Be My Valentine: The McClendon Holiday Series, Book 3 Read online

  “This is best,” Jacques said, placing his hand to his side.

  “Are you leaving New York?” Roger wanted to know.

  “If you need to talk to me, you can contact my attorney, John Friedman,” Jacques responded before turning to walk away.

  After a few steps, he stopped and turned back to Roger. “As a matter of fact, I’ll alert him now just to make sure he knows what’s going on.” With that, he turned and left Roger’s office without another word.

  Stopping back at his office, Jacques removed his nameplate and threw it in the box with his other things. He’d asked Violet to just ship everything to his apartment at one time because he didn’t want to carry anything out of the building. He pulled his winter coat from the rack and slipped his arms through it while he walked to the elevator. What a way to start off the New Year. On the way down, he compared it to starting over. He was on the ground floor, so it was time for a new start.

  * * * * *

  Celebrating Valentine’s Day for Patrice McClendon wasn’t all hearts and flowers. No, the thirty-year-old aroma therapist despised the day that was supposedly set aside for couples. Every year the lover’s holiday had become more and more commercialized. Storefront displays with cupid armed with a bow-and-arrow dangling from the ceiling surrounded by pink and red chocolate hearts and mannequins of all body types flanked store windows in sexy lingerie. Other paraphernalia that was splattered all over every outlet for print, television and the web promoting, love, sex, and perfume.

  To Patrice all of it was meaningless hype. Specifically when you take into consideration that most of the people who came into her boutique to purchase a gift for their lover, bought more than one gift. It would make her stomach turn when a guy would find the perfect scented gift, then say, “now let me find one for my wife” or if it was a woman doing the shopping vice versa. No, chocolate hearts and flowers, candlelight dinners and expensive gifts pretending to show love to their soul mate, Patrice didn’t want any part of it. She always wondered what happened the next morning after the big love day. As far as she was concerned, she could buy her own gifts and candy.

  Everybody didn’t share a love like her parents, Russell and Myra McClendon. And because her family was big on holidays, Patrice kept her disdain for this particular one to herself. Instead of thinking about the day personally, she focused on how Valentine’s Day could help her aromatherapy and spa business. Hallmark cards, Victoria’s Secret and Russell Stover’s always made a killing, so she wanted to join the ranks.

  Tapping into her mother’s years of experience in creating soothing, sensual scents and products would only make sense. She just hoped that her mother would agree with her ideas, so she decided to invite her to come into the boutique.

  A light knock at her door caught Patrice’s attention. She looked up to see her mother standing in the threshold.

  “Good morning, Treecie,” Myra McClendon said to her daughter, as she entered the small office. “We could have talked about this at my house.”

  That thought had crossed Patrice’s mind, but she wanted her mother’s undivided attention. Leaving her chair, she walked over to Myra and kissed her on the cheek. “Morning. I know, but I wanted the right atmosphere,” Patrice replied, going back to her seat. She lifted the lid of her laptop and clicked the mouse to bring up her meeting notes.

  Myra shrugged out of her coat and sat in one of the empty chairs at the small table in the corner of the room. “Okay, then I’m listening.”

  “I have some great ideas to move the business forward.”

  “Let me hear what you’ve come up with, sweetie.”

  The smile on her mother’s face increased Patrice’s excitement about her idea. “I think that we should create a signature fragrance.”

  Myra’s eyes lit up and then she put her fingers under her chin. “That’s a huge undertaking, Treecie. You sure you want to go after something like that?”

  “Yes, I think I can do it. I’ve got everything planned and will ask Renee to help me with the marketing,” Patrice explained.

  It was a monumental task, but Patrice was willing to work hard to complete it. Since high school Patrice’s dream had been to run the family business. She watched her mother create something from nothing. She was there to witness the success of her mother’s efforts and best of all she was her own boss, which made Patrice want to become an entrepreneur as well. Patrice was elated when her mother told her that she was passing the reins to the family enterprise to her. It was important that Patrice proved to her mother that she made the right decision.

  Out of all the five McClendon children, Patrice was the only one who went into the family business, but they were all entrepreneurs in their own right. Her sister Faith owned her own custom clothing boutique. Renee was a marketing executive at Vine Public Relations and her baby sister Jennifer managed one of the most popular hair salons in River North called Lavish Locks. Their brother, Laurence was in the military and still in Afghanistan.

  Patrice and her mother stared at each other for several moments. She knew the look her mother had on her face meant that she was thinking seriously about what Patrice had proposed. “Mom, what do you think?” Patrice asked. She needed to hear some kind of feedback in order to gage whether she should move forward or not. Even though she was running the business now, it was her mother’s baby and she didn’t want to do anything that would cause Myra to be upset.

  “Well, you seem to be really excited about this. I just hope you’ve done your homework and are sure you have all the capital, etc., that you’ll need to move forward.”

  Patrice’s fascination with aroma therapy started when she was very young. She and her siblings watched their mother make products using essential oils for family members and friends in their home kitchen. As she grew older, Patrice found herself curious as to how nature played a role in creating products that could make you smell good and heal the body. So she asked her mother if she could work with her. Later she increased her education becoming a Certified, ARC Registered Aroma therapist.

