that I didn’t meet them sooner. Of course, I gave them quite a shock when I marched through the lobby and introduced myself.”

Not only was she seeing things, but her imaginary Brody was talking crazy. She could not afford to have a nervous breakdown on her first day here. She needed this job too much. Sam squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath.

“Aren’t you going to say something, Sam?”

At the sound of his voice, she opened one eye and found he was still there. “It’s one thing to have delusions. It’s another to interact with them.”

Her imaginary Brody strode across the room until he was standing right in front of her. She could smell the warm scent of his cologne and feel the heat of his body so close to her. This was a really nice delusion. It was a shame she couldn’t have it at home, at night.