She pushed her chair away from the desk and went back to the first room to look around. The bright, empty room would make a perfect conference room. Give it a laid back, homey atmosphere and possibly donors would relax the minute they stepped in. She pulled her Blackberry out of the short-sleeved red jacket that went with her black dress.
Maybe a loveseat, definitely a round table, four comfortable chairs, two ottomans, plant, fridge, cabinet to hold glasses, wine rack.
She glanced around. There were three walls to work with since she didn’t want to put anything but a low table near the windows. If she painted the one wall with chalk paint, that would be a perfect note-board and would also work as a projector screen for presentations.
A buzzing in her hand caught h
er attention. She had a call. Quickly saving the shopping list, she then switched screens to check the caller ID. She almost dropped the phone when she saw the number.
Chapter 2
“Dad!” Her father never rang unless there was an emergency. “Is everything all right?”
“Hullo?” The voice that answered wasn’t her father’s. It was husky, with a clear accent.
It took her by surprise and sent a shiver down her spine at the same time.
“I’m sorry, is this Charity?”
She scratched her head, trying to recognize the caller. Australian accent? Or New Zealand? “Where’s my father?”
“I’m not too sure, actually.” The stranger chuckled. “I was just in a meeting with him an’ he said he needed to call you. Suddenly he tosses me the phone and rushes off to some code three over the intercom.” A slight grating noise echoed through the phone like the stranger was rubbing a five o’clock shadow. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know what he wanted to tell you.”
“That’s okay. He does have a habit of rushing off to save the day. Who is this, by the way?”
“I’m Elijah.”
“Hi Elijah, I’m Charity.” She shook her head. Was she honestly flirting with some stranger over the phone? Her father’s phone on top of it. She really needed to get out more.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” He chuckled. “Well, over the phone anyway.”
She smiled. “Not to make you the messenger, but you can let my dad know I’ve arrived and he can call me when he has a free moment.”
“Arrived?”
She absently waved her hand in the air and walked around the room surveying what she needed to do first. Hardware store, the furniture store. “I just started a new contract down here in Atlanta.”
“A little warmer than New York at the moment.”
“Definitely.”
Muffled voices carried over the phone. “I apologize again,” Elijah said, “but Dr. Thompson needs me.”
“No problem. Have a great afternoon.”
“You too.”
Charity slipped her phone into her jacket pocket and grabbed her briefcase. She wondered what Elijah looked like. That sexy accent surely belonged to a good looking guy. She rolled her eyes. The guy was over a thousand miles away and she had a new job with a lot of work to do.
Speaking of work. She needed to get a list of past donators, skim through the local papers to find the elite social class. The first group would be women. Doctors’ wives and local celebrities. She already had connections to a couple of popular bands that would do charity concerts for her. It was simply a matter of getting dates and plans to coincide.
She headed out of the office and back down the hall to Amanda’s office.
Amanda sat behind her computer, reading glasses on the bridge of her nose. She smiled at Charity. “What do you need, sweetie?”
Charity dropped into the chair in front of Amanda’s desk. “I need lists. People who have donated to the hospital, anyone big named or wealthy who have been here. Even those who wished to remain discreet. I’ll contact them on the down-low but I need names.” She went through her mental list of things she wouldn’t have access to find. “Has the board made blueprints or hired architecture to design the new wing Malcolm wants to add?”
Amanda shook her head. “I don’t believe they have.” Her hand slid her computer mouse around and she clicked it a bunch of times. Pages started printing out of the massive computer behind her. “Dr. Parker started collecting data when he was pretty sure you would agree to help us out.”