by Peggy Jaeger
I ran up to the security line and, over my shoulder, saw him standing there, his hands in the pockets of his trousers, a smug, satisfied expression on his face.
Chapter Fourteen
I slept for most of the flight and cab ride home then fell into bed fully clothed.
Up early, a hot shower and a strong black cup of coffee later, and I remembered his promise. I grabbed my bag from where I’d tossed it on the couch when I’d walked through the door and rifled around for my dead phone, every intention of plugging it in and making sure he called paramount in my mind.
I slid my hand from corner to corner, side pocket to back. I couldn’t feel anything resembling my phone, so I turned my bag upside down and shook everything out of it.
House keys, office keys, a small bottle of Pepto pills, three pens, sixty-seven cents, my metro card, my boarding passes for yesterday’s flights, an eyeliner, and my wallet all spilled onto the kitchen counter.
No phone, though.
“This can’t be happening.”
I checked my bedroom and bathroom, just in case I had plugged it in when I’d gotten home and forgotten about it.
No dead phone anywhere.
Where the hell was it, and when had I last had it in my hand?
The second part of the question was easier to answer. The last time I remember holding it was when I’d tried to call a cab from Buddy’s house. I’d shoved the dead thing back into my bag.
And I’d never touched it again.
Now, it looked like I was going to get a new one, whether I wanted to or not. I checked the microwave clock and noted the time. If I left in the next five minutes, I could stop by the phone store before heading into work. I was about to finish getting dressed when my landline rang.
“Where are you?” Nell asked without preamble.
“Home. I’m just about to leave, why?”
“I’ve been calling your cell phone for the past twenty minutes. It finally dawned on me your stupid battery died again.”
I let her think that instead of confessing I’d lost the phone.
“Get here asap. Take an Uber, not the train.”
“I wanted to make a stop first.”
“You can’t. You’ve got a scheduling problem, and I can’t fix it. Not this time. This needs your expertise.”
“Okay. I’m on my way. ETA twenty.”
“Try to make it ten.”
It wound up being seventeen minutes before I got off the elevator to our office floor. Nell wasn’t kidding with her wake-me-up panic. I had six jobs booked today and only three girls to do them. When I called the three who hadn’t shown, two claimed they’d called my cell phone yesterday and left messages stating they were called back for last minute auditions on a new Broadway show currently casting, and the third had wound up in the hospital over the weekend, forced to have an emergency appendectomy.
It took me close to three hours of phone calls from my office and cajoling, rescheduling, even offering a discount to one client who was super-pissed at having to reschedule, but I finally got everything worked out just when my stomach let me know it was starving.
Lunch or cellphone?
I figured I could stand to miss a meal.
I popped my head into Nell’s office, told her I’d averted a client uprising, and I was heading out to buy a new phone.
“Buy the replacement warranty this time, too,” she ordered. “Yes, I know it’s a pain in the ass, moneywise,” she said before I could protest, “but your last phone had a lemon battery, and it’s not worth all the aggravation of you constantly needing to recharge it when any charge should last three times longer. Pay it. It’s worth it in the long run.”
“Yes, Boss.” I saluted her.
Just as I was about to open the office door, it was pushed in, and a huge assortment of red roses almost hit me in the face.
“Wowza,” I said. “Someone’s lucky.”
A familiar face peeked around the floral assortment. Jade-colored eyes lit with laughter shot to mine.
I thought I squealed. I knew I screamed his name.
“What are you doing here?”
He lifted the flowers. “Being a delivery boy. Where do you want these?”
By now, Nell had come from her office, pulled from her chair by the sound of my scream. She took one look at the roses then at Buddy’s face. When she turned to me, her eyebrows were almost at her hairline.
“Hi, Nell.” Buddy smiled his charming smile at her, and I watched her shoulders visibly relax.
“Bring those into my office,” I told him.
Following behind him, I turned back around to Nell, mouthed “everything’s okay” to her questioning face, then shut the door to my office.
