My Lucky Groom (Summer Grooms Series) (12 page)

She sighed heavily. “It’s nothing you’ve done at all.
Actually, you’ve been perfect. The most wonderful guy a girl could hope to
date.”

“Okay,” he said, like he sensed more was coming.

“But I can’t keep on seeing you when I have such strong
feelings for someone else.”

He looked toward the water,
then
slowly angled back toward her. “Richard?”

Ventura averted her gaze.

“Is it mutual?”

“It doesn’t really matter,” she said, turning back to him.
“He’s always in the way.”

Charles stared at her sadly, getting it. “I see.”

Mary entered the basement apartment, carting a big bag of
Chinese take-out. “Ventura!” she called in a
singsongy
tone. “I have good news.”

“That’s great. I could use some right now.”

Mary surveyed her sitting sadly on the sofa, like she’d lost
her best friend. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Charles and I broke up.”

Mary set her hefty bag on the coffee table. “Uh-oh. Who
ditched who?”

“I wish I could say it was mutual.”

“My poor baby!” Mary cried, wrapping her arms around her.

“I dumped him.”

Mary pushed back. “What?”

Ventura nodded.

“Why?”

“It’s not good to see one man when all you can do is think
of someone else.”

“Richard.” Mary shot her a sympathetic gaze. “Listen,
Ventura. I know it’s been hard.
Unrequited love and all that.
From what I hear, it’s a killer. Not that I’d know personally,” she added quickly.
“But still, I understand that it’s been painful for you, which is what makes my
news extra good.”

“Mary?” Ventura asked, her hopes rising.

“Yes!” Mary squealed. “You got the job!”

They hugged each other and hollered with delight until
Nanette called downstairs to ask if they had men over. This was it, a happy
sign that Ventura’s life was turning around. She’d been right to break up with
Charles. And she’d be right to move on from Richard. She needed to find her own
life and forge ahead. But first, she thought, catching a whiff of crispy scallops,
she was famished. “What’s in the bag?”

Mary reached in the sack and dug out two fistfuls of
crescents. “Extra fortune cookies,” she said with a grin.

Ventura looked up at Richard as they stood in the kitchen.
She’d just fixed the kids an early supper and was preparing to leave. Richard was
dressed in his tuxedo, ready for another society outing. “I can’t believe you
understand.”

“What I understand is that in this town, opportunity only
knocks once. You’ve got to answer, Ventura. Go for it.”

Ventura lowered her voice so the kids couldn’t hear. “But
what about Ricky and Elisa?”

“We’ll manage somehow, just like we did before.” He studied
her a beat. “Look, if you’re having doubts about taking this job, why not give
it a trial run? You know, for a couple of weeks. If it turns out you’re
miserable there, you can come back here.”

“Are you serious? You’d hold a spot open for me?”

“What are friends for?

“Oh, Richard!” she said springing into his arms. “You’re the
best!”

He held her to him and patted her back while Elisa and Ricky
sent curious gazes in their direction. “Yeah, you too.”

“Are you two getting married?” Elisa asked.

Ventura felt her cheeks blaze as she broke from Richard’s
embrace.

“That was just in friendship,” she said, blinking at the
kids.

Richard straightened his bow tie. “Absolutely.”

Ricky and Elisa exchanged glances.

Ventura stared at Richard, and he stared back.

“I’m not worried if you’re not,” he said quickly.

Chapter Eleven

It was late at night when Ventura rapped at Nanette’s
bedroom door.

“It’s open! Come in!”

Nanette’s suitcase lay open on the bed. She was going away
on some kind of romantic adventure with a man who worked for the government.

“Are you sure you’ll be safe traveling with Kevin?” Ventura
asked. “You really don’t know that much about him.”

“That’s because he can’t say.”

“You don’t think it’s a little odd that he always wears those
dark glasses?”

“Trust me on this,” she said with a wink. “He doesn’t
always
wear them.”

“Well, I’m glad you’re having fun,” Ventura said. “Wherever
you’re going.”

“To a resort, if you must know. If I told you which one,
you’d be embarrassed.”

“Oh,” Ventura said with a blush. “Well, I brought you
something for your trip. Something for good luck.”

Nanette stared down at the package in Ventura’s hand. “Oh,
how sweet! You didn’t have to.”

