Once inside the house, she tried to sit down on one of the chairs facing the marble fireplace, but immediately jumped back up and started pacing once again. Only now she was threatening to wear a hole in Mark and Jenny’s plush carpeting.
“Oh, wow!” Jenny blurted when she stepped out of the hallway, the baby in her arms. Her concern doubled when she noticed Mary Ellen didn’t even seem to realize she had entered the room. She cast a look toward her husband, who was still standing near the front door with a bemused look on his face. When she raised an eyebrow at him, he shook his head with a shrug and his hands thrown up. “She just said she needed to talk to you.”
Jenny nodded, feeling that was kind of obvious, but if that was all he knew, that was the best he could give her. “Here, take Gavin,” she said, handing him the little boy. “And go stir the chili.” When he gave her a startled look, she chuckled, shaking her head at him. “Don’t panic. All you need to do is stir it. I turned it down on low. I just don’t want it to stick.”
He took the baby, leaning down to kiss his wife on the mouth. He shot one last concerned look at their guest before turning to head to the kitchen.
“Mary Ellen,” she said at almost a whisper, hoping not to startle her friend. For all the good it did, she might as well have screamed the woman’s name. She jumped so hard, she fell back and landed in one of the fancy, straight back arm chairs behind her that she would never voluntarily sit in. She said she didn’t care for this room. It was too dressy for her taste. Of course, Jenny and Mark usually just passed through this room to get to the kitchen or living room, with the TV, themselves.
“Well, have a seat there, Dear,” Jenny said dryly.
She bounced right back to her feet and darted across the room to grab the other woman’s arms. “I need to talk to you.”
Jenny chuckled, taking both of Mary Ellen’s hands in her own. “Yeah, I know. Even if Mark hadn’t just told me, I would have gotten a clue. What’s Brock done now? Though I don’t see how he could have possibly topped yesterday.”
“He kissed me,” she whispered, suddenly looking dazed, obviously remembering that kiss.
“Oh boy! Mark come here, please,” she called, raising her voice to make sure it would carry far enough for him to hear.
A few seconds later when Mark stepped back into the front room with the baby still in his arms, it was to find Mary Ellen still looking stunned. “She doesn’t look any better. What’s going on?”
“He kissed her.”
“Oh,” he chuckled. “Were you this bad the first time I kissed you?”
His wife gave him a very dry look in response. “I don’t know. You’d have to ask my sisters.”
“Okay,” he chuckled again. “You don’t need to get all huffy. I wasn’t any better either. Dad had to ask me the same question five times before I even knew what he was saying. Then he spent the next three hours trying to get me to tell him what my deal was. It would have been longer if I hadn’t given in and told him. He’s like a dog with a bone when he gets stuck on something.”
“This has all been very enlightening, but what do we do to help her?” she asked, raising an eyebrow at him in irritation.
“She’ll be alright. It just might take a little bit. She’s in a form of shock,” he grinned. “If you ask me, he finally did something right for a change. That’s the closest he’s come to telling her how he really feels, so far.”
“Are you sure?” she asked, giving her friend a concerned look. “She didn’t say how he kissed her.”
“Oh, I’d say he gave her a really good kiss,” he said, bobbing his eyebrows.
“How can you be so sure?”
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Do you really think if he had just given her a peck on the cheek, or even the mouth for that matter, she’d be in this state? It might have surprised her for a few seconds, but she would have shaken it off and went about her business. At most, she would have ended up daydreaming about it a little or trying to figure out what he was up to. She certainly wouldn’t be standing in our entryway looking like she doesn’t even know her own name. She doesn’t even know we’re standing here talking about her.”
She gave him a skeptical look, raising an eyebrow. “How could she not know we’re talking about her?”
Mark raised a finger, as if to say, one second, before turning to lay a hand on Mary Ellen’s forearm and cautiously say her name at the same time. The results were much the same as earlier when Jenny had called her name. She jumped, giving him a bug-eyed look. “When did you get here?”
