Miss Merry and Mr. Bright (Return to Starlight Bay #24)

Chapter 1 – Jasper Bright

IT WAS A DARK AND STORMY….DAY

JASPER brIGHT

There’s something about a stormy day that speaks to me.

I don’t know whether it’s the way the trees bend before the onslaught of the wind and rain, or snow.

Or the feeling of nature’s fury battering at my house and reminding me that no matter what I might think, I’m just a human man and I can’t control every freaking thing.

But I crave that control. Need it more than I need to breathe sometimes. Even though I know what happens when you let that control take over.

Take a look at my family and you’ll now exactly what I mean. My father spent his whole life struggling to retain that control over every damn bit of his life and it made our family miserable.

Made my mother run away when I was twelve and leave me in his miserable home, wondering what I did to make her leave.

It was him though. He made us all miserable. There was no love left in our home. Just strict adherence to his rules unless you wanted to be locked in your bedroom until he decided you’d suffered enough.

I learned my lesson early. Control is everything. Rules are necessary. Or there is pandemonium and somebody gets hurt.

Sighing, I run my fingers through my hair and stare at my latest painting, grimacing.

It’s a fucking mess. There’s no way that anybody is going to want this piece of shit. If I show this at my art show in a month I’m going to find myself looking for a new career.

The ringing of my phone jerks me out of my dark thoughts. “What?” I bark into my phone.

“Well, well, well. I see Scrooge is still alive and well and he’s living in Starlight Bay.”

Rolling my eyes, I glare at my phone. “I’m working, Reese. You know how I get when I’m working.”

“Yeah? And how’s that going, Jasper? Because you’ve got a show in a month and as far as I know you’ve got one piece down. One…or did I count wrong when you sent me the pics to show the gallery?”

“Well…no. That’s all I’ve got right now but I’ve been working every day.”

“With most people that would give me a warm and fuzzy feeling. Especially when I start thinking about the money.”

Growling, I stalk over to the window, staring out at the storm as lightning flashed and thunder growled. It fits my mood.

“Art isn’t just about money, Reese. As my agent you should know that after all these years.”

“Trying to remind me that you’re getting old, Jasper Bright?

Trust me, I’ve thought about your demise more times than I can count.

Especially when you growl at me and tell me you’re working but there’s nothing to show for it and I’ve got the damn gallery up my ass and getting nervous because they have only seen one piece! ”

“I’m telling you…I’m working. I’m almost finished with another piece.” Crossing my fingers like a child when you’re lying, I grimace.

Dead silence answers me and thunder crashes, shaking the house.

“And is it good or you going to tell me it’s not good enough in a week and I’ll have to tell the gallery that something unfortunate happened to it. Because I’m starting to fantasize about telling them that something unfortunate happened to you.”

“That’s not nice, Reese.”

“When did I tell you that I was nice? I’m your agent. I work for you trying to make you money. None of that says nice. I’m a shark, Jasper. A shark that needs something to eat and you’re starving me.”

“You are a strange, strange woman.”

Her husky laugh almost makes me smile. Almost. If I wasn’t in such a damn fix with my art I’d really enjoy this conversation a lot more than I am.

“You’re putting me in a tough spot, Jasper. I have a plan but you’re not going to like it.”

“Thump, thump!”

“Hang on, Reese! I think there’s somebody at my door.” I stomp out of my studio and down the hall, muttering under my breath, “Who the hell would be out on a day like today and why’d they have to show up at my door?”

“I really think that you should talk to me first, Jasper. Hey! Are you listening to me?”

Reese’s squawking through the phone barely registers with me as I open the door and my mouth falls open.

A young woman stands there staring at me and her gray eyes blink in confusion before she offers up the biggest smile I’ve ever seen. My mind goes blank and I stare at her, stunned.

Without that smile she’s kind of a plain girl but when she smiles her gray eyes light up with laughter and sunshine, practically glowing with youth and happiness.

She makes me feel old and tired.

“What do you want?” I grumble, sucking in my non-existent belly. Sure, I’ve started getting a bit of a dad bod since I turned thirty-eight but it’s nothing. You can barely tell.

She giggles and my head almost explodes.

“I’m here about the job, of course. Your agent told me to meet you here today.

” She glances down at a paper in her hands and her smile slips a little bit but then her eyes come up and the smile comes back out like the sun coming out of the clouds after a storm.

My eyes dart around when I notice that the rain’s stopped and there’s watery sunlight dappling my front porch and the girl in front of me.

What the hell happened to the storm?

“I’m sorry. Your agent said you might forget that I was supposed to show up today so she told me to make sure and remind you that you promised you’d do anything she said to keep your gallery showing.” She grins. “She’s so nice.”

“Yeah. She’s a peach. I’ll have to remember to send her something really good for her Christmas bonus.” Like a lump of coal. Because obviously she hired this girl for some reason and now I’m gonna have to play the bad guy and fire her.

“Listen, I don’t know what job that Reese promised you but there is no job. So you might as well just turn back around and go on home.” I wave my hands at her like an idiot. “Shoo!”

Her gray eyes dance with silver and green lights. “I’m sorry. I don’t think you can do that. Reese was very clear. She already hired me and you can’t fire me.”

“The hell I can’t.” I slam the door in her face and stomp down the hallway, my voice angry as I put my phone back up to my ear. “You have got to be kidding me. There’s no way in hell that this girl is staying here. And I don’t need any damn help to get my art show ready!”

“Too damn bad. I’m sorry, Reese, but I promised the gallery that you’d get an assistant to help you get ready. They’re too freaked out by the fact you’ve only got one piece ready and this was the only way to keep them from cancelling your show.”

“Cancelling my show! You’re not serious. I’ve never had anyone cancel on me in my whole career. Never!”

“You’ve never been this emotionally constipated.”

Wrinkling my nose, I glare at the phone. “That’s disgusting.”

“Paints quite the picture, doesn’t it? There’s nothing that you can do about this. She’s there until you get your pieces ready. Then if you want to you can let her go.”

“We’ll see about that.” I wish I had a regular rotary phone because I’d pay a fortune to be able to slam the receiver in her ear.

Then I stomp back to the door and open it, trying not to notice how pretty the girl with the angel’s smile looks as she asks, “Is everything alright?”

“No. But it will be.” Just as soon as I drive this cheerful little girl back to where she came from.

She just smiles and darts past me, her head lifting and her mouth forming a pretty “o”.

Damn if my dirty mind doesn’t start picturing that pretty mouth doing some very interesting things to my aching dick.

Groaning under my breath, I follow her back down the hall and to the parlor beside my studio.

“I can already see what’s wrong here.” She whips around and those innocent gray eyes light up as she claps her little hands.

“You need to decorate for Christmas. This gloomy old place is sapping all your inspiration. But we’ll get all of it taken care of.

Don’t you worry. Do you have any decorations or should I start looking at the stores? ”

Sucking in a shaking breath, I glare at her. “I don’t like Christmas.”

“Everybody likes Christmas.” And then she wanders off and completely ignores me, leaving me growling and staring after her tiny figure.

This Christmas really sucks! Ugh!