"Sir, I have that paperwork you wanted faxed over from legal." Vince Griffin looked up from his mountain of paperwork and nodded at his faithful secretary. Patricia had been hired on when Vince had started his small company twelve years ago and she was one of the few employees who had remained with him through the rough times to see the company grow into the multi-million dollar success it was today.

Vince was proud of his development company. He had started it at the age of twenty using money he had saved all by himself and over the years he had never once gone to his rich family for financial help. He had built up and earned every single thing he saw around him. Though he never could have done any of that without Patricia.

"Thanks, just lay them on my desk." he replied with a sigh as he leaned back in his chair. Patricia's black heels clicked across the polished tiles and she tossed the manilla folder on top of the mountain of files already there to be looked over.

"You look like you could use a vacation." she stated as she slid her pen behind her ear. Vince shook his head as she sat on the corner of his desk.

"I wouldn't know what that is."

"It's this handy little thing where a person takes time away from work and simply relaxes. Drinks some drinks on a beach somewhere, gets laid, you know the important things in life." Patricia replied with a smile and a shrug. Vince ran his hand through his thick black hair and shook his head.

"You are something else." he stated and she smiled. His secretary was close to fifty years old. She had the face of a much younger woman thanks to the invention of botox and her brown hair showed no gray because she helped keep the salon in business. She was nearly six feet tall and her figure made Popeye's love interest, Olive Oyl, look obese. She had professionally tanned skin, a flawless complexion, brown eyes, the kind of perfect smile only money can buy and she was the one and only person who always called him on his crap. He could never pull anything over on her.

"Vince, you are thirty-two years old and you have never once taken a vacation or partied or been a normal man! All you do is work, work, work. I know that you don't like it when our personal lives come into a conversation but I simply think that's because you don't have one and you're terribly jealous when you hear about my cougar escapades. Hell, you wouldn't even take Amy from legal out on a date and I've never seen a woman work so hard to stuff her breasts into a push up bra just to get a man's attention." Patricia said matter of factly as she picked up his clear glass paperweight and rolled it between her hands.

"If you worked in any other office and spoke that way to your boss you'd be fired." he informed her with a glare. "And Amy from legal is twenty years old." Vince added dryly as he picked up a file and began to look through it.

"Last time I checked twenty was legal." Patricia teased with a wink. Vince rolled his eyes.

"You need to be getting back to work." he ordered. "I don't pay you to sit around and criticize my life." She smiled as she sat the paperweight back down on his desk.

"You would actually have to have a life in order for me to criticize it." she reminded him and then she laughed at his scowl.

"Okay, okay, I'm leaving. Remember you have that meeting with Pascal at four." Vince looked at the clock and saw it was already three.

"Thanks for the reminder." he stated and Patricia waved her hand as she hopped from his desk and her heels clicked out of the room.

Vince sighed as he looked through the file in his hands. Though he'd been told he was good looking with his strong jaw, straight nose, firm lips, green eyes, thick black hair and the athletic build he'd managed to maintain since his days as a high school quarterback, he didn't have the time nor the urge for dating. Truth be told he hadn't had a serious girlfriend since high school and hadn't been on a date in a good ten years. While most men were out sowing wild oats, Vince had been busy building a company and now that he was rich and successful he figured that's all women would want from him and he had no interest in any woman like that. Work was what he had and this company was what he loved.

His phone rang and he picked it up.

"What is it, Patricia?" he asked.

"I'm sorry for interrupting your busy life but your mother is on the other line. Would you like me to patch her through?" she asked with a smile in her voice.

"No." Vince stated and she laughed lightly.

"Okay then I'll put her through." Vince rolled his eyes and the next sound he heard was his mothers cultured, proper voice on the other end of the line. Apparently Beverly Griffin had picked up an English accent somewhere in her recent travels though he knew for a fact she'd been born and raised in Jersey. Which of course was something he'd been trained not to mention. God forbid her band of well bred, high class, socialite friends find out.

"Vincent, how nice to finally hear your voice, darling. It's been ages."

"You just called me yesterday, mother." Vincent replied as he pinched his nose between his fingers in an attempt to end the throbbing that always seemed to come when he spoke to his mother.

"Yes I know and you rushed off the telephone claiming you had an important meeting." Vince sighed as he opened his desk drawer and fished out the bottle of pain reliever he kept inside.

