Manic Monday

by Piper Rayne

  “Ready?” He holds his hand out.

  “For?”

  “The rest of your life.”

  I smile, fitting my hand in his. He pulls me into his chest and we couldn’t get closer if we tried.

  “I’m sorry,” he murmurs. Pulling back, he holds my head in his hands.

  “I’m sorry, too. I love you, Reed. I should have never made you choose. We can do long distance. We’ll figure it out.”

  He shakes his head. “No, you were right about that. If we’re going to give this a chance, we can’t be seven-hundred miles away from one another.”

  “Then what are we going to do?” I ask and press my lips together, waiting for his answer.

  “When I first saw you again, my heart skipped a beat. I never believed in that shit. I mean I knew I’d eventually fall in love, but for your body to have a physical reaction? That stuffs for fairy tales and TV. With you though, I’ve never been surer of anything. You were meant for me.” He tucks my hair behind my ear and leans in close. “Victoria Clarke, I choose you. I’m not taking the job in New York.”

  His lips fall to mine and I close my eyes basking in all the love and adoration of his kiss. We break apart and I glance at the faces around us. Jade’s giggling at the top of the stairs, her hand over her mouth and she smiles at me before heading into the building.

  “Are you sure?” I whisper.

  “One hundred percent positive.”

  He holds his hand out for me and I take it. And I’ll never let it go again.

  Epilogue

  One month later…

  “Ready?” Reed walks into the office as I finish typing my email.

  “Almost,” I say.

  He sits down in front of my desk looking gorgeous in a navy blue suit. He props one foot up and rests it on his knee.

  “Did you win?” I ask.

  I would watch Reed in court every day if I could, but after the last case, I’ve kept my distance. He’s absurdly paranoid and it’s hard for him if I’m there.

  “I did.” A huge smile crosses his face.

  “I’ll have to make sure to give you a congratulatory kiss.”

  “Just a kiss?” He sits up, grabs a Post-it note and a pen.

  “Is that for me?” I ask, eyeing the note in his hand. With my hand on the mouse, I close out everything and log off.

  “It’s not always about you.” He winks, scribbling something in his lawyer handwriting which reminds me of a doctor’s.

  “I’ll be right back.” I pretend to say goodbye to Chelsea, so he has an opportunity to hide the note for me to find on Monday.

  “Hurry. Abe’s waiting.”

  “Only you can get an Uber to act like your own personal chauffeur.” Hannah comes out of her office, leaning her shoulder on the doorframe with a manila folder in her hand.

  “Hi, Hannah,” he says.

  “Where are you taking our girl tonight?” she asks.

  The two talk and I peek my head into Chelsea’s office.

  “I’m leaving.”

  “Thanks for the update, I’ll be sure to call NBC and let them know,” she jokes, standing and following me out. “Reed ‘The Steak’ Warner, how the hell are you?” She acts like she didn’t just see him yesterday.

  I’ve been granted with a pickup and a drop-off every day for a month. I can’t complain. There’s something about almost losing something that makes you hold it tighter.

  “Chelsea,” he says and smiles, tossing the pen into my holder and standing to his feet.

  “Would you guys mind dropping this off at the tax attorney’s office? His office isn’t too far.” Hannah holds out the envelope and I snatch it up.

  “Sure.” Then I look to Reed. “We have time, right?”

  He nods.

  The envelope is snatched out of my hands. “I’ll do it. You two go.” She shoos me with her hand.

  “Thanks, Chels.”

  “I’m going that way anyway. I’m on a search for penis paraphernalia and I might just grab myself one of those Unicorn Cock vibrators. My cousin’s bachelorette party is coming up.”

  She rolls her eyes like having to go into a sex store is such an inconvenience for her would upset her. Having to go into a sex store. This is Chelsea we’re talking about.

  “Want to join me?” she asks Hannah.

  “Me and you in a sex shop?” Hannah shoots her an expression that says never. “I’d rather not to get arrested tonight.”

  “Fine. Leave it to me to be the curator of cock on my own then.” Chelsea shrugs like she doesn’t really care, which she probably doesn’t.

  “Okay, have a great weekend, girls.” I wave goodbye and Reed pats my lower back to get me going.

  Once we’re down on the sidewalk, I spot Abe leaning against his car, reading a book while he waits.

  “The Realtor is meeting us there?” I ask.

  “Yeah.”

  Reed has decided he doesn’t want to live downtown anymore, so he’s house hunting closer to us. He says he’s found one he really likes and wants my opinion.

  “Hey, Abe.” I smile and wave at him.

  “Victoria,” he says, rounding the car to get back in.

  Reed opens the door and I slide inside. Reed’s hand plays with mine as we pull away from the curb.

  “I firmed up some plans last night with Pete.”

  “Yeah?” he asks.

  “I’m going to fly out there with Jade to drop her off and then fly back to pick her up. She’ll stay for a month this summer.” I take in a deep breath. It’s going to be horrible, but she deserves to spend some time with her dad and he promises he won’t work the whole time.

