From: Her Last Temptation, by Leslie Kelly (Hq Temptation, 6/05)
PROLOGUE
If somebody started singing that Little Orphan Annie song about the sun coming out tomorrow, Cat Sheehan was gonna hurl. Or run screaming into the street, pulling her hair out and kicking every road construction worker she came across right where it counted. Or maybe just wail to the sky, let the tears she’d never let drip from her eyes fall where they may, and face what she did not want to face.
Her uncertain future. Worse...the negation of her past.
She, her sister and their two best friends were practically alone in their bar, Temptation, shell-shocked about the letter they’d received from the historical society. Their plea to have their building designated a historical landmark—saving it from demolition by the city—had been rejected.
There was no sun. No tomorrow. Sure as hell no Daddy Warbucks. Nobody was coming to save them from the beurocratic crime that allowed the city to shut them down after twenty-one years just because some newer businesses in higher tax brackets had enough clout to demand an unnecessary road widening.
“It’s over,” she said, still not believing it herself. “I knew those biddies from the historical society would reject us.”
She hadn’t really been talking to the others. More to the world in general. The one she wanted to lash out at, if only to distribute some of the pain that had landed on her shoulders with a bit more equity.
Seeing everyone else looking at her, Cat busied herself behind the bar, making their signature drink, the Cosmopolitan. They’d chosen it as a joke three years ago when Cat and Laine had taken over the bar from their mom, because Kendall was about as un-cosmopolitan as any dusty little Texas town could be.
It was only after she realized she’d forgotten to put any liquid in the shaker—which contained only ice—that she acknowledged how shaken up she was. She quickly corrected the situation, going heavy on the vodka.
Then, because everybody seemed to be waiting for her to say something—or else explode—she added, quite mildly she thought, “The city wants a new road, so we’re out. Did you really think we’d change anything tonight?”
Passing out the drinks, she eyed the three other women, waiting for the “it’ll be okay’s” to start. Laine appeared on the verge of tearing up, Gracie sighed, looking depressed rather than sad, and Tess seemed more nervous than anything else.
None of them looked the way Cat felt about the loss of this last fight to hold onto a way of life her family had held dear for two decades. Absolutely furious. And utterly heartbroken.
Laine appeared close, however, at least as far as the heartbreak went. The sheen of moisture in her eyes cut deeply into Cat. Her sister never cried. She was the rock—the steady foundation of the family, and the complete antithesis of Cat. Her older-by-six-years sister was solid, smart and reliable. The calm one. The good one. The angel.
Solid, smart and reliable were three words that had never been used to describe Cat, the younger Sheehan sister. And nobody in their right mind had ever thought of her as good. Her blonde hair and green eyes might appear angelic at first glance. But her attitude and never-ending ability to get into trouble had made her seem much more destined for a pitchfork than a halo as a kid.
Her adult life hadn’t changed anybody’s opinions.
She’d been called the rebel, the bad girl. Her mother had dubbed her the wild child at the age of three when she’d tried climbing head-first out of her bedroom window to run away from home so she wouldn’t have to start preschool. Laine had hauled her back inside by the laces of her Buster Browns that time.
But nothing was going to save Cat from falling now, especially not if Laine started showing emotion over this. Or worse, appearing helpless, as the slight tremble in her lip and the shakiness of the hand holding her martini glass indicated.
“How are we going to explain this to Mom?” Laine asked, sounding bewildered.
Laine at a loss? Unsure what to do? The sky was gonna start falling at any minute. And Cat just couldn’t take it, not on top of everything else. So she raised a brow and gave her sibling a challenging look. “Had faith in the system, Lainey, dear?”
Bingo. Her sister immediately stiffened. As usual, when Cat went on the offensive she inspired rapid mood changes, often involving anger. Or sometimes laughter. She’d used the technique all her life and it was a damn good defense mechanism, if she did say so herself. Including now.
Laine’s eyes darkened and her jaw tensed as she crumpled the letter in her hand. “Yes, I did. This isn’t right. How can they just take away everything we’ve worked for?”
Cat nearly sighed in relief. A teed-off Laine she could handle. A bereft one, she couldn’t.
