Valentine's Day Is Killing Me Read online

  “Have a guy be in charge of my Valentine’s Day?” Shanna snorted. “Puhleeze.”

  Shanna rushed into her department, wondering how to conduct a fast search for romantic restaurants. She needed to get a head start before the other Swish patrons nabbed all the alternative reservations. Damn, she hated the sense of urgency pulsing through her veins. It was enough to make her want to curl up into a fetal position.

  She skidded to a stop the moment she saw her two coworkers. They were huddled next to her office space, and once again Shanna hated being in the middle cubicle. It was bad enough that she could hear everything between the thin walls, but it was worse when everyone gravitated to her “door.” She knew it wasn’t for her cheerful disposition or her stash of candy. More like geographic bad luck.

  “Shanna!” Megan jerked her head up. “Hi!”

  “Hi,” she replied cautiously to what could only be described as the dishwater blonde. She never knew what that meant until she met Megan.

  “Hey, Shanna,” Kerry said, flipping her brunette hair away from her face before walking back to her cubicle. “How’s it going?”

  “Good.” Okay, something was up. That was about as chatty as Kerry got in the morning. And what was with these two? They barely tolerated each other. Whenever Kerry wasn’t in the office—which happened a lot—Megan would gossip and badmouth her to Shanna. And vice versa. It made Shanna wonder what they said about her when she wasn’t around.

  “Hi, Angie!” Megan said past Shanna’s shoulder, her brightness level going up a notch, where it would remain until Angie left the room. “Oh, love your shoes.”

  Shanna tried to keep her expression blank as she took off her coat. Megan’s brown-nosing was really annoying. Probably because it worked so well. Shanna didn’t think she could stoop that low. And even if she did, she would still get caught for pulling stunts. Megan had the unique talent of getting away with anything.

  “Thanks, Megan. I just bought them yesterday.” Angie stopped and rotated her ankle so everyone could get a better look. She glanced up when Shanna stowed her purse away in the bottom desk drawer. “Shanna, are you just getting in?”

  Are you? She bit the tip of her tongue. “I’m early.” She didn’t know why she kept telling Angie that.

  “Doesn’t matter.”

  Yep. Never works. Shanna kept her mouth shut and booted up her computer.

  “We need to have all the bugs fixed by the end of Friday,” Angie continued, gesturing with her travel coffee mug as she warmed up to her gloom-and-doom speech that she had given every day for the past two weeks.

  “Oh, speaking of Friday,” Kerry said. “I need to leave early.”

  “Hot date?” Megan asked. There was a sharp edge to the cheerfully curious question.

  Kerry flashed a warning look at her coworker. “No, my grandmother is getting out of the hospital and they need me there before the visiting nurse shows up.”

  Good one. Shanna grabbed a tissue from her box and wiped the water circling the base of her vase. Kerry was getting more creative with her excuses. She had to; she was running out of the usual ones.

  “I thought your grandmother died on New Year’s Eve,” Angie said, perplexed. “I remember something about you having to leave early for the funeral home.”

  Kerry paused. “Right—that was for my other grandmother.”

  Yeah, Grandma #7. Shanna pinched off a dead leaf and tossed it in her wastebasket. She was not going to get into this. It had nothing to do with her.

  “Well,” Angie shrugged, “I guess that can’t be helped. Do as much as you can in the next few days.” Angie walked off and stopped. “Hold on a second.”

  Shanna perked up. Did she finally add up all of Kerry’s relatives and realize they didn’t compute? Oh, please, please.

  “Shanna?”

  Shanna froze. She was wrong. She winced and closed her eyes. Kerry’s lies were going to affect her. She could hear it in her boss’s voice. She could feel it coming.

  “Weren’t you planning on leaving early?”

  She forced her eyes open. “Yeah.”

  “Come on, you guys.” Angie raised her voice. “We can’t have two people out on the day of our deadline.”

  Shanna had a hard-won appointment at a chi-chi salon and was getting the works done. Had scrimped and saved for almost 365 days. Had figured out her schedule with the intensity of a general going into battle. But would Angie understand any of this? “I know, but—”

  Angie’s hand sliced through the air, her coffee mug reflecting against the fluorescent light. “If it’s not an emergency, forget it.”

