Reluctantly, a stench ridden Darlene headed back to the shower. The combination of the file folders and Krysten were never good pairing. She rinsed and conditioned her hair, and gave her body a good scrubbing. A spark was flowing through her and whatever her friend had in those folders actually gave her something to look forward to and she found herself again, forming a tentative smile. Something else she hadn’t done in a very long time.
The smile came to a quick stop when she spotted the greasy box which held the worst pizza in the city, the cheap-o bottle of wine and the cheese eating grin on Krysten’s face.
Darlene said aloud what she was thinking, “I am scared.”
“Scared of what?” Krysten asked.
A small bite was taken out of the pizza which coagulated in her mouth when combined with the cheap red wine.
“I am terrified of what you have come up with and what is inside of those folders,” Darlene said as she took a seat on a barstool at the counter top. “I am kind of excited, but scared at the same time.”
“You should be excited. In those folders are four fun filled weekends! I have plane tickets for four exciting getaways. We are going to New Orleans, Orlando, somewhere in Amish country Pennsylvania and our last stop is Wyoming,” Krysten said as she shoveled in her rather large mouth a large slice of the dripping pizza.
Darlene wasn’t biting. “I am not on the hook yet. Why these four cities?”
“Because I have plane tickets,” she said with a grin.
“Why do you have plane tickets to these four particular places Krys?”
“There are four men that we are going to meet,” she said calmly.
“Why are we going to meet four men in those four locations?”
Krysten was smiling. “Because each of them have proposed to you and we are going to pick you out a husband.” She smiled at her friend. “This is good wine; can you pass me some more?”
“No! No wine for you! You need to explain to me why four men I don’t even know have proposed marriage to me...Krys, what have you done?” A sweat bead rolled in between her breasts as she thought of meeting men again.
Krysten rounded the island to pick up the $5 bottle of wine she grabbed from some truck stop on the I-95.
“Darlene, you are an accomplished woman, but unfortunately, you are one of those sisters who have to have a man to feel complete,” she told her.
“I do not! I am in mourning! My entire family died in a car crash! You don’t just wake up and get over that Krys,” she said with a trembling voice full of emotion.
“Yeah. That is sad,” she paused, “I cannot imagine your agony, but it was 4 years ago. Yes, your family is dead, but you aren’t. You can get mad at me if you want to but I am doing this for your own good.”
This was too much. Darlene stood up and pointed to the door. “Krys, you have over-stepped. I want you to leave.”
Krysten took a seat as she poured herself more wine. “I ain’t going no damned where, well at least not until next weekend when we climb aboard that plane to the Big Easy...I am having beignets and coffee...I don’t want any of that other stuff that they throw in a bowl with sausage and shrimp. That stuff smells like ass,” she said in a huff. She mumbled under her breath, “It kinda smells like you did before you showered.”
“I am not frickin’ kidding with you Krys! This is unacceptable. How in the world did you even...”?
Krysten softened her voice, “Darlene, I know your hurt. I have spent every weekend with you since your family was taken away, and each week you climb deeper and deeper into the black abyss of nothing. You are my friend and I love you. You have left me no option in saving you from yourself...”
“So you are going to marry me off to one of these four men?”
“I have worked hard over the last six months to narrow down these four gentlemen to help you find your purpose again,” she said.
“...my purpose...?”
“Yes, your purpose,” Krysten said. “Before your purpose was to work hard, save the planet for your children and your grandchildren. You worked like a horse to get all of these nice things and now none of them have meaning to you anymore. You took legislation to the head in Washington and fought some big corporate monsters. There are laws on the books that you enacted which protect our lakes, rivers, and streams. That is no longer your fight. Your new fight is for your sanity. You have to find a new purpose, find a new man to love that needs you and build a new life.”
“What if I don’t want to?”
“I will not let you die alone in this mausoleum. It is time to start breathing again, Darlene. We are going to get you a husband and get you back to living,” she said.
In some ways she wanted to cry but her tear ducts had dried out a while ago. “You think it is going to be that simple?”
“It may be that simple or that difficult. Either way, we are booked in nice hotels in three of the locations and the last one I think we have to stay at his cabin,” Krysten said.
“A cabin?”
“Yeah, he is some sort of master fitness hiking Park Ranger and that man is so fine, I saw that pic of him and was straight for a whole 30 seconds! Gurl, I even felt some moisture in my girl cave.” Krysten fanned herself as if she were having a hot flash.
Darlene began to laugh.