  “I’ve already done a lot of the research and will make sure that I talk to the accountant about financing before I get in too deep.”

  After managing the boutique for the last several years, Patrice soon realized that she needed to do something spectacular to push the business forward and she wanted to make sure that her mother was on board with her plans. She pulled out the projections and glanced through them. “Yes, Mom, I actually think I can and that’s why I asked you to come.”

  Patrice could tell that she’d piqued the fifty-five-year-old entrepreneur’s interest by the way Myra scooted to the end of her chair.

  “Okay, let me hear it,” Myra said.

  “Because we are doing well with our essentials line, the special fragrance would be unveiled in time for a Valentine’s Day campaign,” Patrice said. She waited patiently for her mother’s response.

  “Wow, okay.”

  Myra’s response didn’t give Patrice the warm fuzzies. She had to say something to reassure her mother. Patrice leaned forward. “If we get the right person, it shouldn’t take us that long. You would be involved in every step of the process,” Patrice said, resting her hand on top of her mother’s. “We talked about creating a special fragrance for Faith’s store, remember?”

  Myra nodded.

  “Why not start with our own boutique first,” Patrice suggested, reminding her mother of the promise they made to her oldest sister.

  Myra sat quietly, which in Patrice’s eyes, wasn’t a good sign that she would agree. Patrice had to contain her temper though. She didn’t want to be disrespectful, but she needed her mother to trust her. “Look, Mom, you know how people rave over the lavender-scented bath oil line?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, I want a fragrance that when you get a whiff, you know it’s from Good Scents. We could be right up the
re with everyone else creating their own signature fragrance from Beyoncé to Brittany Spears.”

  Myra waved her hands. “Patrice, don’t get me wrong, I think it’s a wonderful idea, but if we’re going to do this, then you’ve got to find the right person to assist you. Someone with the perfect nose and a vast knowledge of what we’re looking for.”

  “I agree and I’ve already paired down a list of names of perfumers and aroma therapists who could possibly help. I also want to attend the World Perfumer Congress because it might be an excellent resource.”

  Patrice felt she’d done a good job in explaining what she wanted to do. Now she just needed to get to work.

  Myra stood. “Go on and make arrangements to attend this trade event and let’s do this. I think we could come up with an entire line of products for Valentine’s Day and have the perfume as the spotlight,” her mother said, then smiled. “I see that you are passionate about this project, so who am I to stand in the way of it?”

  “The owner,” Patrice said, then laughed.

  “Just move forward with your project, dear. Keep me in the loop and I’ll help as much as I can with it,” Myra said before bending down to pick up her purse. “I hope this fragrance doesn’t take long because we don’t have much time. Valentine’s Day is a little over a month and a half away.”

  Patrice could do the happy dance, but she didn’t have time. There was so much she needed to get done. The first thing on her list was to register for the trade show and then she would move on from there. If she was lucky she would find the right person at the show and that was the biggest hurdle she had to jump.

  She stood up and hugged her mother tightly. “You won’t regret this, Mom, I promise,” Patrice said with excitement.

  “I believe in you, baby,” Myra said, palming Patrice’s cheek. “I’m going to go over to Faith’s shop to look at some new items she got in for fall.”

  Patrice watched her mother leave the office and then she went back to her laptop so that she could get familiar with the details of the World Perfumer Congress.

  Chapter Two

  Jacques slammed the door to his condo on New York’s Upper East Side and yanked his phone from his pocket so that he could call his sister Cecilia. Heat radiated from him, so he snatched his long wool coat off his body and flung it onto the nearest chair. He took several deep breaths in an effort to get his emotions together. The moment he looked Roger in his eyes after he requested Jacques take time off, he knew that his career was over with Fairchild. There was no going back.

  If he didn’t need to ask Cecilia for help, he wouldn’t even bother telling her his bad news. But he thought a change in scenery would do him some good. Being with his sister would be a great diversion from this mess.

  Cecilia Germain was his one and only sibling. It had always been just the two of them after their parents died. Ten years separated them in age and Jacques’s role changed dramatically after that fateful day. Not only was he Cecilia’s big brother, but he was now her protector and father-figure. With the help of their maternal grandmother he and Cecilia were never separated. His sister depended on him and he took both roles seriously.

  Jacques helped Cecilia as much as he could by paying the rest of the money, which scholarships didn’t cover when she earned her Bachelors in Business Administration. He was proud of the strong, independent young woman she’d become. He could always count on her to be brutally honest with him and he appreciated her for it.

  After removing his brown single-breasted suit-jacket and throwing it over the chair, he opened the refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of imported beer.

  “Big Bro,” Cecilia said, cheerfully.

  Jacques couldn’t help but smile hearing her voice and the joking way she always called him “Big Bro.”

  “How are you, sweetheart?” he asked.

  “Everything is everything,” she replied. “Hey, do you guys have a lot of snow up in New York? It looks like a blizzard outside my window.”

  “Well, what did you expect? It’s January in Chicago, sis. But to answer your question, we don’t have any snow, but it’s colder than a well-digger’s ass.”

