What a Woman
Page 1
PRAISE FOR THE MANLEY MAIDS NOVELS
What a Woman Needs
“A romantic story . . . The engaging, descriptive writing will draw the reader in, and Fennell’s knack for believable dialogue will keep them hooked. Smooth pacing and an amusing plot make this modern-day maid-to-order romance worth the read.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Fennell has such a heartwarming and colorful way of creating, that there isn’t a reader alive who won’t love her stories. She packs [them] full of sexual tension, imagination, humor, and just plain romance.”
—Fresh Fiction
What a Woman Wants
“Fans of Fennell’s quirky style will enjoy the entertaining misadventures.”
—Publishers Weekly
“The dialogue was fun and witty.”
—Night Owl Reviews (Top Pick)
“Fennell’s modern storytelling and witty dialogue are the highlights of her latest novel . . . With quick pacing and an entertaining plot, Fennell’s latest will have readers laughing as they turn the pages.”
—RT Book Reviews
“A lighthearted, feel-good romance . . . This book has a little something for everyone. Fennell shines with her newest book and will have readers in tears with giggles!”
—Debbie’s Book Bag
“A pure joy to read . . . [A] clever and colorful author!”
—Fresh Fiction
FURTHER PRAISE FOR JUDI FENNELL AND HER NOVELS
“One of the best books I’ve read. I don’t know who could set it down after the first few pages . . . An excellent choice.”
—Joey W. Hill, national bestselling author of Naughty Bits
“Rip-roaring fun from the very first page . . . This book is one for the keeper shelf.”
—Kate Douglas, bestselling author of Dark Refuge
“Judi Fennell is a bright star on the horizon of romance.”
—Judi McCoy, author of the Dog Walker Mysteries
“Will keep the reader enraptured.”
—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Sizzling sexual tension, plenty of humor, and a soupçon of suspense.”
—Booklist
“One of the most exciting and fun reads I have ever encountered.”
—Fresh Fiction
“[Fennell] is proving herself to be a solid storyteller.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Phenomenally written . . . One of the best stories I have read this year, and I highly recommend it to anyone who loves a happy ending!”
—Sizzling Hot Books
“I had a smile on my face and a sigh of contentment . . . Lighthearted but full of emotion. The story stirred in me feelings of falling in love all over again. It was just downright enjoyable to read!”
—That’s What I’m Talking About
Berkley Sensation titles by Judi Fennell
WHAT A WOMAN WANTS
WHAT A WOMAN NEEDS
WHAT A WOMAN GETS
WHAT A WOMAN
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) LLC
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014
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WHAT A WOMAN
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
Copyright © 2015 by Judi Fennell.
Excerpt from What a Woman Wants by Judi Fennell copyright © 2014 by Judi Fennell.
Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.
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For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
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eBook ISBN: 978-1-101-62550-7
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / March 2015
Cover illustration by Daniel O’Leary.
Cover design by Judith Lagerman.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
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To my family and the friends I consider family.
You know who you are and you know why.
Thank you.
Acknowledgments
Thanks to Dan Levi for your fifth-year reunion revelation that was the spark for this story. It would have been so much easier, Dan, if you’d asked me out instead of pulling out one hair from my head every day of ninth grade.
Contents
Praise for Novels by Judi Fennell
Berkley Sensation Titles by Judi Fennell
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Guys’ Night Out . . . Plus One
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Chapter Twenty-eight
Chapter Twenty-nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-one
Chapter Thirty-two
Chapter Thirty-three
Chapter Thirty-four
Epilogue
Sneak Peek at What a Woman Wants
Guys’ Night Out . . . Plus One
THREE hunks in aprons were the best advertising in the world for a maid service. Make one of them a Hollywood movie star, and there was no way Mary-Alice Catherine Manley could fail to get the publicity her fledgling business needed.
Make all three of them her brothers, and the picture only got better.
“You really won?” Gran gripped the doily-covered arm rests and leaned forward when Mac returned from the watershed poker game with her brothers. “Oh Mary-Alice Catherine! I wish I’d been there.”
“Me, too, Gran.” But it’d been enough of a coup to get a “you can play” from the three of them; there’d been no reason to push for an invitation for G
ran, too. That would have raised too many red flags and maybe given their plan away. “You should’ve seen the looks on their faces when I told them they’d all have to be fitted for Manley Maids uniforms. I wish I’d had a camera.”