“I know,” Ventura said. “But you’ve been so good to me and
Mary both. It’s just a little something.”

Nanette grinned and eagerly tore into the wrapping.
“Chocolate fortune cookies.” She giggled with delight. “Where on earth did you
get these?”

“I have my sources.”

“Thank you, dear.” Nanette gave her a warm hug. “So, tell me,
how are things going with Charles?”

“We broke up.”

Nanette looked at her with surprise. “I don’t understand. I
thought everything was going so well.”

Ventura sat on Nanette’s bed with a sigh.

Nanette considered her a moment. “This is about that editor,
isn’t it? Richard Blake.”

“Oh, Nanette, I’m not even sure if he feels the same.”

“Have you thought about talking to him? Telling him the
truth?”

“I couldn’t! Not after all he’s done for me. He’s been so
kind, given me so many chances. He’s even gone so far as to support my writing.
I don’t think I told you, he sent a manuscript of mine to a couple of his agent
friends in New York.”

Nanette eyed her doubtfully. “You mean to say there’s never
been any chemistry between you?”

Ventura felt her face burn hot but held her tongue.

“I see. Well, you know what they say…” She paused a moment
to toss some skimpy lingerie in her bag. “Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.”
She met Ventura’s eyes. “How do you know he’s not thinking the same thing?
She’s such a nice young woman. She’s done so
much for my family. How could I possibly take advantage of her?
”

“But he wouldn’t be taking advantage!” Ventura blurted out.
“I’d want him to.”

“Ah-ha!

Ventura hung her head. “What am I going to do?”

“Tell him when the moment is right.”

“But what about my new job? And Mary?
Her
relationship with Jason?
I wouldn’t want to impact that in a bad way if
things were to sour between Richard and me. Maybe I should forget all about
him.” She sighed heavily. “I can’t imagine how this will work out.”

Nanette sat on the bed beside her. “Things have a way of
resolving themselves,” she said kindly. “You’ll see. You go on with your life.
Follow your heart. Do what you’re meant to do. Your destiny will catch up with
you.”

Ventura followed Mary with trepidation through the bustling
newsroom where noise assaulted her senses. Fingers furiously tapped at keyboards,
phones rang nonstop, and editors barked out orders. Ventura clutched Mary’s arm
as they passed by rows of disheveled reporters sitting with mugs of coffee at their
computers.

Mary angled her chin toward Ventura. “Stop acting like
you’re in a slasher film,” she hissed. “This is your dream job, remember?”

She showed Ventura to a dingy cubicle at the far recesses of
the room, near the coffee-making station. “You stay here. I’ll bring you
something to do.”

A few moments later, Mary returned and dumped some coffee
packets on Ventura’s desk.

“What’s this?” she asked, looking up.

Mary set her hand on her hip. “Your first assignment.”

Jason and the kids walked through the front gate, holding
ice-cream cones. Richard looked up from his front steps, where he sat reading
the newspaper.

“You know, Mary’s doing a decent job with her fashion
column,” he said. “Not that I understand a word of it.”

Jason took a bite of ice cream. “That’s because you don’t
speak our language.”

“What’s that?” Richard teased. “The language of
love
?”

The kids plunked down on the front steps, licking their
cones.

“How’s the chocolate peanut butter?” Richard asked them.

Both kids frowned. “Nothing’s the same without Ventura,”
Elisa said.

Ricky shook his head in agreement, and Jason glanced at
Richard. “I’ll bet Papa Bear knows just what you mean.”

“Shut up,” Richard said under his breath. He never should
have told Jason about that dream he’d had. At the time, it had seemed harmless
and funny. But Jason hadn’t let him hear the end of it. After he’d found
Ventura passed out on the sofa with those storybooks, Richard had later thumbed
through them. For some reason that had led to a pretty wild dream that night.
He’d been the Papa Bear, and Ventura—dressed as Goldilocks—had
landed in his bed.

Jason whispered in Richard’s ear, “And I thought women were
the ones who had romantic fantasies.”

Richard elbowed him. Hard.

“Ouch!”

“What happened, Uncle Jason?” Elisa asked.

“Just got an, uh…” He glanced at Richard. “Stitch in my
side.”

Jason laughed, muttering under his breath, “Man, that was
pervy.”

Richard snatched away his ice cream. “Hey!”

“You’d better not breathe a word of that to Mary,” Richard
said, knowing Mary would immediately share it with Ventura.

