Turning a New Paige

by Ginny B. Nescott

  After setting the alarm to play the radio station Mr. Hager mentioned, Paige dropped the robe, slid into bed beside her Groundhog Man, and kissed his cheek. “Is this room, meant to be? Are we meant to be?”

  He shifted, spooned around her, and mumbled in his sleep. “Mmm hmm. Meant to be sleeping.”

  She yawned. Maybe he was right. Then again, maybe both men were right. She snuggled in tight to his warmth and fell asleep soundly.

  ****

  “I got you, Babe! I got you, Babe!” As the song ended, a voice came over the radio, “That’s right folks. It’s Groundhog Day. You voted. We will be playing at least part of that song on the hour, every hour today. Happy Groundhog Day! A big screen viewing of the movie will be shown tonight at…”

  Paige reached over and pushed some button on the radio alarm. Click!

  She stretched, still exhausted. The sky was dark. How early was it? Not early. Already ten in the morning. She patted the covers. No Groundhog Man. The long drive without sleep and the events of the last few days claimed her. She rolled over, yanked up the covers, and fell back asleep.

  “…say we’re young and we don’t know.”

  “Huh?” Paige reached for the noise and the button, but the alarm clock fell and kept playing, louder now. The familiar lyrics blasted until she could scramble to reach the clock.

  Click!

  “Great. Now that song’s going to be playing in my head all day. Thanks, Mr. Hager.” Paige stretched again and sat up fully this time. Eleven a.m. His side of the bed wasn’t even warm anymore. She looked around the room. Unfamiliar but enchanting with flocked crimson wallpaper, Victorian ottomans, and brocade lace. She climbed out of bed and dragged her hand over the deep rose velvet of the settee. Walnut and mahogany furniture pieces made it feel like a movie set. One in which, she was underdressed. No hoop skirt. In fact, no clothing at all. She never walked naked back in Buckhead. Somehow, she enjoyed it here.

  “Michael? Michael Yadalotta?”

  No Groundhog Man. If he were within ear shot, he would have definitely responded to that tease of muddling his middle name.

  Paige poked about the room further. His computer was closed on the desk, and his was luggage close at hand. She stretched and balanced, even bending to a few yoga moves and finishing with a smile at how well she slept. How unusually well.

  A small tray of tidbit snacks was on a table. She had plans for those after freshening up. Opening a few drawers on the desk, she found his charger. Her phone was dead, and that charger looked to be the right kind. She plugged in her phone and readied herself. The snow and ice had already started again. Today, would be a very interesting day, and she wanted to be part of it.

  A half hour later with the tray of empty dishes in her hands, Paige left the room, closing the door but leaving it unlocked. She had dared to look inside his luggage and removed a sweater. She also took some wooly looking socks. Without her shoes, which she’d left somewhere downstairs to dry, the stripy socks were the next best choice.

  She was a mish mash of fashion, her jeans and shirt under his sweater and socks. Her panties were MIA. Something no Southern girl would normally allow, but without luggage, she had no choice. She’d loosely braided her dirty blonde hair but didn’t have a tie so she wrapped the end in dental floss. The look? Anything but model-ready but hopefully huggable on her small frame.

  As she padded down the stairs, voices drifted up. She stopped to listen, squatting with the clattery tray still in her hands.

  “Glad the simple breakfast was to your liking,” said a jovial woman’s voice.

  A man murmured something. Was that Groundhog Man?

  “Of course, no problem with staying the extra day, Mr. Lukas. I had no idea you had your fiancé with you. Months ago, you mentioned one,” the female said.

  Paige tried to hear more but their voices grew quieter. Fiancé? What was Groundhog Man saying? The woman laughed, startling Paige enough to clink a dish. She rose and nearly fell trying to get her bearings as she walked down the thickly carpeted stairs.

  “Here she comes now, uh…trippingly.” Michael, her handsome Groundhog Man, looked so fitting, standing in slacks and cashmere sweater by the ornate fireplace, cellphone in hand and earbud in one ear. GQ? Something more international with his skin tone.

  Paige held tight to the tray as it wobbled in her hands when she saw him.

