Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

“ Y ou know, you don’t have to do this,” Jamie mumbled.

The two women who’d practically dragged her here slowly turned around, looking horrified. “I love makeovers!” Amy Benet, Edward Pierce’s baby sister whispered reverently.

Dana chuckled. “She’s just hoping that we’ll let her out of this,” she said with a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry. This will be fun.”

Jamie wasn’t so sure of that as she glanced past the two women towards the open floor of the upscale beauty parlor.

“Besides, Rerum Publishing is paying for this, so I say enjoy it,” Dana said with a firm nod.

Amy quickly agreed, making Jamie fight back a smile. These women were nothing like she’d expected. Never in a million years had she expected that Dana Pierce would drag through her house to her private office so that Jamie could autograph a piece of paper for her. She also hadn’t expected Dana to call her sister-in-law and brag that J.L. Lewis was in her house. That, of course, made the other woman screech and demand that no one move until she got there.

Now, they were embarking on what could only be described as a day of torture. The women argued with Nick for over an hour about what needed to be done. When Nick explained what he wanted done she’d frowned along with Amy and Dana. Even Edward Pierce looked a little confused by his request to turn her into a nerd.

Thankfully, the women shut him down. When he’d argued, Dana enlisted the help of her three boys and little girl to chase Nick out of the house with water guns. The new game plan now was hair, makeup, laser eye surgery if it turned out that she was a candidate, and then clothes.

Jamie didn’t have much hope, but she didn’t say anything. She knew that she wasn’t pretty. Caitlyn was the pretty sister. Everyone always said so. Jamie was the smart one, the responsible one. It was the role she’d been born into and accepted without complaint. Never once had she even considered, well, not really, at least, having a makeover. What was the point? There wasn’t enough makeup in the world to turn this ugly duckling into a swan. There was no point in getting her hopes up.

She didn’t want to waste Rerum Publishing’s money either, but Dana and Amy were so excited to do this for her that she couldn’t bring herself to tell them that it was pointless. She just hoped when this was all over that they weren’t too disappointed.

Nick glanced at his watch as he climbed out of the car.

“Shit,” he muttered as he headed for the front door.

It was almost nine o’clock and he was more than two hours late picking Jamie up. Dana was going to be pissed, but there was no helping it. He’d just spent the last eleven hours making phone calls, sending emails, and overseeing five assistants, all so that he could make J.L. Lewis’ introduction to the world perfect.

This was the big chance he’d been waiting for and he wasn’t about to let anyone mess it up, not even J.L. Lewis herself, especially not J.L. Lewis. This was his big break. This was his Dana Pierce. When he was done, everyone was going to know who J.L. Lewis was and it would all be thanks to him.

Before he got the chance to knock on the door, it was yanked open. A disheveled looking Dana stood in the doorway wearing a silk robe. He ran his eyes over her, noting that her lips were puffy and her hair was messy and couldn’t help but smile.

“Did I interrupt something?” Nick asked innocently.

Dana blew out an exasperated breath, sending a strand of hair out of her face. “You’re late.”

“Aw, were you waiting for me? Does Edward need my help?”

“I seemed to manage just fine on my own,” Edward said, walking into the living room, wearing only a pair of unbuttoned jeans and a shit-eating grin.

Nick frowned as a thought occurred to him. As desperate as Edward and Dana were for each other, they would never ignore a guest to play mattress leapfrog.

“Where’s Miss Harris?” he asked.

Edward wrapped his arm around his wife and pulled her back against him. “The girls dropped her off at her car a few hours ago.”

“Damn it!” Nick said, rubbing his hands roughly down his face before he dropped them away. “Why didn’t someone call me? I need to see how things turned out so that I know how we should proceed with the press release.”

Dana shrugged. “We did call you, but she wanted to go home and I don’t blame her. She was really upset.”

“Upset?”

Shit!

The makeover hadn’t helped one bit and the little recluse was heartbroken. No doubt she thought a snip here and there, along with a little blush, was going to perform miracles. He could have told her not to expect much, but wouldn’t that have just been cruel?

“She had a big shock tonight, Nick. Just leave her alone and let her get used to it, okay?” Dana, always too goddamn kind for her own good, said.

