Learning Curves by Cindi Myers

Author:Cindi Myers
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Silhouette Special Releases
Published: 2012-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

SHELLY WENT THROUGH the motions of working: she telephoned a few sources and left messages. She sorted her mail. She opened a computer file and stared at it, the words blurred by the image of Jack and the mysterious blonde kissing. As much as she tried to believe she didn’t care, the very fact that she couldn’t let go of that image proved her a liar.

Feeling foolish but unable to stop herself, like a woman on a diet who can’t stay away from an open bag of cookies, she picked up the phone and punched in the extension of the receptionist in the lobby. “Judy? This is Shelly Piper up at KPRM. A blond woman just came up to our floor and I don’t know what’s wrong with me this morning, but I’ve already forgotten her name. Can you keep me from looking like a complete idiot?”

“Jessica Peabody?” She jotted the name on a sticky note. “Thanks, Judy. You’re a lifesaver.”

She hung up the phone and stared at the name. Jessica Peabody. It was vaguely familiar, but why?

She glanced over her shoulder to make sure no one could see, then closed her word-processing program and logged on to the Internet. She brought up Google and typed in Jessica Peabody.

She gaped at the listings that came up. There were over nine thousand references to Jessica Peabody! She clicked on the first and found herself reading the bio for CNN’s newest Denver bureau reporter.

That explained why the name was familiar. But what was she doing visiting Jack? Everyone said Jack was destined for CNN. Had Jessica come here to recruit him for a position there? Shelly shook her head. She hadn’t met a corporate recruiter yet who greeted potential recruits with a kiss like the one she’d witnessed in the hall.

She read a second listing, and a third, a mixture of admiration and envy churning her gut. Jessica Peabody, former Miss Dallas County, graduate of the University of Texas’s television-and-film program, internship at KSAT in San Antonio, production work at KZTV, Corpus Christi.

She had had the career Shelly had always wanted. The one she’d worked so hard for.

The one she’d probably have had if she looked like the five-foot-ten-inch, one-hundred-and-eleven-pound Jessica Peabody.

Her gaze fixed on the last line of the bio. Before joining the CNN team, Jessica worked as evening news anchor at KXAS in Dallas, Texas.

The same station where Jack had worked.

Past guilt and well into compulsion now, Shelly googled Jack Halloran and Jessica Peabody. Even as she typed, she felt ridiculous. Honestly, someone over thirty ought to be past this kind of thing. She was as bad as some high schooler crushing on the star quarterback. But shame wasn’t enough to stop her.

The first site brought up a newspaper article about the gorgeous duo. Newlyweds Jack Halloran and Jessica Peabody have added a touch of society glamour to the evening news these days. Following a honeymoon in the Caribbean, the couple have moved into a townhome in fashionable Highland Park.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.