Читать книгу Two Sexy! - Stephanie Bond, Stephanie Bond - Страница 7

“AMAZING. LISTEN TO THIS.”

Meg Valentine looked over the top of her BLT sandwich at her best friend, Kathie, sprawled in a chair in the teachers’ lounge.

“The wedding of actors Elyssa Adams and John Bingham cost a reported one million dollars. The gown alone set the couple back fifty thousand, and the cake, twenty thousand.” Kathie lowered the magazine. “Twenty thousand bucks for a lousy cake, and it probably wasn’t even chocolate. Do you realize that’s how much money I’ll net this year?”

Meg grinned, chewing. Besides being a chronic complainer, Kathie was a Hollywood aficionado—the woman spent every disposable dollar on celebrity memorabilia—props from movie sets, scripts, even a lock or two of hair from famous people. And she lived for every outrageous headline the tabloids could deliver.

“Those people live in a different world,” Sharon, another teacher, offered, pointing her fork at Kathie. “And I’ll bet it’s not nearly as rosy as you think.”

“Right,” piped in Joanna from the corner, who spent her lunch hours knitting scarves for Christmas gifts. “Those people have problems, just like the rest of us.”

“But they lead such exciting lives.” A faraway expression came over Kathie’s face. “Wearing gorgeous clothes, having men fall at your feet. Wouldn’t it be grand to live in a celebrity’s shoes for just a few days?”

Meg shook her head. “Kathie, you’re such a dreamer.”

“Yeah,” Sharon said. “Face it—we’re elementary school teachers in Peoria, Illinois. We gave up ‘exciting’ when we made our career choice.” The women laughed.

Except for Meg, who bit into a pickle, digesting the bittersweet truth of Sharon’s words. She truly loved teaching and working with children, but sometime during the last few years, her life had fallen into a serious rut when she wasn’t looking. Cabin fever, hormones, early-life crisis—she couldn’t explain her sudden restlessness. All she knew was that lately she was easily distracted from her evening routine of grading math papers, and ready to come out of her very proper skin. Perhaps she’d sensed Trey’s impending proposal, something she still wasn’t sure she knew how to handle.

Kathie scooted to the edge of her seat, her hazel eyes dancing. “This weekend I’m going to Indy for a fan festival. They’re supposed to auction off some wardrobe items from the set of Many Moons.”

Kathie’s favorite show. She’d even managed to get the three of them hooked on the weekly melodrama. Every Wednesday night they congregated at Kathie’s apartment and munched popcorn while watching the beautiful people make multi-million dollar deals, stab each other in the back, and steal each other’s lovers. Most of the scenes took place near or on the beach, which meant the costumes were one of two types—scanty or nonexistent.

Sharon scoffed. “What will you do with clothes from Many Moons? Wear them to the PTA potluck?”

They all laughed again, but Kathie shook her finger. “You just wait, my collection is going to be worth something someday.”

She turned to another page in the magazine that featured The Sexiest Outfits of the Season. Kathie pointed to a picture of Taylor Gee, the actress who played the curvaceous blonde vixen on Many Moons, wearing a transparent yellow gown. “This dress is my next conquest.”

“Is she wearing underwear?” Joanna asked, the knitting forgotten as she craned her head in for a look.

Meg pushed up her glasses and squinted at the telltale dark areas beneath the dress, stretched to the limit of its seams by the actress’s remarkable curves. “I don’t think so.”

“Ewww,” Sharon said. “You want to buy a dress she wore with no underwear?”

Kathie made a face. “I’ll have it drycleaned, idget. The point is, it’s going to be a collector’s item.”

“What makes you think so?” Meg asked.

“Taylor Gee is the closest thing to Marilyn Monroe this generation has ever known. And similarly, from the glazed look on her face, she’s going to burn up before she burns out.”

They all leaned in for a better look, but Meg saw only an impossibly beautiful woman in an impossibly scanty gown. Her head was turned and she was smiling at someone—the man who was cropped out of the photo? Only the sleeve of his black jacket remained, emblazoned with some kind of crest. Probably someone famous. The woman had been linked with every international bad boy there was, from rock star to rebel prince.

“I can’t believe she would go out in public wearing something like that,” Sharon said, shaking her head. “She’s already gorgeous. Why does she need to be so over the top?”

“So she’ll make the Sexiest Outfits of the Season list,” Meg pointed out.

“And so pathetic people like us will spend our lunch hour talking about her,” Joanna chimed in.

“Deep down, we all wish we could wear a dress like that,” Kathie insisted, tapping the page. “And turn every person’s head when we walk into a room.”

At times Kathie sounded more like a psychology teacher than a science teacher. She had a knack for zeroing in on people’s deepest, darkest urges. Meg had picked up the phone a couple times this week to talk to her friend about her general state of unrest, but she’d changed her mind at the last second. She couldn’t seem to zero in on what was wrong with her. Spring fever? Cold feet?

