Seattle Cinderella.
Gail Sattler.
INTRODUCTION.
Cindy and the Prince.
Forced to share her father"s m.u.f.fler shop with her bitter stepmother, Cindy is determined to make the best of a difficult situation. Eligible bachelor Luke Princeton admires Cindy"s s.p.u.n.k and fort.i.tude. He isn"t interested in anyone but her...even though she"s not interested in him. But as Luke tries to win Cindy"s heart, her stepsisters, Annie and Zella, try to keep them apart. Will Luke"s annual banquet be the perfect setting for a fairy-tale romance?
Love by the Books.
When Annie fills in for the regular accountant at Brent and Luke"s car rental business, she has no idea what she"s getting into...until she finds some alarming discrepancies in the books. Annie is hesitant to speak up. Brent doesn"t trust her, so why would he believe her about it, or anything else? When all fingers point to her, convincing everyone of her innocence seems hopeless except for the help of the most unlikely man-Brent.
Till Death Do Us Part.
With her first name starting with a Z and her last with a W, Zella Wilson has always been last. And now she"s the last to get married, but she"s in no rush even if her mother is. When a book club brings Trevor into Zella"s life, her mother is thrilled...until Zella"s behavior starts to worry her. Could this new mystery man in Zella"s life be using her love to cover up his life of crime?
Never Too Late.
The one love of Farrah"s life ended in tragedy, and she never got over it. Even though she is sometimes lonely, her life is busy and full without love, especially now that she is helping teenage Kat and her friends with animal rescue projects. Fellow volunteer Matt quickly falls for Farrah...but he struggles to convince her that age means nothing when it comes to love.
CINDY AND THE PRINCE.
Dedication.
Dedicated to all romantics and lovers of the eternal happily-ever-after.
Chapter 1.
Luke Princeton pushed open the door to the m.u.f.fler shop and walked inside.
Ignoring the sign saying customers weren"t allowed in the work area, he forced a smile at the young woman seated at the desk in the corner of the small service office. "Mind if I go in? I need to talk to the boss."
She jerked her head toward the shop window, where three people wearing blue coveralls stood together under a car raised on a hydraulic hoist. One of them pointed upward and the others nodded. "You know the drill," she mumbled, not missing a keystroke.
Indeed he did. He also knew which one of the three he wanted-the one who was six inches shorter than the other two.
He stepped into the shop, stopping with his toes on the yellow line. "Hey! Cindy!" he called out quickly before they fired up the welding torches and no one could hear him.
All three of them raised their welding masks and turned toward him.
Cindy laid her torch down, pulled off her safety gloves, stuffed them in her pockets, and walked toward him. "What can I do for you, Luke?"
"You can join me for lunch." He gave her his best and, he hoped, most charming smile.
She didn"t smile back. Instead she lowered her head and wiped her hands down the legs of her coveralls. "No, seriously."
He was completely serious-as serious as he"d been the last dozen times he"d asked.
Luke rammed his hands into his pockets. "I have a reservation on the blue van this afternoon, but when it came back this morning it sounded a little noisy. I think the last people who rented it did something to the m.u.f.fler. Can you fit it in before four thirty?"
She nodded. "We certainly can. All you had to do was make an appointment with Annie."
"Right. Annie." One of Cindy"s two sisters who worked at the m.u.f.fler shop part-time. He could never remember their names. "What"s the other one"s name again?"
"Zella. Annie comes in on Mondays, Zella comes in on Fridays, and they alternate Sat.u.r.days."
A and Z, first and last. He"d remember that. "Annie seemed too busy, that"s why I asked you myself."
For a second Cindy smiled, but it wasn"t a happy smile. "I"ll just make that appointment for you."
Her lack of an answer about lunch didn"t go unnoticed.
While Cindy penciled him into the appointment book, giving him the last empty time slot of the day, he fished the key for the van out of his pocket.
"Since you"re busy, I could run and get a couple of coffees, and we can sit and have a little break without going out."
She pulled a white tag to attach to the car"s keys, and wrote Prince Rentals on it. "Sorry, I really don"t have time to stop today. Maybe another time, though." She tied the string to the key ring and hung it on the wall with the rest of the keys. "See you at four thirty."
Luke smiled in acknowledgment then turned around and his smile dropped. He tried not to let yet another rejection get him down as he returned to his building across the shared parking lot.
"Struck out again, huh?"
He glared at his partner and soon to be exbest friend. "Don"t you have some work to do?"
Brent raised a cup from the coffee shop a few doors down then set it back down on the counter. "Nope. Break time." However, Brent had the file open for a fleet quote they were going to make and was writing, despite his alleged coffee break. "I told you that you should have taken her a latte or something. Then she would have had to stop and talk to you, just to be polite."
"You"re probably right, but it would have been rude not to bring one for her sister."
"Try when she"s over there alone then."
"But I can"t ask her when she doesn"t have one of her sisters there to answer phones or deal with customers. She can"t take the time."
"Did you ask her out for lunch again?"
"Yes, and she turned me down again. Too busy."
"Or you can"t take a hint." Brent sipped his coffee. "She"s obviously not interested."
Luke rammed his hands into his pockets. "She doesn"t say she"s seeing someone. I"d respect that. She always says another time," so that makes me think one day she"s going to say yes."
"She"s just being nice because you"re a good customer. You"ve been trying to get her to go out with you for at least six months. I think it"s time to move on."
Hoping to catch a glimpse of Cindy through the window of the m.u.f.fler shop, Luke turned to look outside. "I can"t. There"s just something about her that gets to me."
