The Mandy Project

by Toni Blake

  What have I done?

  She’d made a huge mistake, that was what! What on earth had she been thinking?

  As panic set in, she poked her head up from the cake, sending the lid flipping open. She had to get out!

  “Not quite yet,” Mike said, gently pushing her head back down and shutting her up inside it again.

  And then it was too late, because that quickly she heard Mike announce, “Gentlemen, a little gift for Benton’s birthday”—and she sensed herself being rolled into the bar. As a few masculine cheers and whistles filtered through the phony confection, Mindy felt completely and utterly trapped.

  Where was Mandy? “Deserter,” Mindy muttered under her breath. Apparently, Mindy had finally found the one thing even Mandy wouldn’t do!

  But she was stuck, whether she liked it or not, since she doubted the cake had an escape hatch. So she mustered up her courage with another silent self-lecture. You have to do what you planned, what you practiced. There’s no way out of it. You have to be Benton’s sexy thing again. The only difference this time was that she’d be dancing for…a crowd.

  The first notes of some sensual-sounding song began to play. It wasn’t helping.

  “Uh, cake girl,” Phil called a few seconds later when she still hadn’t appeared. He rapped lightly on the lid. “We’re ready for you.”

  Just do it. For Benton. He’ll love it! He’ll love you!

  Taking a deep breath and summoning all her nerve, Mindy flung the cake top open and burst up through it, arms poised above her head as if to say, Ta-da! She spotted Benton sitting directly in front of her among ten or fifteen other nameless, faceless spectators in time to watch his jaw drop.

  “Surprise!” she shouted. “I’ll marry you!”

  That was when she noticed the petite, sophisticated blonde hanging on his arm.

  Chapter Eleven

  Oh dear God—Benton had a date! A date who was clinging to him like she owned him, for heaven’s sake!

  And worse yet, she was clearly everything he’d ever wanted in a woman, certainly everything he’d asked Mindy to find for him. Even worse still, she was everything Mindy wasn’t.

  At the same time, both Mindy and the woman said, “Who’s she?”

  Someone turned off the music and a tense silence fell over the bar.

  Mindy had never seen Benton look more flabbergasted, which was really saying something considering all the stuff Mandy had pulled when they were together. But finally, he cleared his throat and spoke awkwardly. “This is Candace Binks, my associate and date for the evening. And this is Mindy…or is that Mandy?” He gave her a pointed look which, ironically, was the first thing to make her blush tonight.

  In that heartstopping moment, Mindy knew she’d made a blunder more horrific than she even could have imagined when she’d been stuck in the cake. Benton had moved on—with Miss Blond Sophistication, who sat glaring at her. Mindy’s every hope since the minute she’d fallen for him felt as if it were caving in on her.

  She also knew that as hideous and humiliating as it was—she had it coming, every bit of it.

  But she didn’t have to stand around and take it. In fact, she had to get out of that room, away from the whole bar, fast.

  She climbed awkwardly, hurriedly, from the cake, aware of the countless frozen stares directed her way. She stumbled to the floor, wobbling like a baby calf on her shoes, a piece of fake icing breaking off in her hand.

  But then she caught her balance, dropped the broken cake part, and went darting across the bar toward the door—all the while just praying Benton hadn’t seen the tears that had begun rolling down her cheeks.

  “Mindy!” Pushing to his feet, Benton turned just in time to the see the bar’s door close behind her.

  “Benton?” Miss Binks—who he couldn’t think of as Candace no matter how hard he tried—popped up beside him. “Was that—was that…?”

  Poor Miss Binks. He knew he’d erred in trying to date the woman. Despite his efforts, everything they did together was forced and stiff and awkward, and the saddest part was that she hadn’t seemed to notice. He’d made a terrible mistake by trying to connect with someone he felt no attraction toward, and a worse mistake by bringing her here tonight. His entertainment was Mindy? He still couldn’t believe it. He turned to his assistant. “Yes, Miss Binks, that was the woman I was recently involved with.”

