The Bachelor's Little Bonus (Proposals & Promises 3)

For some reason those two words made her feel somewhat better as she moved into her office.

* * *

Cole couldn’t focus on either work or television for the next hour, though both the TV and computer screens flickered in front of him. His thoughts were focused on Stevie and on the snippet of conversation he’d heard earlier.

He hadn’t liked Jenny’s suggestion that Stevie had sacrificed herself for her child’s sake by marrying him. He thought they were doing very well so far. He enjoyed having meals with her, planning a future with her, waking up beside her. He especially liked making love with her. He was already starting to picture himself teaching their kid about science, math and computers, about classic sci-fi and the basics of martial arts training. All the “nerdy” things he longed to share. Stevie would impart her love of music, her creativity, her humor and joyous spontaneity, her people skills and business acumen. Between the two of them, the kid would have a well-rounded foundation.

He was even starting to feel less guilty—a little—that he was moving on

in his life, putting past regrets behind him and looking forward to a new, rewarding future.

* * *

Pepper Rose was rapidly becoming one of Stevie’s all-time favorite design clients. Despite the name Pepper herself cheerfully termed a “classic stripper name,” she was a brilliant and highly respected neuropsychiatrist affiliated with the medical school in Little Rock. Sixty years old, defiantly flame-haired, a few pounds overweight but energetic and light on her feet, Pepper had insisted on the use of first names as their collaboration continued.

“Just don’t call me Dr. Pepper,” she’d added with a weary smile. “You have no idea how tired I get of that particular joke.”

“I can imagine,” Stevie had responded with a laugh.

Married to a cardiologist, Pepper had recently cut back on her formerly grueling work schedule and was now involved in remodeling the home she and her husband had purchased a few months earlier. Built on a tall bluff with a breathtaking view of the Arkansas River below and the distant rolling hills beyond, the house was luxurious but a bit sterile in decor, especially in the white-on-white-on-stainless contemporary kitchen.

“Color,” Pepper had said when Stevie asked the first thing she wanted changed. “Please give me some color. I don’t care about trends or fashion, I just don’t want to feel like I’m still in a hospital setting when I walk into my kitchen in the morning.”

Stevie had embraced the challenge of designing a kitchen that was functional, fashionable and still incorporated Pepper’s love of color—most particularly, the color purple.

“Oh, Stevie, you’ve found it!” Pepper exclaimed at this meeting in her home late Tuesday afternoon. “This is the ideal granite for my countertops. I can’t believe it.”

Almost smugly, Stevie patted the granite sample she’d brought with her. Mottled shades of gray with a subtle purple veining, the granite hadn’t been easy to locate, but she’d known when she’d found it that it was exactly what Pepper wanted. Though Pepper had tentatively approved a blueprint for the remodel, the multitude of other choices had been put on hold until Stevie located the perfect granite.

“We can keep the backsplash neutral or pull out more of the purple. I’ve also located a set of pendant lights for over the island that I think you’ll love, but we’ll have to order them quickly if you want them. They’re a little pricey, but still just within the lighting budget.” She turned her tablet toward her client to better display the photo of the unique pendants formed of hand-blown purple glass.

“They’re gorgeous. Order them.” Typically, cost meant little to Pepper, though she and her husband had determined a top dollar for the remodel project. “Stevie...is there something you haven’t told me?”

Looking up from the tablet screen, Stevie searched her mind for any other kitchen item she’d forgotten. “What do you mean?”

Pepper reached out to touch Stevie’s left hand. “I don’t remember seeing these before.”

Her gaze drawn to the rings, Stevie nodded in comprehension. She felt her cheeks warm a little. “Oh. Yes, I was married last Friday.”

“And you’re working today?” Pepper clicked her tongue in disapproval.

“We’re delaying our honeymoon for now,” she answered lightly. “It’s a busy time for both of us in our careers.”

“Congratulations on your marriage. I hope you’ll be very happy. And I hope he knows how lucky he is.”

Stevie smiled. “Thank you, Pepper.”

“Philip and I will celebrate our thirty-fifth anniversary next month. We were both still in medical school when we married. It’s hard to believe the time has passed so quickly.”

“Congratulations to you, too. That’s quite a milestone.”

Thirty-five years. She couldn’t even imagine that far ahead in her own marriage.

Pepper gave a little shrug. “I won’t pretend we never had a rough time keeping it together. It wasn’t always easy balancing two very demanding careers and two inflated egos, along with the challenges of marriage and raising our two daughters. We were fortunate to be able to hire nannies and housekeepers to assist us, but there were plenty of times when I was ready to pull out my artificially red hair,” she added cheerfully. “Philip didn’t have enough left to pull by the time he was thirty.”

Stevie laughed softly. “It’s still quite an accomplishment to have a successful career and a successful marriage.”

“I’m glad we made it through. Now that our daughters are grown and we’ve started spending a few less hours at work, there are quite a few things we’d like to do together. Visit our little grandson in Tucson. Travel around Europe. See Australia and New Zealand. We’ve just never had the time.”