Read Online Fairy Tale Weddings by Debbie Macomber - Free Book Online Page B

the words seemed to echo over and over in his mind.
    Thorne picked up the pearl comb and fingered it for the thousandth time in the past five days. He’d kept it with him constantly, seeking some clue from it, some solace. Hefound neither. He’d taken it to a jeweler and learned it was a fairly inexpensive comb that was perhaps twenty-five years old—certainly of little value beyond the sentimental. Too bad she hadn’t left a glass slipper behind like the real Cinderella. Then he could take it around the executive floor and try it on women’s feet to see if it would fit. Instead, his Cinderella had left him something useless. He couldn’t trace her with a common pearl comb.
    Other than that, Thorne had nothing with which to find Cindy. The crazy part was that he wasn’t completely sure he wanted to see her again. She’d lied to him, played him for a fool and mercilessly shattered his dreams—serious crimes for a woman he’d known less than five hours—and yet he couldn’t stop thinking about her. Every minute. Every day. He wanted to cast her from his mind; then and only then could he finally escape her.
    Thorne’s thoughts were followed by another thunderous sneeze. He pressed the intercom button and summoned Ms. Hillard. “Did you get that orange juice?” he asked.
    â€œIt’s on its way,” she informed him.
    â€œThank you.” Thorne pulled open the top desk drawer and grabbed the aspirin bottle. He felt miserable, in body and spirit.
    Â 
    Cindy inhaled a deep breath and forced herself to enter Thorne’s office. It was torture to be inside the room where he spent so much of his time. She could feel his presence so strongly that she kept looking over her shoulder, convinced he was there, standing behind her. She wondered what he’d say to her—if he hated her or if he even thought about her—then decided she’d rather not know. Her heart was weighed down with regrets.
    Pushing Thorne out of her mind, she ran the feather duster over his desk. Something small and white fell onto the carpet. Cindy bent over and picked it up. A pearl. She held it in the palm of her hand and stared at it. Thorne had her mother’s missing comb! Cindy had thought it was lost to her forever. Not until she was home did she realize one of them had fallen from her hair, and she’d been devastated over its loss. She had so few of her mother’s personal possessions that losing even one was monumental.
    â€œWhat’s that?” Vanessa asked, standing in the open doorway, her feather duster in her hip pocket.
    Cindy’s hand closed over the pearl. Knowing that Thorne had the comb gave her an oddly secure feeling. “A pearl,” she said, tucking it inside the pocket of her coveralls.
    Vanessa studied her closely. “Do you think it might be from your mother’s comb?”
    â€œI’m sure it is.”
    â€œThen your prince must have it.”
    Cindy nodded, comforted immeasurably by this fact.
    â€œHow do you plan to get it back?”
    â€œI don’t,” Cindy said. She continued dusting, praying Vanessa would return to her own tasks.
    â€œYou aren’t going to get it from him? That’s crazy. You were sick about losing that comb.”
    â€œI know.”
    â€œWell, good grief, Cindy, here’s the perfect opportunity for you to see your prince again. Grab it, for heaven’s sake!”
    Cindy’s mouth quivered. “I don’t want to see him again.”
    â€œYou might be able to fool your family, but you won’t have such an easy time with me.” Vanessa’s expression was grim and her eyes revealed her disapproval. “You told me the ball was the happiest, most exciting night of your life.”
    Cindy’s back stiffened. The warm, fairy-tale sensations the ball had aroused were supposed to last a lifetime, and instead the evening had left her yearning for many, many