If only he could listen to her, but he couldn’t. He had a job to do and that meant going over to Miss Harris’ apartment and seeing how much damage control he had to do. If it was really bad, he’d have the photographer do some touch-ups after the photo shoot tomorrow.

Normally, he’d invite himself in just to annoy the shit out of Edward, but he had work to do. After thanking them for all their help, even though it probably hadn’t done much, then again, he hadn’t expected much, he made his way over to Miss Harris’ apartment.

He wasn’t entirely surprised to discover the little recluse lived in a typical city neighborhood. There wasn’t much to set this place apart. It had a convenience store, a package store, and a small bakery that promised half-off coffee rolls every Thursday with the purchase of a large coffee.

Even her building was average, a three-level brick building with a basic security door and buzzer. There was absolutely nothing special about it. He walked up the two front steps and looked over the apartment listings and wasn’t really surprised to see that the little recluse lived on the third floor. It was out of the way and the perfect spot for a hermit.

He pressed the button marked “J. Harris,” and waited. When no response came, he hit the buzzer again.

“Hello?” Miss Harris’ voice sounded from the raspy speakers.

“Miss Harris, it’s Nick Quinn. You were supposed to wait for me so that we could go over your schedule for the next month.”

“Oh, I’m sorry. I just-”

He cut her off. “It’s no problem, Miss Harris. We can go over it now if you buzz me in.”

“It’s kind of late,” she responded quickly.

“I promise it won’t take that long. At the very least, I need to go over tomorrow’s schedule.”

“Can’t we go over it tomorrow morning?” Jamie asked, sounding hopeful.

He had to smile. Poor thing must be so humiliated. Well, it was best to get it over with and see what he had to work with.

“I’m afraid not. We’re not meeting at the office, Miss Harris. I really need to speak with you.”

“You’re speaking to me now,” she pointed out.

Nick closed his eyes and prayed for patience. The first day wasn’t over yet and she was already causing problems. He had no doubt that he could get the little recluse under his thumb. He’d use his charm and if that failed, which it never had before, he’d just use the fact that she was a pushover to his advantage.

“I prefer to speak with you in person, Miss Harris, instead of discussing Rerum Publishing business in public for the entire neighborhood to hear.”

“I’m, uh, tired. So, this will have to wait until tomorrow. Goodnight!” Jamie quickly said before a small clicking sound followed, letting him know that she’d turned off her intercom.

Why that little...

Did she really think that she’d be able to get rid of him that easily? She really had a lot to learn if she thought that she could dismiss him.

He picked another buzzer at random.

“Hello?”

“Pizza delivery,” Nick said.

“I didn’t order any pizza,” the guy said.

“Are you sure? It’s all paid for.”

“Oh, wait. Um, yeah, I think my wife did,” the guy said after a slight pause, buzzing him in a few seconds later.

Nick walked through the paste-white foyer and headed for the stairs, taking them two at a time. A few minutes later, he was knocking on her door.

No answer.

“I know you’re there, Miss Harris. I can wait here all night if that’s what it takes,” Nick said with a bored sigh as he leaned against the doorframe.

Her answer was a small gasp. He had to smile. Yeah, his little recluse was going to do what he said when he said it. Then, it was smooth sailing from here on out.

“Miss Harris, please open the door so that we can talk.”

“No.”

“Miss Harris, I can stay here all night. Why don’t you save us both some time and open up now? The sooner we get this over with, the sooner you can go to bed,” Nick promised in a reassuring tone, but he really couldn’t help but wonder how bad the makeover was.

Did she look like Frankenstein?

“I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“Miss Harris,” he said warningly, his patience quickly becoming a thing of the past.

“You can stay out there as long as you want!”

She wouldn’t...

She did!

The light beneath the door disappeared. A minute later, he heard a door shut. No doubt it was her bedroom door so that she wouldn’t have to hear him.

“Son of a bitch!” he snapped as he banged on her door.

Nothing.

He waited another five minutes, feeling like an idiot. No woman ever made him wait. It was unheard of! The fact that this little recluse had pissed him off.

“This isn’t over,” Nick said to absolutely no one. After glaring at the door one last time, he left, knowing that this was far from over.

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