Almost Perfect

by Julie Ortolon

  "Within the next year?" Maddy scoffed. "I'm not nearly ready for that. Although… there is one thing I've been thinking about-"

  "Oh?"

  Maddy hesitated, wondering if she had the nerve to even tell them about the letter, much less act on it.

  "Let me put it this way." Christine gave her a sweet smile. "Either you join the challenge or it's off. I'll never downhill, Amy will never travel, and it will all be your fault."

  "Oh gee, thanks." Maddy smirked at her. "I appreciate the lack of pressure."

  "Hey, what are friends for?" Christine batted her lashes.

  "Okay." Maddy took a deep breath. "I got a job offer in the mail a few days ago." Retrieving her macrame purse, she dug out the letter. Her hands shook as she laid it on the table. "Do y'all remember me talking about Mama Fraser?"

  Christine and Amy exchanged a look and shook their heads no.

  "You know, the Frasers?" Maddy prompted. "The foster parents who adopted Joe when he was sixteen?"

  "Joe?" Christine's eyebrows went up. "As in your high school sweetheart, Joe? The sexy bad boy who rocked your world, then asked you to marry him? That Joe?"

  Maddy nodded, her heart racing. "That's the one. Even though Mama Fraser was really mad at me for breaking Joe's heart, she's kept in touch. After Colonel Fraser died, she moved back to New Mexico, and now she runs a summer camp for girls near Santa Fe. And she's… well, she's asked me to come work for her."

  Both friends stared at her with wide eyes.

  "Aren't you a little old to be a camp counselor?" Christine asked.

  "I'd be one of the coordinators," Maddy explained. "I'd have my own living quarters and I'd supervise the arts and crafts activities. It's only for the summer, but it sounds like fun."

  "Not to mention that Santa Fe is one of the art capitals of the world," Christine pointed out. "Maybe you could get your work into one of the galleries out there."

  "In Santa Fe? I doubt it!" Maddy laughed nervously. "My portfolio of current work isn't nearly strong enough, but Mama Fraser says I'd have plenty of free time to paint in the evenings."

  "It sounds perfect," Amy said. "You should do it."

  Maddy grimaced. "There's only one problem."

  "What's that?" Christine asked.

  "Joe," Maddy said as if it should be obvious. "I don't know how I feel about seeing him again."

  "Didn't you tell us he's career Army? In the Rangers or something?" Christine asked. "With everything going on in the world, I doubt he's even in the country."

  "Actually…" Maddy smoothed the envelope. "He was wounded two years ago and had to leave the Rangers. He works for his mom now as the camp director. So… if I take the job, I'll be, you know, working for him. Seeing him. Every day."

  "Would that be hard?" Concern lined Amy's face.

  Maddy huffed out a breath. "We didn't exactly part on friendly terms. For all I know, he still hates my guts and never wants to see me again."

  Amy's frown deepened. "If that were true, why would he have his mother offer you a job?"

  "You know…" Christine sipped more coffee. "That bothers me. I mean, how dorky is it to get your mom to fix you up with an ex-girlfriend?"

  "Joe doesn't know. Mama Fraser says she didn't want to tell him until after she had my answer, in case I turned her down. Which suggests to me he's still angry over my rejection."

  "Or that his mother knows he wants to see you," Amy said, "and she doesn't want him to be disappointed if you say no."

  "The important thing here," Christine said, "is do you want to see him?"

  "I don't know." Maddy rubbed her forehead. "I'd really like to take the job. It would be a nice bridge between the last ten years and whatever it is I'm going to do with the rest of my life. And it would help Mama Fraser, who sounds a little desperate to fill the position."

  "Plus"-Christine wiggled her brows-"you'd get to spend the summer with an old flame. From what you've said, things were pretty hot between you two."

  "Christine…" Maddy laughed nervously. "I'm not going to Santa Fe so I can have wild sex all summer with Joe Fraser in front of a camp full of young girls and his mother."

  "Why not?" Christine sat back with her cup of coffee. "Sounds good to me. Well, the wild sex part, not the camp full of girls and the mother. I know how ill Nigel was those last years, so I can imagine how long it's been since you had any sex, much less wild sex."