  Why was she getting the attitude? Shanna glanced at Kerry, who suddenly appeared to be very busy.

  “You’re going to have to stay until five,” Angie decided, as she walked toward her office.

  “But—” Shanna had requested that time off months ago. Earned it. Was truthful about it.

  “Kerry has a family situation. And she has seniority,” Angie pointed out and stepped into her office.

  Shanna stared as Angie closed the door, the impotent anger crashing through her. She wanted to scream. Stomp her feet. Quit on the spot. If only she could.

  She dragged her gaze away from the door and saw Kerry looking at her. “Sorry,” her coworker said with a small smile.

  Shanna looked away. “Yeah.” And may all eight of your grandmothers come back and haunt you.

  “Dominic, I’m sorry…”

  Calder paused upon entering the office suite, which at first glance appeared empty. His gaze snagged on Shanna’s head peeking above her cubicle wall. The bright red hair looked tousled. Just the way he liked it.

  “Yes, I know…I know…”

  Regret suffused her voice. Was she canceling the date? Hope swelled inside his chest.

  Striding over to where Shanna sat, Calder felt a pang of guilt for listening in on her conversation. He immediately squashed it. If she wasn’t going on a date with Dominic, he wanted to be the first to know.

  Shanna’s back was turned. She combed her fingers through her hair and Calder let his gaze drift as the long, soft tresses cascaded down her blue sweatshirt. He leaned against the plastic-and-fabric wall, wondering when she started wearing bulky clothes and how he was going to get her out of them.

  “I realize that you’re busy,” Shanna continued in a hushed voice, “but if we want dinner reservations on Friday, we need to act now. Surely you must know of at least one restaurant.”

  Calder now understood the reason for all the phone books blanketing her desk. If the creases, wrinkles, and impatient pen scrawls on the yellow pages were anything to go by, her search wasn’t going well.

  He glanced around the cubicle and noticed the gigantic crystal vase stuffed with pink tulips. A cheerful bowl set next to him, overflowing with candy hearts. Valentine decorations dotted the boring beige wall. It was a hodgepodge of flowers, lace, and ribbons.

  Any of those items would make Calder break out into hives. The combination should be deadly to him, but he wasn’t backing away, forming the sign of the cross with his fingers. It wasn’t his taste, but he liked the design because it was pure Shanna.

  “Okay…okay…you ask around and let me know. Okay…talk to you later. ’Bye!” She hung up the phone and muttered, “Ask around. Like that’s going to happen.”

  “Problem?”

  Shanna yelped and jumped. She swiveled her chair around, her eyes widening when she saw him. “Calder. I didn’t see you.”

  Whatever happened to her ability of knowing the moment he stepped into the room? When she knew exactly where he was and what he was doing? He hadn’t believed in all that lover mumbo jumbo while they were together. Now he missed the intuitive connection they once shared.

  Once? Nah. They still had it. It was rusty, that’s all. “What’s up?”

  “Nothing.” She shook her head and immediately changed the subject. “If you’re looking for Angie, she’s still at lunch.”

 
Nothing? Yeah, right. That was another thing he was surprised he missed. She used to be very open with him. Told him everything, whether he wanted to hear it or not.

  “Your reservations fell through?” he asked.

  “Something like that.” Her eyelids drooped but Calder caught the disappointment she was trying to mask. Shanna twitched her mouth to one side. Like she was undecided about something. “You…” she paused, sinking the edge of her teeth into her bottom lip.

  Calder felt the buzz as he stared at her mouth. Shanna did the sexiest things and never seemed aware of it. God help him when she was being seductive on purpose. “What?”

  She drew back at his harsh tone. “Never mind. I’ll ask someone else if they can recommend a nice restaurant.”

  Calder stood immobile. He didn’t think he heard correctly. Shanna wanted restaurant recommendations from him to go with another man?