  “And she’s a stripper?” Miss Binks looked horrified.

  Yet Benton hadn’t the time to explain, especially since he had no idea how Mindy had ended up bursting out of that cake. “Evidently. But the bigger issue is,” he said, looking her squarely in the eye, “I’m a bad man. I’ve led you on and used you when I knew in my heart I still cared for her. And I’m sorry, but I have to go after her.”

  With that, he turned her to find young Malcolm Wainscott gaping, as usual, sympathetically in her direction. As if reading Benton’s mind, Malcolm started toward her. Benton would make a couple out of them yet.

  Leaving the matter in Malcolm’s hands, Benton raced toward the door, pausing just long enough to shoot Mike and Phil a warning glare. “And you two…when I get back…”

  Phil threw up his hands helplessly. “Hey, we didn’t know you knew the stripper, Mr. Casanova.”

  “She’s not a stripper,” Benton said, adding under his breath, “or not before tonight, anyway.”

  As O’Reilly’s door fell shut behind him, Benton searched up and down the city sidewalk, but he saw no sign of Mindy. Damn it, he’d tarried too long. But then it occurred to him that she should be easy to spot. He approached a well-dressed couple strolling toward him. “Have you seen a girl in a bikini and high heels?”

  The man pointed over his shoulder. “She took a left through the crosswalk onto Vine Street. But you’d better hurry—she was really moving.”

  Mindy had no idea where she was running to or why. She’d passed her car eons ago, realizing her purse and keys remained in the bar, the one place on the earth she’d rather be even less than sprinting up the street in a bikini.

  Funny how comfortable she could be in a swimsuit at the pool or the beach—but wearing the same thing on a city street felt more like being naked. At every turn, people stared, horns honked, catcalls echoed around her. She looked like a stripper on the run. She was a stripper on the run.

  And she was scared and alone and wanted nothing more than to go back in time and do this evening differently. If she had the chance, she’d be smart and stay home tonight, forget about being Mandy, and forget about getting Benton back—because now she knew it was impossible. Her heart crumbled a little more each time she remembered seeing him with that woman. They were probably planning their wedding this very minute.

  “Woo-hoo! Hey, baby, where ya goin’ so fast?”

  A flashy Mustang convertible full of college-aged boys went honking past, the inhabitants leaning out to leer at her. She picked up her pace, jogging quicker. Maybe she could beg someone to borrow a phone and call Jane. Of course, accomplishing that and then waiting for Jen to come meant a lot more woo-hoos and leers and embarrassment, not to mention the accompanying potential danger of being so scantily clad on a busy street, but it was the only idea for rescue she had.

  “Well, hellooo there.”

  She jogged past the middle-aged man without even acknowledging him, as if she were just out for a run. He looked like a normal guy—a guy who would have perhaps loaned her a phone—but put a nearly naked woman in front of him on the street and he became more creepy and threatening than normal.

  “Mindy!” a voice called behind her. “Mindy, wait!”

  She gasped, stopped, looked over her shoulder.

  It was Benton! He’d followed her!

  But she was crying, and he had that little blond toothpick to love now. So she turned and resumed running, unable to face him.

  “Mindy, honey! Stop! Wait!”

  It was so tempting—he was even calling her honey again. But that meant nothing. He just felt
sorry for her, frightened someone would attack her. She harbored the same fear, of course, but that was beside the point at the moment. She jogged on.

  Until she turned a dark corner, coming face-to-face with three less-than-reputable looking young men who appeared to be in the middle of a drug deal, if her eyes didn’t deceive her. She pulled up short. “Oh!”

  The scraggly guys all stopped what they were doing to look her up and down, and the one with the greasiest hair flashed a wide grin. “How much, sweetheart?”

