His Comfort and Joy

His Comfort and Joy
Jessica Bird

Getting tangled up in fantasies about some man Joy saw maybe five or six times a year was ridiculous.And it wasn't like Gray ever encouraged her. He remembered her name. But that was as far as it ever got. Well, except in her dreams. In real life, however, the attraction was totally one-sided. Or so she thought. Joy couldn't believe it when her daydreams about Grayson Bennett, political consultant and heartthrob extraordinaire, seemed poised to become reality.When he noticed her–really noticed her. When he gazed at her with the same desire he'd inspired in her for years. But was sweet, small-town Joy a match for arrogant, big-city Gray, ruthless about all things–except opening his heart?

Tiffany’s.

“What are we doing here?” Joy asked slowly.

“Come with me.” Gray touched her elbow, ushering her through the glass doors. As soon as they were inside the yawning space, a man in a three-piece suit came up to them.

“Mr. Bennett, good afternoon. Please, this way.”

Joy’s heart was beating like a bird’s and she took her hand from Gray’s because her palm was getting sweaty.

The suffocating sensation got worse when Three-Piece appeared with a thin leather box about eight inches long and four inches wide. The man flipped open the top and slid the tray forward.

Diamond rings.

She reached out and plucked a ring from its velvet sheath. Beneath the overhead lighting, the stone’s brilliance hurt her eyes. And surely there was a hell of a metaphor in that.

“What do you think you’re doing?” She didn’t look at Gray. Couldn’t.

“Asking you to marry me.”

His Comfort and Joy

Jessica Bird

With thanks to my first reader,

aka Mom

JESSICA BIRD

graduated from college with a double major in history and art history, concentrating in the medieval period. This meant she was great at discussing anything that happened before the sixteenth century, but not all that employable in the real world. In order to support herself, she went to law school and worked in Boston in health-care administration for many years.

She now lives in the South with her husband and many pictures of golden retrievers that she hopes to replace with the real thing sometime very soon. As a writer, her commute is a heck of a lot better than it was as a lawyer and she’s thrilled that her professional wardrobe includes slippers and sweatpants. She likes to write love stories that feature strong, independent heroines and complex, alpha male heroes. Visit her Web site at www.jessicabird.com and e-mail her at Jessica@jessicabird.com.

72nd Annual

Saranac Lake

“Last Rows of Summer BBQ and Swing Dance”

The Gazebo

Town Square

Saturday, September 12

6:00 p.m.-Midnight

Featuring:

The Diamond Jim Swing Orchestra Uncle Bob’s World-Famous BBQ and a fifteen-foot Make-Your-Own-Sundae Bar!

As always, kids and dogs are welcome…

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter One

The boat’s engine throbbed as Grayson Bennett kept the Hacker at a low speed and close to the lakeshore. The antique, thirty-foot craft was his pride and joy, a relic of the Great Gatsby era of lake life. Made of mahogany and varnished to a shine so bright it could hurt your eyes, the Bellitas was indeed a thing of beauty. And she was wickedly fast. The long, thin design provided three discreet seating areas, marked by contoured banquettes in dark green leather. The massive engine, capable of shooting the boat through the water at speeds of sixty miles an hour, took up a good six feet of space in the middle.

He would miss her when he put her up on blocks for the winter, and the time for her yearly hibernation was coming fast. He could feel it in the air.

Even though it was the middle of the day, September was cool in the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York. To take the edge off the chill, he was wearing a windbreaker and his only passenger, aside from a big, very happy golden retriever, had on a thick sweater.