Whitney in Charge (18 page)

“It sounds like these pages are crucial to selling our show,” Shannon said.

“I like the fun factor point you listed,” Regan said. “I can contribute to making it fun.”

“I just thought of something else you can do.” Whitney touched a vase of daisies. “I bet you bought a premixed jumble of flowers that’s always next to the checkout stand. Am I right?”

Regan nodded. “I did for $7.99. Isn’t that a bargain? I guess you want me to pick up flowers for the set.”

She shook her head. “Sometime you can show how you buy a bouquet of flowers from the grocery store and make arrangements look chic at home. You do so much from one bundle. I noticed you grouped the daisies together, the roses together and made many mini arrangements.”

“Regan, you are creative. I just stick the whole bouquet in a vase,” Shannon said. “I saw you even had the filler ferns in a thin glass bottle in the bathroom.”

Whitney cleared her throat. “I have an idea I want to run by both of you. If Ben’s right about taking part of Cora’s slot for our show, I’m thinking it might be good to suggest she stay on three days a week and we pick up two of her days. We could take Tuesday and Thursday. I’d rather have an hour block instead of half an hour daily. Maybe eventually we can take three days and she can take two. How does that sound?”

Shannon gave her a broad smile. “I love it. I think she’ll like still having the biggest chunk of time, and having a whole hour will give us time to cover what we need to for the day’s program. Also we’ll have our own show separate from hers instead of sharing the hour with her.”

“I agree. I like the hour instead of having a shorter time daily. With commercials it wouldn’t even be thirty minutes of show time.” Regan touched her belly. “When I get pregnant, I’ll wear some cute maternity clothes like Elisabeth Hasselbeck on
The View
did.”

Whitney pulled her cell phone out of her purse. “I’m going to leave a message for Ben to give me a call. He’s in surgery but we need to make contact with Cora and her husband soon. I’m hoping she’ll want to meet with us after she gets out of the hospital. Or maybe before, depending on how she feels.”

“It makes it nice that Cora’s backer is her husband’s company.” Shannon glanced at her watch. “I better get a move on. I need to get there earlier today to run copies off for a test.”

After Whitney left a brief message for Ben, she said, “I’ll walk out with you. I have a doctor’s appointment.”

Regan walked them to the door and gave them hugs. “I’m glad you two are leaving, because I need time to work on my comedy skit before I have to get Lily.”

Shannon pointed her finger at Regan. “Don’t you dare write any sister jokes. Or not about me anyhow.”

“Hey, don’t stifle my creativity,” Regan protested. “I’ll start with husband and boyfriend jokes for our female audience.”

After leaving the porch, Shannon and Whitney walked to the driveway. When Whitney stopped by her car, she said, “I should sell this car. Rob bought it before we were married. It gets great gas mileage but I just don’t like it.”

From the front porch, Regan yelled, “Bye, you two.” She waved before going back inside the house.

Shannon leaned against Whitney’s car. In a choked voice, she said, “I wish Regan hadn’t done that. She looked like Mom. Remember how Mom used to wave to us from the porch whenever we left.”

“Except she stayed on the porch until we pulled out of the driveway. But yeah, you’re right. Regan looks like Mom a lot too.”

Through tear filled eyes, Shannon looked at Whitney. “I think you should sell your car and get something else. You know I loved Rob and hated it when he died. It was a terrible tragedy but something good came out of it. You moving back home has been a blessing. I never saw you very much when you lived in New York.”

She put her arm around Shannon’s shoulders. “I love being here with you and everyone. I’m the lucky one. And you agreeing to working with me on our new venture means a great deal to me.”

“Would you have gone ahead and started a business if I hadn’t wanted to?”

Whitney shook her head. “When I first mentioned it, I was trying to get you and Regan to forget about skydiving, and then I realized I wanted the three of us working together. You two are not just my sisters but my best friends.”

“Good because you’re stuck with us.” Shannon gave Whitney a quick hug. “I need to get to class.”