“Okay, I see your point,” Jenny mumbled.
“Let’s try feeding her some chili and giving her a little more time to process,” he said, turning to head back to the kitchen, taking Mary Ellen’s hand to guide her along. “You did say it should be done, didn’t you?”
5:38pm
Maybe twenty minutes later, they all sat at Mark and Jenny’s small dining room table and Mary Ellen was starting to sound more like herself. The only problem Jenny could see with that was, she and Mark hadn’t tried asking her anything about Brock and their kiss.
She took a deep breath and finally broached the subject, hoping it didn’t send Mary Ellen back out into outer space. “So, tell us about this kiss.”
Mary Ellen jumped, her eyes growing huge. “Oh yeah, the kiss.”
“What exactly happened?”
“I don’t know,” she mumbled, dropping her eyes to the table. “For some reason, every time I looked at him today, I would just end up staring at him like he was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. It made it really difficult to talk to him.”
Mark shook his head, giving his wife a confused look. “What was different about today than any other day?”
“It might have had something to do with him not shaving this morning,” she said, blushing clear to her roots. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him with a beard before.”
Jenny chuckled, shaking her head. “I didn’t know you had such a thing for the unshaven look.”
“I didn’t either, but apparently I do. At least on Brock.”
“Okay,” Mark sighed, shaking his head at the two. “What does that have to do with him kissing you?”
She shrugged. “Well, he asked me why I was having such a hard time looking at him. Maybe he just was wondering how I’d react.”
He snorted, sitting back in his chair with a shake of his head. “He’s been wondering what you’d do if he kissed you for a while. My guess is, he got an inkling of an idea you might not try to bite off his tongue if he gave into the urge to find out.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“He’s in love with you,” he said, standing up from the table and picking up Gavin out of his highchair. “I’m going to go clean this little guy up while you two continue to talk. I think he has more of his green beans and applesauce in his hair than we managed to get in his mouth. He’s got a few cracker crumbs in there as well,” he added, looking down at the baby’s head.
Jenny waited till her husband cleared the door back out into the front room before finally commenting. “I think you need to listen to what he just said and volunteer to be Brock’s bride.”
“No,” she said with a vigorous shake of her head. “If he wants to marry me, he has to ask me.”
“Oh, come on,” Jenny huffed. “Did you not enjoy the kiss?”
“Of course, I did. I nearly blacked out,” she answered, then instantly turned bright red. “But that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t have to ask me, if it’s me he really wants to marry.”
Jenny threw her hands up in frustration. “Okay. Maybe I can get Mark and Zane to talk some sense into the idiot.” It wasn’t that she didn’t understand how the other woman felt. It was that this had been going on for three years and the two of them were starting to make the rest of them crazy.
Chapter 3
Monday, December 15
8:59am
Brock stood at the window of his office tha
t looked out over the parking lot. He shook his blonde head, rubbing his hands over his face, wondering if this plan was going to work. “What is she thinking?” She was supposed to refuse to find him a wife. Then he was going to talk her into going to Vegas with him, where he was hoping to talk her into marrying him. Instead, she’d found him candidates, alright. Three of the biggest gold digging, hateful women in the whole town of Sapphire Springs.
“She either has no idea what I want in a wife, or she’s got it in for me,” he mumbled to himself as he watched the last of the three women make their way to the front entrance of the building.
“Ashley Mullins, of all people. A skinny bean pole, just like Melanie Sharp. At least Teresa Chance has some meat on her bones. She’s not as curvy as I really like, but she is at least healthy,” he grumbled to himself. “Mean as an old rattlesnake and colder than our current weather, but healthy.”
He couldn’t count the number of times he had already turned Miss Mullins down when she had hit on him. She was like an octopus. Any time she saw him in public, she would try to wrap some part of her body around some part of his. That always makes my skin crawl, he thought with a shiver. He felt for sure this was going to make her clinginess even worse. Maybe he could tell Mary Ellen she had to marry him to make sure the woman didn’t get any ideas. Knowing the woman in question, she’d get ideas no matter what he tried.