  “How much?” Then she understood; they thought she was a prostitute. Sadly, she couldn’t blame them. “Oh, I’m not, not…” Mindy started backing up, tottering on her heels, but as the snickering guys began walking toward her, she had the ominous feeling she wasn’t moving fast enough and might have just landed herself in serious trouble.

  “Mindy.” Benton’s strong voice hit her like the warm glow of a lighthouse in a storm. She peeked over her shoulder once more and gasped at the reassuring sight of him, all broad chest and wide shoulders.

  Greasy Hair stepped forward. “Hey, buddy, we found her first.”

  “The lady’s with me,” Benton said in a way that left little room for doubt. Throwing his sports jacket around her shoulders, he pulled her back around the corner.

  Neither of them spoke as he led her across the street to an empty bench next to a bus stop, a place that felt quiet, and much safer than where they’d just been. Finally, as they settled next to each other, he looked into her eyes, then reached out to wrap her in a firm, relief-filled embrace. “Are you crazy?”

  She pulled back enough to peer sheepishly up at him. “Yeah, I think so. If not, I’m getting very close.

  Releasing his hold on her, he let out a long sigh. He looked tired, and Mindy feared much of that was her fault. “Honey, just tell me one thing. What on earth were you doing in that cake?”

  She bit her lip. This was her chance to say everything she wanted to, only it took a little more courage knowing Benton had already found another woman.

  “Well, the cake was a last minute decision, but…I came to your party tonight to tell you how sorry I am for my deception, and to explain what I didn’t get to say after the baseball ballgame. Which is that I didn’t keep seeing you just to fulfill my obligation to you—I did it because I cared about you. And I guess I’d also like you to know I’m not really as crazy as I probably appeared on many occasions, but that the situation just spiraled out of control no matter how I tried to fix it. I’m usually quite ethical—I’ve never even stolen a piece of gum.” She lowered her eyes to her hands, which she wrung in her lap, and spoke faster. “But I understand why you’re angry and can’t forgive me—I’ve done nothing worthy of forgiveness. And even though you’ve found someone else now, I just need to tell you one last thing, Benton.”

  “What’s that?” he said softly.

  “I love you.”

  He stayed quiet for a moment, then let out a long, heavy whoosh of breath, looking uncharacteristically harried. He ran one hand back through his hair. “Really? You love me?”

  She sighed, still not quite able to look him in the eye after such a confession. “Believe it or not, I wouldn’t lie about something like that. But…I’m glad you’ve found someone more like you were looking for, someone who fits your list, since I’m hardly what you want in a woman anyway.”

  “You little nut,” he said.

  That made her look at him.

  To her surprise, he was smiling. “Honey, don’t you know you’re exactly what I want?”

  “Huh?”

  “Maybe it didn’t start out that way, but you’ve shown me what I want, practically slapped me in the face with it.”

  She cringed lightly.

  Yet he only laughed. “No, I’m glad. I never would have believed it otherwise. And ever since we broke up, I’ve been trying to go back, trying to be the guy I used to be before you came along, but…I’m just not happy. Not without you. And I know precisely what I need to do about it.”

  With that, he left the bench and dropped to one knee on the dimly lit sidewalk, the summer night hanging warm and dusky around them. He peered intently into her eyes as he took her hand. “Ms. Mindy McCrae, will you marry me?”

  She sucked in her breath, trying to absorb what was happening. It seemed unreal. “But what about…Candace Finks, or Plinks, or whatever her name is?”

  He shook his head. “She doesn’t matter to me, Mindy. I left her to come after you, and I have a feeling that right now she’s connecting with someone who can make her much happier than I ever could.”

  “Still,” Mindy argued, “are you sure about this? Are you sure you want to marry a woman who lies, and falls off her heels in nice restaurants, and frequents sex shops, and pops out of cakes in bikinis? And I’m not even blond. Think about this, Benton. You’re a prominent businessman. You have a reputation.”

