Grooming Mr. Right

by Tonya Kappes

  I grabbed a bottle of shampoo for dogs and decided to use the sponge to bathe her skin instead of the hose. Bessie enjoyed a good scratching, so she didn’t fight me when I lathered her up, but when it came to the rinse it was a different story.

  “Listen, the more you sit still, the quicker we get this over with.” It was as though she understood me. She sat down on her little behind and held her head up. After I rinsed her, I dried her with a towel. She loved anything rubbing against her.

  She squealed with delight.

  “Now for the finishing touches.” There was no way I was going to brush her teeth, but she could still look cute. I picked out the little piggy face black and pink scarf. Since it wasn’t big enough to go around her neck, I used a little glue to loop it around her collar. It made the perfect collar disguise.

  I quickly jotted down the design in my notebook because that was something Coco might be interested in as well. I even snapped a picture with my cell so she could get a better idea of what it looked like.

  After filling out the little report card, I reached over to open the pack of jewel stickers.

  “Oh!” A fantastic idea popped in my head. I peeled a couple of the hard stickers from their backing and put one on each of Bessie’s ears. They looked just like earrings and she was so cute. “You are a pretty girl.”

  Bessie’s tail twirled round and round with delight when I attached her leash and lowered the table.

  The boys were sitting down fiddling with the grass when I opened the door of the RV. They jumped to their feet and their mouths dropped when they saw us trot down the steps.

  “Isn’t she beautiful, boys?” I asked with a prideful voice. I didn’t wait to hear their answers because the look on their faces was all I needed. I wanted to stick my tongue out and say naner-naner, you thought you were so cute mocking me, but of course, I didn’t.

  Bessie’s mom was so pleased with how clean and shiny Bessie was that she hired me to come back every two weeks to give her a bath. I made a mental note to be sure that I scheduled Bessie at the end of the week since she was definitely the messiest.

  Chapter Eighteen

  On my way to Vivian’s there were several messages to listen to. All of them new clients except for one…Jase.

  “Hi, Luvie. It’s Jase…um…your date for tonight,” he paused. “Listen, just wear something real casual if that’s all right with you. See you soon.”

  I quickly looked at the number and saved it. We hadn’t exchanged numbers but I guess it wouldn’t be hard to look me up since my phone number was tied to the business and he could have gotten it off my truck when I was at his house.

  When I finally arrived on the south side of town where Vivian lived, I barely had enough time to shower and get ready. The old farm truck was not there, which could only mean that Vivian was working long days at the Lady B with the Sheikh’s horse. Luckily, I knew where the key was and let myself in. Vivian was such a freak about robbers that she had dug a hole in the back yard near a specific rose bush and covered it with a rock. She also had all her windows nailed shut and chain locks on all of the doors. Getting into Vivian’s house was like trying to get into a bank vault.

  The two-bedroom, two-bath patio home with a dine-in kitchen was in a new subdivision right off Nicholasville Road. It was perfect for her. Plus the back yard was fenced in which gave her the privacy she needed when she came home to relax on her porch.

  I was surprised when she bought it. She loved the Lady B so much that I figured she’d get something similar to Jase’s place in the country.

  I threw my stuff on the guest bed. I wasn’t sure why she didn’t call it Luvie’s room, because when I was in New York and came to visit, that was where I stayed. I never stayed at the Lady B. After a quick shower, I pulled out my jeans and white button down shirt. The white would look good with my hair.

  Having red hair was hard to match with clothes. I loved floral designs and loved to create with them, but put them up against my hair and they looked like a pair of curtains. White looked good and it seemed to make my freckles pop.

  I put my hand up to my cheek and recalled just how good it felt when Jase ran his fingers across my freckles. Makeup was my secret weapon against just how prominent the freckles really were, but I wasn’t covering them tonight; tonight they would shine.

  “There.” I tossed my air-dried hair behind my shoulders. It was still a little damp, but I liked how my hair had a little wave when I didn’t blow dry it. Not only that, but there was just something about being home that helped me feel more free to be me.

