Thankfully, West missed my blunder on the stairs as he drove away, leaving me and the butterflies in my stomach to duck, embarrassed, into my building. I limped to the elevator lobby and pressed the up button.

The Summit Tower was a spectacle in the center of the city, encased in glass from top to bottom. The elevator provided a spectacular view of downtown Nashville on my ride up to the sixteenth floor, but that morning I wasn't looking at the skyline. I was scanning the streets for a black pickup.

Maybe he got off the street. Maybe he parked and came inside. Maybe he sprinted up the stairs to be waiting when I step off the elevator. He'll take me into his strong arms and...

DING!

The doors slid open, and the building's geriatric gardener looked up from the fern he was pruning. He waved a handful of brown leaves at me in greeting. My shoulders drooped as I stepped into the hallway. It's going to be a long day, Lucille.

Claire Huggins looked up from the receptionist desk when I walked through the smoky glass double doors of Record Road Nashville. It was strange seeing her there. Normally, I arrived before everyone else and quietly slipped into my office to hide unnoticed all day. Claire glanced at the clock on the wall.

I held up my hand as I crossed the room, favoring my injured leg. "I know. I'm late."

She looked worried. "Is everything all right?"

I nodded. "I wrecked my car on the way in, but I'm OK. Anything I should be aware of?"

She shook her head, then her hand shot forward. "No, wait! Audrey is in the conference room doing a lot of yelling, so you might want to steer clear of there."

My eyes widened, even though our boss yelling at someone wasn't exactly a newsflash. "Thanks for the warning. Have a good day, Claire."

"You too, Lucy."

As quickly as my battered legs would carry me, I crept down the hallway lined with gold and platinum records toward my office. Audrey's muffled bark filtered through the walls, stirring my sympathy for whoever was on the receiving end of it. I assumed she was probably yelling at Ava, her sister and vice president of the company. The pair of them made me glad I only had a brother.

I relaxed when I reached my office undetected, but my relief was short lived. I heard the latch of the conference-room door tumble, followed by the familiar staccato click-clack of Audrey's heels against the tile. My spine went rigid, and I fumbled my keys before I could get the right one in the lock.

"Lily!"

I groaned and rolled my eyes up toward the ceiling, mouthing the question "Why?" to God or whoever might be watching. Before turning around to face her, I plastered a bright smile across my face. "Good morning, Audrey."

It was rumored in the break room that in another lifetime Audrey Scott had been a beauty queen. It was believable given her perfectly symmetrical face and long, silky dark hair. But that was before the pressure of running a powerful company in show business had etched a few extra years across her brow. I'd heard she was thirty-four, but she could easily pass as forty, or fifty, depending on how deep her stress lines went at any particular moment. Watching her stalk down the hallway toward my office, I could have been convinced she qualified for AARP.

She tugged up the sleeve of her tailored gray suit—which I was sure cost more than my rent—to look at her sparkly watch. "Lily, I need your help."

I took a step to my right, out of the way of the name placard on the wall. "Of course. What do you need?"

She didn't notice my name. "I have a meeting with Lawson's lawyer and his business manager at nine. Can you get me the financial reports from all of last year's online advertising?"

Ahh...no wonder heads are rolling already this morning.

Lawson Young had been one of the agency's biggest clients until the younger of the Scott sisters, Ava, dumped him the night before their big Texas wedding. Now, four months later, Record Road was still working out the details of being forced to let Lawson out of his contract with the agency. Hence all the yelling in the conference room.

"You asked me for it yesterday, so I put it in your door pocket last night before I left the office. Did you see it?" I asked.

She blinked with surprise. "Oh! No, I didn't. I dumped all that paperwork on my desk this morning before my phone began ringing." She cocked her head, pressing her painted lips into a thin smile packed with fake endearment. "What did we ever do without you, Lily?"

She turned on her heel before I could say anything else. When she rounded the corner and disappeared from sight, I stamped my feet in frustration and jabbed my finger over and over at my name engraved in the gaudy brass plate on my door. My name is Lucy!

My head throbbed, only partly from the car accident.

It had been exactly forty-three days since I'd accepted the position of online marketing manager for the Scott sisters, and I was beginning to wonder if my senior boss had some kind of brain defect. Two weeks in, I'd given up on correcting her about my name. I was Lily. And there was no convincing her otherwise.

I walked into my office and flipped on the overhead light, though the room hardly needed it. Before sitting down at my oak desk, I paused at the wall of windows to admire the view, and I inhaled a deep calming breath fragrant with citrus polish and glass cleaner.

As crazy as Audrey's tyrannical behavior threatened to make me, I truly loved my job. Which, in its simplest form, was to get whatever or whoever I was selling on as many computer and mobile screens as possible.

I spent my days creating email newsletters, building and tweaking social-media ads, and writing website and blog content. The writing was my favorite. Drafting articles that could make fans swoon and land a website on the front page of Google was truly a magical art form. My last job had been whoring out software for a no-name foreign company from a makeshift office in the basement of my parents' house. For the lighting upgrade alone at Record Road, I'd be willing to change the name on my birth certificate to Lily.

Thirteen new emails were waiting in my inbox, four of which were from Audrey. Two were from her assistant, Peter Jansen, following up on Audrey's four emails, and one was from my dad. The rest was junk. I clicked open the message from Dad first.

Hey, Lulabean. Just wanted you to know that Katherine and I are having a great time in Costa Rica. The internet is shoddy here, so I'm not sure if I'll be in touch again before we get home. Attached is a picture of a monkey. Hope you have a good weekend.