  "Forever." Maddy felt her body heat at the mere thought of sex with Joe. Saying he rocked her world was putting it mildly. He'd set it on fire. "But that is totally beside the point. I just want Joe and me to get along. Who knows, maybe this is a chance for us to put the past to rest."

  "Either that or rekindle it." Christine grinned.

  "You just want a vicarious thrill since you aren't getting any either," Maddy said.

  "Only because I made you two promise not to let me date anyone who didn't meet your approval," Christine grumbled.

  "With good reason, considering your track record with men." Flustered, Maddy turned to Amy. "What do you think I should do?"

  Amy folded her hands on the table. "I think you should do it, for yourself, not as part of this challenge. As you said, it would get you out of the house. As an added benefit, maybe you can make peace with Joe so you can be friends.

  "If you do it, though"-Amy took hold of Maddy's hand-"you have to promise to show your work to some of the galleries while you're in Santa Fe. And keep at it until you get one of them to take you on."

  "Gee." Maddy tried to laugh. "Facing an old boyfriend who probably hates me isn't enough?"

  Amy's eyes narrowed behind her glasses. "Not if I have to risk getting lost in some strange place and Christine has to conquer the ski lift."

  Panic crawled up Maddy's throat. "I think the challenges are a tad uneven here."

  "Like hell!" Christine set her coffee down. "You just have to get one gallery to take on your work, and considering how good you are, that should be a piece of cake. I'm committing to spending Christmas with my whole family in Colorado."

  "Who said anything about the family?" Maddy frowned at her. "You could go on your own."

  "No, if I'm going to do it, I'll kill two birds with one stone. Conquer the lift… and annihilate my brother on the slopes. Preferably in front of my father."

  "A noble cause." Maddy laughed.

  "You, on the other hand, are going to go to Santa Fe, have hot sex with your old flame, and jump-start your art career. Agreed?"

  Maddy laughed. "Are you making sex part of the bet?"

  "No…"-Christine grinned-"But we expect a full report. And photographic proof that Joe is as hot-looking as you claim."

  Amy snorted into her cappuccino, then had to wipe froth from her nose.

  Maddy mulled it over. "I just have to get one gallery to take on a piece of my work, correct?"

  "Correct," Christine said.

  "Can it be on consignment?"

  Christine looked to Amy, who nodded. "Okay, on consignment. Is it a deal?"

  Maddy took a deep breath. "I know I'm going to regret this-"

  "I'll take that as a yes." Christine held up her coffee. "So here's to us, and facing down fear. May this be the start of a perfect life for all of us."

  Maddy's stomach did a somersault as their three cups clinked. "For all of us."

  Chapter 2

  Never let your past limit your future.

  – How to Have a Perfect Life

  Maddy wondered about Jane's advice as she tossed the book into her suitcase and headed for Santa Fe. Was it possible to leave the past behind? With every mile that flew by, she felt more and more as if she were seventeen again and racing off to meet the boy her overbearing, police officer father had forbidden her to see. Her body tingled every time she remembered how Joe used to sweep her into his arms and kiss her as if his life depended on getting her naked as quickly as possible.

  They'd been crazy-mad in love in that way teenagers often were, without a practical
thought in their heads about the future.

  Until Joe had been arrested along with some friends for stealing a car. Then the future had crashed down on both of them.

  Colonel Fraser had used every contact he had to get the charges against Joe dismissed-since he'd been an unwitting participant-and have Joe accepted into the Army. To everyone's surprise, and the Frasers' immense relief, Joe really took to the Army and informed Maddy he didn't want a short stint. The day he proposed, he proudly announced he'd been accepted into Ranger School and planned to make the Army his career. He thought she would share his enthusiasm, but her dreams of becoming an independent woman and a world-famous artist did not include getting married right out of high school the way her mother had, then putting aside all sense of self to be the perfect little homemaker. Of course, at the time, she hadn't known that the words "wife" and "slave" were not synonymous.

