Under a Falling Star, page 1
Under A Falling Star
by Jae
Copyright © 2014 by Jae. All rights reserved.
First Smashwords Edition: October 2014
All rights reserved. This eBook is licensed for the personal enjoyment of the original purchaser only. This eBook may not be resold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you are reading this eBook and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
The characters and events portrayed in this book are a work of fiction or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.
Table of Contents
Other Books by Jae
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Epilogue
About Jae
Excerpt from Conflict of Interest
Other Books from Ylva Publishing
Coming from Ylva Publishing in Winter 2014/2015
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Other Books by Jae
Departure from the Script
Conflict of Interest
The Moonstone Series:
Something in the Wine
Seduction for Beginners
The Oregon Series:
Backwards to Oregon
Beyond the Trail
Hidden Truths
Lessons in Love and Life
The Shape-Shifter Series:
Second Nature
Natural Family Disasters
Manhattan Moon
True Nature
Nature of the Pack
Pigeon Post
Acknowledgments
Once again, I want to thank my incredible team of beta readers—Erin, Michele, and Nicki—and my critique partners, Alison Grey and RJ Nolan. Thank you for all the time, energy, and enthusiasm you put into my manuscripts.
A big thank-you goes to Revital and Rosey for coming up with a believable scenario for one of my scenes and for completely ignoring my disclaimer to get some rest first.
Thanks to Elisa, owner of the bookstore Another Read Through in Portland, for selling my books and for helping me decide where Austen lives. Readers, if you live in the Portland area, pay Elisa and her bookstore a visit!
Last but not least, thanks to my editor Nikki Busch. I hope we’ll work together on many more books to come!
To all my beta readers, past and present, who make the journey of writing and rewriting a book a lot easier, less solitary, and much more fun. Thank you!
Chapter 1
Austen tucked the phone between her shoulder and ear and wriggled into her sheer pantyhose. “I hate first days,” she said into the phone.
“Oh, come on,” her best friend, Dawn, said. “What’s so bad about first days? New chances, new beginnings…”
Of course, Dawn as a psychologist would see it that way. “Hey, I’m not paying you for your fabulous cognitive reframing skills, so please just let me complain.”
Dawn laughed. “Go ahead.”
“My first day of kindergarten, I hid in my mother’s closet so I wouldn’t have to go. First day of elementary school, I got sick all over the teacher.”
“Ugh. Sounds like the teacher didn’t have such a great first day of school that year either.”
“She sure didn’t. The poor woman smelled like a polecat for the rest of the day. My first days of middle and high school didn’t go much better.” It hadn’t helped that her family had moved all over the country because her father had been in the military. She had lived in eight different towns and had gone through eight first days at new schools. Each time, the teacher would inevitably get her name wrong and call her Austin. “Then, of course, there’s my first day at Kallhoff Consulting back in San Diego.”
“Nothing to write home about either?” Dawn asked.
“I got into a car accident on my way to work.”
Dawn sucked in an audible breath.
“No one got hurt,” Austen said quickly. “Or maybe I sustained some brain damage. That would explain why I started a relationship with the woman whose rental car I hit. Needless to say, it didn’t end well.”
“Don’t tell me…Brenda?”
“The one and only.” She took up position in front of the mirror in the bathroom and gave herself a stern look, remembering her promise to move on and forget about the past. “Maybe today will be different. How bad can a company producing kids’ toys be, right?”
“Right. Can’t be any worse than the last company you worked for, that’s for sure. So, what are you wearing?”
Austen chuckled. “Does your partner know you’re having this kind of phone call with other women?”
“You wish.”
They both laughed. Austen gave her reflection a once-over and grinned at herself in the mirror. In a beige pencil skirt ending just above her knees, a matching suit jacket, and a cream-colored blouse that brought out the reddish color in her hair, she was all set to make a great first impression. “None too shabby, if I may say so myself.”
“Good. So go get ’em, tiger.” Dawn let out a hiss and a roar.
“I’ll give it my best. Thanks, Dawn.”
“No problem—the bill is in the mail.”
When they ended the call, Austen felt ready to face this first day. She dabbed a touch of perfume to her neck and wrists.
A quick glance at her watch showed that it was time to leave. Better to take the early train, just in case. She wanted to arrive bright and early.
On her way to the door, she blew Toby a kiss. “Wish me luck.”
“Fuck you,” the cockatoo warbled.
Austen groaned. “Thanks a lot for that heartfelt encouragement.” She’d kill her brother the next time he visited. Apparently, he had thought it fun to teach her pet foul language. Needless to say, she didn’t share his twisted sense of humor.
