"I was hoping I could take you and Jenny to lunch. The sooner the better. Without Karen knowing."
"Let me have Jenny call you." I gave him my number and we hung up.
Jenny called about ten minutes later. We chatted for just a moment and she recommended lunch the day after tomorrow. "Is that soon enough?"
"It's perfect."
We agreed that because I didn't want Karen to catch us, David would meet us at a restaurant in Edina. After that we exchanged a few more pleasantries and hung up.
Then I made more phone calls.
* * *
Lunch with David and Jenny was great, and they told me exactly what I wanted to hear.
* * *
The following Saturday, after a romp in bed, I told Karen I had something I wanted to talk to her about. We wandered downstairs and I drew her to the dinette table. Then I collected everything I had prepared.
"Karen, you can say no to this."
"All right," she said.
"I've been preparing our Paris trip, and I decided to do it a lot like I would have done it for Marsha. And I realized something. I love doing his. It was the best part of the job, and I'm very good at it. What was missing was doing it for a full group."
"I don't want anyone else on our Paris trip," she said. "You and me in the City of Love."
I smiled. "That's not where I'm going." I paused. "I had lunch with David and Jenny." She raised an eyebrow. "I talked to them about their experiences with Henderson Travel. And then I asked how they would feel if I were to organize trips like the ones Marsha organized. Would they recommend my trips to people?"
Karen didn't smile, but she didn't frown, either.
"Jenny told me, 'We were wondering if you would take the hint. We thought we were going to have to become more direct'. And then she told me they had the contact information for everyone who went to Australia."
I paused. "I called Marsha."
"I bet that was an interesting conversation."
"Marsha told me she's very unhappy with her daughter, that she's been receiving phone calls from past customers. Caroline is a good travel agent, but she's not up to hosting those types of trips. Marsha asked me if she should pressure Caroline into hiring me to run them."
Karen's face started to fall.
"I told Marsha I wasn't interested in working with Caroline, but that I was thinking of starting my own company. Marsha laughed and told me it was about time. Then she told me she'd send business to me instead of her daughter. She is not happy with Caroline."
Karen's face fell further.
"Don't jump to conclusions yet," I told her. "I want to run two trips a year. I would want you to go on the trips. I would need to do advance trips, which in the past have taken about two weeks for a one-week trip when it's somewhere Marsha or I had been. And I've been a lot of places. I'd be working heavy hours in the last few weeks before a trip, but I'd be able to pick my own hours."
"What about the rest of what a travel agency does?"
"Not interested. I only want to do these trips. I might, and I say might help special customers plan trips, but I don't want a store front and book el cheapo vacations for everyone or any of that."
"Employees?"
"An assistant." I smiled. "Marsha told me she wouldn't hold it against me if I hired a few people out from underneath Caroline. I know who I'd call first."
"Can you make a profit after paying an assistant?"
"If I get clients, yes. These would be somewhat high end vacations. The trips Marsha ran were usually more than two thousand dollars a night per couple, about half of which was profit."
"Mom and Dad wouldn't think twice about paying that for a well-run vacation," Karen said.
"I know. I asked. David and Jenny said the same thing. I couldn't charge that for Hawaii, for instance, because it's hard to make Hawaii that complicated, but a trip through Italy or France could easily cost that."
Karen thought about it. "Eight couples for a week, that's fifty-six thousand dollars profit?"
"For the more expensive trips, yes. But out of that comes a trip for me and the assistant ahead of time to make sure everything will be perfect. And paying the assistant. I wouldn't make much money." I paused. "I might be able to set up travel consultation services. Or else find an assistant that doesn't need a full time job."
I let Karen think about it. She looked at me. "Honey, if you can make the numbers work, I think it's a brilliant idea."
"I would need to bankroll it."
"Investors?"
"One or two, yes."
Karen smiled, got up and walked into the kitchen. Her phone was charging on the counter. She grabbed it and brought it back. She listened for a moment, then said, "Dad?"
ParisThe restaurant was beautiful. Karen was more beautiful. She was wearing a light spring dress and looked radiant. We had just finished a shared dessert and were staring into each other's eyes.
I watched as she reached into her purse and pulled out a small box. She then got down on one knee in front of me, opened the box, and presented the ring to me. It was beautiful, the most beautiful ring I'd ever seen.
"Madeline," she said.
"Yes."
"Madeline, you have to let me ask first."
"Yes."
"Madeline."
"Yes."
I started to cry while I stared at her.
"Madeline, will you-"
"Yes."
"Knock it off." She was grinning. "Madeline, will you marry me?"
"Yes."