Everyone kept talking, but Cat couldn’t bring herself to listen. The others all had a sad stake in this, but they weren’t going to lose quite as much as she was. Her business, her job, her way of life. Even her home.
Okay, the three tiny rooms over the bar weren’t much of a home, but they were hers. She loved retreating into her private little world, listening to the late night whispers and creaks of the aged oak paneling from downstairs as the old building settled ever deeper into its foundation. A foundation that had, until the city’s road project, seemed incredibly sound.
The trill of birds in the lush walled garden right outside her window woke her every morning. And the tinkle of glasses and muted laughter of their regulars lulled her to sleep on her rare nights off. She loved those sounds. As much as she loved the smell of the lemony polish she used daily to bring the surface of the old pitted bar back to its lustrous shine.
She loved the hiss of a newly tapped keg. Loved the clink of glass on glass when she poured a neat whiskey. Even loved the whirr of the blender when she had to make girly drinks for the frou-frou crowd who occasionally wandered in for happy hour.
Mostly she loved sitting here, alone, late at night when the place was closed, picturing the faces and voices of everyone who had passed through here before her. Her grandparents. Her Dad, who’d died so many years ago. She could still see his wide Irish smile as he slowly pulled a draught of Guinness for a customer, explaining that the nectar of Ireland was well worth the wait.
Gone. All the things she loved would be gone. Washed away like sidewalk etchings in the rain by city officials who had no idea they were washing Cat’s entire world away as well.
No job. No business. No home. No future.
No identity.
Just who was she going to be when this was all over?
She sipped her drink, depressed and overwhelmed at the thought. She’d gotten so used to her place in the world, stepping in at the bar at such a young age because it was what the family always figured she—the so-so student but A+ party girl—would do. She’d dating poor excuses for men and never been serious about any of them. Worst of all, she’d put away any glimmer of an idea that she could do something different with her life. Like fulfill a long-secret dream to go to college and become a teacher.
She’d shoved all of those things aside, and for what? A business that was going under, a family who had drifted apart, and a life which seemed...empty.
You can change it. Change everything.
She couldn’t thrust the unexpected thought out of her mind...maybe she should take this as a sign to move on in a completely unexpected direction, to walk a new path.
She could change. Become somebody new.
The idea grew on her. Since she had no other choice, maybe the time had come for her to try something else. To change some things about herself—from her attitude to her hairstyle. Her clothes to her social skills. She could work on her education—slowly—to see if she really would be as good at teaching English to teenagers as she thought she might be.
She could work on her notoriously bad language, her secret addiction to romance novels. Maybe she’d even break herself of her awful habit of getting involved with even-badder-then-herself bad boys, who were ever so safe to fall for since they never aroused any ridiculous expectations of happily ever after. Just happily between the sheets.
Yeah. No bad boys.
“Who are you kidding?” she mumbled under her breath, doubting she was that frigging strong.
“Did you say something?” Tess asked.
Cat merely smiled, trying to tune back in on the animated conversation the others had been having. “Just talking to myself,” she admitted. “Making some plans.”
Plans. Yes, she definitely had to make plans. She had time—until the end of the month, at least. Her sister and two closest friends would be right here by her side for every minute of it, riding things out until the very end. They’d be like the string quartet on the Titanic, playing their instruments as the ship sank beneath their feet.
She’d use these last weeks to figure out how to become the new Cat Sheehan. Heck, maybe she’d even start going by Catherine. It was something, anyway, along with those other big changes, which she went over again in her mind.
Education. Check. Home. Check. Attitude. Check.
No dangerous men. Hmm...
But hey, stranger things had happened. All it would take was willpower. Well, that and the knowledge that no hot-enough-to-melt-a-polar-icecap man with trouble in his eyes and wickedness in his smile had wandered into her world in quite some time.
And one sure as hell wasn’t likely to now.
From Kristin Gabriel’s GOOD NIGHT, GRACIE (Hq Temptation, 6/05)
PROLOGUE
“It’s over.”
The words she’d been dreading to hear rang in Gracie Dawson’s ears. It’s over. Her dreams of attending law school—of finally embarking on a life of her own-—were over. Goliath had won again.