  Cecilia giggled. “I don’t know which is worse, the cold or the snow.”

  “We should both move to sunny Florida with G-Ma then we wouldn’t have to worry about either,” Jacques stated.

  “Fo ’sho, Big Bro. She’d love that, so I’m ready when you are.”

  Jacques chuckled, but then took a deep breath. He didn’t want her to think he was joking around. “Cee Cee, I need to tell you something.”

  “What’s wrong, Jacques?”

  “I quit my job today.”

  “You did what? Why?”

  Jacques could hear the panic in her voice. He didn’t want her to worry, so he quickly told her the whole sorted story about the theft and his meeting with the board. The noticeable silence concerned Jacques as his sister was never short on words. He needed to hear her thoughts and then propose an idea he had. “Cee Cee, just say whatever’s on your mind.”

  “As long as you’ve worked for those bastards, they had the nerve to accuse you of stealing a fragrance that you created? How dumb are they?”

  “That was my thinking exactly,” Jacques replied. He could tell that his sister was ticked off.

  “Did you contact your attorney? Because wouldn’t that be like Corporate espionage?”

  “Yes, it would be and I’ve spoken with John Friedman and he will be contacting them tomorrow.”

  “On the real, what are you going to do, Jacques? You are so talented. I just can’t believe they would think you’d ruin your career.”

  “I haven’t figured everything out yet, but I’m sure that something good will come out of this.”

  “Well, I don’t blame you for quitting. Roger all but said that they believe you were responsible.”

  “I think I want to come back to Chicago for a while.” Jacques needed to change the subject because it wasn’t doing either of them any good to continue to talk about Roger and Fairchild.

  “Really. I’d love to have you here with me. I’ve got plenty of room,” Cecilia said.

  He could hear the excitement in her voice. It had been a couple years since they’d seen each other. “Yeah, I really miss you, sis,” he said. He needed the break anyway and hanging out with his baby sister might just do the trick.

  “When are you coming and how long are you going to stay?”

  “I’m not sure when or how long. I think I want to get an investigator of my own because I want to find out who’s behind this.”

  “But I thought you said they were going to do that.”

  “It’s not guaranteed that I would get full disclosure. I have to look out for myself. You have to have a key code to enter the lab and a password to log onto the computer. I know this had to be an inside job, but I don’t have any proof.”

  Jacques could hear Cecilia exhale loudly. “I know you’re a big boy, but I want you to be careful. Call me when you’ve decided on a date to come to Chicago.”

  “I will. You take care,” Jacques said before hanging up the phone. He plugged his phone into the USB drive of his portable speakers and waited for the mellow sounds of KEM to come through.

  He picked up his beer and dropped his body down in his favorite chair, kicking his feet up on the matching ottoman. As he took a sip from the bottle, he reflected on his day and then tried to come up with a strategy to get himself back to doing what he loved. The conclusion he came up with was he needed a break. It was just that simple, so after he spoke with his lawyer in the morning, he’d pack for Chicago.

  * * * * *

  Jacques stood by the floor-to-ceiling windows in his sister’s modern condominium with his coffee cup in hand, staring at the winter scene in front of him. It had a great view of Lake Shore Drive with Soldier Field not being t
oo far away. The three-bedroom apartment with its fancy chandeliered-lighted closets was located on the third floor of a state of the art high-rise building.

  His sister made sure that he was comfortable in the massive room she’d set up for him to occupy while in town. She’d decorated it with modern shades of red and gray with touches of black. The king-size platform bed was comfortable and he slept well. Even though it was a bit more modern for his taste, the huge fireplace in the bedroom made it very homey.

  The rest of the house was just as sleek and he honestly couldn’t believe that she lived alone in a place so big. Yes, his condo in New York was of good size, but nothing this enormous. Pride and happiness filled his heart when he thought of Cecilia. She’d become such an accomplished woman, but Jacques always knew she had it in her. She had been so obsessed with her Barbie Town House that she continued with her love for pretty houses and opened her own real estate agency. An accredited and certified professional in everything from residential to buyers to seniors, Cecilia was in with the movers and shakers of Chicago realty.

  As much as he liked looking at the beautiful view, especially at night, he was bored. He had nothing to do all day while Cecilia was out. He’d wake up in the morning wondering how healthy able-bodied adults stayed at home with nothing to do. When he first arrived a week ago, he was excited to see his sister and they stayed up all night, just talking about nothing in particular, reminiscing about the old days. But after a few days, reality hit him that she wouldn’t be able to be around all day. She had responsibilities and he would be home alone until she got off work in the evening.

  Jacques didn’t mind because his first thought was he’d get caught up with his reading as his sister had a collection of James Patterson books he’d wanted to read. With his crazy schedule, he never got the chance to relax. When he was home, he always had his nose in a book as research for a new scent.

  Unfortunately, after the first few chapters, he laid the book aside and ended up right back looking out the window, watching the people below and the traffic as well as looking far out onto Lake Michigan. The only subject that continued to swim in his head was that of the potential case that Fairchild may have against him. He kept telling himself that he didn’t need to worry about it, but he couldn’t help himself.