Even if it had been his intention to marry someone other than his delectable personal assistant, it wouldn’t have been one of the three women she had brought him this morning. He didn’t want a skinny gold digger, who’s only true talent was griping about everything and everyone. Melanie Sharp and Teresa Chance, while not as bad as Miss Mullins, were definitely not good choices for him as potential wives, either.
Melanie Sharp hit on any man whose net worth valued more than a hundred thousand dollars. Age was of no consequence. Anything from eighteen to ninety-eight would work for her. Current marital status didn’t matter either. Two weeks ago, he’d seen her literally trying to crawl in Mark Harris’ lap. The man had pretty much had to throw her in the floor. He and Jenny had just celebrated their one-year anniversary back in July, and they had a little boy that wasn’t more than six or seven months old.
Now, Teresa Chance was cold. Yeah, she was definitely a gold digger, but he wouldn’t put it past her to check him out like a ranch owner buying a new stud horse. No matter what, he was running if she tried to check and see how big his… Well, equipment was. She just never seemed to express any emotion other than mild curiosity. If she ever actually smiled, it would probably crack her face.
He sighed again and turned to make his way back to the door that led out to Mary Ellen’s office.
8:00am
Mary Ellen looked up as the first of her candidates walked into her office. “Hello, Miss Sharp.”
“Hello, Miss Edwards. I hope you’re having a wonderful day.” She gushed. Her tone was so sugary sweet, it made Mary Ellen long for a bath.
“It’s not been bad so far,” she said with a brittle smile. “Please, have a seat.”
She watched the skinny brunette, with barely-there boobs, flounce across the room and perch like a bird on one of the chairs usually reserved for reporters and other employees looking for their check, or to talk to the boss man. I hate skinny women, she thought to herself before turning back to the filing cabinet she had been sorting out before the woman come in. Brock had obviously been in here trying to file stuff again. The thing was a mess. No matter how many times she told him to just lay stuff on her desk, he never listened. She was starting to think he was doing it to deliberately give her more work. The jerk. She had seen the way he filed more than once. He just opened up a cabinet drawer and crammed it in. He never bothered to try and put the files in the correct alphabetical order. And she knew he knew how. Apparently, he was just too busy to bother.
No sooner had she finished with the cabinet and turned back to her desk, then her office door opened again to admit Teresa Chance.
Miss Chance was already heading to one of the chairs beside Miss Sharp when Mary Ellen asked her to have a seat. Being one to never bother with polite conversation with other women, all she said was, “Yeah.”
Not five seconds later, Miss Mullins walked in. Giving Mary Ellen a look of disdain, she snarled, “Oh, you’re here.”
“Yeah, strange how that works,” Mary Ellen frowned. “I work here.” Of course, maybe you wouldn’t understand that, because you’ve never had a job a day in your life. That was one thing she had to give Teresa Chance. Unlike the other two, who were trust fund babies who had never worked, she actually had a job. One that she’d had since graduating college. Where she had immediately started her higher education right out of high school. If one really thought about it, the woman was truly baffling.
“I would have thought Brock would have fired you by now,” she said, scrunching her face up in a very unattractive way.
“I would hardly fire the best personal assistant a man could ask for.”
Mary Ellen turned to find Brock standing in the door to his office. “Are you ready, Mr. Silverman?”
Brock just sighed in frustration and nodded his head. He’d give her crap about still calling him by the formal title later. “Whenever you are.” He turned and walked back to his desk, leaving her to deal with the candidates.
Mary Ellen stood, coming around the corner of her desk. “Ladies, please, follow me.
“Wait,” Ashley Mullins said with a sneer for the other two. “I didn’t realize there were others meeting with him today.”
“I told you, I was instructed to select three possible candidates. Then he would choose from the three who he wanted to marry. I even told you, he might not make his choice from you three. I might have to go and find three more.”
