The Cinderella Project (A Comedy of Love, #1) (2 page)

CHAPTER TWO

“Well at least Nick’s engaged, Jim. What more do you want from him?”

“I want him to get a real job, Carol. Not sit around with a bunch of wannabe shrinks and end up asking, ‘Would you like fries with that?’ for the rest of his life.”

“Good grief, Jim! The kid is in med school! You really think that’s a dead end path?”

“Mental health is just the voodoo side of medicine that we keep around because it makes people feel good about themselves.”

“You really believe that, don’t you?”

“Straight up. I’m going to bed.”

“Whatever.”

Ella was perched on the stoop in front of her door when I showed up. I paused on the walkway to catch my breath as her sapphire eyes turned to see who was coming.

Wow. How on
Earth
did I get someone
that
heart stopping?

“Nicky,” she said, perking up. My face must have told a bad story because her excitement flashed to concern. She ran to me and stroked my cheek. “Nicky, I missed you
so
much tonight. Where were you? We’ve got to leave right now or we won’t find a place to sit. I thought you’d be home at seven-thirty sharp. I made that chicken primavera you love.”

I shrugged
. I didn’t want to think about anything. “I thought we were picnicking it tonight?”

Ella frowned. “
No, we’re eating here as usual. I don’t want to haul a bunch of food and plates and cups around tonight. I just want you and me and
fireworks
.”

“I can do fireworks,” I said. I could live without a picnic. “I guess we should go, then. Do you have everything for tonight?”

She nodded and ducked into her townhome. Before I could move to help, Ella was outside again, a blanket and pillow in hand. She shoved the blanket at me and then took my free hand. I followed her downstairs and toward the park, grateful that I didn’t have to think. My mind blanked as I soaked in the evening ambiance. July nights were made of love and dreams, warm and soft and welcoming just like Ella. My inattention was soon noticed.

“Well, Nicky, what do you think?”

“Say that again, love?”

“Did you catch
anything
I’ve said in the last five minutes?”

“I’m… distracted, babe. Tired.” I rubbed my eyes. “I had a pretty productive day at the lab, but you have no idea how much the Bronte sisters can sap a man’s will to live.”

“Who’re the Bronte sisters?” she asked quietly. “Some of your ‘experiments’?”

How could she
not
know Charlotte and Emily? She’d watched film adaptations of Bronte novels with me. “They’re writers, Els. Been dead for a bit. You’re much more beautiful than they were, anyway.”

She smiled. “You’re so sweet, Nicky.”

“I try.” Absentmindedly I added, “Maybe I can pawn them off on my new research assistant.”

She stopped, hope lighting her eyes. “You hired help? Did they finally give you that money?”

I sighed. “Well… no and no. No money and no, I
haven’t
hired a research assistant. I just bungled turning down a request from someone who wanted to
be
my research assistant. She surprised me and I think I went into ‘solve the problem now’ mode. I’m going to set things right when she comes back on Friday.”

“She?” Ella asked, again with the surprising
ly chilly quietness.

I
gave her my best smile. “Girls need jobs too, Els. You know, that whole ‘equal opportunity employer’ policy? But I’m not under any mandate to hire anyone anyway, so don’t worry about it. I don’t want another research assistant and I
don’t
want another girl; I have you.”

Ella snuggled into me and kissed me warmly. “Thanks, Nick. I guess… You know that I worry...”

“Els,” I said, kissing her again, “You know I’m not going anywhere. I made a promise when I asked you to marry me. Have I ever broken a promise to you?”

She shook her head.

“Never have, never will. You’ve got me now just as sure as if we were married, okay?”

Ella nodded but smiled only weakly. “Maybe once we’re
actually
married I’ll finally feel like I’ve got my hooks into you for good.” She giggled and dug a finger into my side in a mock gesture of capture, but a strange tenor laced her voice.

“I’m yours. Heart, mind and soul. Put your fears to rest, my fair maiden.”

“I love you, Nicky.”

“Big ditto, Els.”

The park was in view now. The dark lawn spread out like a ten-acre patchwork quilt with few holes in it. I hoped we’d have a place to sit, preferably somewhere secluded. I had my own pyrotechnics show in mind for Ella and I.

We finally found a small, bare patch of grass against a bushy pine and spread our blanket. Ella dropped the pillow
and then plopped down on it, patting the blanket next to her. I sat and pulled her close with a kiss.

“I’m so glad I got you, Nicky,” she sighed as her lips left mine. “
Daddy always told me I deserved the best. I swore to myself that I’d never settle for less than tall, dark and handsome.”

“I’m blonde, Ella.”

She laughed. “It’s a figure of speech, silly. You’re everything I want in a man. Rich, six-two and you’ve got the best pair of smoky-blue eyes I’ve ever seen.” She ran a hand along my jaw and down my neck. “And that face of yours. It’s enough to make a girl just want to eat you up.” She nibbled my ear playfully.

I shrugged. “If you’re happy, I’m happy. Looks like we both got lucky in love. You’re the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen.” That got me a long kiss. I laughed when I heard a firecracker burst overhead. Oh man… it was like living one of those sappy movies I’d been watching for the last two years.

Ella cupped my chin in her hand and turned my face back to her. “Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to wait clear ’til December to get married?”

“I’d marry you tomorrow if I could, Els,” I said. Another, smaller firecracker popped from somewhere in the parking lot. “Still, what with my dissertation defense and all…
.”

She nuzzled me a bit more
. “Nicky?”

“Hmm?”

“Tell me about us, Nicky. You’re so tense, tonight.”

