Focusing on other people’s problems sometimes helped Sage feel less like a loser. After walking into the small, spotless kitchen and turning on the teakettle, she sat down and rolled her shoulders. The pot finally whistled and she added cocoa mix to her cup, stirred in the hot water, and topped it off with a nice fat dollop of whipped cream. She grabbed a package of cookies to round out her meal, and she soon found herself stretched out on the sofa.
“Mmm, this is exactly what the doctor ordered,” she said with a smile.
But the smile fled when she looked down at her feet. It was past time for the wretched shoes to come off, and Sage didn’t know whether she could bend far enough to undo them.
“I’ll never know if I don’t try. Hey, maybe I should seek psychiatric help for talking to myself. I’d probably get a professional discount.” Her words made her giggle. Maybe it was good Grace wasn’t home.
Suddenly, the lyrics “rub my feet, gimme something good to eat” were running through her head. If she had even an ounce of energy left, she’d get up and put on her Shania Twain CD. Too bad she had no honey to come home to.
Just as she’d finished her hot chocolate and was beginning to nod off on the couch, the doorbell rang, making her sit straight up, then cry out at the kink in her neck. Rubbing her neck, she walked almost in a haze toward the front entry and opened the door like a zombie. Yes, she might have looked through the peephole first, but this was Sterling, Montana, where crime was a foreign word.
Okay, maybe some crime happened. There was the cow tipping, after all.
“Are you Sage Banks?”
“Yes?” She waited.
“I have a delivery for you. Sign here.”
Sage took the clipboard and signed, and the man handed her a long, surprisingly heavy box and told her to have a nice day.
Oooh, she couldn’t remember when she’d last received flowers. Come to think of it, she never had. Smiling, she took the box to the table and grabbed a kitchen knife, cut it open, then gasped at the aroma drifting upward. Inside were a dozen stargazer lilies, a couple of dozen pink roses, and so much greenery that it looked like a nursery was having a going-out-of-business sale.
After taking the flowers out carefully, she opened up the package inside the box and found a stunning crystal vase.
“Grandma?” she thought out loud before picking up the card.
I look forward to working with you. See you tonight.
Spence
Though she struggled valiantly not to be thrilled, she still couldn’t stop the smile from breaking across her face as she filled the vase with water and began arranging the flowers inside it. She’d be sure to have a sore back from lifting the thing, but it was well worth it. She inhaled the fragrance of the flowers as she placed them in the center of the kitchen table.
After admiring them for several minutes, she turned her back and let the smell follow her from the room. The flowers were a welcome surprise, but she was going to have to let Spence know that he was her boss, and nothing more. They would have a strictly professional, working-only relationship. She’d have to discourage him from any further signs of hot pursuit.
A man like him was only out for the challenge, anyway. For probably the first time in his life, a woman wasn’t falling at his feet, and he didn’t know what to do. There were two possible outcomes for her. She could trip over her own feet in gratitude and he’d grow bored in a flash, or she could continue giving him the cold shoulder.
Either way, he’d eventually get tired of the game and it would end. At least if she shunned his advances, she’d have her pride when it was all over. Heaven forbid that she descend into the depths of obsession with that man again.
As she reached her room, she knew taking a nice long bath was out of the question. The second she climbed into the tub, she’d be out like a broken bulb and would probably drown beneath the water. As appealing as eternal rest sounded right then, she loved her life—for the most part—and had no desire to be found wrinkled, bloated, and blue in a bathtub.
After a quick shower, she dragged herself from the bathroom and practically fell into bed.