$3.99 or FREE for Prime Members
Stacy Gage is really hoping that “happily ever after” does exist, but right now, she’s doubting it. Newly graduated, she arrived back in her home town to discover that if it wasn’t for bad, she wouldn’t have any luck at all. Her grandmother is in the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s and the financial nest egg her grandfather spent years building has disappeared. When he isn’t kissing her senselessly, the man of her dreams seems to be very much involved with someone else. The only job she can get involves large hairy animals. And, when it comes to fairy godmothers, she’s definitely scraping the bottom of the barrel.
Excerpt:
Stacy hung up the phone and hurried
across the kitchen to grab the toast and butter it before it got
cold.
“Who was on the phone, dear?” Addie
asked.
“It was Henry Guthrie,” she
answered, bringing the toast to the table. “He’s giving me a ride
to work today because we have to run some errands together.”
Nodding, Addie put a little marmalade
on her toast and smiled. “He’s a nice young man,” she said.
“You should ask him out on a date.”
Stacy’s toast dropped from her
fingers and landed on her plate. “Grandma, I couldn’t ask him out
on a date,” she stammered. “That’s not the way it’s done.”
“Oh, fiddle faddle,” she responded.
“I watch those talk shows. They all talk about women being more
assertive and grabbing what you want. If you want Henry, you need to
grab him.”
“Grandma, I don’t think Henry wants
to be grabbed,” she replied, choking back her laughter. “We’re
working together. That’s all.”
Grandma took another bite of toast and
shook her head. “Nice young man like that, it’d be foolish not to
grab him,” she muttered.
“Grandma, can we please stop talking
about grabbing people?”
“Who are you going to grab?” Sam
asked as he let himself in the back door.
“I think she should grab Henry,”
Addie announced.
“Grandma,” Stacy admonished,
turning bright red. “Please.”
Sam chuckled. “Well, I guess it
depends on where she grabs him,” he said.
“Don’t encourage her,” Stacy
pleaded and then turned to Addie. “Grandma, Henry is my friend, but
if he thinks I’m more interested in him than I should be, he’s
going to distance himself from me. He’s had too many girls
chase after him. I’m not going to do that.”
Sam sat down at the table and nodded.
“She’s got a point there,” he said to Addie. “A man isn’t
interested in what comes easy. She needs to make him work for it.”
Addie grinned at Sam. “You’re
absolutely right,” she agreed. “Play hard to get, Stacy. That
will show him.”
“Of course, I’ll do that, Grandma,”
she said with a sigh, saying anything just to appease her grandmother
and change the subject. “So no more talk about grabbing, okay?
It will give away our plan.”
“What plan?” Henry asked at the
back door.
“Come on in,” Sam encouraged. “We
were just giving Stacy some dating advice.”
Stacy wanted to crawl under the table
and die.
Henry leaned against the door frame and
crossed his arms over his chest. “Dating advice?” he asked, the
smile dropping from his face. “Who are you dating?”
“Oh, the phone’s been ringing off
the hook,” Addie replied before Stacy could answer. “I can’t
keep track of how many beaus she has. A different man every night.”
“Grandma!” Stacy choked.
Henry’s eyes widened. “Wow, Stacy,
I had no idea,” he said, tightening his lips as he felt the burn of
jealousy. “A different man every night?”
She shook her head. “No, really. It’s
not what you think.”
“Well, I guess what I think really
doesn’t matter,” he answered, straightening up. “Are you ready
to go?”
She stood and nodded. “I need to get
my purse and my jacket,” she said. “I’ll be back in a minute.”
Addie and Sam watched Stacy hurry from
the room, and then Addie turned to Henry. “Did that make you want
to grab Stacy?” she asked casually, spreading a little more
marmalade on her toast.
“I beg your pardon?” Henry gasped.
Sam shook his head, chuckling softly,
and looked down at the floor.
“I told Stacy that she ought to be
more assertive and grab a man,” she explained. “But Stacy told me
that men don’t like women who were grabby. And then Sam said that
men preferred women who play hard to get. So when I told you that
Stacy was dating all of those men, did you want to grab her?”
A slight smile played on Henry’s
face. “So, she’s not dating a new man every night?” he asked,
not questioning the relief he felt.
“Heaven sakes, no,” Addie replied,
shaking her head in disgust. “All she does is take care of me and
this house. She’s got no life. None at all.”
The smile spread wider, and he nodded.
“Well, I should have known Stacy would have been too sensible for
that,” he said with an assured nod. “I can’t see Stacy with a
new man every night.”
No comments:
Post a Comment