  “Oh dear, let me take that from you,” the kindly woman said. “You didn’t have to bring that down, but this old thing does appreciate it.”

  “You’re not old,” Paige and Michael said in unison. Paige’s cheeks flushed a bit.

  “How about I put this in the kitchen and leave you two alone for a moment? Come in when you’re ready for a coffee, though, since I don’t have the afternoon station set up yet.” The woman beamed, cheeks rosy, hair gray, breasts full and threatening to bump into everything on the tray as she walked to the kitchen, hips swaying.

  Paige looked at Michael, who removed his ear bud, and without hesitation, pulled her into his arms in an alcove of the room. He broke the next-day ice with a tender morning kiss, and she with a hug of satisfaction.

  “How’s my sleepy head?”

  “Rested now.” Paige couldn’t help smiling.

  “I know. I took conference calls down here since I didn’t want to wake you.”

  “Sorry. Normally, I’m a pretty early riser. I think driving through the night got to me. Plus, someone woke me up last night.”

  “Oh? I thought it was the other way around. Maybe it was the snowplow. They can be so loud.” Before she could object, he kissed her again. This time, his arms drew her tight to him, and he took full advantage of the hidden alcove.

  Her hand wove into his silken dark hair as he held her. The kiss deepened. Something tugged inside her, and she melted to him until he broke from the kiss.

  “I have more calls and business, Flee. We can tend to your car after the storm slows down. Mind if I have a little time upstairs to work?”

  “Uh-huh.” Paige said dreamily.

  He gave her a strange look.

  With a deep breath, she came back to reality. “I mean, no, go ahead. I’ll keep myself busy. Oh, I borrowed your charger, if that’s okay.”

  “That sweater looks familiar, too.”

  “Want it back?” Paige teased with a giggle, tugging at the light toned grayish sweater.

  “If it were my sweat pants, I would have said yes, just to see what you would do.” He smiled as he toyed with her braid, eyeing the dental floss-tie invention. “It looks good on you by the way, Flee. Is this a Southern thing, or do you just look good in most things?”

  “You’re just flattering me so you can have your way with me.”

  “Hardly. If I were having my way with you, you would not be clothed at all and you would be making sounds much different from that little giggle of yours.” He touched her face and kissed her with his now familiar soft moan. His phone beeped, he inhaled and exhaled, shaking his head. He clicked the button on his earbud. “Lukas here. Shoot…”

  He motioned something about taking the call and flew up the stairs, Paige watching his every move.

  Chapter Five

  “Hello,” Paige said, drawing out the word with her accent as she entered the kitchen. The woman was swallowing a bite of something and nearly choked. “Sorry for interrupting. You said something about coffee?”

  “Come on in, sweetie. Have a seat. I’m Jenny, but everyone calls me Cookie. Not very inventive, but I still like it.” The woman appeared to be in her late sixties and wore her age happily. “I’d offer you a donut, but that was the last.”

  “No more donuts. I am all dough-nutted out.” Her drawl thickened whenever she met new people.

  “Then let me get that coffee going. Or is tea better?” Cookie opened a cabinet.

  “Either. I’m Paige by the way.” Paige saw that the cook was rubbing and wringing her hands as her grandmother had. “Here, let me help you.” She pulled
out a couple mugs instead of the more expensive, delicate cup and saucer sets Cookie had been reaching for. “I like these better anyway. Would you join me? Michael has some work to do upstairs.”

  “Love to, but I need to finish these dishes first,” Cookie said over the running of the hot water in the sink.

  “Don’t you have a dishwasher?”

  “Yes, but, this cold, icy weather gets to me.” Cookie held up her hands, wiggling her stiff fingers.

  “My grandmother used to soak her hands to ease her joints, too. She had arthritis as long as I knew her. Smart woman. She passed over a year ago.”

  “Sorry to hear that.”

  Paige nodded. “I’m going to visit my aunt about an hour away from here, to help clean out and fix up my grandparent’s home to sell. Mom says Auntie isn’t making much progress so I might be the kick in the butt she needs.”

