The Perfect Proposal Chapter Three

“Stop grinning,” Ashley Jessup demanded.

“What's the matter? Jealous?” Mary asked and grinned at her friend and coworker. She couldn’t help grinning, though. Jackie had been more attentive and loving this past week than she usually was, which was hard to imagine considering how loving and attentive Jackie was on a regular basis. Mary wasn’t sure what had inspired Jackie’s new insatiable spell, but she was not complaining.

“No,” Ashley snapped and then sat down at her desk. “Well, maybe a little. Jean has been so busy starting her new practice that we haven’t had much time for…” Ashley looked toward the offices of the two law partners Mary and she worked for and then said in a low voice, “Well, you know.”

Mary let her grin fade slightly and nodded. “You said that she has been working a lot of late nights.”

“I’d be worried she was seeing someone else if she wasn’t working at home,” Ashley admitted. “I’ve been trying to help her as much as I can, but there’s not much I can do when she’s mostly reading over case files.”

“Be patient,” Mary encouraged Ashley. “It will get better once she reestablishes herself as a lawyer.”

“I know,” Ashley said, “but I still want to be in honeymoon mode.”

Mary gave Ashley a knowing smile as one of the lawyers came out of his office. Ashley and she had been roommates for a long time before Mary and Jackie became a couple. The three of them had lived together for a short time until Ashley and her dominatrix, the former Judge Jean Carlisle became full-time lovers and Ashley moved in with her. 

Mr. Lowry handed Ashley a stack of papers. “Please call Carlton and Bishop’s firm and have them send a courier over to get this information.”

“Right away, Mr. Lowry,” Ashley said. She put the papers down on her desk, picked up the phone and dialed. 

Mr. Lowry looked up as the door to the office opened and Jackie came in with a two-wheeler loaded with boxes. “Good morning, Jackie,” Mr. Lowry said.

“Good morning, Mr. Lowry,” Jackie replied. “Do you want to sign for these, or do you want me to have one of the ladies sign for it?” 

“I’ll sign for it,” he said and took the electronic pad from Jackie. 

Jackie looked over at Mary and smiled. Mary returned her smile and then busied herself at her desk.

Mr. Lowry saw the exchange, smiled at the two of them, and then went back to his office. He knew about Jackie and Mary’s relationship and was okay with it. Mary had been terrified when she first started seeing Jackie that Mr. Lowry and Mr. Winslow would find out about her relationship with Jackie and fire her, but her fears had been unfounded. Mr. Lowry and Mr. Winslow turned out to very accepting and understanding of her relationship with Jackie. 

Jackie unloaded the boxes. Two of which were supplies and the others were correspondence packages. She placed the supplies in the closet with the other supplies and put the packages on Mary’s desk.  

Mary looked up at Jackie’s twinkling eyes. “What?” 

“I have special plans for tonight, unless you have other plans,” Jackie said.

“Really,” Ashley said from across the room. “Do you two have to flaunt your plans in front of me?”

Jackie turned and gave Ashley a questioning look. “What’s the matter with you?”

“She’s not getting any,” Mary whispered. 

Ashley turned her glare to Mary. “You didn’t need to tell her that.”

“I would just tell her when we get home,” Mary confessed.

Ashley sighed and sat down at her desk. “It’ll be fine. Maybe this weekend Jean will have some down time.”

“The Judge tied up with her new law firm?” Jackie asked.

“Yeah, she’s been taking as many cases as she can get so she can rebuild her name as a lawyer. She’s even doing some pro bono work for the ACLU,” Ashley said and leaned back in her chair.

“I thought the American Civil Liberties Union had their own lawyers,” Jackie said.

“They do, but sometimes people come to them and their lawyers are too busy to take the case, so they farm it out. Jean volunteered to take some cases of theirs for people who don’t have money to pay a lawyer,” Ashley said.

“That’s a good way to establish your reputation,” Mary said.

“She had a good reputation as a lawyer before she became a judge, but she was on the bench for over ten years,” Ashley stated. “I think she’s having a hard time adjusting to being on the other side of the bench.”

“I don’t think she’ll have any trouble,” Jackie said encouragingly. “She was a good judge and I’m sure people remember her being a good lawyer. I think she’ll have more work than she’ll know what to do with before she knows it.”

“It feels like that now, but I know part of it is her wanting to be extra thorough and not leave the details to anyone else,” Ashley said.

Mary couldn’t stop herself from grinning. “Well, she does have control issues.”