“That is a beautiful sound. I have missed it,” Krysten told her.
“Fine. I will go along to get out of the house, but I am not making any promises,” she said.
“All we need is to start. These four are a great beginning. I am not certain you will like any of them, or you may fall in love with all four of them, but if not, we start over. They paid for the tickets, we paid for the hotels,” she said.
Darlene’s heart was racing as her eyes looked over at the folder. “Okay. I am braced, let’s see what you got?”
Krysten was grinning. “I did the background checks and pulled financial histories...I also hired a private investigator to check their real backgrounds...” She said all of this as she brought the folders over to the couch, along with the cheap-o bottle of wine. She waved her hand for Darlene to join her.
“Wait,” Darlene said. “I need a decent bottle of wine before I can even start to hear you out.”
“Go on, get your fancy French wine. Let’s see who gets drunk first, me on this vintage bottle of good stuff aged for three weeks that I brought or that prissy pretentious bottle of grape juice you got!”
“I also need to make us something decent to eat. I cannot digest those slices of grease you brought over as food,” she said to Krys.
“If it goes in greasy...”
“I cannot believe you graduated from Harvard, you talk like you went to school in the middle of Country Central,” she said.
None of it mattered to Krysten. In the past thirty minutes, her friend of 30 years had laughed out loud and smiled twice. Moreover, she was going into the kitchen to cook. That was the first time she had seen either in four years. Pushing her was unfair, but love sometimes required less talk and more action. She was taking action to help her friend move forward.
In the end, what is important was her friend’s life.
Continuing Reading Darlene’s story
In one night, she lost everything she loved.
In one man she learned to love everything she lost.
A charming story filled with laughter about starting over. Starting over, never felt so damned good.
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1U6AGWL
Ibooks: http://apple.co/1WjMB1m
Kobo: http://bit.ly/1RHN1uB
Nook: http://bit.ly/2cK4Q1e
About the Author
Olivia Gaines is the award-winning bestselling author of Thursdays in Savannah. She also writes the best-selling serial The Blakemore Files. Olivia has been called a "queen of romantic comedy" and her romances are praised as "hilarious, touching, and heartwarming. Highly recommended!"
She lives in Hephzibah, GA with her husband, son and snotty cat, Katness
Evermean.
Connect with Olivia on her FB page at http://on.fb.me/1eorEAr or her website at http://ogaines.com.
@Oliviagaines
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Coming Soon!
Meet the Neary Brothers- Divine Intervention is their Specialty
Ezekiel
Gabriel
Isiah
Fall 2017
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Also by Olivia Gaines
Serenity Series
Welcome to Serenity
Holden
Farmer Takes A Wife
Welcome to Serenity
Slice of Life
Friends with Benefits
A New Mommy for Christmas
Slivers of Love
The Cost to Play
Thursdays in Savannah
The Blakemore Files
Being Mrs. Blakemore
Shopping with Mrs. Blakemore
Dancing with Mr. Blakemore
Cruising with the Blakemores
Dinner with the Blakemores
A Weekend with the Blakemores
The Davonshire Series
Courting Guinevere
The Value of A Man
My Mail Order Wife
A Weekend with the Cromwells
Standalone
Santa's Big Helper
A Menu For Loving
North to Alaska
Turning the Page
An Untitled Love
Wyoming Nights
Watch for more at Olivia Gaines’s site.
Table of Contents
Chapter One – Rise and Shine
Chapter Two – You Take One
Chapter Three – We Have a Plan
Chapter Four – Prepare the Guest Rooms
Chapter Five – Understanding Your Place
Chapter Six – Say What Now?
Chapter Seven – The Lady of the Land
Chapter Eight – Birthrights, Boys and Oh Boy!
Chapter Nine – Preparing...planning...praying.
Chapter Ten – You know who she is...
Chapter Eleven – Good God Man!
Chapter Twelve – Welcome, Welcome
Chapter Thirteen – Ninjas, Secret, Doors & More
Chapter Fourteen – ...And Twirl, Stop, Sashay and Twirl
Chapter Fourteen – An Elegant Evening
Chapter Fifteen – A Pig and a Poke
Chapter Sixteen – Tea, Taint and Tales...
Chapter Seventeen – A day of reckoning...
Chapter Eighteen – Who Presents this Child
Chapter Nineteen – Home, Sweet Home
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Also By Olivia Gaines
A Weekend with the Blakemores (The Blakemore Files Book 8) Page 17