  Memories of how it all had ended made her grimace many times during the drive from Austin to Santa Fe. The scene had been bitter and ugly, and Joe had looked at her with such shock, it was clear he'd felt completely betrayed.

  But that had been a lifetime ago. Surely he was over it by now. As a mature adult, he had to see in retrospect that she'd made the right choice. For both of them. She'd been entirely too immature and would have made a terrible wife for anyone. Especially a soldier who would have to deploy at a moment's notice for covert operations that could last for months.

  Yes, she'd made the right choice.

  And Joe would be long over the rejection by now.

  Maddy repeated that reassurance like a mantra as she passed a sign that told her Camp Enchantment was just ahead. She glanced through the trees on her left. The road had been following a river through several miles of untamed countryside, as she climbed from the desert into the mountains, but now there was a collection of buildings on the opposite bank.

  Her stomach fluttered with the realization that she'd be seeing Joe face-to-face in just a few minutes. As camp director, he'd be on hand to greet her and the other coordinators who were arriving as an advance guard to get the camp ready for the counselors and campers. Weeks had passed since she'd built up the courage to call Mama Fraser and accept the job. If Joe had any objection to seeing her again, he'd had plenty of time to tell her not to come.

  She tried for the thousandth time to imagine how their first meeting would go…

  He would greet her with a smile and ask how she'd been as each of them surreptitiously took stock of how the other had changed. He'd been a tall, wiry teenager when she'd seen him last, with dark good looks that spoke of some portion of Native American blood. What portion was anyone's guess, since he barely remembered his birth mother and hadn't known his father at all.

  She tried to picture him slightly heavier, with the muscles he'd no doubt acquired in the Rangers going soft now that he was out and his jet-black hair beginning to recede. They would laugh-a little awkwardly perhaps-as they remembered how greedy they'd once been for each other. He would politely tell her she looked good, even though she'd gained a few pounds and collected her first faint wrinkles around the eyes. Personally, she didn't mind the weight or the wrinkles. Aging was just part of living, and it beat the heck out of the alternative: dying young, as Nigel had.

  A wave of grief threatened to engulf her, so she straightened her shoulders to shake it off. A part of her would cherish Nigel forever, but the time had come for her to move forward with her life.

  Up ahead, a little red sports car turned onto the drive for the camp. One of the other coordinators, she supposed, as she followed the car over a rustic wooden bridge. On the opposite side of the river, an elderly man stepped out of a guardhouse. After peeking through the windshield, he waved the sports car through the open gate, then motioned for Maddy to stop. Rolling down her window, she gave him her name.

  A broad smile broke over his craggy face. "Ah yes, the new A and C lady. Mrs. Fraser told me to expect you. You just follow Sandy on up to the office. I'll tell Mama you're here." Leaving the window down so the breeze ruffled her hair, Maddy followed the other car along the drive until it pulled into a gravel parking lot before a long, one-story adobe building. Two college-age girls were standing in the lot chatting, one a tall black girl, the other a plucky-looking brunette. They let out a squeal when a perky blonde stepped out of the sports car.

  Maddy watched, amused, as the girls raced over to greet the newcomer with arms wide. Just before they all collided, they bent forward at the hips for a hug that allowed no part of their bodies to touch below the shoulders. It was a ritual that surely dated back to the dawn of time. If cavegirls had gone to summer camp, Maddy was certain they would have greeted each other with exactly the same squeal, run, hug.

  I When the girls headed inside, Maddy stepped out I of her own car and inhaled a breath of pine-scented air so dry it stole the moisture from her lungs. The brilliant sunlight stung her eyes as she stared at the office.

  Joe was in there. She was sure of it.

  Eagerness and fear warred in her stomach, making it ache. She bolstered her courage with thoughts of Amy and Christine and headed for the open doorway. Just before she reached it, she heard Joe's voice-and stopped dead.

  "Welcome, ladies. I see you've returned for another summer at Camp Enchantment."

  "You say that like you're surprised," one of the girls said.