“I knew those biddies at the historical society would reject us.” Cat Sheehan mixed drinks behind the mahogany bar while Cat’s sister Laine sat shell-shocked on a barstool between Gracie and waitress Tess Applegate.
As usual, the bar was empty of customers. Temptation was owned by the Sheehan sisters and housed in the same old brick building as Between The Covers, the bookstore Gracie had inherited from her aunt. Recent road construction had caused business to dwindle at both establishments, but that didn’t make accepting their loss any easier.
This time Goliath had come in the form of city hall, with plans to demolish the building in order to widen the street. Appealing to the Kendall Historical Society to have the building declared a landmark had been their last hope.
Temptation was like a second home to Gracie and these women like a second family. She’d let them down. Just like she’d let down her Aunt Fran, unable to fight the insurance company that had refused to cover all the medical expenses incurred during her decade-long fight against kidney disease. They’d gone to lawyers for help, but none of them had been willing to take on the sprawling legal department of a huge corporation.
That made them gutless wonders in Gracie’s estimation. She’d heard too many stories of people like her aunt at the mercy of bureaucrats and pencil-pushers. Gracie was ready to do some pushing herself—or shoving, as the case may be. But she needed a law degree first and that took time and money. Both would be in short supply now that she’d be forced to relocate the bookstore.
But she believed in loyalty--and keeping promises. Before her aunt had died, she’d told Gracie that as long as Between The Covers existed, a part of her would live, too. Gracie had vowed to keep her legacy alive.
She owed Aunt Fran that much.
Anger flared inside of her at the unfairness of it all. Her aunt had died eleven months ago, worn out from the struggle of battling both the disease and the bill collectors whom she just managed to satisfy. She’d left everything to Gracie. The house. The bookstore. Her prized collection of Harlequin romance novels. Though she’d never married, Fran Dawson had been a romantic at heart.
Gracie had come to live with her in Kendall, Texas, when she was fifteen years old, after her parents had answered a call to become missionaries. Adjusting to small town life had been difficult at first, made even more so by the tight cliques at her new high school. Losing herself in all those romance books had helped ease the transition.
So had Gilbert Holloway, the high school’s resident computer geek, who had become her best friend. They’d spent most of their free time together watching vintage comedy shows on television and making big plans to attend the same college somewhere on the east coast after graduation.
Then her aunt had been diagnosed with kidney disease and Gracie’s plans had drastically changed. Chronically ill, Fran had depended on her for care and to help run Between The Covers. Gracie had never told anyone how much she’d missed going off to college like the rest of her classmates.
Just like she’d never told anyone how much she hated the bookstore.
Except for Gilbert.
He’d left for Boston after graduation and never looked back. For the last ten years, they’d corresponded almost daily by email, his messages like a lifeline to her as her aunt’s condition worsened. He let her whine and rant and worry without judging her. Gilbert was the only man who understood her. The only man who knew how much her dreams meant to her.
Perhaps that’s why she had so much trouble meeting men in Texas. Even while taking night classes to obtain her bachelor’s degree over the last ten years, dates had been few and far between. None of the men she met ever lived up to Gilbert.
Maybe he was just safe. A man she could dream about without ever having to follow through. And dream she did, though Gilbert would ever know about those fantasies. That was the one thing about her life that she didn’t share with him.
Though she’d done plenty of looking, Gracie had never found a local version of Gilbert. She hadn’t seen him in over a decade, but he was still the example she measured other men by.
Not that she’d done a lot of measuring lately. Running the bookstore didn’t leave much time for a social life. This latest news meant putting everything in her life on hold indefinitely.
So be it. She wasn’t about to surrender to the Goliaths of this world. Gracie Dawson would find a way to survive. She always did.
Laine visibly deflated beside her, making Gracie realize she’d only been thinking about herself. Temptation had been in the Sheehan family for over twenty years, handed down to the sisters by their mother, Brenda. Cat ran the bar while Laine worked full-time as a magazine photographer. They loved Temptation as much as she hated the bookstore.
“The city wants a new road, so we’re out,” Cat said, breaching the silence. “Did you really think we’d change anything tonight?”
