Wanted: Husband, Will Train by Marie Ferrarella

Author:Marie Ferrarella [Ferrarella, Marie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459273795
Publisher: Harlequin Enterprises
Published: 2011-07-15T07:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Courtney didn’t see them immediately. The carefully handmade card and the tiny rectangular box with its navy blue bow were sitting off to the side on the vanity table, out of her direct line of vision.

When Courtney first walked into the room out of the shower, her bathrobe wrapped around her, her mind was touching on a dozen last-minute details concerning the party that night. She wanted everything to be perfect.

An uncustomary flutter of nerves rushed over her. Exhaling, she ran her fingers through her hair. Already beginning to dry and curl, it felt like a mass of tangles to the touch.

Courtney glanced at the mirror, frowning. Should she leave it that way? Or wear it up? Gathering her hair off her neck, she examined the results. It didn’t help make up her mind.

Gabriel would probably think all this was trivial. But it wasn’t She was thirty today, and while that might not be earthshaking, it meant something to her. She wasn’t just a carefree kid anymore. There were responsibilities awaiting her.

More responsibilities, she amended. It wasn’t as if she’d been a madcap heiress up to now, although Gabriel probably thought so.

Gabriel.

Her frown deepened. Why did all her thoughts keep circling around him, returning to him as if he were some kind of mystical point of origin? Courtney picked up a comb and tried to pull it through her hair. Resistance met her. Just like Gabriel.

Was she making a mistake? She needed the party, the diversion it created, but she knew that Gabriel didn’t like having to attend. Forcing him to mingle so soon with her friends might be putting too much pressure on him. To his credit, he’d borne up to the wedding and the interview with Parsons pretty well so far. It really wasn’t fair of her to expect so much so quickly.

But the party was supposed to be in his honor. He couldn’t very well not show up. If he was absent, rumors would start flying.

Rumors would probably start anyway, Courtney thought. She knew this crowd. A lot of them lived for rumors.

Courtney reached for her moisturizer. Her skin felt like leather lately. Or was that just tension constricting everything?

Her fingers came in contact with paper rather than the familiar round jar.

She looked down on the vanity and saw the card, and the gift sitting behind it. Curious, she picked them both up.

Who—?

There were three stick figures drawn on the front cover of the card. One was very obviously a man, and his pointy little hand was holding on to the equally pointy little hand of a smaller, blonder figure. They were both looking at a much larger figure, also blond, and if the less-than-artful shoes on the stick feet were any indication, this was a female.

Courtney’s smile spread, filling her. No one had ever drawn a picture for her before. Certainly not of her. Above the figures, in childish scrawl, were the words Happy Birthday, Mommy.

She could feel her throat tightening as she read. Just a silly little piece of paper, she thought.

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