  "Not in the least." Joe laughed, a deep, rich sound that sent Maddy tumbling back in time. God, how she'd loved his laugh. Her secret challenge had been to coax a laugh or two out of him whenever they were alone. "Sandy, I have no doubt you'll die of old age right here leading a fireside sing-along."

  "One can only hope," the girl responded in a light, flirtatious voice.

  Maddy stepped closer to the building and peeked around the doorframe into the shadowy interior. The viga ceiling, terra-cotta tile floor, and beige adobe walls gave the room a rustic feel. Joe stood next to a mission-style desk, clipboard in hand, smiling at the three college girls.

  The smile caught Maddy so off guard, for a moment that was all she noticed. He looked happy and relaxed, completely unlike the intense, moody rebel he'd been.

  Then she took in the rest of him, and oh dear God! He didn't match her mental image of a starting-to-go-soft man in his thirties at all. He was gorgeous! With a hard body that had her pulse pounding with something more than nervousness;

  He stood in profile, wearing a green polo shirt that stretched over big shoulders, bulging biceps, and a chest so well defined she could make out a hint of his pecs through the knit fabric. His khaki shorts hugged narrow hips and showed off rock-solid legs.

  He laughed again at something the girls were saying, then turned and bent forward to set the clipboard on the desk. Maddy's mouth fell open as she gazed at the sexiest male butt she'd ever had the privilege to see.

  "If you girls will just sign these release forms," he said, "you can get settled. Carol is already here and waiting for you in the Chief's Lodge."

  Maddy tore her gaze away from Joe's backside to find the college girls checking him out as well. All three of them smiled and blushed as they took the pen he handed them and signed the forms. No wonder these girls had returned for another year. They all had the hots for the camp director!

  Returning her gaze to Joe, Maddy remembered Christine's suggestion that she spend the summer having wild sex with her old flame. The idea aroused her and horrified her at the same time. She couldn't let a man that physically perfect see her naked. It was one thing to be blase about wide hips and wrinkles when she was around normal people who were aging too. But get naked with a man who looked better now than he had as a teenager? Not in this lifetime!

  Although why would a man who looked like that even want to get naked with her when he had a whole camp full of nubile twenty-somethings to pick from?

  A thought popped into her head, full blown. Was this why he hadn't objected to her coming? He wanted her to see what she'd turned down all those years ago? Show he
r that other women-younger, prettier women-lusted after him in droves? Maybe lead her on, make her want him again-then turn her down flat? That would certainly be a nice revenge for him, now wouldn't it?

  "All right," Joe said, picking up the clipboard. "You three go settle in. We'll rendezvous on the patio at four o'clock for our first staff meeting."

  Maddy jerked away from the door as the three girls headed out an opposite doorway that led to a covered patio and the camp beyond. She stood there, fighting the urge to jump in her car and race all the way back to Texas.

  Okay, slow down, she told herself, trying not to hyperventilate. Think this through.

  The revenge theory was just that: a theory. The Joe she'd known would never be that petty. Although people change. Lord knows she had; she liked to think it was for the better. She'd matured into a responsible, self-reliant adult. Definitely not the sort of woman who would take a job, then not show up. If she left before Joe saw her, that was what he and Mama Fraser would think-that she was an inconsiderate ditz who hadn't bothered to tell them she wasn't coming so they could hire someone else.

  Except she'd talked to the guard, so Lord only knew what they'd think.

  Plus she'd made that bet with Christine and Amy. If she hightailed it back to Texas without getting at least one piece of her work into a gallery, they'd blow off their own challenges. Damn! Why had she agreed to that dare? Well, she had agreed, and she couldn't get out of it now.

  Besides, if she was totally off base on her revenge theory, then maybe Joe was equally eager to put their past to rest. Maybe he'd even be happy to see her. The only way she would know was if she went in there and faced him. And now would be a good time, since he was alone. They'd have privacy, at least, for this first meeting.

  Just do it, she ordered herself.

  Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to take a step. Then another. Before she knew it, she was standing in the doorway. He'd taken a seat at the desk and was working at a computer. The sound of the keyboard covered up her approach until she was almost to the desk. He looked up-and froze.