“Funny,” Ashley snapped. 

“Maybe that’s what she needs, to have a little control,” Jackie suggested wiggling her eyebrows.

Ashley shook her head at the two of them. “I have to get back to work.”

“Yeah, me too,” Jackie said. She turned to Mary. “So do you have any plans for this evening?”

“Nope, just going home and snuggling with you.”

“Great,” Jackie said. She grabbed her two-wheeler and practically skipped out of the office.

Ashley watched Jackie leave. After Jackie got in the UPS truck, she turned to Mary, “What’s with her?”

“I don’t know,” Mary admitted. “She’s been acting weird for about a week. She’s been super giddy, singing or whistling while she’s cleaning or cooking. I mean she’s done that before, just more so this week.”

Ashley looked back at the door and watched Jackie’s UPS truck pull away from the parking lot. She wondered what she was up to and if it could be bottled and given to Jean.

The Perfect Proposal Chapter Two

Mary was stretched out on the couch with her eyes closed when Jackie got home. She studied the beautiful Mary Hanon and wondered if they would make some combination of their last names after they got married, or maybe Mary would take her last name.  Mary Meredith has a nice ring to it.

“What are you thinking about?” Mary asked, snapping Jackie out of her daydream.

Jackie sat down on the couch and pulled Mary’s stocking feet into her lap. “I was thinking about things I want to do to you.” It was only a partial fib.

“Oh yeah,” Mary said, “Rubbing my feet wasn’t one of them, was it?”

“It’s a good place to start,” Jackie said and started massaging Mary’s feet.

Mary moaned and closed her eyes. “That is wonderful.”

Jackie focused on massaging Mary’s small feet but her eyes kept straying to where Mary’s skirt was riding up, showing off her slim legs. Her hands moved from Mary’s feet to her ankles and calves, eliciting more moaning from Mary.

It had been a little over a week since the last time they had made love. Jackie was itching to slide her hands up Mary’s legs and pull the hose and panties away from the prize she wanted. She kicked off her shoes and shifted so she was straddling Mary’s legs.

Mary opened an eye and asked, “What ya doing?”

“I thought I would massage your thighs too.”

“Is that right?” Mary said, a grin playing at her lips. “Well, by all means, please continue your massage.”

Jackie gently squeezed Mary’s thighs. She worked her fingers into Mary’s hamstrings and gently massaged them.

“Mmm,” Mary looked at Jackie with hooded eyes. “Were you going to massage some other places?”

“I was thinking about it,” Jackie admitted with a grin.

“Well, then you will have to help me get these hose off.”

“My pleasure,” Jackie said and moved her hands under Mary’s skirt to the top of her hose and underwear.  She began pulling Mary’s hose and underwear down together. Mary shifted her weight to help Jackie but left her hands behind her head.

Once Mary was free of her hose, Jackie began massaging her upper thigh muscles, keeping her hands just shy of her final target.

“You are such a tease,” Mary whispered.

Jackie could hear Mary’s breathing speeding up. She leaned down and placed a kiss on the inside of Mary’s thigh. She placed another on the other thigh and pushed Mary’s skirt up further revealing the glistening mound. She kissed the top of Mary’s mound before sliding her lips downward.

Mary opened her thighs giving Jackie full access to her throbbing heat. She gave a small cry when Jackie sucked her clit into her mouth.

Pushing Mary’s legs further apart, Jackie settled between them and began giving Mary a very thorough massage with her tongue. It didn’t take Jackie long to have Mary writhing and begging for release.  When Jackie did finally bring her to orgasm, Mary’s hips pushed Jackie high off the couch before they both collapsed back down on it, panting from their excursion.

“Come up here,” Mary commanded as she pulled on Jackie’s shirt until Jackie's mouth met hers. She kissed Jackie deeply, tasting herself on Jackie’s lips and tongue.

“We’re going into the bedroom for the next round,” Jackie said and lay her head on Mary’s shoulder. “This couch is killing my back.”

“Poor baby,” Mary cooed. “I’ll massage it for you when we get in the bedroom.”

“Is that all you're going to massage?” Jackie asked.

“Oh, I don't know,” Mary teased. “I might massage some other parts of your body, if I'm not too tired.”

Jackie raised her head. “Too tired, huh,” she said and moved her hands to Mary's sides. “Let me see if I can't wake you up a little.” She began tickling Mary, who immediately retaliated.

