Exquisite (45 page)

“Think she’d approve?” he asked watching
her closely. Lena raised their joined hands kissing his knuckles.

“Oh I know she does. She’s been
listening to me whine and complain about you for months.”

Laughing he reached out brushing a
strand of hair back from her face. “Oh really?”

“Yep.” she replied. “If anything
she’d approve just so I’d shut up.”

He leaned down and kissed her
quickly then looked at the tulips in his own hand. “Come on, one more stop to
make.”

Nodding Lena took his hand and
followed him back to the car. They drove a little ways around the curve and up
over a slight hill then pulled up in another familiar grassy field that was
lined with tombstones.

True, she thought as they got out
and made their way through the flowers and granite markers, some may think this
was a morbid tradition but to them it was a way to say hello and still talk to
the ones they loved. They finally stopped in front of Mason’s father and
Catherine’s grave. Lena looked over at the bouquet of tulips they’d put
together this morning at Precious Petals and watched as he crouched down
placing them at the head of the grass just in front of the head stone.

“Hey mom, I brought a stranger by.”

Lena gripped his hand when he stood
and he continued softly, “She said she hadn’t been by for awhile but we both
wanted to be the ones to tell you. You were right. Fate did bring her to you,”
Pausing Mason looked over at her and Lena felt a tear fall down her cheek. He
reached out and wiped it away, “Don’t cry this is happy news, she’d be
thrilled.”

He turned back gripping Lena’s hand
tight and announced, “And you brought her to me. We wanted you to be the first
to know mom.”

He reached out and wrapped his arm
around Lena’s shoulders, “We’re getting married.”

Lena felt him turn toward her and
pull her in close and kiss her nose. “You were right. I just needed to forgive
her, because after that everything was easy. I love her.”

He took her hand in his and smiled
then they turned to move away, but before they were clear of the site Lena
turned and whispered over her shoulder.

“Just so you know I fought tooth
and nail for him. We saved each other.”

Looking down at her Mason tilted
his head and Lena smiled and answered, “Don’t worry it’s just a little
something between your mom and me.”

He kissed her nose whispering, “I
love you.” and they walked back to the car hand in hand.

 Lena could quiet honestly say
life was perfect at this moment. In fact she would even venture out and say it
was absolutely
Exquisite.

To learn more about this author,
please visit her blog at:

http://ellafrank30.wordpress.com/

or you can find her on Facebook.

Exquisite is Ella Frank’s debut
novel, published in July 2012.

Keep
reading for a peek at Shelly’s story.

 Book
2 in the Exquisite Series

2008

“I can’t believe
you just asked me that.” Shelly fumed, hands on hips mouth open.

“Why? Come on
Shel. It’s not like you don’t have the money. $3000.00 is nothing.” Adam
pointed out as he sat on the couch looking at her.

Shelly took a
deep breath and turned around to walk over to the kitchen. When she got there
she spotted the knife block and thought,
better not tempt myself
, and
turned to make her way to the window instead.

After two years
of bailing out her, wanna be entrepreneur slash inventor boyfriend, she’d
finally snapped at his latest idiotic idea. Up until now, most of his
‘inventions’ had been semi plausible, and she’d been able to convince herself
that he’d make enough money one day to pay her back. However, several thousands
of dollars later she was still out the cash and he was still sitting at home on
her
couch
cooking up the next greatest idea. Which according to Adam was
the
Twirl-A-Cone
? Shelly raised her hand and squeezed the bridge of her
nose.
Honestly who did he think needed a motorized ice-cream cone?
More
to the point she thought
, is this who I want to share DNA with and possibly
have raising my children? Is this who I want to support for the rest of my
life?
 The immediate and very obvious answer was
hell no.

“I can’t do this
anymore.” she said shaking her head.

“Do what?” Adam
demanded.

Shelly turned to
face him and noticed he’d stood and was glaring at her.

“This.” she
motioned back and forward between them. Adam arched a brow and crossed his arms
over his chest.

