Forever Kind of Love (6 page)

Smiling,
Roni
put the
rose into a glass of water. She’d put it in a vase later. She might just
finally get Taylor Granger where she wanted him tonight after all.

Chapter Six

October 31, 1995

Dear Diary,

So, Taylor and I managed to do it again. Holy shit,
are we in sync!
Dressed up for school and Halloween once
more.
Get there and find out that we are perfectly matched up again. We
are so totally soul mates!

He’s all
vampire
with the
cape and his hair slicked back. He didn’t cheap out either with the cheesy
fangs, but got a set that actually stick to the eye teeth, very hot! I go as a
ravished lady of regency times with a set of teeth marks on my neck, dripping
blood of course.

Once again, we spot each other and burst out
laughing. We don’t even have to discuss coordination I tell you, we are
that
on the same page. It’s actually kind of scary, with Melanie and
Cherise
both commenting when I admitted I’d had no clue
what he was coming as this year. Nancy just gave me a knowing look and smiled.
Not sure what that meant, but I may have to track her down later this week and
beat it out of her. Not really. I’ll bribe her with the latest edition of
Rolling Stone. It has her favorite band on the front cover and will loosen her
lips for sure. Green Day, if you didn’t know.

But it was great, we got voted in again for best
costumes and best role play, again! Thank you, thank you very much.

Gotta
go Diary, so much to
do, so little time,

A teen that feels the cosmos is finally aligning
just right.

****

Now - Taylor

Holy shit, she was trying to kill him!

The slinky dress she wore covered her right up, but
hugged her so tight that she might as well have been naked.
Every
curve and dip shown off perfectly.
He was going to have a hell of a time
tonight if anyone looked her way.

And her legs! He’d never known they could look so
long, but in those shoes she was wearing, amazing.
Absolutely-fucking-amazing.

He was harder than he’d ever been in her presence.
Thank God he’d worn jeans, at least they would partially hide the fact he had a
raging boner for her.

Turning away when her ass vanished into the kitchen
he took a few deep breaths. That little wiggle she had when she walked? Fuck
him. He wanted to see her do that naked, except for those shoes, right before
he put her to the wall and fucked her.

And he would fuck her. She was definitely
interested and teasing him if that outfit was anything to go by. She knew that
she was more than perfectly decent in it and yet so damned indecent it should
be outlawed.

Women always knew, they knew just how to dress to
get a point across and he’d gotten the point, loud and clear.

Licking his lips he thrust his hands through his
hair.

He could do this. They would go out for dinner,
talk and get reacquainted. Then he’d take her dancing, just so he could have
her luscious body pressing to him as every man in the place sat there simmering
in jealousy that she wasn’t theirs. After that he’d suggest a nightcap, at a
bar or his place. And from there, fingers crossed, a naked
Roni
in his bed for the night.

Longer if he could manage it.
Much, much longer if he could manage it actually.

Hearing the click of her heels on the hardwood
floors he turned to look at her and felt his cock leap in his pants. He was
pretty sure he was already leaking pre-cum, but
fuck
.
He couldn’t help it. Veronica Malone was his dream girl.

“Ready to go?” he asked, his voice still too rough,
but fuck it, nothing to be done there.

Nodding, she set her clutch down. Yeah, he knew the
differences in
purses,
he had a shit-load of female
cousins and a little sister for Christ’s sake. With a flick of her wrist, she got
the wrap around her shoulders and pinned, that was different, he’d have to ask
his sister Cindy about that.

Offering her his hand when she had collected the
clutch, he tugged her in close and stared down into her eyes. “You are
gorgeous, Veronica Anne-Marie Malone.”

Her cheeks went pink and she ducked her chin a
little, shyly. Frowning, he didn’t like that. That wasn’t
Roni
.

“Thank you,” she finally replied. “And you look
very handsome. And dangerous, too, but you always did and I’m sure you play it
for everything
it’s
worth.”

Grinning at that, Taylor shrugged when she looked
up at him. “Work with what you got, babe.” It earned him a grin and he felt
something inside of him relax. “Come on, let’s go and get something to eat. I
hope you don’t have to work tomorrow because I have plans to keep you out late,
very late.”

As they stepped out onto her front stoop and she
turned to lock the door, she shook her head. “I took two weeks’ vacation time
to just do whatever I wanted. We had a huge project at work that nearly fried
me, so when it was done, I put in for the time and told them to give it to me
or my resignation would hit their desks next.”

Taking her hand again, Taylor led her to his car
and helped her to slide in. Only when he was behind the wheel and they were
moving did he address what she’d just told him.

“Why would you resign?” he asked.

“The project should have been simple enough. We had
it all laid out, plotted perfectly and everyone had their assignments. Then
troubles hit two weeks into it. We only had six weeks to get it completed and
handed over to the client or we would be out nearly six and a half million.”

“Six and a half million?” he asked, stunned,
horrified.
Holy shit.

“Yes, one of our largest clients to
date.
They were testing us to see if we could handle some of their quicker
turnaround projects. They don’t have many, but occasionally there are a few. So
they gave us six weeks for something that would normally take twelve to
eighteen, easy, to see if we had the chops to handle it.”

“Damn, who are they?” He looked her way.

“Couldn’t say even if I wanted to,
confidentiality agreements and clauses.
It makes life even
more fun,”
Roni
muttered.

“Okay, no biggie,” he could live with that. “So,
what happened?”