“Even if that was true,” Joanna said, flipping her head of carrot-orange curls, “we don’t all look like Taylor Gee.”

“Meg is beautiful enough to pull it off,” Sharon insisted, and to Meg’s chagrin, all eyes turned to her. Her neck and cheeks warmed, and she pushed her glasses higher on her nose. “Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Take off your glasses,” Kathie urged.

“What? No.”

“Come on, humor me.”

Meg slipped off her glasses and sighed.

“I can’t believe I never noticed.”

“What, the hump on my nose?”

“No—you’re a dead ringer for Taylor Gee.”

Meg squinted in Kathie’s direction. “Maybe you should borrow my glasses.”

“Am I right, girls?”

Sharon hummed. “Well, if your hair was blond—”

“—and if your eyes were blue,” Joanna chimed in.

“—and if you painted a mole near the corner of your mouth,” Sharon continued.

“—and if you were coming out of your clothes,” Joanna offered, “then yeah, you’d be a dead ringer for her.”

“See?” Kathie asked.

Meg laughed and jammed the black rimmed glasses back on her face. “You three watch too much TV.”

Kathie grinned. “You have the face, but those baggy dresses would not get you on the Sexiest Outfits of the Season list.”

Meg frowned and looked down at her gray crinkle cotton dress. “I like my baggy dresses. They’re comfortable. And washable.” An important feature when working with seven-year-olds.

“Meg probably wears something more sexy for Trey,” Joanna teased.

She squirmed. In truth, Trey Carnegie liked the fact that she didn’t flaunt her body. You dress like a lady—you always make me proud to stand next to you. Too bad Meg wasn’t sure she wanted Trey to always treat her like a “lady.” She cleared her throat. “Speaking of Trey, I have an announcement.”

The room fell silent.

“Last night after the benefit dinner…Trey proposed.”

Sharon and Joanna squealed their congratulations, and even Kathie managed a little smile.

“Well, Mr. Three Piece Suit finally got around to it, eh?”

There was no love lost between Kathie and Trey, but Meg had stopped trying to figure out why her closest friend didn’t gel with her longtime boyfriend. Trey said Kathie was jealous because she didn’t have a boyfriend. But Meg couldn’t disagree with her friend on one point—Trey had taken his sweet time asking for her hand—five years. And Meg still wasn’t sure why she waited.

“What did you tell him?” Kathie asked.

“What do you think she told him?” Sharon asked a little sarcastically.

“I don’t see a ring.”

Sharon glanced at Meg’s bare left hand, then gasped. “What did you tell him?”

Meg looked at the three curious faces, and the familiar weight of expectation settled in her stomach. Meg the good girl. Meg the straight-A student. Meg the model employee. Meg the proper girlfriend. God, she wanted to break free from it all. She inhaled. “I said I needed some time to think about it.”

Kathie slapped her knee. “Good for you.”

“She’s just paying him back for making her wait so long,” Joanna said. “Aren’t you, Meg?”

She wished. Her mother was practically frantic about her sister Rebecca’s broken engagement, then her rebound romance with Michael Pierce that seemed to be moving way too quickly. Once again, the pressure was on Meg to do the right thing. So to be honest, she had no idea why she hadn’t told Trey “yes” on the spot, except for the underlying feeling that there was something missing. Like romance. Passion. Excitement. Still, Joanna’s explanation seemed good enough for now. “Right. I’m going to let him cool his heels for a while.”

“And who knows?” Kathie said with a sly grin. “In the meantime, maybe you’ll meet some one who’ll make you forget all about Trey Carnegie.”

“Kathie,” Joanna chided, “Trey is a catch, especially around here.”

That was odd. Did Joanna mean that if they weren’t in Peoria, Trey wouldn’t be as good a catch? But she knew what her friend meant—young, successful men from prominent wealthy families did not grow on trees in their quaint city.

“Did he offer you a ring?” Sharon asked, a wistful look in her eyes.

“He wants me to pick it out when I’m ready.”

“Did you tell him when you’d give him an answer?” Joanna asked, equally starry-eyed.

Guilt twinged low in Meg’s stomach—both Joanna and Sharon would change places with her in a split-second, and here she was stalling. “I told him we’d talk about it when I get back from vacation. I’m taking off all next week.”

Kathie whooped. “You’re finally taking the five-day bonus they gave you for being Teacher of the Year?”

That was a source of pride and embarrassment.

In fact, maybe some of the disquiet she’d been experiencing could be posttraumatic stress over the wave of statewide publicity she’d received the past couple of months. More expectations. Meg nodded sheepishly.

“Well, it’s about time.”

“Where are you going?” Sharon asked.

“Somewhere exciting?” Joanna asked.

“A cruise?”

“The beach?”

