Romance Me (Boxed Set)

by Susan Hatler

Chessie’s statement shut Sadie up and sent a shiver down her spine. Her mom had been a former beauty queen, always polished and poised. Having a daughter called Frizz-for-Brains, Snaggle-Tooth, and the Boobless Wonder had been a constant source of embarrassment for her. Sadie’s inability to keep her clothes clean, free of grass stains, and free from rips drove her mother nuts.

  Years after having fashion and ladylike behavior drilled into her by her mother, Sadie finally came into adulthood the young lady her mother had always dreamed she could be. Now her closet rivaled her mother’s with designer clothes, shoes, and matching handbags. She even wore lipstick and could accessorize. And when she first tamed her wild hair with a flat iron, her mother had just about cried with joy.

  Chagrined, Sadie said, “Just ignore me, Chessie. You do have your own sense of style, and I love it about you.”

  “Enough with the fashion wars. I’m going swimming,” Lia interrupted. The high-necked navy one-piece bathing suit seemed to swallow her up. She pulled her shiny black hair out of its ponytail, letting it cascade over her shoulders and down her back, its length reaching her hips.

  Sadie noted that Lia’s hips and shoulders didn’t seem so sharp and pointy. Over the last two years since her husband died, Lia finally put on some weight. It suited her. Lia looked healthier than she had in years.

  “Wait,” Sadie said. “I’ll race you.”

  Lia took off down the pathway, although in seconds, Sadie had caught up and was hot on her heels.

  “No cheating!” Lia laughed, throwing her arms wide to keep Sadie from passing.

  Sadie tried to dodge Lia’s hands and stumbled, falling hard into the bushes, right on her rear. “Oh, God, that hurts,” she moaned.

  Lia turned around and stared, the smile on her face rapidly fading to an expression of shock. “Sadie! Don’t move a muscle!”

  “What? Why? Is there bear behind me?”

  Lia shook her head from side to side, each move deliberate. “No. Worse. Much worse. It’s a—”

  “Rattlesnake?”

  “No, but—”

  “Porcupine?”

  “Stop interrupting—”

  “Mountain lion?”

  “Oh, for goodness sake, Sadie,” Lia exploded. “You’re sitting in a patch of poison oak.”

  Sadie groaned. Her bikini bottom offered little protection. She’d be in for a world of hurt, given that the poison oak was touching the worst place possible if the oils got on her skin.

  With Lia and Chessie’s help, she managed to get herself up off the noxious weed. Thankfully, Chessie carried a tube of poison oak remover. Sadie stripped off her bikini, grateful they had the swimming hole alone, and slathered the lotion over every inch of skin that could have possibly touched the plant.

  Still distraught by the possibility of spending part of the summer with an itchy rear, Sadie lay down in the shade of a twenty-foot granite cliff and snoozed. The gentle murmur of the river was interrupted by a shrill rendition of “Jingle Bells.” She raised her head up and identified the noise as coming from Lia’s backpack.

  “Lia, you have a phone call,” Sadie said groggily.

  “Get it for me?” Lia asked from where she floated upriver.

  Sadie rolled over and fumbled in Lia’s bag. She quickly flipped the phone open, not bothering to check caller ID.

  “Lia’s phone,” she answered.

  No one responded.

  “Anyone there? You’d better not be a breather or I’ll climb right in your phone and smack you one.”

  More silence met her greeting before a low voice finally answered, saying, “Now that’s a feat I’d like to see—a leggy blonde climbing out of my phone. Of course, I’d prefer to do without the smacking.”

  “Ethan,” Sadie breathed. Shivers ran down her spine. Just yesterday she’d received a business email from Ethan and had felt little emotion, but unexpectedly hearing his voice did something odd to her system.

  “You do have a thing for climbing through phone lines, don’t you?” Ethan said, laughing.

  She gulped. “Sorry about that—I was just joking around.” A dripping Lia caught her attention. “Here’s your sister.” Handing the cell phone to her friend, Sadie dropped down on her beach towel, her knees weak. She needed to get a grip—Ethan was due in Meadowview in less than a month. She had to get over this crush, and fast.

  Lia chatted with Ethan on the phone. The next thing Sadie knew, her name was being mentioned.