She’d make sure there were plenty of cameras around when her brothers started work on Monday.
“So who are you going to pair them up with?” asked Gran, who was onboard with the plan in hopes of getting the brothers married off. Whatever worked. Mac just wanted the publicity. “We have to plan carefully. You know the kind of crazy that follows Bryan around.”
Bryan was the Hollywood movie star, and Mac didn’t think he minded crazy. He’d taken to that lifestyle like a duck to water. ’Course, you had to teach a duck to swim, as odd as that sounded, so maybe she and Gran could teach Bry a thing or two about women, since his recent choices were about as feather-brained as ducks.
Mac plopped onto the sofa that’d been in the same spot for the twenty-six years she’d lived with Gran after their parents had died in the car accident, the worn depression cradling her butt as usual. “I was thinking I’d tell them when they pick up their uniforms. That’ll give you some more time to figure out where you want them. Though Sean’s already called dibs on the Martinson estate. I didn’t see any reason to object.”
Gran tapped her bow-shaped lips. “The Martinson estate? But it’s empty. He won’t meet anyone that way, Mary-Alice Catherine.”
Mac let her full name go by. Gran was the only one who used it since she’d dubbed herself Mac, back when she’d done anything to be like her brothers—male name, included. Given that tonight’s poker game was her attempt to catapult her company into the same kind of success her brothers had earned for themselves, she hadn’t gotten over that competitiveness yet, had she?
But tonight was her win, fair and square. Well, maybe not quite so fair. She had spent a lot of hours learning to play poker online and to count cards to improve her chances, but her brothers played together every month. She had to even the odds.
Tonight she’d beaten them at their own game and she was going to enjoy every minute of her victory and the possibilities it meant.
And Bry had said she had nothing comparable to what he, Sean, and Liam had to bet on the game? Clearly, he had no idea. Yep, she was definitely going to enjoy the win.
“Actually, Gran, the Martinson house won’t be empty. Merriweather’s granddaughter is moving in. Besides, Sean specifically requested that place. It would have looked odd if I’d said he couldn’t have it. Maybe he’ll fall in love with the granddaughter.” And maybe pigs would fly, but if it kept Gran’s spirits up and created enough word-of-mouth, this was worth every bit of her hard work.
“The granddaughter, huh?” Gran tapped her forefingers together. “It just might work. But what about Bryan? We can’t assign him to just anyone. It’ll have to be someone who won’t mind having Mr. Movie Star around.”
Gran said it with more love than the rest of them did when ragging on Bryan about his stardom. Ever since he’d gotten a role with one of the biggest female leads in the industry, they hadn’t been able to resist teasing him, and Bryan hadn’t been able to stop smiling. Until tonight.
“I really think he should help that widow you just had a call about. The one with all those children.”
“You want me to send Bryan into a house with five kids? Gran, that’ll drive him nuts.”
“Or teach him tolerance. We don’t want him getting too big for his britches, do we?”
Gran had a point. And Mac would like to see Bryan try to clean a house overrun with five kids. None of her brothers were the quitting type, but this would test Bryan’s mettle. She owed him a lot more than that for the pranks he’d pulled on her over the years.
“Okay, so what about Lee then, Gran?”
“Oh I know the perfect place for Liam. That nice Cassidy girl. She’s going to be lonely when Sharon leaves to have her baby. Liam can keep her company.”
“What do you have against Liam?” Cassidy Davenport was as spoiled and high maintenance as they came. More Bry’s type, but if Bryan went there, the only thing he’d end up cleaning would be Cassidy’s sheets. And the shower stall. And the table top . . .
“Now Mary-Alice Catherine Manley.”
Mac winced. The first time Gran had said all four of her names in that tone, she hadn’t felt the layer of skin it sliced off for about an hour. The effect hadn’t lessened over the years.
“That Cassidy girl simply needs someone to pay attention to her. And our Liam needs to get his head out of his—well, off himself and into the rest of society. Have you noticed how preoccupied he’s been since he broke things off with Rachel? It’s not good, and if anyone can take Liam out of himself, it’s that Cassidy.”