She snatched her purse, keys, and an umbrella from the side table and strode out the door.
When her feet hit the two concrete steps leading out to the yard, she realized that she wasn’t wearing shoes. Shaking her head at herself, she unlocked the door and rushed back into the apartment.
“Loser,” Toby screamed.
“I know, I know.” She went on a frantic search for her camel-hued pumps and finally, after a few minutes, found them sitting on top of the closed toilet lid. “What are they doing here?” She put them on and hurried out the door a second time. She’d have to run the three blocks to the MAX station if she wanted to catch the early train.
God, she hated first days.
* * *
Even though she had hurried, she still missed the train by about thirty seconds. As she ran up to the North Killingsworth Street station, the light-rail train had just pulled away.
She slumped onto a bench and tried to slow her racing heart. No need to worry. Even though she had to transfer to another line, the next train would still get her to work on time, especially since the MAX stopped right across the street from Kudos Entertainment.
When she stepped off the train in the Lloyd District, rain began to fall. Thank God she had grabbed an umbrella on her way out; she didn’t want to look like a drenched rat on her first day. As she rushed across the brick-paved plaza surrounding the high-rise building, she nearly broke a heel. She slid to a stop in front of the main entrance to close her umbrella and check her appearance in the reflective glass of the building’s curving facade.
Still presentable. With a calming breath, she entered the lobby. Her heels clicked a staccato beat on the polished travertine floor but then slowed as she craned her neck and stared in open-mouthed wonder. Although she had seen the lobby when she’d been here during her job interview, it was just as impressive the second time.
Drizzle fell on the high glass roof. Despite Portland’s dreary winter weather, the lobby looked as if it were bathed in sunlight. Ferns and potted plants grew in large stone troughs along two sides, and a fountain gurgled in the background. A long, crimson couch flanked one of the white marble walls.
Austen skirted the twelve-foot Christmas tree in the center of the lobby, breathing in the scent of pine. Today was the eighth of December, but for some reason, the tree was still completely bare, no ornaments hanging from its branches. Strange. Why have a Christmas tree if you don’t decorate it? She shrugged off the distracting thought and stopped in front of the reception desk.
The receptionist looked up from her computer. Her conserv
That was encouraging. At least her new company wasn’t as stuffy as the old one.
“Good morning.” The receptionist smiled at her. “May I help you?” Her gaze swept across Austen, who barely restrained herself from checking if she had coffee stains on her blouse or wrinkles in her skirt.
“Good morning. I’m Austen Brooks, the new administrative assistant.”
“Oh, yes. Mr. Saunders is expecting you.”
Austen swallowed. She hadn’t met her new boss yet, but she told herself that he couldn’t be as bad as the last one.
“Take the elevator all the way up to the fifteenth floor,” the receptionist said, gesturing. “It’s the corner office to the left.”
“Thank you.” Austen walked over to the bank of elevators behind the reception desk and pressed the up button.
While she waited for the steel doors to open, steps echoed across the lobby. The reflections of the elevator’s steel doors showed two people, a man and a woman, hovering behind her. Austen felt their curious gazes, but she didn’t turn around.
The elevator chimed, and its gleaming doors slid open.
Austen stepped in and moved toward the back of the elevator to make room for the two other people.
“Which floor?” the man who’d entered last, dressed in jeans and a button-down, asked and gave her a questioning glance.
“Fifteenth, please.”
The man and the elevator’s other occupant, a woman in business attire, looked at each other before he pressed the button for the top floor.
“Did they finally hire a new admin for Ms. Saunders?” the woman asked.
Ms. Saunders? Austen had thought she would work for Mr. Saunders, the company’s vice president of marketing and customer service. Before her job interview, she had checked out the company’s website, and the organizational chart had indicated that her boss would be Timothy Saunders. Or had she misread, and had it really said Timothea? But the receptionist had said Mr. Saunders too, hadn’t she?
“I’m an admin,” Austen said, “but—”
“Well, good luck, then,” the woman said. “I’m sure you’ll do just fine. Don’t let the rumors scare you off.”
“Rumors?” That didn’t sound promising. “What rumors?”
The two employees exchanged glances as the elevator propelled them upward.
“Well, they say her last admin committed suicide,” the woman said in a stage whisper. “Just jumped out the window on the fifteenth floor one day.”
“I thought that was her second-to-last secretary?” the man said.
The woman shrugged. “I lost track over the years. Anyway, poor Wendy. I had no idea her depression had gotten so bad.”