She slipped the ring onto my finger then stood up and pulled my lips to a kiss. When she broke it, I asked her, "When?"
"The day after tomorrow."
"What? No. Our parents would kill us."
"Our parents checked into the hotel about two hours ago."
"Really?" She nodded. "A dress?"
"Our mothers have dresses for both of us."
"We'll be in wine country in two days."
"I know. I thought a wedding at a vineyard sounded perfect. A mountain might have brought us closer to Mother Earth, but I thought a vineyard was good."
"A priest? Or something?"
"Do you need a priest?" she asked. "I thought we would offer our vows to each other. We don't need a priest for that, but if you want one, I can try to arrange one."
"No," I said, starting to cry again. "I don't need a priest. Just you. And our parents. And a ring for you."
She held out her hand and opened it. There was a wedding band in it. I took it from her and she held out her hand. I slipped the ring over her finger.
Two days later, the weather was beautiful, but I only had eyes for my new wife.
EpilogueThere were twelve of us at the cafe in Venice, sitting at small tables, drinking coffee and watching the boats float by in the canal. I smiled across the table at Karen, my wife now for a year, an amazing, blissful year.
"I am so proud of you," she told me. "This has been the most amazing trip."
"I'll say," said Linda, one of the clients. She was sitting with Charlie, her husband. They were the oldest couple who had joined us on the trip to Italy. We had started in Rome. Tomorrow we would head to Milan for two days, then fly home. "Madeline, Charlie and I want to know where your next trip will be."
I smiled. "Australia in November. Specifically sailing in the Whitsunday Islands, which is near the Great Barrier Reef."
"Scuba diving?" one of the men asked.
"And snorkling, for those who are interested," I said. "If there is interest, I'll do an add on into the outback."
"We haven't been sailing in years," Linda said. "Will there be things for us to do?"
"Linda, I will personally make sure of it."
About the author:
Julia P. Lynde lives and works in the American mid-west.
Julia is older than most of the characters in her books. She has blue eyes and grey hair. She enjoys hiking in the mountains (difficult to do in the mid-west) and hosting dinner p
arties.
Julia can be reached via email as [email protected].
Julia's other works include:
Novels
Rewind:
Emerging from traumatic events of her past, Shane is left dealing with newfound self-revelations until she seeks help from an unexpected quarter.
Veronica is a stunning and powerful businesswoman who knows what she wants and lives for the seduction involved in getting it.
Complicated doesn't begin to describe the results.
Rewind features graphic sex between consenting women and some light BDSM.
Pulled to the Dark: The Siriena Series Volume 1:
Felicia Conner begins having recurring dreams of the woman who gave her a great new job. Night after night, Petra appears in her dreams. Petra begins to teach Felicia the wonders of the dream world she inhabits while Felicia begins to wonder how she can have such lifelike dreams night after night.
Petra welcomes Felicia to the world of Siriena, where the world may just very well be as it seems.
This complete novel of 95,000 words contains swords, magic, intriguing characters, an easy-to-hate villain and graphic sex scenes between Felicia and Petra.
Novellas
Unwilling
Alexandra and Melissa are coworkers who entirely hate each other, each for her own reasons. One Friday night, Melissa desperately needs Alex to save Melissa's job.
Alex gives Melissa an offer: be her servant for a month or join the unemployment line, believing Melissa would rather take her chances than bow to Alexandra. Instead, Melissa accepts.
This 30,000 word novella (about 100 printed pages) features domination, submission, bondage, and just a touch of some hot sex.
Shorts
Bound in Arrogance
"You wouldn't last two hours of my attention," Penny told me, turning it into a wager. Foolishly, I rose to the bait.
Bound in Arrogance features Veronica and Penny several years prior to the events in Rewind. It features light BDSM.
Emily's Gift
Succubus Volume 1
Emily's daughter has taken a bad path, and Emily turned to the fae succubus, Anita, for her own brand of help.
This short story of 9400 words features intriguing characters and some steamy female on succubus sex.
Snow Bound
First in the 5-part Snow Bound Series.
After a near experience with a deer, Allison is pulled from her car by Sarah, troubled twenty-five-year-old photographer. Sarah drives Allison to Allison's secluded cabin on a lake, where the two become snow bound.
Allison finds Sarah deeply attractive. Will Sarah's troubled past interfere with a possible future?
This short of 10,000 words contains graphic sex, light bondage, domination, and a mind game or two.
Holiday Escort
Copyright 2012 by Julia P. Lynde
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, businesses, characters and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead, actual events or locales is purely coincidental.
* * *
License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
Holiday Escort Page 13