  Not that freedom of expression wasn’t allowed in New York; it totally was. But not in the fashion industry. Even though Sasha had made us wear those terrible khakis and uniform shirts with the big “S” emblem, we still had to have our makeup on, hair fixed, and stay freshly pressed at all times.

  At home, I didn’t feel so compelled to use all my MAC and NARS makeup. There was one thing I was not going without though; Fire Down Below. It was my all-time favorite shade of red lipstick. Tonight was definitely a red lipstick night.

  Knock, knock.

  I held my breath for a second before I opened the door. I had fully prepared myself for what was on the other side. Yup, there it was, a six-foot-two inch hunk that took my breath away every single time I thought about him.

  “Hi,” I sheepishly had to drop my gaze when I opened the door. I felt the heat rise to my cheeks.

  “There you go again.” His smile expanded, making the little creases in the corners of his eyes deepen with laughter. “You have to stop showing off those cute freckles.”

  “Do you want to come in?” I couldn’t even respond to his comment. I really just wanted to grab him, pull him in and lay some kisses on him. That was not the girl I normally was, but having those thoughts made me want to be that girl.

  “We should probably get going.” He stepped to the side. A little black Mercedes convertible, almost identical to Mom’s, sat parked on the street in front of Vivian’s house.

  “Whose car?” I pulled the door shut behind me. If Vivian came home and it was unlocked, she’d kill me. The area was safe, but she always said that it took one bad seed to ruin the entire fruit. Whatever that meant…

  “Mine.” He put his hand on the small of my back, his fingers pressed to guide me toward the passenger side. “I wasn’t going to drive the old truck for a date.”

  “I didn’t see this car when I was at your house yesterday.” I loved how he opened my door. Hot, sensitive, and a gentleman? I looked up before he shut the door and my heart lurched madly.

  Oh, Luvie Beiderman, you have it bad. I tried not to study his profile when he got into the car and started driving. There were so many questions I wanted to ask him, like why was a guy like him single?

  “What are you thinking?” He gripped the steering wheel and glanced at me out of the corner of his eye.

  “Nothing. Why?” Immediately I looked out the window.

  “You were staring.” He looked over again. His left brow raised a fraction.

  “Well, I was wondering what you did for a living.”

  “I work in the food industry.” He leaned over and turned on the radio to Broadway tunes. Something I would never picture Jase listening to. “Which reminds me, have you ever had sake and tapas?”

  I giggled. “Of course. There are several restaurants in New York City that serve them.”

  I recalled the first time Birdie asked me to go to a tapas restaurant. She was in the shower, screaming out the door, “Luvie, friends and I are going to tapas. Do you want to go?”

  It was my first week in the city and I was freaked out enough as it was. When I didn’t understand her, I had gotten a little nervous. She didn’t understand why I didn’t want to go. When I finally told her that I wasn’t into topless places, she explained what tapas meant and never let me live it down. Little did I realize how I would love going to the tapas restaurants where you can order all sorts of foods that ca
me in appetizer portions.

  “I didn’t know you were from New York,” Jase said.

  “I think there’s a lot we don’t know about each other.” Right now was definitely not the right time to tell him who I was. I had to get him hooked on the line first, or maybe I’d get lucky and he wasn’t from here and therefore would not know the urban legend about my family.

  “I hope we have plenty of time to learn everything.” He reached over and put his hand on my leg. My skin tingled under my jeans.

  “Me too.” Boldly, I put my hand on his.

  There was casual conversation about New York, what I did there, and why I came back, but I didn’t tell him about my grandmother helping me. I didn’t mention family at all.

  “That’s pretty cool that you just picked yourself back up and created your own little Luvie Empire. I like a woman who knows how to get things done.” He gave my thigh a gentle squeeze.

  “Luvie Empire?” I threw my head back and laughed. I was going to have to use that one on Lucia. “That’s a good one. But no, not yet.”