The steel doors slid open on the third floor, and the man stepped out. “You’d be depressed too if you had to work for Ms. Saunders,” he muttered just as the doors closed.
The elevator stopped once again on the seventh floor, and the woman got off, sending Austen one last encouraging glance.
Finally, Austen was alone. She stared into her own wide eyes in the mirrored wall.
Great. Apparently, her new boss was Attila the Hun.
* * *
When the elevator doors opened on the fifteenth floor, Austen stepped onto plush, gray-blue carpet. The scent of espresso wafted down the corridor. Well, at least they had good coffee. She’d need it if she really had to work for the boss from hell.
She knocked on the first door to the left but didn’t hear an answer. Hesitantly, she opened the door and peeked in.
The outer office was empty and the assistant’s desk unoccupied. That would probably be her new place of work. She let her gaze wander over oak-paneled walls, burgundy carpet, and a solid wood desk with a large computer screen. A smile formed on her face. The new office was a huge step-up from the tiny cubicle she’d worked in before.
As she stepped into the room, she realized that the door to the inner office was partially open. A male voice came from inside.
Was this her new boss or just someone working for the female version of Attila?
Before she could walk over to peek at the nameplate on the wall, the door opened more fully and a tall man stepped out. If this was indeed her new boss, he was not at all what she’d expected. For one thing, she had thought he would be in his fifties, but this man was only a few years older than she was, maybe in his mid-thirties. In a gray pinstripe suit that matched the color of his eyes and a dark blue tie, he looked as if he’d stepped off the cover of GQ magazine. He reached up to push back a strand of wavy, black hair and gave her a smile that probably made women all over the company swoon.
Austen grinned inwardly. Good thing I’m immune to male charms. “Good morning,” she said. “I’m Austen Brooks, the new administrative assistant. I’m looking for Mr. Saunders.”
His grin broadened. “You found him. Timothy Saunders. Welcome to Kudos Entertainment, Ms. Brooks.”
Phew. So she wouldn’t be working for Attila after all. Was the woman the employees on the elevator had talked about related to her new boss? If yes, had they just happened to get jobs at the same company, or was Kudos Entertainment a family-run business? She realized she should have studied the company’s website more carefully, but there hadn’t been much time to prepare before her job interview and now she didn’t want to appear too nosy by asking.
They shook hands.
“Sorry for making you wait. Things are always a little crazy around here right before Christmas.” He pointed toward his office, where the phone was ringing off the hook.
So that was why he seemed so happy to see her.
“Why don’t we go to my office and talk for a minute?”
Austen nodded and followed him into his office.
A large, L-shaped desk faced away from a floor-to-ceiling window overlooking downtown Portland and Mt. Hood in the distance.
Wow. She couldn’t help staring at the panoramic view.
He laughed. “Pretty nice, isn’t it? The first week I moved in here, I didn’t get any work done because I was staring out the window all the time. Take a seat, please.” Instead of sitting in the padded leather chair behind his desk, which would have given him the upper hand, he directed her to a small, round table.
Austen smiled and decided that she liked her new boss. “So what can I do to help you deal with the pre-Christmas craziness?”
“For today, probably not much. Just settle in, find out where the bathrooms are, and check out the break room. Oh, and go down to the tenth floor to fill out some employee forms before HR has my head.”
“I’ll do that right away.”
Saunders flipped through his daily planner. “There’s a staff meeting at eleven that I’d like you to attend. I’ll introduce you to the rest of the marketing team.”
Austen nodded.
“We also need to set up your e-mail so I can forward you a bunch of stuff that will get you up to speed on our ongoing projects. This week, I’ll be busy putting together my report for the annual shareholders’ meeting in January, so if anyone calls and wants to talk to me, tell them I joined the Foreign Legion.”
Austen laughed. Finally, a boss with a sense of humor.
The phone in the outer office rang.
Austen jumped up, eager to prove herself. “I’ll get it.” She hurried over to her desk and snatched up the phone. “Kudos Entertainment, marketing department. This is Austen Brooks. How may I help you?”
“This is Danielle Saunders, COO.” A contralto voice reverberated through the line. “Is my brother in?”
Austen clutched the phone more tightly. Mr. Saunders’s sister was the company’s chief operating officer? The one who made administrative assistants jump to their deaths? “Uh, I’m sorry, ma’am, he is—”
“Let me guess. He joined the Foreign Legion—again.”
Austen suppressed a chuckle. At least Attila had a sense of humor too. “Yes, ma’am.”
