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  “Taylor Gee has just signed one of the most lucrative deals in television. The up-and-coming actress is reportedly going to earn six hundred thousand dollars for each episode of Many Moons for the next two years. Gee has enjoyed a surge of popularity since the attack on her at a Chicago hotel a few weeks ago.” Kathie lowered the magazine. “Think we’ll get that kind of raise this year, ladies?”

  Meg smiled, wondering if her girlfriends would believe her if she told them that she had walked in the starlet’s shoes, and aside from the man who guarded her back, Taylor’s life wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. No, she was right where she belonged.

  Sharon scoffed. “Forget the raise, I’m just glad the Gestapo superintendent and the school board has been stopped in their tracks.”

  “Right,” Joanna said from the corner, knitting a new scarf. “Gee, Meg, that was great of Trey’s father to go to the governor on the teachers’ behalf.”

  Kathie clucked. “Especially since you dumped his son.”

  Meg smiled sadly. “Our breakup was by mutual agreement. And Trey’s father is a just man who didn’t mind fighting for what was right.” Of course, that was after she’d threatened to inform his wife that she was looking spry for someone who had been killed in a gardening accident.

  “You really came through for us,” Kathie said. Then she angled her head. “But I think you need to keep Harry at your place for a while. At least until you’re feeling more cheery.”

  “Who’s Harry?” Sharon and Joanna asked simultaneously.

  “A souvenir Meg brought me back from Chicago—in addition to Taylor Gee’s autograph, of course.” She turned the page and made an appreciative sound. “Wow, Meg, why didn’t you bring me the woman’s bodyguard instead?” She turned the magazine around, and there was Jarett, close to Taylor’s side. Where he belonged.

  Meg smiled, trying not to let on that her heart broke a little more every day. She was sure Jarett hadn’t given her a second thought since returning to L.A. The man would live the rest of his life never knowing how deeply she’d fallen for him. “He’s incredible, that’s for certain.”

  Sharon looked and groaned in admiration. “Can you imagine spending a night with that man?”

  She’d certainly been doing a lot of that lately—in her dreams.

  A knock on the door sounded, and Kathie lowered her magazine. “Come in.”

  Meg took a sip out of her soda can, then noticed her friends’ faces. They were dumbstruck—all of them. Meg turned to see what had them so flustered, and she dropped her soda.

  “Jarett.”

  “Meg.” He stood in the doorway, dressed in black from head to toe. He looked at her as if he didn’t know how she’d react to his appearance.

  The bell rang and her friends snapped out of their trance. They slid out of the room, gaping unabashedly.

  Meg’s heart was going to jump out of her chest. She stood, and the chair clattered to the floor. “What are you doing here?”

  “I’m not sure,” he said. “All I do know is that I can’t not be here. Does that make any sense?”

  Meg nodded and smiled, unable to talk, afraid to hope.

  Jarett walked over to her and picked up her bare left hand. “Does this mean what I think it means?”

  “I…gave the ring back to him when I returned from Chicago.”

  His shoulders fell in relief. Then he walked over to her and took her face in his hands. “I love you, Meg. I know a lot of things happened that you don’t understand, but give me a chance to explain. I love you, and all I want to know is if there’s a chance you might love me, too.”

  “Yes,” she breathed, then smiled. “There’s a chance.” Jarett whooped with joy and lifted her in the air, spinning her around. Between her own happy cries, she became aware of another sound—applause? Outside the door of the teachers’ lounge, a crowd had gathered and were clapping wildly. Kathie whistled loudly through her fingers.

  He grinned up at her. “I didn’t just get you in trouble, did I?”

  “No,” she said, grinning. “Not at all.”

  “Can you take the rest of the day off?”

  “You’re in luck,” she said, draping her arms around his neck. “My next class is show and tell.”

  ISBN: 978-1-4268-3995-5

  TWO SEXY!

  Copyright © 2001 by Stephanie Bond Hauck.

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