  “A month?” he asks.

  “Well, he’s going to hire a nanny and take two of the weeks as vacation.”

  Reed nods. “Nice of you.”

  “I was wondering though, would you want to come with us and maybe if it’s okay with Ned and Helen, Henry could come when we go to pick her up? We could stay—”

  “I’ll go both ways. You’re going to need me after the drop-off.” He smiles, his fingers tightening in mine. He knows me well.

  “Thank you.”

  “You’re welcome.” He smiles. “I’m pretty sure since I’m his guardian if anything should happen, Ned and Helen will be fine with us taking Henry.”

  I slide closer, laying my head on his shoulder. My eyes close briefly from the late nights studying for exams. Three more weeks until I graduate, and I can cross off one thing off my list.

  “We’re here,” Reed whispers in my ear.

  “Sorry,” I mumble, lifting my head to see my mom’s house. “What are we doing here?”

  Reed says nothing and steps out, holding his hand out for me to take. “Have a good weekend, Abe. See you Monday.”

  “Bye, guys.” He waves and once Reed shuts the door, he pulls away.

  “So…I wasn’t exactly telling the truth when I said we were going to look at a house I was interested in. And I hope you’re not mad, but…” He takes my hands in his. “I bought the house next door to your mom’s. My plan is to renovate it, make it large enough to fit all of us. You don’t have to move in with me, but I want to be close to you.”

  He guides me up the walkway, pulls out a key and inserts it in the lock.

  “This is not me asking you to choose. This is me wanting to be as close to you as possible. I’d love for you and Jade and your mom to move in here. Or just you and Jade and she can stay next door on her own as long as she’s able. I knew you’d want to be by your mom, so…” He trails off, opening the door and waiting for me to take the lead.

  The thing about Chicago housing is that next to one bungalow is a three-story flat and next to that is a renovated single family. It’s a hodgepodge of housing types. Reed’s bought the single-family home that needs some updating, but nothing major.

  “It’s beautiful.” The light that streams in through the front windows highlights the hardwood floors and moldings. The place has goo
d energy and being close to my mom makes it perfect. We can get out from under her and she can maintain her independence. But we can still help out around the house and with meals since we’re so close.

  I walk farther into the house to take it all in.

  “The kitchen needs some work, but I have some ideas.”

  Warmth blooms in my chest the more I see, but Reed takes my silence the wrong way.

  “I don’t want to pressure you, Vic. If you completely hate the idea, I can renovate it and turn it for a profit.”

  I shake my head. “I’m not feeling pressured.” Turning back around to him, tears fill the corners of my eyes, but they aren’t the sad kind this time. “It’s perfect.”

  “I’m so happy you think so.” He erases the distance between us and lifts me into his arms. “What does that mean exactly?” A nervous chuckle escapes his lips.

  “It means,” I close my eyes for a moment and then let them slowly open to the man who has stolen my heart and soul. “We’re moving in together.”

  His arms tighten, and he swings me around. “Thank you,” he mumbles and I’m not sure if he’s talking to me or fate itself.

  My phone rings and Reed lets me go to grab it out of my purse in case it’s the school or my mom.

  He ventures down the hall while I press accept on Chelsea’s call.

  “What’s up, Chelsea?” I ask. “Did you know he bought the house next to my mom?” I say, unable to contain my excitement.

  “Did he? I didn’t know.” Her voice is flat and doesn’t hold any of the humor I’m used to.

  “What’s wrong?” I ask.

  Reed comes back into the room, his eyebrows furrowed wondering what he’s missing. He wraps his arms around my stomach from behind, kissing my neck.

  “I saw the tax attorney.”

  “Is he hot? You’ve been into good guys lately and what tax attorney isn’t a good guy, right?” I giggle when Reed nips at my neck.

  “Hey now,” he whispers.

  “He’s not a good guy, Vic.” She sounds near hysteria as she sucks air in and out of her lungs. “He’s my ex-husband!” she screams.

  Oh, shit.

  The End

  What is Chelsea going to do?

  Find out in Charity Case Book 2, Afternoon Delight.

  CLICK HERE

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  Cockamamie Unicorn Ramblings

  The Charity Case Series was born from an idea for a book Elisabeth (Piper) had before we decided to form Piper Rayne. It was going to be called Divorcee Dating (did you catch the term in the book?) and she’d written the blurb and everything.

  * * *

  So, in order to turn her idea of one book into three, we had to find two more women. After writing The Manny and introducing you to Hannah Crowley, we knew she was born from Elisabeth’s idea and her book, Happy Hour (Book #3) would be the story Elisabeth had in mind originally. Not that it was Happy Hour at the time, we just knew she was our woman to take on the task.

  * * *

  The only thing we did want was three women who had been introduced in previous books to get their own. It’s easy to write snarky and quick witted secondary characters. We’re not in their heads. They can say a funny line and disappear into the darkness. Add on the fact, we needed them to be divorced. It was tricky to figure out who the other two women would be.