"I did have a meeting. And I have another one shortly."

"Of course you do, anything to rush off the phone with your mother."

"Was there a point behind this telephone call other than telling me all my shortcomings as a son?" he asked before popping the over the counter medicine into his mouth and taking a sip of bottled water.

"Yes actually there was." Beverly replied with a sniff. "Your father and I wanted to invite you to come out to dinner with us this Friday evening at 'Maruices'."

"Mother, if this is another attempt to set me up with one of your high class friends I'm not interested."

"Of course is isn't! And what exactly is wrong with a high class woman?" she demanded.

"Not a thing and when I want to know the latest Paris fashions or the proper way to get a French manicure then I will ask one but I would really rather not have dinner with one and watch her nibble on a leaf of lettuce and giggle like an idiot."

"Jessica is a top fashion model so of course she talked about Paris fashions and manicures! And Denise is a fitness guru to some of the top celebrities so she is constantly watching her figure. You could probably learn a thing or two about eating better and taking care of yourself from a woman like that."

"I have to go, mother." Vince stated, deciding he had heard enough. "What time is dinner?"

"Seven."

"I'll be there and if this is a matchmaking attempt then I will be forced to shove one of those fancy butter knives of Maurice's through my ear in hopes of hitting my brain."

"You'll have to find a rather long knife, dear."

"Bye, mother." Vince put the phone back on its base with a click and rubbed his tired face with his hands. His mother had been getting desperate with her match making attempts lately. She kept going on about how she wanted to be a grandmother. Vince had no interest in marriage and children. His business came first and he wouldn't be an absentee father and husband so unless he met a woman who worked a miracle and made him want to put her first then he wasn't going to be getting married anytime soon. Beverly Griffin should have had more than one child if she wanted grandchildren.

Vince shook his head and went back to his files. He became lost in the papers he was reading and signing and didn't realize how much time was passing until Patricia poked her head into his office.

"Sir, your meeting is going to be starting in ten minutes whether you are there or not, though I daresay it will be more productive if you are part of it." she stated with a smile. Vince grumbled under his breath and jumped to his feet. He smoothed out his suit jacket, made sure his tie was straight and then headed for the door. Patricia handed him the file he would need and straightened his tie because apparently he was inept.

"Go get 'em tiger." she said with a wink and Vince grinned as he strode away.

888

"How'd it go?" Patricia asked with twirl of her pen as Vince walked past her desk an hour later.

"Apparently I have the opportunity to buy a boat load of land down in south eastern Kentucky." Vince replied as he walked into his office. He heard Patricia's high heels following behind him on the tile.

"My United States geography is a bit rusty but isn't that in the Appalachian mountains?" she asked as she curled her nose.

"Yes it is." Vince replied as he flopped down in his chair. "But the land shows promise. Pascal did a little research himself and I'm going to do more but it appears that there are a lot of landmarks, parks and natural beauty in that place."

"I can see those gears turning in your head." Patricia said with a smile and Vince nodded.

"Hotels, condos, honeymoon retreats... the possibilities are endless. I'm gonna do some more research online and then next week I'll send someone down there to take a look at the actual land and the properties that are behind at the bank... We might be able to buy up the whole town from the way Pascal talks."

"You could go yourself. Take that vacation we've been talking about. I hear those mountain women really know how to treat a man." Vince rolled his eyes.

"Go on home for the night, Patricia. I'll see you first thing in the morning."

"Alright then. Goodnight, boss." Patricia replied and then she left his office, closing the door behind her.

Vince opened up his laptop and typed Grant County Kentucky into the search engine. As he looked at the pictures of the mountain covered land, waterfalls, rock cliff lookouts and hidden mountain lakes he found himself growing excited. He could make his mark with this land. No more buying the land and reselling it for him. He could buy this land and fix it up himself.

This could be an incredible upscale vacation spot. Hiking, fishing, hunting, camping or simply sightseeing. He could build fancy hotels, rustic looking yet modern cabins..... He hadn't been lying when he'd said the possibilities were endless. Vince Griffin would become a name known in every business circle.

And from the way Pascal had spoken, the people here were poor and barely scraping by. They would probably be grateful for the money he would be more than happy to pay for their land.

Things were looking good for Vince and his little company. Now he just had to worry about surviving dinner with his mother, father and whatever leggy blond he was sure would be there in all of her barely dressed glory.