Valerie Hansen - The Hamilton Heir

Dawn shook her head and chuckled. That pleased him. He was still trying to get over the shock of finding out she didn’t see him as the kind of man who kept his word. He was determined to show her his true character, though he wasn’t sure how. Granted, he could be rather ruthless in business if the situation called for it, but in his private life he wasn’t so bad, was he? Introspection didn’t show any major flaws that he was aware of. Therefore, he planned to prove to Dawn what a great guy he really was.

Why? The surprising question gave him pause. Why, indeed? He was Dawn’s boss, not her date. Why should he care about her personal opinion of him as long as she continued to do her job well?

DAVIS LANDING:

Nothing is stronger than a family’s love

was thirty when she awoke to the presence of the Lord in her life and turned to Jesus. In the years that followed she worked with young children, both in church and secular environments. She also raised a family of her own and played foster mother to a wide assortment of furred and feathered critters.

Married to her high school sweetheart since age seventeen, she now lives in an old farmhouse she and her husband renovated with their own hands. She loves to hike the wooded hills behind the house and reflect on the marvelous turn her life has taken. Not only is she privileged to reside among the loving, accepting folks in the breathtakingly beautiful Ozark Mountains of Arkansas, she also gets to share her personal faith by telling the stories of her heart for Steeple Hill’s Love Inspired line.

Life doesn’t get much better than that!

To Joe, who loves me unconditionally. And to John and Karen, who first inspired me to find a church home. They are all three so dear, it brings tears to my eyes.

The father of the righteous shall greatly rejoice; and he that begets a wise child shall have joy in him.

—Proverbs 23:24

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Epilogue

Letter to Reader

Questions for Discussion

Dawn Leroux tensed the moment her boss pushed open the door of his private office and entered hers. She was hard at work, as usual, so no one could question her diligence. Just the same, there was always a niggling feeling of intimidation associated with being in the presence of Timothy Hamilton.

“I left a short list of personnel on my desk,” Tim said. “I’ll want their files updated and waiting for me when I get back. It shouldn’t take you too long.”

“Yes, sir, Mr. Hamilton. Anything else?”

“Not that I can think of.”

“Fine. I’ll take care of it right away.”

Dawn smiled inwardly. She wished she had a nickel for every time she’d told her boss that very thing. Being his administrative assistant wasn’t a bad assignment as long as she was quick to respond to his orders—and do things his way. The man was predictable, if nothing else. Whatever he wanted done, he wanted it done yesterday.

“Will you be out of the office long?” she asked, pen in hand, as he breezed past her desk.

He pushed back his cuff to check his Rolex. “I have a ten o’clock meeting with Ed Bradshaw in the Dispatch office downstairs, then lunch with my mother at twelve. If you need me, we’ll probably be across the street at Betty’s. Mom prefers the Bakeshoppe.”

“I can understand why. The food is delicious.” Dawn was making notes. “Is that all?”

“For the moment,” Tim said. He tapped the breast pocket of his immaculate gray suit. “If I think of anything else, I’ll phone you.” He paused. “You’ll be here?”

“All day,” Dawn said pleasantly, knowing exactly what he meant. “I brown-bagged it today.” She gestured toward a lower drawer of her desk to reassure him. Knowing Tim Hamilton, he’d chain her to the stupid desk 24-7 if he thought he could get away with it! The man was so focused on business he made a normal workaholic look like a hopeless slacker.

“Right.” Tim was already striding away and disappearing through the door as he spoke.

Dawn heard the outer door close and sighed with relief. She stretched, fingers laced together, hands raised over her head. She loved her job, she really did, but ever since his older brother Jeremy had left town in a huff and Tim had moved up in the Hamilton Media corporate hierarchy, he’d acted as if his every act was of monumental importance. He even drank his morning coffee with deliberateness. The poor man was more of a machine than a human being, although she knew he’d be incensed if he suspected that anyone, especially a member of his staff, felt sorry for him.

Sighing, she breathed a quick prayer for her boss’s mental health—and her own—then rose and went into his private office to retrieve the list he’d mentioned.

She paused at the window overlooking the meandering Cumberland River. Fall had already touched this part of Tennessee. The trees along the water were bright and bold, soon to lose their leaves.

Dawn wrapped her arms around herself and gave a little shiver. Her home state of Louisiana might stay hotter in the summer than a bowl of Mama’s homemade jambalaya but it made up for it with mild winters. Though she loved Davis Landing and the Nashville area, there were still times when she longed for a cup of rich Café du Monde coffee and one of their famous beignets dusted with powdered sugar. Thankfully that terrible hurricane had spared the French Quarter of New Orleans.

Her stomach growled. Thinking about food was making her hungry far too early in the day. She swung her long blond hair back with a toss of her head, smoothed her skirt and returned to her desk. At five foot three she didn’t have a lot of room to store extra pounds and she didn’t want to lose control of her eating habits. There weren’t many areas of her life over which she had complete control and she wasn’t about to relinquish what little she did have.

The heavy, brass doors of the elevator slid open and Tim stepped out on the ground floor. He knew better than to pass through the lobby and engage either Louise or Herman Gordon in casual conversation so he whipped around and ducked into the newspaper office. The elderly Gordons took their jobs as Hamilton Media greeter and guard far too seriously to suit him, and both were terrible gossips. Unless he wanted to listen to their opinions on everything from the weather to their favorite TV shows, he knew it was best to avoid them entirely.

He waved to his sister, Heather, in passing. She absentmindedly returned his greeting with a nod and a smile while toting an armload of paper out the door toward the elevator. Tim figured she was probably headed back up to her Nashville Living office on the second floor. He was pleased to see her applying herself. It was never easy to manage staff and he sure didn’t want to have to reprimand anyone in his own family. There were times when he secretly envied his father’s unwavering sternness. Wallace Hamilton was not a man to trifle with. All six of his children knew that, even Jeremy.

Thoughts of his older brother made Tim’s jaw muscles clench. Now that they all knew the truth about Jeremy’s parentage it explained a lot. No wonder he’d never had the inherent drive or the business savvy of Wallace’s other children. The biggest puzzle was why a perfectionist like Wallace had allowed a laid-back guy like Jeremy to run Hamilton Media at all.