  “You should have seen what happened to Sadie a few minutes ago,” Lia laughed.

  Sadie sat straight up. “No,” she hissed at her friend. Ethan didn’t need to know she might have a hiney covered in poison oak. “Don’t tell him.”

  Lia waved her off. “She fell down on poison oak. Right on her rear!”

  Sadie buried her face in folded arms. She could barely hear Ethan’s muffled chuckle as Lia returned the phone to her ear. As embarrassed as she was, the sound of his laughter still brought butterflies to her tummy.

  Go away, she thought, willing her nerves to return to normal.

  “He says to tell you he’s very sorry for your butt and that he hopes you recover soon,” Lia relayed, still oblivious to Sadie’s distress.

  “Oh, lordy,” muttered a mortified Sadie. She flopped straight back down on her beach towel and firmly resolved to do all her swimming in a nice chlorinated pool.

  ***

  The wind ruffled Ethan’s hair as he strode down the streets of New York, and moments later, a smattering of raindrops hit him and the hot sidewalk. He increased his stride, trying to make it home from his agent’s office before the summer storm hit hard. The meeting had gone overly long, with Brian, his agent, and Ethan reminiscing over old times.

  Brian had represented Ethan as an actor right after Ethan graduated from college. Right before Ethan left Harvard, he’d received a starring role in a Broadway musical hit, secured for him by Brian. That role had made him an overnight success. For the next few years, he’d been a headlining star. But being a star had its drawbacks, and Ethan became tired of being recognized everywhere he went, tired of the women who crossed all boundaries to try to get his interest. The incident that put him over the edge had occurred after a closing performance, and proved to be the last time he was on stage.

  Sitting alone in his dressing room, Ethan had been surprised by a knock on the door. He growled out for the person to come back later, but the door opened and in walked a young woman with a large box in her hands. After setting the box on the floor, she grabbed Ethan and tried to kiss him. Before security could arrive, the young woman had undone the sash around her dress and completely exposed herself to Ethan, begging him to marry her.

  Security wrangled the woman out of his dressing room and into her clothes, and eventually returned to remove the box she left behind. Inside were dozens of panties, each marked with a different date of one of Ethan’s plays—along with a row and seat number. The woman had been stalking him for some time. That’s when he’d told Brian he’d wanted out.

  Brian’s response had been to suggest directing. Ethan was convinced to make the change when he realized women didn’t go dumping their used panties on directors. Directing gave Ethan the chance to escape the fans yet remain connected to the theater. Within just a few short years, he found himself one of the most sought-after stage directors in New York. Brian had guided Ethan’s career wisely, and Ethan would be forever grateful.

  Now, as he tied up loose ends by saying goodbye to his agent, friends, and all of New York, he felt a twinge of nostalgia. He never truly felt like a New Yorker, but he’d certainly miss the city. A flash of Meadowview filled his mind, and the nostalgia was quickly replaced by a sense of growing excitement. In just a couple of weeks he’d be home again, and while Meadowview, with its population of less than two thousand, couldn’t offer the twenty-four/seven excitement of New York, it could give him his best friends, his sister, and a great career.

  And Sadie.

  Memori
es of their night together wouldn’t seem to leave Ethan alone—her hot body the night of the auction before he knew the mystery woman was Sadie, the way the candlelight had cast a warm glow on her face the night they’d slept together, and how cute she was the next morning, with her hair curly and her lips red and swollen, looking like he’d kissed the hell out of her. Christ. He couldn’t stop thinking about Sadie.

  “Stop obsessing,” he berated himself. She was his friend. And about to be his boss. He pushed his way through the crowd onto a less populated side street, picking up the pace to avoid the impending rain.

  With ten blocks to go, the skies opened up and fat raindrops pummeled the city. Ethan joined a small crowd tucked under a shop’s alcove to wait out the worst of the summer storm.

  Two teenage girls in the crowd under the awning began giggling helplessly. Ethan looked out of the corner of his eye at the kids. With hands cupped over mouths to suppress their laughter, they kept rolling their eyes at the store’s display.