  He shrugged, grinning up at her. “You’ve pretty much ruined that already anyway.” He added a wink. “So now I’ll have a new reputation. I’ll be known as the guy with the funnest, wildest, sexiest wife in town.”

  She still couldn’t believe it. Blood pounded in her ears, her heart beat like a bongo drum in her chest, and if she wasn’t mistaken, all her dreams were about to come true. But this time she had to make completely certain everything was out in the open—she wasn’t letting anymore secrets stand between them, on purpose or otherwise. She planted her hands on his shoulders as he continued kneeling before her. “Okay, just a couple more things before I say yes.”

  He laughed. “Name ’em.”

  “You have to understand that I’m not normally like Mandy was, but you were right—you do bring out the wild woman in me, so, well…I’m trying to tell you that I’m a mixed bag, I’m everything you’ve seen in Mindy, and to my own surprise, I’m everything you saw in Mandy, too.”

  He lifted one hand to cup her cheek. “I understand that perfectly. And I love both of you equally.”

  Oh wow—he loved her! He really loved her! Hearing the words leave his lips so easily, like it was meant to be, made her heart swell, but…

  “And you have to dress up as Sonny Bono this Halloween.”

  “What?” Naturally, that one took him a little aback.

  “You see, I always go to Jane’s Halloween party as some flamboyant woman like Madonna or Marilyn Monroe, and this year I’m going as Cher. So…it’ll be the perfect way to initiate you into true Mindyhood!”

  He let out another laugh, shaking his head lightly. “Don’t you think I’m a little tall to be Sonny?”

  She smiled into his beautiful blue eyes. “Don’t you get it? That’s the best part! It’s hysterical.”

  “All right, Mindy, for you, I’ll be Sonny.” His voice sounded sweetly conceding. “Now, once and for all, will you marry me?”

  Without further delay, she threw her arms around Benton’s neck, and this time, she didn’t neglect to whisper one pertinent word in his ear. “Yes. Yes, yes, yes!” It seemed worth repeating.

  A moment later, Benton pulled back to gaze up at her. “And not only is my wife-to-be a lot of fun, she also runs a highly lucrative business with a success rate of…what? Ninety-six percent now?”

  Mindy giggled at the realization. “This proves it. I really can find a match for anyone.”

  “I was that tough?”

  “Yes, you were.” She smiled. “But I was actually talking about me.”

  About the Author

  Toni Blake's love of writing began when she won an essay contest in the fifth grade. Soon after, she penned her first novel, nineteen notebook pages long. Since then, Toni has become a RITA™-nominated author of more than twenty contemporary romance novels, her books have received the National Readers Choice Award and Bookseller's Best Award, and her work has been excerpted in Cosmo. Toni lives in the Midwest and enjoys traveling, crafts, and spending time outdoors.

  Learn more about Toni and her books at:

  www.toniblake.com


  Look for these other classic Toni Blake reissues

  The Cinderella Scheme

  The Guy Next Door

  The Bewitching Hour

  The Weekend Wife

  The Perfect Mistake

  Also by Toni Blake

  The Rose Brothers Trilogy

  Brushstrokes

  Mistletoe

  Heartstrings

  * * *

  The Coral Cove Series

  All I Want is You

  Love Me If You Dare

  Take Me All the Way

  * * *

  The Destiny Series

  One Reckless Summer

  Sugar Creek

  Whisper Falls

  Holly Lane

  Willow Springs

  Half Moon Hill

  Christmas in Destiny

  * * *

  Wildest Dreams

  The Red Diary

  Letters to a Secret Lover

  Tempt Me Tonight

  Swept Away

  The Mandy Project was originally published in a slightly different form under the title Mad About Mindy…and Mandy in 2003.

  Copyright © 2003, 2019 by Toni Blake

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  www.toniblake.com

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Locales and public names are sometimes used for atmospheric purposes. Any resemblance to actual people, living or dead, or to businesses, companies, events, institutions, or locales is completely coincidental.