  * * *

  Let’s talk Victoria, since Manic Monday is her book. You’ll have to wait for Chelsea until Afternoon Delight. Sorry, but we can’t give you all the intel.

  * * *

  When Victoria was written in The Manny originally, you were given a short glimpse of her character as Jagger’s assistant. We didn’t know then that she would get her own book. The fact that she had a kid was just kind of thrown in there when Payne spilled his drink on her desk. Actually, the fact she was hiding having a kid was supposed to say more about Jagger than it was about Victoria.

  * * *

  By Jagger’s book, Chore Play, we thought Victoria might get her own book at some point. Her and Jagger sparring was just so fun to write. I think we didn’t want to say good-bye. We added an ex-husband and the decided the kid would be a seven-year-old daughter. All we had to do was get her to relocate from L.A. to Chicago. And that’s when we decided that she’d only do that if it were to help out someone she loved dearly.

  * * *

  Some of you are probably saying, yeah, yeah, we like Victoria, but give us the skinny on Reed.

  * * *

  Reed sure is dreamy, right? In our plotting, we knew we wanted the guys in Charity Case to be different than others we’ve written. We wanted to do another series with only the heroines POV (sorry dual POV lovers, but we’ll be writing some extra scenes in Reed’s POV as bonus material). We agreed he needed to be a good guy—not a player or a bad boy. Someone who would pull Victoria out of her self-imposed dating hibernation and make her realize how beautiful and strong she is.

  * * *

  Fun fact on how fast our stories can change. Reed was just going to be an attorney, but he was never going to be their best man until we were writing the blurb and realized what’s the conflict again? Since we’d never done an ex best friend storyline before it was a winner.

  * * *

  That’s about all the 411 on Manic Monday.

  * * *

  Our usual dream team plus a few new additions who need a round of applause.

  Letitia from RBA Designs for the amazing covers. From the first Manic Monday she sent, we were in love. This series is actually Piper’s favorite of all of ours. So far anyway! ;)

  Ellie from Love N Books for line editing. Thank you for dealing with our usual question, “we’ll have it next week, how fast can you turn it around?”

  Shawna from Behind the Writer for her eagle eye proofreading skills and making sure everything flows.

  Sarah Ferguson and Social Butterfly PR for their organization, patience and help on not only Charity Case Series but on a daily basis.

  All the bloggers who carve out time to read and review our books. For the teasers you make, the word you spread, the messages you sent. It only spurs our excitement for the next book.

  Our first readers of a really shitty, unedited copy—Heather, Angela and newbie, Tina.

  This is the first time we reached out to some of our readers for help. Neither one us knew much about Multiple Sclerosis and we didn’t want to write something we knew nothing about. Thank you to Tina Morgan, Melissa Godwin Lane, Anna Fay and Heather Fueger. We are sorry that this disease has touched your life in either yourself being diagnosed or a close friend or family member. Your information was invaluable. Though it wasn’t the basis of the story itself, we did want to make sure we portrayed Victoria’s mother accurately.

  All our early ARC readers, first for wanting to read our stuff early and for posting their reviews.

  And of course, all our unicorns. <3 Your excitement and enthusiasm for our characters keep our inspiration on overdrive. We are thankful each day to have every one of you Unicorns in our corner.

  Next up is Chelsea! It’s no surprise that according to the poll in our Unicorn Facebook group that Lennon and Jasper have to make an appearance. Now to weave that in…huh? We cannot wait for you to get Chelsea’s book because Dean might be the complete opposite of Reed except for the fact, he’s going to win her over whether she believes him or not.

  * * *

  xo,

  Piper & Rayne

  * * *

  BTW – There was just something about Pete. Yeah, he wasn’t the best husband the first time around, but we think there’s something endearing about him. Should we straighten him out and make him deserving of his own book? We kinda want to write one…

  About the Author

  Piper Rayne, or Piper and Rayne, whichever you prefer because we’re not one author, we’re two. Yep, you get two USA Today Bestselling authors for the price of one. Our goal is to bring yo
u romance stories that have "Heartwarming Humor With a Side of Sizzle" (okay...you caught us, that's our tagline). A little about us... We both have kindle’s full of one-clickable books. We're both married to husbands who drive us to drink. We're both chauffeurs to our kids. Most of all, we love hot heroes and quirky heroines that make us laugh, and we hope you do, too.

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  Also by Piper Rayne

  The Modern Love World

  Charmed by the Bartender

  Hooked by the Boxer

  Mad about the Banker

  * * *

  The Single Dad’s Club

  Real Deal

  Dirty Talker

  Sexy Beast

  * * *

  Dirty Truth

  The Manny

  Doggie Style

  Chore Play

  * * *

  Bedroom Games

  Cold as Ice

  On Thin Ice

  Break the Ice

  * * *

  Charity Case

  Manic Monday 4.26.18

  Afternoon Delight 5.31.18

  Happy Hour 7.12.18