Before getting in her car, Whitney asked, “Hey, sis, when does your semester end?”

“I’m done teaching early in May. Don’t worry. I’ll be ready to censor Regan on our TV show.”

Whitney laughed. “I won’t tell her you said that. You’re the anchor we need to be successful.”

On Saturday Whitney enjoyed the quiet in the atrium. She wanted to relax and get as much out of this spa visit as possible. She’d promised Shannon and Regan that they’d get everything done: manicures, pedicures, massages and facials — the works. She could get used to this spa stuff. She even liked her face being covered with a mask made out of avocado and honey while cucumbers rested on her eyes. Half asleep, Whitney’s thoughts were interrupted by the massage therapist’s voice next door. Whitney heard her say, “Your muscles are tense. I guess your job as a firefighter is pretty stressful.”

Whitney knew it had to be a female getting a massage. Although there were spas for men in their town, this particular one was just for women. It had to be Anna.

She removed her cucumbers from her eyes. Watching her sisters take theirs off, Whitney put her finger to her lips to signal silence.

“Oh Lacey, I wish I could say it was only work related, but my muscles are probably tight now because I’m crazy about a firefighter I work with.”

“I’m sure you won’t have any problem there. You’re gorgeous.”

“Actually I thought he’d fall for me if I broke up with my boyfriend but that didn’t help.”

Was Anna talking about Casey? If she was, Anna better watch out for Regan’s claws, Whitney thought.

“I’m sorry,” Lacey said.

“He’s married. Why are the good ones always married?”

Whitney
glanced at Regan and Shannon. Their eyes widened and Whitney mouthed Casey to them.

Regan nodded and whispered, “I think so.”

“Anna, I hope you have better luck than I did. I was in a relationship with a married man, and he decided to stay with his wife because of the kids. Does this married firefighter have any kids?”

“He has an adorable daughter, Lily. He’s such a hottie. You wouldn’t believe it. I think of having sex with him all the time. I have erotic dreams of us being in bed together.”

Regan whispered with a hiss, “How dare the slut talk about screwing my husband. I’m going to wring Anna’s scrawny neck.”

Whitney quickly grasped Regan’s shoulders and said in a low voice, “Let’s get more dirt on her and we’ll go to your father-in-law. He needs to get her transferred to another fire station.”

Shannon stood near and pulled her belt tighter on the terry cloth robe. “Whitney’s right.”

They leaned closer to the thin wall. Whitney heard Lacey say, “He probably needs to see you as a woman and not just as a firefighter.”

“Believe me. I’ve tried. I wore a bikini in front of him for a calendar shot. He gave me a sexy swat on my butt so I was hopeful something might happen. But nothing did. I need more than a swat on the butt.” Anna sighed. “I get wet when I stand next to him. I can’t stand it much longer. I feel like grabbing him and unzipping his pants.”

Juice dripped on the floor from Regan squeezing her cucumber slice so hard. Oh no, Anna had it bad for Casey. It was worse than she had ever imagined.

“What’s his wife look like,” Lacey asked. “Is she a dog?”

“Unfortunately, she’s very pretty. And her hair is to die for. I thought about changing my hair color to auburn like hers.”

“I can see why you’re attracted to a fireman,” Lacey said. “I saw some good-looking ones when our apartment building caught on fire. I was disappointed I didn’t need to be carried out by one of them.”

Anna sighed. “If you saw Casey, you’d want more than to be carried out by him. You’d go wild.”

“Maybe you could get him to your place away from the firehouse.”

“I even tried that,” Anna said. “I bought furniture I didn’t need at a warehouse so I could ask him to move it to my apartment. Here he asks the guys to help him move the furniture. I never got to be alone with him.”

“This is terrible but maybe you could get him drunk and take advantage of him. And of course, get pregnant.”

Anna said, “Casey’s not going to drink when we’re at the fire station. His father’s the fire chief and Casey wants to be chief when his dad retires.”

“Why did you become a firefighter anyhow?” Lacey asked. “It’s so dangerous.”

