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“You were never an ugly duckling, Kara Brand.”
“Sure I was.”
“No. No, I remember. You were shy. Painfully shy. A little unsure of yourself. Hiding behind all the hair your could grow and clothes you could disappear into.”
“And too clumsy to make it down the hall without falling or crashing into somebody at least once a day.”
He smiled. “I think it was more nervousness than clumsiness.”
She shrugged. “Same result.” She started to turn away.
He touched her cheek, turned her to face him again. “The only thing you have in common with that duckling from the story is that you grew into a swan.”
She lowered her head quickly, heat flooding her face. “Jimmy, you don’t have to say that. I know I’m—” She stopped speaking because she’d lifted her eyes to his and found them fixed on her lips. Almost as if he was thinking about kissing her.
Jimmy Corona, thinking about kissingher. Had the earth’s magnetic poles reversed or what?
Her knees buckled a little and she lost her balance and had to grab on to his shoulders to keep from falling.
His hands closed on her waist and he steadied her. “Yep,” he said. “Nervousness.”
Then Tyler called to them to hurry up, and Jimmy turned her toward the house, keeping one hand on her arm as they walked onto the patio to join him.
* * *
“This is it, Angela. How do you like it?”
Angela tried to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes when she looked around the apartment. It was small, yeah, but it was light years better than the squalor in which she’d been living. It was a nice building in a nice neighborhood, a building her precious Vinnie owned lock, stock and barrel.
“Bedroom’s through there,” he said, pointing. And she peeked in. There were a bed, a dresser, and one window draped in a white curtain. “Bathroom’s off the bedroom. Closet-size. No room for a tub, just a shower. And the kitchen’s right here.” He pushed open a swinging door and led her through. The fridge and range were half-size, and there was no room for a table, but two stools stood in front of the counter.
She didn’t care. She turned to him and blinked through grateful tears. “I can’t believe this. I can’t believe you’re doing this for me. God, Vinnie, I love you so much.”
He shrugged. “There are rules, Ang. Don’t think I won’t throw you back into the gutter where I found you if you can’t live with them.”
She nodded. He might be known as a porn king, but he was a classy porn king. Wealthy. Well-dressed. “I know the rules,” she promised. “This is a clean building.”
“That’s right. So you keep your dirt out of it. No drugs here, no Johns. And I mean it, Angie, it’s important.”
She nodded. “I promise.” She didn’t suppose the gram she’d jammed in the back of the useless watch she’d picked out of the trash and gutted really counted. She wouldn’t keep a lot of coke here. Just what she needed for a day at a time.
He nodded toward the bedroom. “I picked you up a few things. They’re in the closet.”
Blinking in shock, she spun and ran into the bedroom, opened the tiny closet not much bigger than a high school locker and started yanking hangers out of it. Three blouses, three skirts and three jackets. And there were two pairs of new jeans stacked on the dresser nearby.
“Underthings are in the drawer. I’d have done shoes, but I didn’t know your size, so I figure you can buy your own.” He tossed a wad of cash onto the bed. “Shoes, Angie. Not drugs.”
She flung her arms around his neck and squeezed him hard. “You’re like an angel, you know? You’re like an angel to me.”
“I’m far from an angel. Did you do what I asked?”
She nodded. “I went up the fire escape just like you said. Smacked out the window. No alarm there. I didn’t find much in his apartment, though.” She yanked her huge shoulder bag from her arm and tipped it upside down on the bed, then began pawing through the contents. “This is all the mail he left out, and the notepad that was next to the phone.”
Vinnie reached down, yanked up the stack of mail, flipped through it, then picked up the notepad. “Ah, there’s a phone number on here.” Yanking his cell phone out of his pocket, he dialed, then sat on the edge of the bed.
Angela sat down beside him, close enough to hear. She heard ringing, then a woman’s voice. “Peabody’s Boarding House,” she said. “Can I help you?’
“Yes, I hope so. My fiance and I have looked at so many places in trying to decide where to honeymoon.” Vinnie glanced at Angela and her stomach turned soft as she smiled up at him. “Somehow I jotted down this number, but I neglected to write the location beside it. I know it was one of our favorites, though.”