Jumping up, Jackie called as she ran toward the bedroom, “Are you awake now?”

“Oh yes,” Mary said, jumping off the couch and chasing after her. “And you are in big trouble when I catch you.”

The Perfect Proposal Chapter One

Jackie Meredith perused the selection of engagement rings waiting for one to jump out at her. She wanted something amazing.  For six months she had been saving money and waiting for the right time to ask Mary to marry her.  They had been living together for almost a year and life was perfect. She wanted to make their commitment to each other official.

They both worked during the day, Jackie at her UPS delivery job and Mary as a legal secretary. They were saving money for their first vacation together. Jackie convinced Mary to go to Maine to check out the lighthouses. Before she asked Mary about going to the lighthouses, she already knew she wanted to propose to her. Jackie toyed with proposing to Mary in Maine and then having a ceremony in Kentucky, but since gay marriage was still banned in Kentucky, she decided she would rather have a small ceremony in Kentucky for their friends here and have the actual ceremony in Maine. At least that was what Jackie wanted, and hopefully Mary would agree to her plan.

The woman working the counter of the jewelry store glared at Jackie disapprovingly. She probably guessed that Jackie was looking for a ring for her girlfriend. Standing at her full height of five foot, ten inches and dressed in her UPS uniform, Jackie knew that she carried herself in a very masculine manner. She wasn’t ashamed that she looked like a butch dyke.

Shaking her head in disappointment, she decided she was not going to find what she was looking for here. Jackie left the store and headed to the only jewelry store in town that she hadn’t been to yet.

The store was small and in a middle class part of town.  The salesman was a middle aged, balding man in a light gray suit, who was slightly effeminate. “Good afternoon,” he said with a thick southern accent when Jackie entered the store.

“Good afternoon,” Jackie replied.

“Can I help you?”

“Yes,” Jackie said, “I’m looking for an engagement ring.  I want something different and really beautiful."

The salesman directed her to a case filled with of engagement rings. Jackie studied them but wasn’t happy with any of them. She let out a sigh of frustration.

The salesman said, “I have another collection of engagement rings that are a little more expensive.” He directed Jackie to look at a grouping of rings at the end of the glass counter.

Jackie’s breath caught in her throat. In the center of the group was the perfect ring. Pink gold surrounded a collection of diamonds in the form of a flower with a large heart shaped diamond in the center. “This is the one,” she said, pointing to the ring in the center.

The salesman opened the case and took out the ring Jackie pointed to. “This is a floral vintage ring with fourteen carat rose pink gold band and a point four carat heart shaped diamond. There are twenty-four point two carat diamonds in the leaves and band.” The salesman took the ring out of its box and handed it to Jackie for a closer inspection.

“This is just beautiful,” Jackie said, studying the ring in awe.

“It is,” the salesman agreed.

Some other people came into the store. The salesman wrote some numbers down on a piece of paper and handed it to Jackie. “This is the price for this ring.”

“Wow,” Jackie said looking at the numbers.

The salesman smiled. “Would you like to take a few minutes to think about it?”

“How much do you need to hold it?”

“Twenty percent,” he said.

Jackie took her checkbook out of her back pocket and started writing the check. “How long will you give me to come up with the rest of the money?”

Surprised that Jackie didn’t hesitate, the salesman said, “We do have financing plans if you would like to apply for one.”

Jackie thought about that for a few minutes. “What kind of interest are we talking about?”

“It varies depending on your credit, but the minimum interest is twelve point ninety-nine percent.”

“Let me put this deposit down and look into some financing from a few other places.”

The salesman nodded. “I can hold it for up to a month without some kind of financing arrangement.”

Grinning, Jackie handed the man her check. “It won’t take that long for me to get something worked out.”

“Okay,” he said and handed Jackie a form to fill out for holding the ring.

Jackie handed the filled out form back to the salesman, turned and walked out of the store. She’d been to every store in town and hadn’t seen anything as perfect as this ring. It cost almost twice as much as she had saved. She went to her truck and called her boss. “Hey Darren, do you know if I can get a loan on my retirement?”

Darren wanted to know why she wanted to get a loan. She explained that she was going to propose Mary and had found the perfect ring. He told her he would meet her at the store and see if he couldn’t get the salesman to come down on the price.

The salesman was surprised when Jackie came back in the store with Darren.  “Which ring?” Darren asked.

Jackie asked the salesman to bring the ring out for Darren to look out.