  The two fell into relaxed chatter, both washing in warm sudsy water until the dishes were done. Coffee mugs were filled. Paige added extra whole milk, something she never did at home—watching her weight—but she felt as if she were on some kind of vacation.

  She eyed a deck of well-worn cards. “Do you play Gin?”

  “Plain or Rummy 500?”

  “Rummy 500 if you have time. It’s been so long since I played it. Unless you cheat.”

  “I can try not to,” Cookie said with a wink.

  Soon, the cards were shuffled and dealt. Rounds swung in and out of each’s favor. They spoke more, where Paige was from, her accent, Michael’s birthday, and then Cookie asked the inevitable questions about being engaged to him.

  Paige looked up. “I’m not really his fiancé. I’m not sure what I am. Maybe his rebound and he’s mine? You’re not going to kick me out, are you?”

  Cookie laughed. “Not hardly. He is a prince though. Known him for some time. From how he looks at you, though, and the way you two went at it this morning, there might be something there, don’t you think?”

  Paige blushed. “You saw?”

  “Only a peek. Okay most of it.”

  “You are a cheater.”

  “Learning to be. Gin. Again.” Cookie gleefully wrote down the score. “So why does he call you Flea? Is there something cleaning wise we should know about you?”

  “Ha. Ha. He means flee as in run away. I sorta just left Atlanta because I lost a job and ditched my immature ex-boyfriend in Buckhead in the process.” Paige realized what she had spilled so readily to yet another stranger. “I think I said too much.”

  “Tut. Not hardly.”

  “I… Well, I didn’t mean to shock you about leaving one guy and then going with…” Paige pointed up, implying her Groundhog Man and the bedroom.

  “Shock? Ha. You ever hear of Woodstock? I was there. I had many a man in my time and still do when I get the chance.” Paige’s eyebrows shot up at her confession. Cookie waved her off. “So, you slept around a bit, big deal.” Cookie leaned back in her chair.

  “I didn’t sleep around.” Paige defended herself. “Only a couple college guys before Davis came along, and we moved in together in Buckhead.”

  “That’s it? You’re, what? Twenty something?”

  “Twenty-six.”

  “By your age, I must have had a dozen lovers come and gone.” Cookie stared off in thought. “More. It was a different time back then. No Snapchat, Twitter, Swiper, or anything like that. Free love. Now it’s all digital, isn’t it?”

  They both held to their mugs, silent for a moment. Then Cookie asked, “So what happened in Buckhead?”

  Paige explained how Davis had been upset about missing out on a vacation with pals when she lost her job and how he had then confessed to having no marriage intentions, blaming it on her college debt. “I was packing up to move out when I thought he was coming around. He said, ‘Don’t move out now.’ I stopped packing and asked why not. He had the nerve to say the game was about to start! The jerk.”

  “I would have kicked him,” Cookie shared.

  “We Southern girls don’t kick. I stomped on his foot…accidentally.” She got Cookie laughing at that. “You know the sad part of it all? When I asked if he ever loved me, you know what he said?”

  Cookie shook her head.

  Paige mimicked Davis’s voice with only the slightest hurt to the words, “‘Course I love you, bae. We all do.’ Like I was just part of his fraternity and some vapid replaceable girl. Greerster, as they usually called him, worried more about sport scores and going out with the group than being with me. And…”

  Cookie listened. Her sympathetic eyes encouraged Paige to continue.

  “…and I guess I let him. I think I liked the idea of being with someone, especially someone my brothers and family liked. I wonder if I really understood or connected with him. He wasn’t ever right for me, was he?”

  Cookie seemed to let the thought sink in. She looked up at Paige with sincerity pouring from her and shook her head. “No. Or at least it doesn’t sound like he was the one… I could joke with you and tell you to make up for lost time. That’s not you, is it? Just that, whatever is happening with you and Mr. Mc Handsome upstairs, that might be special. My eyes don’t lie to me about the chemistry you two share. He’s a rare breed. One of the good ones, I suspect. Maybe you two…well, who knows.”

  Cookie shook out of whatever deep thought she had. “Anyway, shoo, Paige. Go kiss that new man of yours and have yourself some fun. Let Atlanta slide to the past.”

