Read Online The Fairy Tales Collection by Elizabeth Kelly - Free Book Online Page A

she
wouldn’t admit to her best friends that she kept peeking throughout the day in
the hopes that he would take off his shirt.  Sadly, he had kept on all of his
clothes.
    “You haven’t seen him at all?”  Rowan
asked.
    “Not really.  He’s been letting me do my
own thing.  I asked him if he wanted to approve the spreadsheet I was setting
up to catalogue the books but he just said that he trusted me.”
    She glanced at her cell phone.  “Crap!  I
need to go.  I wanted to be at Bennett’s by nine this morning.”
    “So do I,” Ella replied.  “My stepmother
added two more houses to my schedule today and I have no idea how I’m going to
get everything done.” 
    She slid out of the booth and smoothed down
her shirt.  “I’m fairly certain she’s trying to kill me.”
    Rowan gave her a sympathetic look.  “Did
you hear back from the bank yet about the business loan?”
    Ella smiled ruefully.  “I forgot to tell
you – I was turned down.”
    “What?  Why?”  Belle asked.
    “Because they don’t think I have enough
experience as a massage therapist to run a successful business.  They have a
point – working for three months at the Magic Spa Retreat doesn’t exactly give
me strong work experience.”
    “It’s not your fault the spa closed down,”
Rowan said.
    “No, but it was the only place in town that
offered massage therapy.  Unless I start my own business, the money I spent
earning my massage therapy certificate will be completely wasted.”
    “You could always find a position in a
city,” Rowan said gently.
    “I love it here, you know I don’t want to
leave,” Ella replied.
    “I know.  But you don’t have to leave
forever.  Gain some experience, save up some cash and then move back and start
your own business.”
    “I keep telling you,” Belle said, “you’ve
got a massage table and the other supplies, just start your business with
that.  You can have people come to your apartment or you could go to them.  You
could be the travelling massage therapist!  Just make sure people know it’s
therapeutic massage.  Most of the guys in this town would kill to have your
hands on them in a decidedly non-therapeutic sense.”
    Ella rolled her eyes.  “That’s an
exaggeration.”
    “Like hell it is,” Belle replied.
    “It doesn’t matter,” Rowan said with a
grin.  “You’re both forgetting that Duncan Gillis has vowed to murder anyone
who touches our sweet Ella.”
    Ella flushed to the roots of her blonde
hair before slinging her purse over her shoulder.  “I have to go.”
    She scurried out of the diner as Rowan gave
Belle an odd look.  “What was that about?”
    Belle shook her head worriedly.  “I’m not
sure.  She’s been acting weird ever since that night at the bar.  We shouldn’t
tease her about what Duncan said.  I know she says she hates him but I’m not so
sure she’s telling the truth.  She always gets awkward and nervous when she
sees him, you know?  Besides, Duncan told me he was really drunk that night so
he – “
    “Like hell he was,” Rowan interrupted. 
“He’d only been there maybe fifteen minutes and I’d served him one beer. 
Anyway, you have to go and I’m headed to Nana’s place.  It’s been a couple of
weeks since I visited her.  I’ll talk to you later, okay?”
    “Okay,” Belle replied.  She added her share
of money to the bill and followed Rowan out the door.
    * * *
     
    Belle stretched and gently moved her head
from side to side.  She had been hunched over for most of the day, inputting
books into the spreadsheet on the laptop Bennett had provided and she was
feeling stiff and sore.  She stood and walked across the library to look out
the window.  The backyard remained empty and she sighed loudly.  Bennett had
been gone when she arrived this morning and hadn’t returned.  She hadn’t taken
the job specifically so that she would get to spend time with Bennett but she
had been thinking of it as a job