  He was right. I was good at getting back on my feet. Why couldn’t I have an empire? With the help of my new clothing line for animals in the works with Coco, I was sure I could make Primp My Pet a universal franchise. I’d take the pet business, and that included miniature pigs, by storm.

  We pulled off New Circle Road and up to a little place that I never even knew existed.

  “Stay there.” Jase parked the car and jumped out to open my door. “Madame.”

  “Why thank you.” I batted my eyes playfully. He took my hand and helped me up.

  He looked at me with his big eyes and gazed down my body. He cleared his throat. “Luvie, I would really like to kiss you.”

  My heart hammered in my chest. The mere thought of his lips touching mine almost made me faint. Who asks if they can kiss you nowadays? It took everything I had not to jump his bones.

  “I’d like that.” Before I could take a breath, he had swept me up in his muscular arms.

  His kiss was slow and thoughtful, leaving my knees quivering under me.

  Hot, sensitive, gentleman, and a good kisser. Had I hit the jackpot?

  When he pulled away, I stumbled toward him.

  “Whoa. Steady.” My reaction to his kiss seemed to amuse him. His fingers grazed my cheek. “There are those freckles again.”

  “Stop.” I playfully punched him and slid my fingers down his shirt. I could feel the six-pack that had been tattooed on my brain since I saw them yesterday at his house. “Let’s go eat.”

  I had to drag those words out of my mouth. Otherwise, I might have asked him to go straight to bed.

  Granny always said that there was a time and place for everything. And I assumed the restaurant table wasn’t the place for what I had in mind.

  “How did you get involved in the benefit?” Jase asked over a glass of sake.

  “Since I love animals so much, I knew I had to get involved.” Lie. Lie. Lie. Lie started with an L. Lucia made me… “So I volunteered to groom all the pets on Adopt-A-Pet Day each month for the SPCA. Plus it also helps the homeless animals in the area to get adopted.”

  Speaking of Lucia, my phone buzzed with a text. Birdie is a genius. She talked the Sheikh into coming to the fundraiser. Of course Birdie did; there was not a doubt in my mind that she didn’t wear him down before he finally said yes.

  “I think that’s pretty noble.” He held his glass up and we did a little cheer before he leaned over the table and gave me another little kiss. “You are a force to be reckoned with, Luvie…”

  “Yes I am.” I took a big drink when I realized he was searching for a last name. “’Scuse me, I need to use the ladies room.”

  I had to put space between us. I was going to have to tell him my name, but held out a little bit of hope that he hadn’t heard it before.

  When I returned from the bathroom, Jase had already placed an order of several different plates of food and had our drinks refilled.

  Our date had flown by with casual chit-chat about what he’d like to do in the future with his business degree and my plans about Primp My Pet, though I had secretly hoped to jump back into the fashion industry soon…only the thought of leaving him behind was putting an ache in my heart. An ache I had never felt before.

  “Are you okay?” Jase reached over. His hand cupped the top of mine. Shivers of delight followed his touch.

  “I’m fine.” I shook off the notion of ever having to choose between my life long desire of having a career in the fashion industry and the possibility of having Jase in my life.

  It was a silly notion. Fired. I had been fired. I repeated to myself. Jase was in the here and now. New York and the fashion world were gone.

  “Are you sure?” He scooted his chair a little closer to mine, making my body fully aware of his closeness. “You don’t look fine.” He took his hand and brushed my hair away from my face.

  “Really.“ I laughed. I tilted my head and smiled, realizing how stupid I was. Of course I was fine. I was home where people loved me. I had started a successful business. And I had the opportunity to find true love.

  He leaned over and brushed a gentle kiss on my forehead.

  “I’m more than fine.” I looked up. Jase was staring down at me as if he was photographing me with his eye. I nuzzled my head on his chest and whispered, “More than fine.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  “I meant to ask if you checked your phone record to see who left you my address,” Jase said as he pulled off the exit to Vivian’s house.