  Paige rose, took a few steps, then came back and hugged Cookie. “You’re a good woman.”

  “Don’t let that get around. And here.” Cookie dug in the fridge and handed Paige a simple sandwich and a granola bar from the counter. “Doubt anybody’s making deliveries with this weather. In case you and birthday boy miss lunch—make that, I hope you miss lunch.”

  Paige would make sure she did. She ran up the stairs, not fleeing from something but running toward something. She still stumbled, though, on the thick stripy socks, completely forgetting her shoes.

  Chapter Six

  Perhaps being bolstered by her conversation in the kitchen or just seeing Michael, Paige’s heart raced as she entered the room. He had his headphones on and was working at the desk on the far side wall, staring at his laptop. The wind picked up outside again, leaving a burnish of ice coating the windows facing the street. His profile was lit, revealing his strong cheekbones, long nose, and firm chin. He was masculine with an authentic Native American air to him, something that made her want to touch him.

  She put down the meager lunch and tiptoed up to him, approaching from behind and reached over him. She nuzzled into his neck, slid her hands languidly down his arms, and drawled, “Happy Birthday, Groundhog Man!” She placed a loud kiss on his cheek with a “Mwwah,” and pulled back.

  Only then did she see the image on his computer screen of a board room full of people dressed in corporate attire. The people were laughing, and from the closeness of his earpiece, she could hear chuckles and a few comments.

  “Oh, it’s Michael’s birthday.”

  “Happy birthday.”

  One of the men snickered and called him Groundhog Man.

  Paige cringed.

  Michael tried to keep to the point, but she felt him stiffen. And not in a good way. “Okay, thank you. Just wanted to make sure all of you were awake with that diversion.”

  The man at the head of the table spoke with a booming voice, loud enough that Paige heard him through the earpiece, though she had ducked out of view. “Let’s review to make sure the rollout goes smoothly. Need to keep this grounded and don’t want to hog up any more of your time.”

  The board room joined the man in light laughter.

  Paige’s cheeks burned with embarrassment. Michael’s coloring flared, too. She mouthed “sorry” before grabbing her cell phone and running from the room.

  What had she done? She had no idea, but she knew to hustle out of harm’s way and fast. Having two older brothers taught her that long ago.r />
  Michael’s coat was hanging downstairs and her shoes were tossed nearby, but without her purse and wallet, she had to stay put. The snowfall with whipping gusts confirmed it. The soft settee looked inviting in what appeared to be a parlor or living room of sorts filled with ornate pieces, carved flourishes on furniture, and a beautiful fireplace. It was empty. This would be her new hideaway while Michael finished his work. She hoped he had a sense of humor. His workplace seemed to at least. Hopefully, it was still his workplace after the little show she’d accidentally put on. Thank heavens she’d had on clothes.

  Gripping her charged phone, she turned it on for the first time since her grueling car ride from Atlanta. Nine voice messages, fourteen texts, and she wasn’t going to even think about emails. First, she sent texts to her mother and aunt, telling of the delay due to the storm and that she was safe in a friendly bed and breakfast. Assuming the roads were clear, she expected to reach her aunt the next day at her grandparents’ home. She added a second text to her mom and said she loved her and not to tell Dad yet. She also reminded her not to let Davis know where she was as they had both agreed.

  The fun part started as she listened to the voice messages. The first one was from Davis. It almost tugged at her heart strings when he’d begged her to come back only to have him say something of her taking the laundry. Delete. Voice messages from Davis continued.

  “Hey there, Paigey. I know you are working off steam because you lost your job. So, uh, take your time. But think about heading back soon. Next month’s rent is due in a week—”

  Delete. The next one, too. Not to mention she hated being called “Paigey.” They only got better.

  “You took the lamp! I liked that lamp. I know you bought it, but it goes with the other furniture pieces you bought. You should—”

  Delete. She was not about to hear what she should do.

  “So, I texted you and you aren’t answering. Not so cool. I’m not sure what the lock thing on the dishwasher is and where the soap goes. At least you could—”