“I guess I am. It’s been one heck of a day, Ella.” I pulled her into a one-armed embrace and she snuggled up against me. “So… what about us, specifically?”

Her enchanting gaze made it easy to remember why I’d been attracted to her. “Tell me about how we met, Nicky. You know I can never hear that story enough.”

I paused. Sure, I liked this story too
. Our initial courtship
had
been rather magical. But I wondered why she’d been asking for it so often, as if she needed some kind of ongoing reminder.

“Well?” she said expectantly.

I smiled wide and gazed at the western mountains where the sun had already gone to sleep. “Once upon a time,” I began. Ella always had a penchant for fairytales and giggled every time I started it that way. “Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful young woman named Ella. Ella, because of her sophistication, beauty and intelligence was the prime envy of her stepmother and stepsister.”

“Oh, Nicky, don’t tease.”

I smiled at her. “Ella’s father did what he could to protect Ella from the stepfamily, but Ella’s stepmother, the old witch—”

“Nicky!” she cried in disbelief. “How could you
say
such a thing about the woman?”

Put politely, Ella hadn’t presented either her stepmother or stepsister as saints, the few times she’d even mentioned them. I still didn’t know their names. Apparently, Ella’s home situation was so unpleasant that when the time had come to ask her father for permission to marry his girl, Ella had told me that it was better to just write him a letter and have her deliver it.
A letter?
I had asked her. Did the man not have e-mail? Or a phone? Something about “keeping me out of the mess.” I complied and I guess it was good enough. Nevertheless, Ella’s extreme evasiveness combined with the obvious animosity toward her step family bothered me. I hoped that one day she’d trust me enough to fill me in on the details.

“Sorry, sorry,” I chuckled. “Anyway, Ella’s stepmother always wanted
her
daughter to be the prize of the household. She’d do everything she could to make sure that Ella never got the chances her stepsister did, hoping that Ella would just fade away.

“But one day that all changed.”

She smiled. “I love this part.”

“A handsome young man named Prince Nicholas came riding into town. Nicholas was a good soul, kind to children, animals and visiting politicians.”

“Oh, you,” she said, slapping me lightly.

“Prince Nicholas had come from a far
-off land in order to complete his princely education. Suitably enough, Prince Nicholas was studying love. Fortunately for him, all the princesses and maids in the county noticed his studies and wanted to give him first-hand experience.”

Ella stiffened surprisingly and tightened her grip, but I spoke before she could. “But none of the fair ladies were
quite
fair enough and Prince Nicholas knew that his heart’s desire lay elsewhere.” Ella relaxed, but left me wondering.

“And so he plowed through his education, always longing for that one, special someone to whom he could give his ring. He was nigh ready to cease searching when he heard of a large, formal ball that was to be thrown in honor of the school’s hundredth anniversary. It was to be a grand gala, with lords and ladies from all corners of the campus. Furthermore, it was to be a costumed ball, in order to celebrate the ‘Many Faces of the University.’

“Prince Nicholas was delighted at such an opportunity. Perhaps he would finally meet his one, true love. In any royal case,” I continued, “at the insistence of his sister, Prince Nicholas decided to disguise himself as a prince from times of yore. He knew this would draw the hordes of gold-digging vampire women that infested the campus, but he braved the ordeal nonetheless, in hopes that one of the ladies would be real. Little did he know that the very woman Destiny had selected as his bride would attend the ball that very night.”

My voice quieted for effect. “With help from a godmother, Ella had escaped from her wicked stepmother and stepsister. Ella knew that the stepmother and stepsister were very fond of this godmother, for she was the very godmother of Ella’s stepsister, who shall remain nameless.”

Ella giggled again, but said nothing.

“Ella and her one, true girlfriend raided a local costume shop, intent on making it gloriously obvious that Ella was, indeed, the most beautiful girl at the ball. Ella would dance in the guise of a masked angel, come from Heaven above to bless the royal ball and to answer some lucky sap’s prayers.

“That lucky sap—our handsome prince—had been at the ball for hours by the time Ella the angel had arrived. He’d used his powers of distraction to deflect an eager freshman girl or twenty and was nearly ready to throw in the towel when…
she
appeared.”

“I love this part, too,” Ella said, sighing.

“It had just so happened that one of the roving spotlights—put in place to make the dance floor an epileptic’s nightmare—seized up just at the
precise
moment that
she
materialized… right in the middle of the spotlight’s glow.”

I dropped my voice to just above a whisper. “A hush fell over the crowd. Who could this gorgeous being be? Surely no mortal woman could look
that
celestial. Surely, no mere human girl could have such sparkling, crystal blue eyes; such long, golden locks; such a radiant smile and such a hot, sexy figure.”

“You are such a flirt, Nicholas Cairn,” she said, jabbing me playfully in the ribs.

“Yes, I know. But as I was saying, the crowd was stunned. Prince Nicholas knew at once that he had been saved from a life as an internet-surfing bachelor. At once, our prince battled his way through the swarm of males gathered around her. As the last man fell beneath the righteous fury of Prince Nicholas’ assault, his eyes finally met hers. Lady Luck smiled on the young prince and the heavenly woman graced him with a dance.” I smiled at the memory. It was one of my better ones.

“You stole my breath, Nicky. Why
would I
not
dance with a charming man in uniform?”

“Because I looked like the Burger King?”

We both laughed at my lame joke.

I resumed. “Prince Nicholas wasted no time sweeping this girl onto the dance floor. After the most breathtaking dance of his life, he was about to sweep her into his eighty-two Datsun when the dee-jay announced that curfew had arrived with the stroke of midnight and that the lords and ladies would have to get out of the building before the janitorial crew kicked them all out.