She tried to
look at him objectively, as though she’d never met him. He was standing in her
living room dressed in doc martens that were unlaced, he had on his scruffy
blue jeans that had a rip across his left butt cheek, she knew from staring at
his ass one too many times, and on top he was wearing a blue flannel shirt. She
wanted to like what she was looking at. She wanted to remember why entering
into this relationship had been a good idea, but as he stood there glaring at
her she just couldn’t see it.

“You don’t like
the new idea? I mean come on! It’s great. How often do you see someone twisting
an ice,”

“Stop. Please
God just stop.” she interrupted. “I’m done with this Adam, as in us. It’s just
not working anymore. I’ve been thinking about it for weeks and now this, well
this whole ice cream thing? It’s a
ridiculous
idea! I’m not even
remotely interested in giving you money.”

Shelly noticed
the minute what she was saying hit him. In all honesty she couldn’t tell if he
was more pissed off about her breaking up with him or for telling him his idea
essentially, well sucked.

“You’re such a
snob Shelly.”

“Excuse me? I’m
not a snob.”

“Yeah you are.
The whole time we’ve been together you’ve looked down your nose at me.”

Shelly blinked
slowly feeling her temperature rise quickly. In fact, if she had to guess she’d
venture out and say her fair skin was probably turning a nice fuming shade of
pissed off and steam was probably starting to leak out her ears. This fight
wasn’t a new one, their whole relationship Adam always accused her of being a
snob when it came to blue collar workers and up until this moment she’d never
even entertained the thought. Up until this
exact
moment.

“You know what?
For once you’re right Adam. I’m sick and tired of giving you money to sit at home,
my
home and come up with these stupid dead end ideas that you never
follow through with. I’ve got to admit, up until now
most
have had an
inkling of making it but this one? Wow, this one really blows. So yeah. I guess
you can call me a snob because I want a man who’ll go out get a job. Oh and
here’s a novel idea. Keep it! So if that means no more blue collars, then
finally you’re right.”

Adam came around
the table and moved over to stop right in front of her. Looking down he
sneered. “You’ve always been such a fucking Princess.”

Shelly felt like
he’d slapped her. Her father called her that and honestly he didn’t mean it in
an endearing manner either.

“I think you
need to leave.” she told him through clenched teeth.

“What about all
my stuff?”

Shelly glared up
at him, not one to be intimidated. “You can come and pick up your
one
suitcase tomorrow.”

“Well Dr Monroe.
I’d love to say it’s been a pleasure but well, even the sex these last few
months just hasn’t been that great.” and with that he turned and grabbed his
cell phone from the table.

Shelly glared
holes in his back as he walked to the door. 
Asshole, like the five
minutes he spent on top of her was the highlight of her week!
Without a
backward glance he walked out slamming the door behind him. It crashed shut
with a resonating boom and as Shelly stood in her empty living room she made a
promise to herself,
no man would ever use her again.
She decided to only
date a man who could give her what she needed and
not
rely on her to be
the soul provider, and it was a promise she intended to keep.

2011

Shelly knocked
on the front door of
Exquisite
then took a step back and turned to watch
the cars as she waited. It was mid May and had just turned 7.30pm on a Monday
night. Ever since Lena and Mason had got engaged back in February they’d moved
the traditional Langley family dinner down to the restaurant. Lena had told her
it just hadn’t felt right to any of them to go to the cottage without Catherine
there. So they’d switched to the restaurant, which worked out well because
Exquisite
was closed on Monday’s. Somehow, ever since Lena had been welcomed back into
the Langley family unit, Shelly too had found herself adopted by them. Hearing
the click of the lock Shelly turned to see Mason pushing open the door.

“Dr Monroe.” he
greeted as he reached out and pulled her into a tight hug.

Shelly went
gladly, after all it was
Mason Langley
, and she wasn’t going to pass up
a chance to get her hands on his sexy self, even if he was engaged to her best
friend.

“Mason. How are
you tonight?”

“Great, just
great. Get in here. The food’s cooking, the wine’s open and Lena’s at the bar
making margarita’s.”