Despite knowing it was a long shot, Gracie had counted on it. Which was ridiculous, since nothing in her life ever turned out as she planned. At twenty-eight, she was certainly old enough to know that by now. It was time to start coping with reality.
“Where am I going to store all those books if I can’t find a new place in thirty days?” she wondered aloud.
Nobody had any answers for her. Gracie knew she’d have to use every cent of her savings to make this move once she found a new location. A place that would undoubtedly charge higher rent for the bookstore than she was paying now. Add to that the advertising dollars needed to retain their old customers, as well as garnering new ones, and the task seemed overwhelming.
“How will I find another job as good as this one?” Tess asked. She’d hired on as a waitress a year ago, forming a fast friendship with Gracie, Cat, and Laine.
Gracie wished she could offer Tess a position at the bookstore, but she’d be lucky to retain her assistant manager, Trina Powers, once they moved the store. Her budget had already been sliced and diced to the bare bones.
Laine looked up at her sister. “How are we going to explain this to Mom?”
Tess reached over and patted her hand. “Brenda will understand. She’ll be pissed but she’ll deal with it.”
Angry tears gleamed in Laine’s eyes. “I just can’t believe it.”
Cat pushed a cosmopolitan toward each of them. “Had faith in the system, Lainey dear?”
“Yes, I did,” Laine replied, crushing the letter in her hand. “This isn’t right. How can they just take away everything we’ve worked for?”
“Because they can.” Gracie took a sip of her drink, knowing this news had them all reeling—even Cat. She was just better at hiding it than the rest of them. They were at the mercy of the people in charge, powerless to change anything now.
She hated that feeling. That’s why becoming a lawyer had been her dream for so long. She wanted to make a difference in peoples’ lives
Gracie watched Laine get up and turn away, making her wish she could have done something to make this situation turn out differently. It had been her idea to approach the Kendall Historical Society, hoping her exhaustive research into the history of the old building would sway them enough to name it a landmark. She’d handed it all over to Laine to make the presentation, but she obviously hadn’t given her enough ammunition.
Gracie slipped off the barstool and walked over to Laine, then put her arm around her shoulder. “This isn’t your fault.”
A bitter smile flickered on Laine’s mouth. “Sure it is. If I’d talked to the right person, made the right argument…”
“It wouldn’t have mattered. The city would still be steamrolling over our businesses.”
“Maybe.”
Gracie knew all too well how futile it was to imagine what might have been. You had to face life head on and find a way to survive.
Her parents hadn’t made it, succumbing to a jungle fever only six months after moving to South America. Neither had Aunt Fran. Gracie had survived through a lot of loss. But she was tired of just surviving. Tired of existing in limbo.
Now she wanted to live—really live.
“What are you going to do now?” Laine asked her.
“Find someplace cheap to lease for Between The Covers.” Gracie looked around the bar at the oak paneling on the walls and the unique architectural detail on the high ceiling that matched that of the bookstore. “Whatever I find, it will never live up to this place.”
“I’ve got money from my new job, if you need anything—“
“I’ll be fine.” Gracie knew she’d be able to handle the expenses by using her savings for law school. She’d been accepted at the University of Texas for the upcoming fall semester, but now that would never happen.
Maybe it was time to find a new dream.
Laine was watching Gracie, a mix of worry and recrimination in her eyes.
“You shouldn’t take so much on yourself,” Gracie told her, searching for some way to comfort her. “There’s nothing more you can do here. Why don’t you go away for a few days? Take some time for yourself.”
Laine shook her head. “I can’t. I just turned in my first assignment. I don’t want it to be my last. Not to mention Aunt Jen is making me crazy. Those wildfires in California are threatening…“ her voice trailed off, then she looked up at Gracie. “June 30, right?”
“That’s D-day apparently. Less than a month away.” Gracie’s mind whirled with everything that needed to be done in that time. But she simply couldn’t deal with it at the moment. Maybe she should take her own advice and get away from the bookstore for a few days. Her ten-year high school reunion was coming up this weekend in Kendall. That would be a perfect excuse to make a temporary escape from her responsibilities.
And a perfect excuse to fulfill the one dream she’d never dared to pursue.