“Wow,” Darren said. “That’s beautiful. Let me take a picture of it and send it to a few dealers. Maybe someone has one similar for a lower price.”

The salesman’s eyes bugged out of his head. “We are the only dealer in town that has this ring. You are not going to find it cheaper.”

“There are hundreds of dealers online,” Darren said and took a picture of the ring. “We’ll send this picture around and see if we can’t find someone who has it or something similar for less money.”

Jackie watched the whole deal wondering if Darren was serious about checking with other dealers. The salesman pursed his lips and grabbed his notepad. He wrote a new number that was about a hundred dollars less than the first quote.

Darren looked at it and wrote down a number that was four hundred less than the first.  The salesman took the pad back and wrote a new number. This was two hundred less than the original price. Darren looked at Jackie. “What do you think?”

“I’ll still have to borrow some money, but I like that price a lot better.”

Looking up at the salesman Darren said, “This includes any resizing that may need to be done, right.”

“Yes.”

“You’ve got a deal,” Darren said and pulled out his checkbook.

Jackie watched in shock as Darren started writing a check for the balance of the ring. “Wait,” she said. “I don’t have the money to pay you back unless I get a loan.”

“I’m sure you can get one, so don’t worry about it,” Darren said, tore the check out of his checkbook and handed it to the salesman.

Fifteen minutes later Jackie and Darren left the jewelry store. “Thank you,” Jackie said. “I’ve never bought anything at a jewelry store, and definitely not for that kind of money.”

“I spend seven months hunting for the perfect engagement ring for Jane,” Darren said, referring to his wife of ten years. “I didn’t think I was ever going to find one I could afford that I really liked. I finally found the perfect ring, but it was a thousand dollars more than I had. I haggled the dealer down and even got him to let me make payments on it.”

“How long did it take you to pay it off?”

“Six months,” Darren said. “Did you talk to the salesman about payments?”

“Yeah, but the interest was really high. If I borrow from my retirement fund, there’s very little interest,” Jackie said. “What do I need to do to get a loan on that so I can pay you back?”

“We'll figure something out tomorrow,” Darren said, giving Jackie a pat on the back. “I’m going to head home. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Thanks, Darren,” Jackie said. “I really appreciate your help.”

“No problem,” Darren said as he climbed into his blue Avalanche.

Jackie got into her truck and patted her jacket pocket where the ring rested. It was going to be hard to keep from asking Mary for a few more days, but she wanted the moment she proposed to be perfect, and she still had plans to map out.

Stories coming to me faster than I can write them.

I have four stories twirling around in my head right now and little time for writing. I'm about half-way through the first book of the Circle of Confusion series, that are the sequel to Suddenly. I've outlined a new murder mystery, written about 5000 words into the book that will tell about Mary, Jackie, Ashley and Jean's weddings from The Wrong Place at the Right Time and Judge Not. And, I've started making notes for a new young adult novel, tentatively titled, "I'm Not Who You Think I Am."

I need a month off so that all I have to do is write, but that isn't going to happen. What is coming up is NaNoWriMo in November when I hope to make a huge dent in at least one of those four stories. But, for now, I'll just keep making notes and writing every chance I get and hopefully have something new for you all soon.

I've also been doing some reading when I get a few moments, usually right before bed. I read Rock Hard Candy by Liz McMullen this past month and finished Life Is Not A Country Song by Rhavenfyre.

Insanity of life

The past few months have been some of the craziest times of my life and the next few are not looking much better. I've had a lot of family stuff going on that has kept me from being able to keep up with my posts on here, on Facebook and all my other social media profiles. I have worked out a new schedule and I will hopefully being able to post on a regular basis now.

I do have good news for any readers who have not had a chance to read Judge Not yet. It is currently free on Smashwords with this coupon code: NN32U

Go to this link, https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/408957
enter the code and get your free copy of Judge Not!

A Great Month!

This has been a great month. Second Chances has sold like wildfire. As a result of Second Chances selling well, my other books Suddenly, Treacherous Souls, The Wrong Place at the Right Time, and Judge Not have all had increases in sales.

Life has been good on the home front and to top of my great month, Nicole Conn, a lesbian film icon has asked me to help promote her forthcoming book, "Descending Thirds." She plans to make this into a movie as well. If you have never seen a Nicole Conn film, you need to hop over to Wolfe Video and order you a copy of one of her films. If you are skiddish about making an investment buying the movie, swing over to Netflix and check out Elena Undone.

Elena Undone soundtrack 8