Corner-Office Courtship by Victoria Pade

Author:Victoria Pade
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2012-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

“Hit me, Holly. Hit me hard enough to knock the stupid out of me,” Nati ordered as she stood in front of the full-length mirror in her bedroom, inspecting herself one last time after getting ready for her date with Cade.

She was wearing winter-white wool slacks and a matching cashmere cowl-neck sweater. Her hair framed her face in a perfect, shiny fall. A hint of makeup accentuated her cheekbones, mascara lengthened her eyelashes, and a pale lipstick made her lips a glossy pink. She’d even given her short nails a fresh manicure.

Holly, who had come to borrow a pair of earrings for her own blind date, took in the finished product. “You may have gotten the short end of the stick in that marriage to Doug, but you did come out of it with some nice clothes.”

“And those earrings—they’re the only piece of jewelry I didn’t sell to bankroll the shop.”

Holly held them out to her. “Maybe you should wear them tonight.”

“They’re too fancy for this outfit. Plus, this wine and cheese tasting in Old Town is more casual than that. Just don’t lose them—at three carats apiece they’re my rainy-day fund.”

“I’ll guard them with my life. But I won’t hit you,” Holly said, returning to Nati’s earlier demand.

“What am I doing?” Nati asked in response. “I’ve only been divorced six months. And the first guy I do go out with isn’t Mr. Every Man, he’s another rich boy! Richer than the last one!”

“Maybe it isn’t the rich-boy thing that you should be thinking about. Maybe you should just be thinking about how he’s your first guy after the divorce.”

Nati laughed. “That sounds like you mean he’s the first of many.”

“I do. Even if he’s not the first of many, he’s the first. The back-in-the-saddle-again guy. The get-your-feet-wet-again guy. The guy who lets you know that you can get out there again and mingle and meet other guys until you find the right one.”

“The first guy, not the keeper?”

“Exactly. The practice guy just to get you back in the game.”

“‘Back in the saddle,’ ‘get your feet wet,’ ‘get back out there,’ ‘get back in the game’—there are a lot of sayings for that.”

“Because there are so many of us who find ourselves in that position. And now you’re one of us. But you keep talking about this guy as if he’s the one. He’s only dangerous if you get in as deep with him as you did with Doug. Deep enough for prenups, and marriage, and family and social pressures, and relationship and maturity and...other...problems, and then divorce, and the whole mess. But Cade Camden isn’t all that. He’s just a guy you can get some refresher-dating practice with.”

“That’s true,” Nati agreed, seeing her friend’s point of view. “I do keep jumping the gun, don’t I?”

“It’s like there’s a fire five hundred miles away and you’ve been burned,” Holly reasoned. “Of course your instinct is to run in the other direction. But the fire is way—way—in the distance—”

“So maybe I’m making too big a deal out of this.

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