Her Little Black Book by Brenda Jackson Page A

parents’ mockery of a marriage had taught her to seek out the real thing when it came to love and relationships and to tolerate nothing less. To do otherwise was just plain ludicrous as far as she was concerned.
    That was the reason she wanted to call it an early night. Hanging around would be a waste of her time as well as his. Dinner had been nice, and they had enjoyed
each other’s company, chitchatting about several things, but nothing of real importance.
    She knew she had to come up with an excuse to end the evening and was racking her brain, trying to come up with a pretext when his cell phone rang. A part of her was a little annoyed that he had kept his turned on when she’d turned hers off.
    After pulling the phone out his jacket, he quickly checked to see who was calling, then glanced over at her and said, “Excuse me, Courtney, I need to take this call.” He got up from the table and headed toward the men’s room.
    Now she was really irritated. To take her mind off that irritation, she looked around the restaurant. It was a nice place, real upscale. She’d been surprised when Don suggested it. The food had been excellent, the—
    â€œExcuse me, ma’am, Mr. Woods told me to let you know he had to leave.”
    Courtney blinked up at the waiter, a different man from the one who had served them earlier. “Excuse me?”
    â€œMr. Woods, the man you were dining with, told me to convey his apologies, but an emergency came up and he had to leave.” The man cleared his throat when he added, “He also said that you would be the one to take care of both checks.”
    â€œWhat!”
    â€œThat’s what he said.”
    Courtney breathed in deeply. In all her years, no man had ever stiffed her with a dinner check. The first thought that came to her mind was that Don Woods was an idiot to think she would cover the cost of his dinner as well as
her own, but as she stared at the waiter, she knew he was expecting her to do just that. “Fine,” she said as calmly as she could. “Please bring me both checks.”
    When the man walked away, disappointment set in. Where on earth had Sonya found these men? Granted Harper and Don were handsome, but both of them had real issues.
    â€œHere you are, ma’am,” the waiter said when he returned. He was smiling, obviously relieved. She bet he hadn’t bought the story of Don’s sudden emergency any more than she had. Deciding not to stress over it any longer and to accept the fact that she had gotten screwed, she pulled the charge card out of her purse.
    Suddenly something clicked in Courtney’s mind. She looked up at the waiter and asked, “The other waiter who was serving us, what happened to him?”
    The man shrugged. “He also had to leave. An emergency came up for him, as well.”
    Courtney nodded. She didn’t want to jump to conclusions about anything but …
    She handed the waiter her charge card. She hoped her bad luck with the black book was a fluke and that the next name in it would be a whole lot better than the first two. He just had to be, or she would be tempted to toss that little black book right in the trash regardless of the promise she’d made to Sonya.
    Peggy glanced down at herself as she stepped off the elevator. The sun was shining brightly outside, and the drive
in to work had been fantastic, especially since she had joined in with Sly and the Family Stone when her favorite song, “Everyday People,” came blaring on the radio.
    Her mother, Lola Phelps, had never intended for her two daughters, Peggy and Barbara, to be everyday people. Especially not after Disney arrived in the late sixties and decided they needed the tract of land—over four hundred acres—that had been in the Phelps family for years.
    Wanting a better life for her and her daughters, Lola hadn’t thought of not selling. After all, she was the last of the Phelpses, and