Buddy put the vase on the windowsill. He was holding a gift bag.
“Those look beautiful there,” I said.
He put the bag on my desk then opened his arms.
If I’d sprouted wings and flown, I couldn’t have moved into his embrace any faster.
“And you look beautiful right here,” he said against my hair.
I repeated my question and felt his shoulders shake.
“What’s so funny?”
“I told you I was going to call you today, remember?”
“Yes.”
“I tried, but you never picked up.”
I looked up at him and rolled my eyes.
“You’re not going to believe this, but I lost my phone yesterday. I was just on my way out to get a new one.”
He nodded. “I figured the battery had died again, and that’s why you weren’t answering me.”
He released one arm from around my waist and reached over to the desk.
“But when I got in my car this morning, I saw the real reason.”
He yanked out my phone.
“Oh, Lord. It must have fallen out of my bag.”
I tried to take it from him, but he pulled it out of my reach.
“Not so fast, Cynderella. This phone’s getting tossed. It’s a piece of junk.”
“I know. That’s another reason I was on my way to get a new one. The battery has never worked right, and I just can’t depend on it anymore.”
With a nod, he threw the phone into the wastebasket next to my desk. With his hand free again, he grabbed the gift bag.
“Open this first.”
All kinds of happy shot through me. “You brought me a present? I mean, other than the roses? Which, I just want to say, are fabulous and perfect as is.”
“Glad you like them. Open your gift.”
I slipped out of his arms and, needing both my hands, reached in the bag and pulled out a brightly wrapped rectangular box.
“Don’t shake it,” Buddy said when I was about to. He rolled his eyes and snuck his hands into his suit pants pockets.
With a giggle, I tore open the wrapping. Nestled inside was a brand-new phone sheathed in a clear protective case. A heavy case.
“What’s this made of? It feels like glass?”
“Not quite. It’s some super poly-mix that’s nearly indestructible.”
Dangling from the case’s clip was a bag clasp so it could attach to my purse.
And not just any bag clasp.
“Holy crap! Are these…what are these?”
“Swarovski crystals. I figured you’d remember to keep the phone attached to your bag if you looked stylish doing it.”
“Oh my God. Thank you!”
I threw my arms around him and squeezed. Not an easy thing to do on both counts since he was built like a tank.
“The phone’s live. All you need to do is bring it to the store and they’ll clone all the info from your current cloud account onto it. Your number is the same, so you don’t have to change anything, and people can still get in touch with you. The battery’s got the extended warranty too.”
“You’ve thought of everything. Wait, there’s a number already in here,” I said, scrolling through the apps.
“It’s mine. I
programmed it in before I left the store.”
“You put your number under the name PC. What’s that stand for?”
His grin widened, and I swear the colors in his eyes turned molten.
“Take a minute and think it through, Cynderella.” He pulled me back into his arms. “While you do, I’ve got a few things to tell you.”
“Okay.”
“First, remember the night in the Marchant, when I told you I was looking to relocate my business?”
“Vaguely. I was concentrating more on just looking at you and wondering what you’d taste like if I kissed you.”
His arms tightened around my waist.
“Great minds think alike. Anyway, I’ve got an appointment with a realtor in an hour about an open office space opportunity a few blocks from here. Want to come with me? Give me your opinion?”
“What? Wait. You’re thinking of relocating? Here?”
He nodded.
“Why? I mean, well…why?”
He kissed the tip of my nose and grinned. “I’ve been mulling it over for a while. D.C. is home, but most of my clients are based here with some in Asia and Europe, so I’m on a plane a lot, and after a while, that gets old.” One of his hands drifted down from my waist to settle on the rise of my hip. With his fingers trailing back and forth across the area and causing all kids of twitchy things to happen to my insides, he added, “If I’m here a lot anyway, it makes sense to operate from here.”
Okay, that did make sense.