Love you, Dad

Wrinkling up my nose, I wondered if the picture was of Katherine, Dad's new bride. It wasn't. It was a picture of him with a capuchin monkey sitting on his shoulder. His face was tanned from the Caribbean sunshine, and he was laughing behind his salt-and-pepper goatee. I paused to remind myself for the millionth time that his happiness was what was important despite my feelings about the situation.

And he did look happy. I wasn't sure if that fact vexed me or not. It's not like I wanted him to be sad, but did he have to be so happy? So happy so soon?

I couldn't help but compare his smile to the one in our family photo that was framed on my desk. Our family. Before Katherine. Before cancer. Before everything had fallen so spectacularly apart.

Then I lightly smacked my own cheeks. "Stop it, Lucy."

Those kinds of thoughts would zap all my productivity for the next few hours, so I typed out a quick reply, saved Dad's picture to the appropriate folder designated for personal photos, then deleted his message. I returned to the inbox and promptly erased all the junk mail before tackling Audrey's requests. All of them had already been addressed and were sitting on her desk, except for one. I moved that email to my "To Do" folder, because it wasn't urgent, and deleted the rest.

Under the desk, my cell phone beeped inside my purse. My joints burned as I bent to retrieve it.

Just checking to make sure you made it inside OK...and without killing anyone. - West

Be still my heart.

I leaned back in my cushy office chair with a grin so wide it triggered a cramp in my jaw. I hit reply, bringing up a new chat window.

Me: Safe and sound. I only allow myself one accident per trip.

A second later, my phone beeped again.

West: My lucky day. :) Of all the pickups in all the towns in all the world, she ran into mine.

A gleeful squeal slipped out before I could stop it, and I spun around in my office chair, disregarding the pain that swirled in my head.

There was a knock at the door, and my feet slammed onto the floor so fast I almost toppled over. Ow. I brushed the hair that had whipped across my face out of my eyes and saw Ava, my other boss, smiling in the doorway.

She walked in and sat down on the edge of the seat across from my desk. "I must know what that was all about." She crossed her legs, resting her hands and the papers she was holding on her knee.

Ava was the carbon copy of Audrey, minus five years and all the wrinkles. She was softer and far less demanding, approachable but still firm. She was classy, but considering all the drama swirling around the office, she was also a bit of a rebel. I liked that.

However, she was still my boss, so I straightened in my seat and tried to look professional. It was no use. I couldn't stop smiling. "I'm sorry," I said, hiding my red cheeks behind my hand.

She waved her papers at me. "Don't be sorry. Just spill the beans. You're dying to tell somebody. I can see it all over your face. What's his name?"

I laughed and dropped my hands into my lap. "West Adler."

"Adler?" She turned her ear toward me like she wasn't sure she'd heard me correctly. "As in Adler Construction?"

I rested my elbows on my desk, then immediately jerked back upright, sucking a sharp, pained breath in through my clenched teeth.

"Are you OK?" she asked.

I looked down at the bandage on my arm. "I fell and scraped the skin off my elbow this morning, but yeah, I'm OK. You've heard of Adler Construction?"

She chuckled, then motioned around the room. "They built your office, honey."

I was confused.

She bent toward me. "The Summit Tower. They built it."

My mouth fell open. "Shut up."

"The Adlers are sort of like royalty in this town." She held up her hand, rubbing her fingers together. "Lots of money in that family."

Withering in my seat, I gripped my head in my hands. "Are you serious?"

"Girl, I never joke about men or money." She leaned on the armrest of her chair. "How did you meet him?"

I slid my hands down the sides of my face, pulling my lips into a distorted frown. "I ran into him at a stop light on my way into work this morning."

Her eyes narrowed. "What do you mean you 'ran into him'?"

I made two fists, then crashed them together with sound effects.

"Like boom?" she asked.

"Like boom. I literally slammed into the back of his truck."

She laughed, covering her mouth with her hand. "Uh-oh." She nodded toward my phone laying on the desk. "Well, he must not have been too mad about it if you're in here spinning around in your chair."

I bit down on the tip of my index fingernail. "He drove me to work, and now he's quoting Casablanca."

Obviously impressed, she slowly clapped her hands. "Congratulations. You must have left quite the impression."

I nodded. "Yeah, on his bumper."

We both burst out laughing.

Finally, she pointed at me. "Oh, Lucy. You and I are going to be great friends."

My heart swelled. She knows my name.

"Did you need something from me, Ava?"

She turned in her chair and craned her neck to look down the hall. "No. I was looking for a place to hide when I heard you squeal." She jerked her thumb toward the door. "Almost everyone else is in the conference room, and I'm afraid my ex is going to show up with his lawyer."

I grimaced. "You can hide in here as long as you need to."

"Thanks." She laughed. "I promise, things are normally more professional around here than they have been since you came on board."

I leaned back in my chair. "I believe that. You don't get where you are in this business by pure luck."

"Do you like it so far? The music business," she asked.

Tilting my head from side to side, I gave a noncommittal shrug. "I'm still getting used to it. It's a little surreal doing promos for people you hear on the radio all the time."

She cut her eyes over at me with a cheeky smile. "Try sleeping with them."

We laughed again.

My phone buzzed on the desk. I picked it up.

West: Have a great day, Lucy. Maybe we'll "run into each other" again soon. :-) :-)

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More chapters coming soon!