  The caveman impulses roared through him. He clenched his teeth until they threatened to shatter. “What do you mean by nice?” Did he just growl? He needed to pull back before all those weeks of patience were wasted.

  “A place that offers a wine list instead of a kids’ menu,” she immediately responded as she closed the phone books and stacked one on top of another.

  Okay, he didn’t expect that answer. Shanna always had definite standards about this kind of stuff. “Not even romantic?”

  “No.” She cast a quick glance at him as if she heard something judgmental in his tone. “I hit all the romantic ones, but I can’t get in. I’m sure you know of at least one nice one.”

  He did, but he wasn’t chivalrous enough to let on about them. “What would I know about restaurants? According to you I’m in the office 24/7.”

  Shanna pressed her lips in a firm line, the only indication that she heard the latent argument. “You know of a few,” she pointed out, refusing to get into past history. “There were one or two neighborhood restaurants where they knew you by name.”

  Uh, no way. No way was he going to let her go there. “Try them,” he suggested, ready to call them up and block her reservation. He didn’t want Shanna reenacting those moments with another guy.

  “I did try,” she confessed, “but they can’t fit me in. At this point I’m willing to drop the nice requirement as long as I don’t wind up at a drive-thru.”

  “Why don’t you cook dinner?” Hell, where did that come from? What was he doing?

  She gave him a horrified look. “Cook?”

  “Yeah.” Why wasn’t he shutting up? “That lasagna you made from scratch for my birthday was good.” He placed his hand over his stomach as he remembered. It was better than good. And then what they did with the leftover sauce…

  “You think I should cook?” Shanna’s raised voice cut through his carnal thoughts. “On Valentine’s Day?”

  She said it like it was a bad thing. “Does that go against your beliefs?”

  “A little,” she said in a huff. “I’m not going to spend hours in a kitchen on a special day.”

  “Oh, yeah. What was I thinking?” The woman expected to be treated like a queen for a day, wanting all other moments to pale in comparison. She was getting hung up on all the shiny trappings and didn’t see she was tossing away the good stuff.

  Shanna shook her head. “Next you’ll suggest I bake my own wedding cake.”

  “It’s not unheard of,” Calder said as her phone rang.

  She held her hand up at him as if she were controlling traffic. “No more suggestions out of you. Cook. For Dominic. On Valentine’s Day.” She picked up the phone. “Hello, this is Shanna Murphy.”

  He suppressed a smile. Dominic didn’t rate a home-cooked meal. Probably not even a pot of coffee. That would hold him…for now. Calder backed out of the office suite, feeling like he just dodged a bullet.

  “Shanna? This is Tony.”

  Tony. Tony? Shanna frowned as she flipped through her mental Rolodex. She didn’t know of any Tony. “Tony…?”

  “Angie’s…friend.”

  “Oh, hi.” That Tony. She twisted her lips before she mouthed off, but she just loved how everyone assumed she remembered everyone and their full personal history. As if she didn’t have a life of her own. Which she didn’t, but that was beside the point.

  Her mind rewound to what Tony labeled himself. Angie’s friend. Ha. What a joke. More like lover. Inamorato. Bedbuddy. For someone who gets it on with Angie during office hours, it was useless to practice discretion now.

  “I don’t know how you got transferred over to my line,” Shanna told him as she reached for the buttons on her phone. “I’ll connect you to Angie’s voice mail.”

  “No, wait,” Tony said in a rush. “It’s you I want to talk to.”

  “Me?” Her stomach clenched. Why? She was surprised that he was aware of her existence. That he knew her name. Her work number.

  What would someone like Tony want with her? The possibilities were bizarre. Tantalizing. Each one feeding her vengeful fantasies against Angie.

  A wicked smile curled along her lips. Tony wants to dump Angie for someone nicer. No, someone beautiful and sexy. No, wait…a goddess. A love goddess.

  Of course, she would turn him down flat, Shanna decided as she leaned back against her chair. But she could carry on, knowing that the boss’s friend wanted her more than the goddess Angie. Her days would be spent finding ways to remind Angie of that. While dodging the unemployment line. Hmm…being lusted over by your boss’s lover was a hazardous pastime, but oh, so worth it.