  Ethan swept his gaze to where one girl giggled and pointed. Directly in front of him, perched in the store window for all eyes to see, was a gigantic—well—girl toy would be the only way he could describe the item. Apparently the store catered to an eclectic clientele. An elderly gentleman noticed the window display as well, and dashed back out into the rain, throwing a disgusted look over his shoulder as he fled.

  Ethan looked back at the window display, observing the odd collection of items, taking note of several fabric covered boxes, like the hat boxes he remembered from his grandmother’s closet. One in particular struck him—about twelve inches square, the fabric covering the box featured ivy clambering over a white wooden trellis.

  A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, the memory of climbing into Sadie’s room the night of the auction filling his mind. The box reminded him of the crushed shoebox she’d held so forlornly in her lap that night, the moments of his life filling it to the brim. The box had held all of Sadie’s youthful dreams, and although she’d assured him she’d grown up, he knew how attachments to dreams of the past could be difficult to let go. He considered the box again.

  Time to get Sadie a new box. One she could put new memories in. And maybe in doing so, she could forget the past and move on.

  ***

  Sadie collapsed on the leather couch in her living room. Meadowview could get hot in the summer, but this had been an unusually warm day. Jack’s offer to remodel the entire upstairs of the theater to make a functional office space for her and Ethan was contingent on her emptying the space so he could get to work. So she’d spent three days hauling old props and costumes off to a storage container at the edge of town. Today, she’d moved her office equipment from the theater to her makeshift home office in the heat, and she was wiped. Granted, her loyal friends had helped, but she still felt utterly drained. Succumbing to the sweltering heat, she laid one hand across her forehead and fanned herself with the other.

  “Pretending to be Blanche from A Streetcar Named Desire?” Chessie asked, hiking up her patchwork skirt and sitting cross-legged on the ottoman in the middle of the room. “Or would it be Scarlett O’Hara? Anyway, you look like one of those Southern belles.”

  “Definitely Blanche,” Lia said as she walked into the room, carrying a tray of iced teas. “Sadie has far too much sex appeal for Scarlett. Although, she is just as beautiful.”

  Sadie stared out the bay window. Sex appeal and beauty weren’t two qualities she’d ever used to describe herself, but she had friends who saw the best in everyone.

  “You do seem to have an air of sexuality about you when you fling yourself on a couch and act all Southern belle-ish,” Chessie said as Lia giggled.

  Sadie, still fanning herself, took a long drink from the sweet iced tea. “Well,” she drawled, “Ah’m so glad to oblige in bein’ the source of all y’all’s entertainment.”

  The girls’ laughter almost covered the sound of a vehicle turning onto the graveled driveway.

  “Can you see who’s here?” Sadie asked Chessie. At the window seat, Chessie had a better view.

  Chessie peered out the window. “Delivery. Expecting anything?”

  Sadie shook her head, puzzled.

  “Wow,” exclaimed Chessie, leaping onto the couch framing the bay window. “I love that your delivery guy wears shorts.”

  “Let me see.” Lia perched next to Chessie, knees on the sofa and nose pressed against the glass.

  Sadie sighed. “Knock it off, you two. Jim’s new in town. He’s married to a great woman and has two kids. Leave him alone.”

  “My delivery guy always wears long pants and looks like he has a squirrel head perched on a prairie dog’s body,” Chessie stated, eyes still glued to the window as she watched the delivery man trot up the steps.

  Lia snorted. “Guess you should be grateful for the pants, then.”

  Chessie rolled her eyes.

  When the doorbell sounded, Sadie languidly put down her iced tea and eased herself out of the couch, wincing as her sweaty legs stuck to the leather.

  “I’ll get it!” Chessie leapt off the couch in one smooth move.

  “No, I’ll get it.” Lia butted in front of Chessie, attempting to make it to the door first.

  “You two are animals—leave the poor guy alone.” Sadie followed her two friends into the foyer.

  The deliveryman, Jim, seemed unruffled when three girls burst from behind the closed door, each clamoring for the package, two smiling widely at him.

  “Sign here, Sadie,” he said, giving a polite smile to her two best friends. Her two totally lame friends.