“Vegas?”

Meg folded her napkin and patted her mouth.

“I’m going to Chicago to run my sister’s costume shop.”

In the ensuing silence, she got the feeling her friends were a little underwhelmed.

“Oh.”

“That’s nice.”

“Er, yes, very nice.”

Meg sipped on her straw. The end of her fountain soda greeted her with a great sucking noise.

“That doesn’t sound like much of a vacation,”

Kathie said finally.

“No, it doesn’t,” Sharon agreed.

“Not at all,” Joanna said.

“No, but I’m glad to do it,” Meg said. In fact, she’d been counting the days. She needed a change of scenery, time to think. “It’ll be fun.

And Rebecca needs me.”

“Really, Meg,” Kathie said dryly. “One of these days you’re going to have to live a more sedate life.”

Meg stuck out her tongue and the girls laughed. Then the bell rang. They groaned and gathered the remnants of their lunch.

“Do you ever have the feeling that your life revolves around bells?” Meg asked.

Kathie frowned. “I hear that darn thing in my sleep.”

Meg sighed as they walked out into the clattering hall, once again gripped by a quiet fear she couldn’t put her finger on. Miles of battered lockers, acres of scuffed floors, the din of hundreds of little voices, the lingering odor of paper and paste. Was this really where she belonged?

“Depressing, isn’t it?” Kathie asked, taking in the same scene.

“No,” Meg said too quickly. “I love my job.”

“I love my job, too,” Kathie said with a wry smile. “But I can’t say that I love the fact that all the men in my life are Cub Scouts.”

“You could date if you wanted to,” Meg said. “What about your neighbor, the doctor?”

“Oh, right—I’ve seen the man twice. The first time he said hello, I closed my hand in the car door. The second time, I walked into the mailbox. I think I’ve burned my bridges where he’s concerned—even a doctor doesn’t have that much insurance.” She sighed dramatically. “No, I’ve resigned myself to spinsterhood.”

“We’re only twenty-seven, Kathie. We won’t be spinsters for at least another three years.” Three short years…

She smirked. “So what’s the real reason you didn’t say yes to Trey? Having second thoughts?”

“No, I told you—”

“You’re making him pay.” Kathie shook her head. “I don’t buy it, Meg. You don’t have a vindictive bone in your body.”

Meg sunk her teeth into her bottom lip, surprised at Kathie’s sudden gravity.

Then her friend sighed. “Whatever the reason, make sure you take as long as you need to decide whether or not Trey is the man for you.”

At a loss for words, Meg simply nodded.

Then her friend grinned again, and elbowed her in the ribs. “I still can’t believe you’ve got an entire week away from this place, and you’re going to spend it working.”

“I won’t be working the entire time,” Meg protested. “I’ll have my evenings free, and two Sundays.”

Her friend wagged her eyebrows. “Oooh, maybe I should come with you to keep you out of trouble.”

Even Meg had to laugh—she’d never been in trouble in her life. “Have fun at the fan festival—I hope you find that naughty dress you’re looking for.”

“Shhhh!” Kathie looked around, then moved in close. “If Principal O’Banion even hears the word ‘naughty,’ she’ll start digging into my personal life.”

Meg scoffed. “You’re exaggerating.”

“Tell that to Amanda Rollins.”

“The art teacher? What about her?”

“Well, no one is supposed to know this yet, but she was fired yesterday.”

“What? Why?”

“Apparently someone saw her renting an X-rated movie at a local video store.”

Meg’s jaw dropped. “Can they fire her for that?”

“They did. She was ‘supposedly’ violating the ‘moral behavior’ code of our employment contract.”

“That’s a pretty loose interpretation.”

Kathie shrugged. “But it’s the school board’s interpretation to make. Me, I get my X-rated movies through the mail.”

Meg blinked.

“I’m kidding,” Kathie said.

Meg shook her head. “Poor Amanda. The kids love her.”

“That kind of scrutiny comes with the territory. Not that you have anything to worry about, Miss Teacher of the Year.” She gave Meg a nudge.

Meg managed a smile despite the tightness in her chest. It was supposed to be a compliment—the honor, the title—but honestly, some days she felt like an Osmond.

Her friend patted her arm. “Hey, if I don’t talk to you before you leave, have a great time in Chicago. And if you see anyone famous, get their autograph for me?”

Kathie covered every angle. “Okay, but the only celebrity I’ve ever met was a distant Kennedy relation at one of Trey’s father’s fundraisers.”

“Keep your eyes open. And try to cut loose a little, okay? Enjoy what may be your last week as an unfettered woman.”

Meg wet her lips, but the bell rang again, so she simply manufactured a little smile that matched her expression in those Teacher of the Year posters plastered everywhere. “I’m just looking forward to not hearing a bell ring for an entire week.”

And to a few days where nobody knew how perfect she was.