  “Shanna?” Tony repeated with a trace of exasperation. “Can you hear me?”

  “Hmm?” Shanna mentally prepared her thanks-forthe-offer-but-I-find-you-disgusting-and-no-STD-free-test-results-would-change-my-mind speech.

  “I said, what does Angie have planned on Friday afternoon? I’m planning a surprise for her.”

  The revenge fantasies skidded and hit the wall of reality. Eh, no big. Actually, it was a relief.

  But did he have to make her an accomplice in giving the witch a perfect Valentine’s Day? Ugh. The indignity of it all! “Oh, that’s so”—unfair, unjustified, and just plain wrong!—“sweet.”

  “Yeah,” Tony said bashfully. “But I need to know if she has any important meetings.”

  And he was asking her because…? “I wouldn’t know.”

  “Can you check her schedule?” he prompted, as if she was brainless. “It would be on her computer.”

  That’s another thing she loved. Everyone assumed she was a lackey. “I don’t have her password. Sorry.”

  “Oh, that’s all right. I’ll figure it out some other way. Just don’t let Angie know about my plans.”

  “Nota…problem.” She stumbled to a stop as Tony hung up. Before she could ask him if he knew of any romantic restaurants. Bummer.

  As she returned the phone to its cradle, her gaze caught the familiar scrap of paper nestled underneath the yellow pages.

  THE LIST

  1. Receive a dozen long-stemmed red roses. At work. In front of everyone.

  2. Dinner at the a most romantic nice restaurant in the downtown Seattle area. Champagne or wine optional, but would gain bonus points.

  3. A date with someone who knows where my G-spot is without asking for directions. And knows what to do with it.

  It doesn’t look bad. That bad. As bad as it could be. She had to remember that it was all about adapting. Adjusting. Hanging on.

  She wondered to which restaurant Tony was taking her boss. Probably something fabulous. Ultraromantic. Angie probably wouldn’t appreciate it unless it was ultraexpensive.

  Why did guys do this kind of stuff for someone like Angie? She was demanding, ungrateful, and thoughtless. Shanna couldn’t imagine that would be an aphrodisiac to men. Everyone knew men have fragile egos.

  The woman must make it up to him in bed. Shanna shuddered at the thought. It was unimaginable, but as Sherlock Holmes once said, if you eliminated all other factors, the one that remains must be the truth.
Or something like that. But if someone as hard and unloving as Angie could lure guys into acting stupid and goofy in the name of love and sex, any woman could get romanced.

  Shanna grabbed her to-do list and added the pharmacy to her errands. Hope surged through her for the first time since she’d read the paper in the morning. If the promise of incredible sex was all that it took, Dominic was going to romance her brains out.

  Chapter Three

  T minus 36 hours

  Calder looked up from his computer screen. He thought he had seen a glimpse of flame-red Murphy hair next to his door. Anticipation buzzed through his veins until he saw the porcupine hairstyle.

  He quashed the disappointment welling in his chest. “Heather,” he greeted evenly.

  “Cut the chitchat,” Heather demanded as she strode into his office. “It’s time to take a walk.”

  When it came to Shanna’s twin sister, he always felt like he walked into a conversation midway. “Where?”

  “To our friendly neighborhood drugstore. The one across the street.” She clapped her hands. “Come on, let’s hustle.”

  He propped his chin on his fist. “Not that I wouldn’t love to spend time with you…”

  “I’ll explain it on the way.” She gestured to the open door.

  “I have work to do.” He thought it was obvious. He couldn’t see the surface of his desk. Hadn’t seen it since the last time Shanna clucked her tongue and straightened it up for him.

  “Dude,” Heather glared at him. No tongue-clucking out of her. “I’ll give it to you straight. You’re blowing it with Shanna.”

  His chest clenched and he felt something shift. It was like the void yawned bigger. Calder remained still, but the restraint that had gotten him this far in life slipped. “How do you figure that?”

  “You’re giving her some slack before you reel her in.” Heather acted like she was fly-fishing. “I know it. You know it. Shanna doesn’t know it.”