  “I did and it came up under a private number. So I went back to check my messages and found I had erased it.” Erasing my messages after I listened to them forced me to respond to the message instead of putting it off.

  “You have to admit that it was strange.” We pulled up to Vivian’s house. Her truck wasn’t there, which made me think that everyone at the Lady B was still abuzz about the Sheikh and his horse. “But whoever it was, I would love to find them and thank them.”

  He winked. I swallowed hard to fight back the urge to invite him in and the tears that formed in my eyes because I realized the date was over.

  “Me too.” I leaned on the console with my elbow. “Goodnight, Jase.”

  “I’m going to walk you to the door,” he said, being the good-mannered gentleman that he was.

  With anticipation of another kiss, I gleefully got out of the car and met him around front. Hand in hand, we walked up to the front door.

  My knees weakened when he bent down and tucked me close to him before he gently kissed me. I probably should have kept my eyes closed, but I wanted to see if he was enjoying the kiss as much as I was. He had classically handsome features. Quickly, I closed my eyes when he began to pull away.

  “Where’s your key?” He jiggled the doorknob.

  “The key!” I threw my hands on my head. How did I forget to put the damn key back in the hiding place? “No!”

  “What? What’s wrong?”

  “I left my key inside and my roommate isn’t here.” I threw my hands up in the air. “And my keys to the RV are in there too or I’d go get a key from her.”

  “Is there any way we can break in?”

  “Uh…no.” If he only knew how crazy Vivian was about preventing break-ins. “She has every single window nailed and the doors are booby-trapped.”

  “I didn’t even know you had a roommate, but I can take you to where she is.” Even though I hated the words that had just left his mouth, I knew it was the only option I had, unless I wanted to take a gamble and wait for her to get home.

  “She works at the Lady B Farm. Do you know where that is?” Nonchalantly, I waited to hear his reply to see if he knew where it was. That would determine whether or not he had heard of the Beiderman name.

  “Who doesn’t?” He laughed like I was out of my mind. I laughed right along with him. He grabbed my hand. “I’ll take you.”

  Before long, we were on Vers
ailles Road and heading straight for the Lady B. He knew exactly where to turn without once slowing down to think about it.

  He rambled on and on about how amazing the horses were that trained at the Lady B and how lucky Vivian was to have such a great job.

  “I guess we pull on in?” he questioned when he rolled down the Mercedes window at the gated entrance and pushed the button. The lush lilies looked so pretty against the spotlights around the base of the wrought iron gates.

  Deep in my gut I was hoping that no one would hear the buzzer and answer him, making it a wasted trip and by the time we made it back to Vivian’s, she would be there.

  “Can I help you?” Lillian answered.

  So much for hoping. The clock on the radio said it was well after ten p.m. What was she doing here so late?

  “Here.” Jase leaned back in his seat so I could shout at the speaker box.

  I cleared my throat. Jase motioned for me to speak. “Is Vivian working?”

  “Luvie?” The box spoke back. Jase’s brows rose inquiringly.

  “Is Vivian there?” I ignored Lillian and tried to speak a little higher.

  “Luvie, is that you?” she asked. “Luvie Beiderman, what are you doing?”

  “Umm…Lillian, can you buzz me in?” I flung myself back in the passenger seat.

  “So you are Shotgun Luvie Beiderman.” The shock of the discovery deepened his voice. “Huh!”

  I bit my lip and looked away, sitting in silence until we made it to the top of the driveway.

  “Damn.” Jase bent his head down and looked up, taking in the full front of the house through his windshield. “I had always wondered what it looked like back here. My grandmother…,” he paused. “I have a feeling I know who called you and it wasn’t a coincidence.”

  “Really? Who?” I questioned, hoping he’d drop the shotgun reference to my name.

  “Does Coco St. James ring a bell?” He asked.

  “Yes, we just made a deal for…”

  He interrupted, “A pet clothing line?”