Bridget Anderson - Something About You

“Ms. Coleman, I’d like to thank you for an enlightening morning. I’m afraid we have to leave, but the experience is one I won’t soon forget.”

She could tell he’d enjoyed himself by the huge smile on his face. “Hopefully you have a new appreciation for organics now.”

Miles chuckled. “Let’s say I have a better understanding of the work involved, and I see why you’re so passionate about it. I understand the health benefits, but it seems like a mighty slow way to feed large groups of people.”

“Organic food can feed the masses. If we had more time, I’d tell you how.”

“Another time, then.” Miles held out his hand. “Tell your family I said thank you for breakfast and the hospitality.”

She accepted his hand. “I will.” She looked down at his dirt-and soil-spotted T-shirt. “Next time we’ll have large enough gloves or an apron for you to wear.”

He smiled and brushed at his soiled shirt.

“Drive safely.” Kyla said goodbye and rejoined the group of guests, while Miles and his crew walked up the path to the parking lot. She tried her best not to watch him walk away. Her brush with celebrity had been brief, but entertaining. Yet she still didn’t see what all the fuss was about. He hadn’t struck her as any different from any of the other country boys running around the area. Maybe he was more handsome and charming, and had perfect teeth, which usually scored high in her book, but those weren’t things to get your panties in a bunch about.

Ben walked up next to her. “Are they leaving?”

“Yep,” she said, half relieved, and half saddened, for some strange reason.

“Man, I didn’t get his autograph or anything. I wanted a picture.”

“Ben, he’s just a man. Tracee took pictures with her phone. Ask her to send you one.”

“Okay, but I wanted a selfie with him.” He walked off mumbling, “Man, Miles Parker was here and I didn’t even get a picture.”

Shaking her head, Kyla turned around to clean up her working area, but couldn’t resist the urge to glance up the hill to the parking lot. A large black SUV drove slowly down the long driveway to the main road. She smiled to herself. “Goodbye, Mr. Parker. Maybe we’ll meet again sometime.”

* * *

Exactly a week later, just as the buzz of having a celebrity in the house had all but died down, Kyla walked into the dining room and found a framed photograph of Miles and Rita, smiling from ear to ear. The picture hung above the buffet table.

“Nice, isn’t it?” Tracee asked as she strolled in behind Kyla, pushing a dust mop across the hardwood floors.

Kyla crossed her arms. “Huh, the only thing missing is his scribbled autograph across the bottom.”

“Yeah, about that. Do you think you’ll see him again?” Tracee asked.

Kyla unfolded her arms. “I should think not! It’s not like he’s one of my buddies or anything. If I ever see that man again, it’ll probably be on television coming out of some swanky night club in LA or escorting some starlet on some award show’s red carpet.”

“Well, the more popular he gets, the better for us.”

“And how do you figure that?”

“Because you’re going to take one of those pictures I took and put it on our website and Facebook. You can say, ‘A typical guest at The Coleman House B and B.’”

Kyla’s head jerked back. “Aunt Rita is not going to let us post her picture all over the internet. Besides, don’t you have to ask his permission to do something like that?”

“If you knew how to get in touch with him, you could ask.”

“Well, I don’t.”

“Nice picture, isn’t it?” Tayler asked, as she stopped at the entrance to the dining room with a hamper full of sheets.

Kyla looked up at the picture again. “You really think so?”

“Of course.” Tayler entered the room. “Rita’s so proud of it. Her first celebrity. She’s thinking about sending a copy to the paper. Rollin told her to go ahead. It might bring a little free publicity our way. I think we can get them to do another feature on the B and B.”

Kyla tilted her head, giving the picture one more careful review. Was Miles really that big a deal? And she hadn’t seen her Aunt Rita happy about any photo taken of herself in years. She did have Miles’s business card in her bag somewhere. Maybe Tayler was right. She shrugged before saying, “I guess I could put up one post.”

Tracee cleared her throat and continued dusting the floor around Kyla. “I’ll email you the pictures.”

Kyla slowly nodded. After all, what harm could it do?

Chapter 5

“Are we sure we want to get in bed with these guys?” Glenda asked.

Miles sat across the table from his business partner, at Saul Good’s sandwich shop, and contemplated her question. In the five years he and Glenda Edmunds had been in business together, her instincts had never been wrong. Glenda may have the body of a supermodel, but she also had the brains of a business mogul. The first time they met at a local beer festival he attended with friends, he asked her out. That date turned into a business meeting, and the partnership was formed.

“What about the Latin American deal don’t you like?” Miles asked.

“It’s too good to be true. I agree we need more public–private partnerships to generate crops that meet the needs of poorer countries, but the study they’re citing, I’ve never heard of this institute.” She pushed some papers across the table to him. “Give me a little more time to study them before we all sit down.”

He picked up the papers and skimmed over the first page. “Sure, take a few more days.”

“Great.” Glenda closed her folder and sat back in her seat. “So, how are things going with Brandon?”

After taking a deep breath, Miles rested his forearms on the table’s edge and turned his hands palms up. “He’s coming along, I guess. It’s not quite the summer vacation he planned, but I’m gonna make sure he goes back to school with some real-world business experience.”

“How did he like the World Hunger Day conference?”

Miles shrugged. “He got bored and started hitting on some of the young female volunteers.”

Glenda laughed. “He’s a Parker, all right. Why don’t you let him shadow me for a week or so? We can take care of some business, and he can help me shop for a new car.”

“Oh, he’ll love that. The car part, anyway.”

She held her fork up. “Then let’s make it happen.”

Miles nodded, and they continued to eat. After several bites, Glenda got back to business.

“So, last week when we spoke you were going to check out the property in Nicholasville I was telling you about. What happened with that?”

“It’s been a crazy week. I haven’t had time to run back down there.”

“I thought you were already in the area? You said you were in Danville.”

“I was actually on a working organic farm in Danville.”

Glenda put her fork down, laughing, and wiped her mouth with a napkin. “You worked on an organic farm? What on earth for?”

“At the conference, my college mentor introduced me to this woman who has a nonprofit program called Rooted Beginnings that focuses on organic fruits and vegetables. She’s already gotten her program into the local school system. She’s pretty sharp.”

Glenda leaned back in her seat and crossed her arms. “Oh, I get it now. What’s her name?”

“Kyla Coleman. She’s working on her PhD. And what is it that you get, exactly?” he asked before taking another bite of his burger.

“Why Miles Parker would spend any time on a farm.”

Miles straightened his back. Glenda knew him better than anyone. He wasn’t the type of guy who planted his own anything. He purchased everything from the grocery store or had the store deliver. She also knew he wasn’t the womanizer the gossip rags made him out to be. “Glenda, you know me better than that. Her program sounded like something I might be interested in, so I decided to check it out.”