But…
“You said a few things. What are the others?”
His eyes lit with laughter.
“Well, the most important one is that I recently met someone.”
Never mind twitching, my insides were practically bouncing with that statement.
“Someone who means a lot to me and who I want to see a lot more of. A whole lot more. Like, waking-up-every-morning-beside-her more.”
Okay, forget bouncing. Freefalling. That described it perfectly.
“Oh?”
He sniggered and hugged me. “Yes, oh. How do you feel about that?”
“The less time spent on a plane or the waking up every morning thing?”
“Either. Both. Tell me the truth, Cynderella. How do you feel about me moving here and us being together? All the way together?”
I didn’t really need to think about it. Not for a second. Some decisions in life just seemed destined without any intense, soul-searching or thought.
I answered him the best way I knew how: I kissed him.
After a few moments, he laid his forehead against mine.
“Can you come office looking with me?”
“Yes. My afternoon’s all set.”
“Good. Because after that I’m taking you out to eat, then we’re gonna spend the rest of the day and night in your bed. Any objections?”
“Not one.”
His dragged in a deep breath laden with emotion.
“I figured it out.” I cupped his cheek with my hand, and he shifted, burrowed into it, and kissed my palm.
“What?”
“PC.”
His eyes crinkled at the corners.
“Have you, now?”
“It took a minute, but yeah.” I kissed his forehead then skimmed my lips over his temple, down his cheek, and across his jaw before settling a quick buss on his parted lips.
“If I’m Cynderella, that makes you…Prince Charming. PC.”
His grin was infectious. “I knew you were a smart girl.”
His lips found mine, and this time, it was a long, long time before we came up for air.
The End
Acknowledgements
Dirty Damsels went through many edits, character changes, plot arcs, and even a title change before it reached the point where it was ready for publication. I’d like to thank a few people who were instrumental in this process.
First, to Jennifer O’Neill and Jessica Gunhammer: Thank you for being so kind and for taking a chance on a new-to-you author. Your faith is greatly—and I mean GREATLY—appreciated.
To Christina Kaye for all her editing wisdom, kind words, and encouraging comments. Without your help and guidance Dirty Damsels, wouldn’t be the best story if could be. Thank you so much.
To all my fellow writers in the New Hampshire Romance Writers of America chapter. Every time I am in your presence, you make me a better writer. I can only hope I do the same for you all.
And last, but certainly never least: to all the readers who’ve decided over the years that a book written by me is something they’d invest their time and money in. Simple words of thanks don’t come close to describing how honored and delighted I am to have entertained you for a few hours, taken you away from maybe a bad day or a troubling time, and brought you a few laughs, maybe a tear or two, and brightened your life in some small way. You all are the reason I get up every day and get to do what I love to do. Bless you all for your love and support.
~Peg
About The Author
Peggy Jaeger is a contemporary romance writer who writes Romantic Comedies about strong women, the families who support them, and the men who can’t live without them. If she can make you cry on one page and bring you out of tears rolling with laughter the next, she’s done her job as a writer!
Family and food play huge roles in Peggy’s stories because she believes there is nothing that holds a family structure together like sharing a meal…or two…or ten. Dotted with humor and characters that are as real as they are loving, she brings all topics of daily life into her stories: life, death, sibling rivalry, illness and the desire for everyone to find their own happily ever after. Growing up the only child of divorced parents she longed for sisters, brothers and a family that vowed to stick together no matter what came their way. Through her books, she’s created the families she wanted as that lonely child.
When she’s not writing Peggy is usually painting, crafting, scrapbooking or decoupaging old steamer trunks she finds at rummage stores and garage sales.
A lifelong and avid romance reader and writer, Peggy is a member of RWA and her local New Hampshire RWA Chapter.
As a lifelong diarist, she caught the blogging bug early on, and you can visit her at peggyjaeger.com where she blogs daily about life, writing, and stuff that makes her go "What??!"
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