  “Just give those two heathens the box, Jim, then ignore them. Like how you’d ignore a kid who has her finger stuck up her nose.” Sadie signed with a flourish and flashed a nasty grin at her friends. “Tell Lisa hello for me, and kiss those babies of yours.” She waved goodbye as he jumped down the stairs, three at a time.

  Walking back into the living room, she beckoned her friends to follow her. “You two acted as if you were five years old and he was a pony. You should be ashamed of yourselves.”

  “He’s hunky, and in shorts,” Chessie said.

  “Eye candy,” Lia added. “There’s no harm in looking, is there?”

  Sadie shook her head. “You weren’t just looking, you were actually salivating.”

  “Knock off the pompous act.” Chessie nudged her friend. “You think he’s hot just the way we do. Admit it.”

  Instead of answering, Sadie collapsed on the couch, prying at the package with a fingernail. Jim had started his job right after Ethan had left Meadowview. She’d been signing packages from him for weeks now and hadn’t even noticed so much as the color of his hair. The only man in her mind had been Ethan. Blast.

  “Who’s it from?” Lia asked.

  Sadie shook her head, looking at the return label. “I don’t know. It’s a printed label, like from a computer.”

  “What’s the zip code?” Chessie leaned forward from her ottoman perch, twisting her head to get a better look at the label.

  “It’s a New York zip code,” Lia said. “I recognize it because it’s the same as Ethan’s work address. Did you order anything from New York?”

  “No…” Sadie reached into the packaging materials and pulled out a cloth-covered box. On the fabric, ivy wound its way through a white trellis. She turned the box over in her hands. The lid came off in her hands. Inside the box, surrounded by crumpled tissue paper, sat a jar of anti-itch cream, decorated with promises to ease itching caused by poison oak or ivy. “Now this I definitely did not order.”

  “Are you sure?” Chessie frowned, turning the box in various directions, trying to see if there was any identifying label. “People don’t just send people cream for their poison oak butts.”

  Lia grabbed a piece of paper that fell out along with packaging peanuts. Her jaw dropped as she read the note. “But apparently my brother does.”

  Sadie snatched the note from Lia’s hand and skimme
d over Ethan’s light handwriting.

  Sadie—been thinking about your rear end. Saw this cream and had to buy it for you. Can’t let that ahnk of yours suffer any. PS—bought you a new box for new memories.

  “What does he mean by a new box?” Lia wore a perplexed expression.

  Sadie shrugged, fingering the soft fabric on the box. How could she explain?

  “More to the point,” Chessie said, “how does he know about your ahnk? Did you tell him about the tattoo?”

  “No…”

  “I thought we three girls were the only ones in the entire universe besides that tattoo artist in Corfu who knew you had an ankh on your rear. Sadie…” Chessie drew her voice out long and low. “I know that look on your face. You’re trying to hide something from us.”

  Sadie’s hair, frizzed by the summer humidity, dangled in curls around her face and bounced as she shook her head. She felt the heat begin to build and knew that in seconds her face would be bright red. No, forget seconds, she was already blushing as bright as Santa’s suit.

  “It’s private,” she began. “It’s just that—well, he and I—I mean…” Her voice tapered off.

  “Did he see your tattoo, Sadie?” Chessie snapped her fingers. “Come on, tell us.”

  Sadie’s chest clenched tight. “What is this, an inquisition?” she snapped. “He saw it, all right? He saw the stupid ankh.”

  “How did he see your butt? And when? The only time you’ve seen him since you got your butt inked was the night of the auction.”

  Chessie started to speak again but was silenced by Lia’s hand on her arm.

  “Oh, God, Sadie.” Lia’s voice was almost a whisper. “Did you sleep with my brother?”

  Chapter Ten

  “What?” Chessie shrieked, the sound slicing through the loud buzzing in Sadie’s ears. “Tell us you did not sleep with Ethan.”

  Sadie swallowed, hard, fighting back the building nausea. How could Lia have known? Could she lie to her friends? Fake it, maybe? One look at both Chessie and Lia made it clear no lie could ever work. They knew. Her friends knew what she’d done.

  “Oh, God,” Chessie said. “You did it. You had sex with Ethan! But why on earth would you sleep with him? Were you desperate? Have you gone insane?”