“To be around a lot of testosterone.” Anna laughed. “No, I just always wanted to fight fires but a lot of the times, we get called for other things. Like people actually do call us to get their dumb cats out of trees. It’s so unnecessary because cats will eventually come down without any assistance.”

“I hope you find another guy who excites you like Casey.”

“There is one and he’s available,” Anna said.

Regan raised her eyebrows while she looked at Shannon and Whitney. Whitney shook her head, wondering what other guy Anna was interested in. Shannon shrugged her shoulders.

“Who is he?” Lacey asked.

“That’s the problem. He was married to my cousin. She wanted the divorce, but I don’t know how she’d feel if I dated her ex.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. He’s single now.”

“We both met him the same time. I thought he’d ask me out but instead he asked my cousin, Meredith.” Anna sneezed. “Excuse me.”

“Bless you.”

“Thank you. I was pretty young at the time. And get this, now he’s interested in Casey’s sister-in-law.”

Whitney’s jaw sagged as Regan mouthed, “Ben.”

Lacey said in a firm voice, “Don’t let that stop you. Is this sister-in-law even interested in him?”

“I trashed him quite a bit to Casey,” Anna said, “so I’m hoping he’ll tell her Ben’s not the greatest guy for her. I might have come on too strong with the negative stuff. If Ben finds out, he’ll be mad at me.”

“At least, you’ll get Ben’s attention and can apologize.”

“I did have a major crush on him. He’s good-looking. He has a little boy and he’s going to be a heartbreaker someday, just like his dad.”

“Anna, your time’s up. Good luck with the guy situation. I’d forget about Casey. You’re wasting your time on a married guy. I learned that the hard way.”

On the other side of the wall, Regan winked at Whitney and Shannon. She whispered, “Hey, I want Lacey for my massage therapist. She’s pretty terrific at giving advice.”

* * *

When the fireworks went off to celebrate a Reds homerun above the Ohio River, the crowd roared and clapped. Whitney let herself be caught up in the enthusiasm, jumping up from her seat to clap and whoop, cupping her palms around her mouth. She sat down, laughing, enjoying herself more than she had in a long time. When Jack had invited her to go to a baseball game on Wednesday, she’d hesitated even though she loved going to the stadium. They’d just gone out Saturday night. She wanted to take things slow and easy. But, in the end, she’d said yes.

And she was so glad she had.

Who was she kidding? She wanted to wrap her arms around him and kiss him until neither one of them could breathe. But she couldn’t smother his lips with hers during a baseball game. She took a quick glance at Jack. Regan was right — he did look a lot like Chris Pine. She wondered if Pine also loved baseball.

Jack tugged on her visor of her Reds baseball cap. “You look pretty cute in this cap.”

She took a bite of her nachos and cheese. “I like the eating part a lot at games.”

Jack glanced at the boy sitting a couple rows in front of them munching on popcorn. The delicious aroma of popcorn and butter drifted up to them. “I might have to buy popcorn too.”

“Please help me eat the nachos first.”

He dipped a chip in the cheese, popping it in his mouth. He licked off the melted cheese and salt from his fingertips. “I wish you hadn’t paid for the beer.”

“You bought the tickets. I wanted to pay for something.” She licked warm cheese off her finger. “So did you rescue any cliff climbers today?”

“Nope. I only rescue beautiful women on Mondays.”

“I’ll have to remember that. Since the pool’s open now and if it’s not too cold, we can go swimming after the game.” Why did she blurt that invitation out to him? Could she handle him if he got too intimate? She hated taking a step forward, then a step back again, but she was just confused about what she wanted from Jack.

“I’ll have to go home to get my trunks first.”

“I have several suits in different sizes.”

Jack smiled at her. “Do you collect trunks from your guests?”

She laughed. “No. Unless my mom did. People used to drop in a lot, and she’d invite them to go swimming with us. They didn’t have their suits. Mom bought a few girls’ suits and women’s and men’s in different sizes.”