“Let’s just say that I, and the entire office team,
worked our asses off for the project while the boss was out golfing with this
buddy or that. Then he has the balls, when we deliver on time and under budget,
to claim he did everything.
To their faces, in front of the
team.
His only acknowledgment of us was that we were good little gophers
and kept him in coffee and helped here and there with paperwork.”

“Damn, sounds like he’s a raving douchebag,” Taylor
said, clenching his teeth.

“Oh, he is. But the client must have picked up on
something from one or more of us in the room, because they made a comment that
they had their doubts that he’d managed it all on his own. He just kept playing
it up, though, and shook their hands as they left. A couple days later, I get a
call from one of them thanking me for my hard work on the job and asked that I
pass along the thanks to the rest of the team. I didn’t say anything, just said
we’d done our part and thank you. But the guy knew, don’t know how, but he knew
the truth.”

“Good, so your boss was shown to be underhanded and
a liar.”

“Yup, and the contract was yanked. There apparently
was something in it, some legal clause that gave them the right. We still got
paid for the project, but the client ended up taking their entire account
elsewhere. The boss was pissed and decided to take it out on me. All calls are
recorded, so he knew I’d had a call from the client. Course, the way he made it
sound, I’d
ratted
him out. I called bullshit and told
him if he wanted to go that way, I had a lawyer that would be willing to rip
him to shreds.”

Taylor shot her a look and cocked an eyebrow.

“Darla’s lawyer, well, her firm.
She’s just a divorce attorney, but the entire firm is just as mercenary
as she is. Anyway, I told him that I was taking two weeks, he was getting me
out of my contract and I wouldn’t call in the lawyer and HR to deal with his
ass.”

“Shit,” Taylor let out a whistle and grinned. “What
did he say to that?”

“He said he’d get me out of the contract while I’m
away and considers this to be my two weeks’ notice. All I have to do when my
time is up is go in, clean out my desk, hand over my keys and get my paycheck
and severance package.”

“Shit, what are you going to do after that?” he
asked, stunned.

“No clue, but I would love to do some writing.
Unfortunately I need a paying gig to do that.” She sighed, sounding so broken
in that
moment,
he reached over to take her hand in
his.

“Do you like paperwork?” he asked.

He could feel her confusion. “I, uh, don’t mind it
for the most part.”

“Do you like keeping things running like a well-oiled
machine?” he asked. Yes, he had a plan here, wait for it.

“Sure,” she sounded really confused. “Why are you
asking, Taylor?”

“Look, I know it won’t be your dream job and I
definitely can’t pay you the same as you likely were getting at this place, but
I could seriously use an office manager to help me with the five shops. The
paperwork just kills me and most of it, I just don’t understand. I’m a
mechanic,
Roni
. I’m a simple guy, but this office
shit is giving me ulcers, no word of a lie.”

She didn’t say anything, but he could feel her
rubbing her thumb over his fingers.

“Think about it. You could get into writing that
big novel of yours, still use your Masters and do something that, hopefully,
doesn’t make you want to kill your boss on a daily basis. Plus, and here’s the
big bonus, employees get free work done on their vehicles. Huh? Huh?” he
grinned over at her quickly.
“Sweet deal, right?”

She snorted out a laugh and then sighed.
But still no words from her.

“Full medical and dental, too,” he threw out,
figuring that might help a little. “And if you don’t want to work anywhere near
me, there are four other shops to base out of. You’d have to see me, maybe, a
few times a year and no more.” That part hurt having to say but he didn’t know
where her head was at.

“I’d want to see you more than a few times a year,
Taylor,” she admitted softly. Again, sounding so shy, damn it. “I appreciate
the offer and I will honestly think about it.
But later.
Tonight is about us, you and
I
, Taylor. Work and all
that other real-life crap can wait.”

Releasing the breath he’d been holding he squeezed
her fingers.
“Agreed.”

Chapter Seven

January 10, 1996

Dear Diary,

Holy shit! I have so much to say and I have ten
minutes. Darla is
insisting
we do dinner out, as a family. Of course
she’s bringing Frederick along, ugh!

Anyway, Christmas was awesome, I stayed in town
because both ‘rents were off doing their own bullshit. So I got to see a lot of
Taylor. He didn’t go away this year either, and we hung out so much. Lots of
pizzas and movies and we even did our rendition of a Christmas dinner.
Thankfully, I can cook because that boy needs some help in the kitchen. But
he’s sexy, so that’s in his favor.

I got him some stuff for his car this year, Darla
left me with a
huge
wad of cash to tide me by as she abandoned me,
so
I spent a chunk on him. He was stunned, thank you very
much, and had a big smile on his face showing off those dimples as he opened it
all up. He even kissed me, not on the cheek like usual, but on the lips. The
lips!
Eeeee
!

He got me a set of books, blanks, to write in and a
pen set that he had engraved with my name. They are too beautiful to ever use,
so I’ll just stick with my standard
Bic
, I think. It
was so sweet. I’d told him how I wanted to write for a living one day. I found
I quite like it, all thanks to you, Diary. So it was the best gift ever. But!
On top of all that, he also got tickets to the KISS concert in July. I asked
him to go with me.

Stunned him again, apparently.
He said he’d thought I’d take one of the girls with me. I flat out told
him that I wanted him to go, but if he wasn’t interested I’m sure I could talk
one of the girls into going along.

He agreed to go and I got my second kiss from him
on the lips. Holy shit, I am so in love with Taylor Granger I don’t know what
to do about it!