A Date on Cloud Nine by Jenna McKnight Page B

trailed off, and Jake wondered if she was thinking along the same lines as he—what might’ve been if they’d met at the airport on one of those days? Would it have been their third wedding anniversary coming up?
    “Anyway, you can bet I was always nice to my chauffeur. Which reminds me.” She flipped open her phone and speed-dialed him three pounds of Godiva chocolates. On account .
    He’d had a lot of customers, but he’d never seen that before. One button to nirvana for the chauffeur.
    He also noticed that during the two-minute call, Lilly dropped her phone three times, fumbling it like a hot potato, banging it off the window, the dash, and finally the steering wheel. Mooch gave one long mournful moan, then hoisted himself to his feet and poked his nose in Lilly’s hair. Jake watched him closely, because he wasn’t used to the moaning, and he wanted to be sure Mooch wasn’t anti-Lilly and out for a bite of her neck, but he settled back down shortly thereafter.
    “Maybe you should have that arm x-rayed if it’s still bothering you,” he said when she finally corralled her phone and flipped it shut.
    “It’s nothing.” She glanced at him through lowered lashes. “Nothing that’ll stop me, anyway.”
    Jake didn’t like the predatory way Lilly looked at him when she said it, but it wasn’t obvious enough to call her on it. Even so, he felt a little bit like a lab rat. Or a guinea pig.

7
    T he first thing Lilly did after breakfast was restore her appearance. As her stylist trimmed away the singed hair, he started listing options ranging from pixie to sophisticated.
    Lilly interrupted. “I want seductive.”
    He’d known her for years. He knew she was recently widowed. “How seductive?” he asked tentatively.
    “Well, I don’t want you shaving letters on my scalp, but otherwise, in-his-face.”
    “Oh-kay,” he said, pausing to reflect. He studied her features and toyed with her hair, measuring bounce and wave and whatnot. “I know just the thing. You want color, too?”
    “You’re a man, what do you think?”
    “Personally, I like highlights. But once you take your clothes off, he won’t be looking at the color.”
    “Okay, just the cut then, and if that doesn’t work, I’ll be back for stage two.”
    She ended up with a sexy little bob. Now that it was shorter, it had a natural kink, lending her a naughty look, she thought. Very much a Come open the package and see what’s inside invitation. She finished the morning by getting her nails resculptured in the same salon.
    “Red,” she decided.
    The nail artist winked at Lilly and held up three tiny bottles. “So I heard. I’ve got Ravishing Red, Seductive Scarlet, and Kick-Ass Claret.”
    “Seductive Scarlet.”
    “Yeah, that’d be my choice, too. Don’t want to overwhelm the guy. If you come back for highlights, we’ll switch to Kick-Ass.”
    As Sandi worked on one hand, Lilly called her mother-in-law and offered her first option on the house.
    “I knew it, that house is way too big for you. We have plenty of room here, if that wouldn’t make you too uncomfortable.” Donna made the same offer at least once every week.
    “Actually, I’d like to stay in the house a few months.”
    “But you want to sell it now?”
    “I know it sounds strange, but I just feel a real need to get everything in order, you know?”
    Donna was too polite to say she didn’t. “Of course, dear. I suppose it’s only natural, with Brady dying so suddenly. Maybe you should talk to someone.”
    Lilly chuckled, knowing exactly how to change that topic. “I did. She’s a Realtor. Are you interested?”
    “Let me get back to you.”
    When Lilly’s nails were finished, she carefully used just the very tips of her fingers to pull her wallet out of herpurse. Everything was going fine until she reached for her credit card. That damn bruised nerve zapped her again, making her squeak, sending her wallet flying across the room, turning her moments-ago Seductive