“But I didn’t realize we would all be seeing him at the same time.”
“Oh, come on, Ashley,” Miss Chance grouched. “What’s wrong? Afraid you can’t handle the competition?”
“You? Competition? Hardly,” Miss Mullins snorted, looking down her nose at the other woman.
“Come on, ladies, surely we can make this a friendly game. We don’t have to go after each other,” Miss Sharp interjected, trying to alleviate the tension in the room.
“Oh, shut up, Melanie,” Miss Chance snarled. “At one point or another, you have gone after every rich man in this town. Married or not.”
“Yeah,” Miss Mullins snorted. “Keep going after Mark, and Jenny’s going to eventually rip you bald and leave you for the rats. The only reason she hasn’t yet, is because she trusts Mark.”
“Hey, she may have won him, but she has to be woman enough to hang on to him,” Miss Sharp smiled, looking more like a shark than the one in the movie ‘Jaws’.
“Woman enough?” Miss Mullins snorted. “Aren’t you the one that Phillip Townsend dumped on the ground when you tried to crawl in his truck for a ride. He told you very plainly, and loudly I might add, to stay away from him.”
“Yeah, we all know what kind of ride you wanted,” Miss Chance snickered. “Half the town heard that exchange. How embarrassing? I felt sorry for Phillip, having to deal with you.”
“Well, you don’t have to get so nasty,” Miss Sharp pouted. Mary Ellen didn’t believe for one second, she had really got her feelings hurt. She might appear all sweet and nice on the outside, but it was all just a façade. She really was a shark, and usually out for blood.
“Why not?” Miss Mullins asked. “You’re nothing but a tramp.”
“Ladies, please, let’s all just try to get along,” Mary Ellen sighed, barely hanging on to her own temper.
“Why should we?” Miss Mullins snarled. “We shouldn’t all three be here at the same time.”
“You can take it up with Brock. I did exactly what he asked me to.”
“I thought this was supposed to be some kind of audition.”
“Audition?” Mary Ellen scoffed, her temper taking a sudden spike. A v
ision suddenly hit her of herself flying across the room and wrapping her hands around the woman’s neck. “How do you propose to do this audition?”
“Well, I realized you had to be inexperienced, but I would never have guessed you were that naïve.”
Mary Ellen rolled her eyes, doing her best to bite her tongue, and not tell the woman just how stupid she really was. “Mr. Silverman is hardly going to conduct that kind of audition in his office, here at the paper.”
“Yeah, Ashley,” Miss Sharp chuckled. “Even I realized that. Maybe you’re not as smart as you’d like people to think you are.”
“Ladies, I’ll be right back,” she said, darting across the office. She stuck her head in the door to ask, “Mr. Silverman, are you sure you’re ready for this?” She was starting to regret her choices, thinking she’d have been better off just refusing to do the job.
“Again, with the Mr. Silverman?” he sighed. “My name is Brock. My grandfather was Mr. Silverman. I don’t even remember people calling my dad Mr. Silverman all that much when he was still alive.”
“Your name is also Mr. Silverman.”
“Fine. I’ll let it go for now, but this discussion is not over.”
“Oh, I think it is,” she mumbled under her breath. “The ladies?” she asked. I would hardly call them ladies. More like a bunch of barracudas.
“Show them in,” he sighed, just wanting to get this over with. He had heard the argument between the three ladies, and he used the term loosely, and he was starting to think Mary Ellen hated him.
Mary Ellen turned back to her office with a shake of her head. She had been certain he would have cried foul by now. She held the door open for the trio, doing her best not to scream. “Ladies, please, come in and take a seat.” But not in Brock’s lap. That might result in someone getting their hair pulled out. By me. He may not have figured out he has to ask me to marry him for me to do so, but he is mine. Once the last of the three had cleared the door. She escaped to her office, letting the door bang shut behind her. Without even as much as a backwards glance.
Married by Christmas (Sapphire Springs Book 2) Page 4