“I swear on my life!”

He grabbed for his cone, but Richard held it out of reach.

“Swear on your Gucci loafers.”

“Aw, man, that’s not fair.”

Richard held the cone higher.

“Okay, okay. I swear.”

“Ventura!” Mary cried with dismay. “What are you doing?”

Ventura lethargically opened one eye. “Resting.”

“Well, you don’t rest here, okay? Wake up!”

Ventura groggily lifted her head to see she was still in the
newsroom. So it hadn’t been a dream. The nightmare was real. For three weeks,
she’d done nothing but mess up. The few meager copy editing assignments she’d
scored had been a major botch, and she couldn’t even seem to make coffee.

“Hey!” an angry voice snarled. “What idiot keeps burning the
joe?”

Ventura buried her head with her arms, her cheek pressed to
her metal desk. It couldn’t really stay this bad forever. Could it?

Mary leaned toward her with a whisper. “You’ve got to find a
way to snap out of it, girlfriend, or I’ll be forced to hire your replacement.”

Ventura slowly sat up. “But all I do is
type and file, and type and file, and…
”

“I told you, you’d have to start from the ground up.”

Ventura’s head dropped back on her desk with a thud as she
centered her gaze on the coffeepot. “You mean grounds, don’t you?”

Ventura dragged herself toward Nanette’s townhouse,
practically in tears. Nothing about this new job was going as
planned.
She’d expected it to be hard but had no idea it
would prove so humiliating. She was an intelligent woman with a good education,
and yet she felt like the lowest of the low in that newsroom. Perhaps it was
because she
was
the lowest person on
the totem pole, not to mention the newest employee.

She was just approaching the front steps when she spotted
Richard’s sports car parked at the curb.
Richard?
What on earth is he doing here?
Suddenly invigorated, she raced up the
stairs and through the front door.

She entered the townhouse to find Richard chatting in the
living room with Nanette, who’d just returned from the islands.

“Richard!” Ventura said with a happy smile. “It’s so great
to see you.” Unable to stop herself, she sprang into his arms.

He laughed warmly, hugging her back. “You too, Ventura. You
look…” He gave her an appraising frown. “Tired.”

“She
is
tired,”
Nanette assured him. “Exhausted from that horrible new job of hers.”

“Nanette,” Ventura warned. “It’s not that bad.”

“But you said—”

“What brings you to Capitol Hill?” Ventura asked, turning
her attention on Richard.

“I brought you a special delivery,” he said with a warm
smile.

He handed her an express mail envelope, and she checked the
sender, seeing it was from New York.

“Open it,” Richard said.

She tore into the package and scanned through its document,
unable to believe her eyes. “Is this what I think?”

He shot her a proud grin. “It’s a representation agreement,
from one of the best agencies in children’s literature.”

“Whoohoo!”

Nanette smiled broadly. “You, baby, are going to be famous.”

“Well, I don’t know about that.” She glanced at Richard, not
knowing what to say.

“If you’ll give them permission to shop your work, they
think they can make a deal for you. High six figures for the entire fantasy series.
Ventura, do you know what this means?”

She numbly shook her head, overwhelmed by the magic of the
moment.

“That you could write full-time.”

Tears leaked from her eyes. “You mean, doing something I
love? Like telling my stories.” That seemed almost too good to be true.

“That’s exactly what I mean.” He reached up and stroked back
her tears, and Nanette sighed loudly. “But first, you’ll have to sign on the
dotted line.”

“I’ll do it,” Ventura said, her heart soaring.

Richard met her eyes. “I need you to understand, there are
no guarantees. We’ll have to wait awhile and see what comes through.”

“I understand that.” Ventura swallowed hard. “But what good
is life if you can’t take chances?”

For Ventura, the next few weeks didn’t seem nearly as
dreary. She’d finally learned to make the coffee and had been given a few more
copy editing assignments, which she’d handled well. It was good to see a light
at the end of the tunnel and imagine her work at the
Globe
wouldn’t always involve darkness. The people were good here
and helpful in moving folks along. Mary had already arranged for her to meet
with an associate editor in the City Desk department, and he’d appeared
impressed by Ventura’s credentials. Still, it was hard to fight the lure of
fantasizing about a day job that allowed her to create her own worlds and let
her spirit run free.