Brent snickered. "Right. You gotta love a woman who knows how to work a welding torch."
Luke turned to give Brent the evil eye. "I know it sounds strange, but that"s a part of it. After her dad died, she stepped right into his footsteps. She does the same work Dave did."
"Even puts up with those lazy sisters like Dave did." Brent didn"t look up from his quote. "Yeah, she"s good all right."
"You"ve got to admit that running a brake and m.u.f.fler shop isn"t a typical job for a woman. She"s got guts."
Brent"s snicker turned into a belly laugh. "There"s a line you can use to impress a lady. I like you because you"ve got guts. Now I know why she won"t go out with you."
Luke picked up a clipboard with an inspection form on it. "You"re not helping. If you were in my place, what would you do?"
"Ask her to go out to a movie or something."
"If she won"t go out with me for a short lunch, what makes you think she"ll go to a movie?"
Brent shrugged his shoulders. "How about sending her flowers?"
"I don"t think she"s the flowers type." "All chicks like jewelry. Give her a necklace with your initials on it."
"You"re so funny." Luke made no attempt to keep the sarcasm out of his voice. He sighed and turned back to the window. "I"ve never seen Cindy wear jewelry. Not even earrings. Besides, isn"t there a workers" comp regulation about jewelry and power tools?"
"Point taken. How about church?"
Luke shook his head. "She doesn"t go to mine. But I think I know where she goes. When I took Kat to her friend"s youth group a couple of weeks ago, I saw Cindy"s pickup in the parking lot."
At the mention of Cindy"s truck, both men turned their heads to look out the window. There it was: a large black 4X4 with orange flames painted on the sides, parked in the back corner of m.u.f.ford Brake and m.u.f.fler"s area of the lot.
"There can"t be too many of those around town," Brent muttered.
"Maybe that"s what I should do. Kat won"t go to church on Sunday morning, but that friend of hers has taken her to youth group a few times. Maybe I should check it out."
"Good idea." Brent raised his empty cup and tilted it toward the garbage container. "Coffee break"s over. Back to work."
Cindy m.u.f.ford watched Luke return to his office from her vantage point beside lift three. The large windows were great for letting the natural light in-and for keeping an eye on her handsome neighbor.
As happened often, Luke and his partner were involved in a lively discussion. Cindy smiled as Brent smacked Luke in the back of the head with his empty cup before tossing it into the trash. Those two had a special relationship to be able to share a business partnership for so many years and still be good friends. Cindy glanced at her stepsister Annie and thought of her other stepsister, Zella. Unlike Luke and Brent"s, hers was a partnership not made in heaven.
As she worked, she couldn"t get it off her mind. When she couldn"t stand it anymore, she sucked in a deep breath, put her wrench down, returned to the office, and approached Annie"s desk. "Why didn"t you make an appointment for Luke this morning? He shouldn"t have come into the shop just for that."
Annie shrugged her shoulders and kept typing. "He wanted to see you anyway. He always does."
Cindy held her breath while she counted to ten. "I was working. Unlike you." She swept one hand through the air, encompa.s.sing the papers spread on the desk. "You"re doing your homework. You"re supposed to be closing off month end."
"Mom said it would be okay. The a.s.signment has to be turned in tomorrow." Cindy tamped down her anger. Annie was still going to college to follow her dream, while Cindy had to drop out and take over the business when her father died.
"Your mother doesn"t have the right to say that. I have a business to run."
"Your father gave Mom half interest, so that means she has every right. I"ll finish the month end tomorrow at home. By the way, be quiet when you get home tonight. Mom is going to a seminar tomorrow and has to be in bed early."
"What about supper? If you"re going to throw the half interest in my face, my half interest in the house means supper every day, not fending for myself. And please don"t tell me Zella is cooking."
Annie"s eyes narrowed. "Your supper will be in the fridge. There wouldn"t be a problem if you"d gone out with Luke."
"He asked me out for lunch, not supper." Cindy opened her mouth, about to tell Annie that her personal conversations were none of her business, but stopped before the words came out. She didn"t have a good relationship with either of her stepsisters as it was. Snapping back would only make it worse, if that were possible. If Melissa ever said something good about her in front of Annie and Zella instead of the constant criticism, things might be different. But that wasn"t going to happen, so it was best just to keep quiet. Since she only had half interest in the house and half interest in the business, she couldn"t sell either one to get a house of her own, and she didn"t earn enough money from half the business to live on her own and pay rent. So she was stuck with them. Or they were stuck with her.
Annie leaned back in the chair and ran her fingers through her hair. "If you"re not going to go out with him, maybe I will. He"s hot."
As Annie spoke, the school bus stopped in front of the car rental, and a girl hopped out.
Cindy watched the girl run to Luke and give him a big hug. Luke might be hot, but he was also a single father. And Cindy had experienced enough misery with her own blended family to not get involved in someone else"s.
"You go right ahead."
Annie pulled a flash drive out of the computer, scooped up her books, and stomped out without another word.
Cindy stared blankly at the clock. All day long Annie had been doing her homework for college on company time. Hopefully she would keep her promise and catch up on the company"s accounting work on her own time.
Melissa had poisoned so much between them, but at least integrity remained. At this point, it was the best she was going to get.
Cindy gritted her teeth and got caught up on the paperwork until everyone scheduled to pick up cars today had done so. She worked on the next parts order until her two employees left then flicked on the Closed light and locked up.