Shelly smiled as
he tugged her through the door. Making her way inside she looked to her left
and saw her friend standing behind the huge mahogany bar that ran down the side
of the restaurant. Lena raised a hand waving at her. Shelly shrugged out of her
coat and smiled as Mason took it from her.

“Full service
tonight Chef?”

As he grinned
she watched matching dimples appear and he winked, “Nothing but the best here
at
Exquisite
.”

Nodding Shelly
tugged at her tight little red skirt, “That’s actually true, including your
alcohol. So I’m going to go over to your woman and grab some.”

“Let her know
I’ll be in the kitchen if she needs me.”

Shelly was
already making her way toward the bar when she tossed over her shoulder, “Will
do.”

Smiling at Lena,
Shelly stopped in front of her friend and colleague. “Where’s my usual Cosmo
huh?”

Lena arched a
brow, “Sit down. Tonight you’re trying
Maggie’s Margarita
.”

“Oh am I?”
Shelly questioned, watching as her friend started to salt the four large
glasses in front of her.

“Yep. You, Rach
and Wendy are my guinea pigs.”

“Lucky us.”
Sighing Shelly looked around at the now familiar bar and dining room.

“Hey what’s up?”
she heard Lena ask.

Turning to face
her friend she shrugged then shook her head, “Nothing. I’m just feeling sorry
for myself.”

Lena frowned and
reached over the bar to grip Shelly’s hand. “Well you shouldn’t. You’re
wonderful and we all love you.”

“I know you do,
but I can’t have sex with you.”

Lena laughed
pulling her hand back to pick up the pitcher of drink. “Oh! I see. It’s
that
kind of feeling sorry for ourselves.”

Shelly picked up
a small straw from the container on the bar and started to chew on it. She blew
out a breath and felt her blond hair ruffle against her cheek.

“Yeah it’s that
kind of,
I feel sorry for myself.
I hate being sexually frustrated.” she
whined. “It sucks. Well not literally, obviously, but you know what I mean.”

Lena rested a
hip against the bar and pushed a margarita toward her. “Actually no I don’t. I
never felt like that before,”

“Before your sex
god turned up?” Shelly asked feeling a huge grin slide onto her face as Lena
predictably stiffened and turned into her usual prudish self.

“Sex god?
Really? Please don’t say that around him. The man already has a huge ego; you
don’t need to feed it.”

Shelly picked
her drink up took a sip and swallowed the tart icy liquid down. Smiling she
nodded. “Ok. But I’m right aren’t I?”

Grinning Lena
picked her own glass up sipping. Looking over the rim at Shelly she replied,
“Oh yeah.”

“Lucky bitch.”

Josh Daniels was
having a bad day. He’d just come from his lawyer’s office, at Mitchell &
Madison, and he was not happy. His last employer was trying to skip out on the
final installment payment stating that his company had gone over by two days.
Stupid
prick
, he thought,
if they hadn’t gone over he would’ve ended up with shit
work, and then knowing the slimly little worm, would’ve sued for that too!
Not to mention it’d rained for the last three weeks so it had pushed back their
schedule anyway. He was definitely
not
having a good day.

Josh had decided
to move back home after he broke things off with Melissa a little over six
months ago. Originally he’d moved to L.A. because she’d wanted to pursue an
acting career,
cue the curtains and the eye rolling on his behalf
. Turns
out the quickest way she saw to get to the top was by being on top, of the
director.
Was it really so hard these days to find a nice, sweet attractive
woman who’d want to settle down and marry?
Apparently it was, because here
he was back in cold ass Chicago, which was currently rainy Chicago, making his
way over to his buddy’s new restaurant, alone.

Mason Langley,
he hadn’t seen the guy for a little over two years. When they’d gone to school
together then college, they’d been trouble with a capital T. He remembered many
parties involving lots of hot girls and even hotter nights. They’d spent those
formative years, as they liked to call it,
networking.
Yeah,
he
thought,
networking their way into girls’ beds, cars, dorm rooms and
parent’s holiday homes.
Pretty much you think of a place, and they’d been
there and done
that,
there.
Yep
, Josh thought with a grin,
it
was going to be good to meet up with his old friend.