The problem was, Cassidy was just like Rachel, though on a far bigger scale: all designer-this and celebrity-event-that. Rachel had put Liam through the wringer and Mac wasn’t so sure shoving a replica-on-steroids in his face was all that kind. Still, he definitely wouldn’t fall in love with Cassidy, so she’d actually be doing Liam a favor by thwarting Gran’s matchmaking attempts.
She felt sorry for the guy. He was the only one of her brothers to have come close to the altar, and the fallout had been tough to witness.
“Okay, but if he wants to bite my head off, you need to talk him out of it.”
“Never fear, honey. Your brother will love it.”
Mac wasn’t so sure about that, but she wasn’t about to argue with Gran. Her grandmother had raised four grandchildren on meager savings, love, and not much else. The woman had grit.
“Oh. I forgot to mention something.”
“What, Gran?” Mac hid her worry. Gran had been forgetting a lot of things lately. That was one reason she’d agreed to Gran’s wacky plan of trying to marry off her brothers while having them work for Manley Maids, even if the chances were as slim as . . . well, as Mac being able to pull off a win tonight. And lightning rarely struck in the same place twice. Still, it’d give Gran something to keep her mind occupied.
“Mildred’s grandson moved back home this week.” Mildred was her grandmother’s childhood friend whose recent move into an assisted living facility had spurred Gran to do the same. “You remember Jared? The one who was injured in that car accident?”
“Yes, Gran. I remember Jared.” As if she could forget him. Besides being a professional baseball player who’d sustained season-ending injuries in a bad car accident, and being her oldest brother’s best friend since forever, Jared had been her first crush. And her longest. And her most embarrassing. She’d followed him around like a star-struck teenager. And that’d been before she’d been a teenager. God, she’d fallen out of the tree fort once when she’d been spying on him, only to land on him and his date and, well, it hadn’t been her best moment.
It also, sadly, hadn’t been her worst.
“Well Mildred and I were chatting and it came up that now that Jared has moved back, he could use help, what with the house being so old and his injuries. It’s been tough for her to keep ahead of it, and, well, one thing led to another, and she wants to hire you to clean it. Isn’t that wonderful? I rounded up some business for you and you can help Jared out, too.”
That was her grandmother: kindest heart this side of the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Too bad it was with her biggest nightmare.
Mac gritted her teeth. Refusing would be childish and petty—and it’d make Gran ask too many questions. Besides, it wasn’t as if she had to do the cleaning. She wouldn’t even have to see Jared. “Yes, Gran, it sure is. When does she want someone?”
“Not someone, dear. You. I told her you’d come. Mildred doesn’t want just anyone in her home.”
Great. So much for that idea.
She couldn’t do this. She couldn’t. To see Jared . . . All that humiliation hitting her right in the face again . . .
But arguing with Gran was fruitless; she’d win in the end anyway. Mac had learned that early in her teenage years, which had saved them both a lot of angst.
She just hoped she was lucky enough that Jared wouldn’t remember that night she’d never forget.
Then again, she might have used up all her luck in the poker game.
She sighed. “When am I supposed to be there, Gran?”
“Tuesday, dear. This Tuesday.”
Which gave her three days to gird herself to see him again.
It wasn’t going to be enough.
But she was a big girl; she could do this. After all, she wasn’t that same girl who thought Jared was the only man alive. And considering his relationships kept par with his homeruns, she wasn’t the only one to think so. And if there was one thing Mac Manley could never abide, it was being one of a pack. Jared no longer held any thrill for her.
“Okay, Gran. Tuesday it is. I’ll be there with bells on.”
Chapter One
THE woman had bells on.
Jared blinked, then rubbed his eyes and looked out the front window again.
She wore bells.
Then she rang his bell.
And, yeah, she was a pretty little thing, so she did kind of ring his bell.
She rang it again—the doorbell, not his bell.
Jared shook his head and willed his legs to move. Well, the working one. The other just hung there and let his crutches do the work. Funny how he still thought about the mechanics even though his muscles now made the actions on their own, but then, habits you taught yourself when relearning to walk tended to stick.
He opened the door just as she went to knock on it with the pot in her hands, and Jared had to jump back to avoid hot soup—which sent pain shooting through him and almost took the crutches out from under him.
Damn. His body might have been repaired by the best surgeons in the country, but idiotic moves like that reminded him real quick of what he’d gone through—both during and after the accident.
Other things he’d learned when relearning to walk also stuck.