The Cinderella Project (A Comedy of Love, #1) Read Free

maiden.”
    “I love you, Nicky.”
    “Big ditto, Els.”
    The park was in view now. The dark lawn spread out like a ten-acre patchwork quilt with few holes in it. I hoped we’d have a place to sit, preferably somewhere secluded. I had my own pyrotechnics show in mind for Ella and I.
    We finally found a small, bare patch of grass against a bushy pine and spread our blanket. Ella dropped the pillow and then plopped down on it, patting the blanket next to her. I sat and pulled her close with a kiss.
    “I’m so glad I got you, Nicky,” she sighed as her lips left mine. “ Daddy always told me I deserved the best. I swore to myself that I’d never settle for less than tall, dark and handsome.”
    “I’m blonde, Ella.”
    She laughed. “It’s a figure of speech, silly. You’re everything I want in a man. Rich, six-two and you’ve got the best pair of smoky-blue eyes I’ve ever seen.” She ran a hand along my jaw and down my neck. “And that face of yours. It’s enough to make a girl just want to eat you up.” She nibbled my ear playfully.
    I shrugged. “If you’re happy, I’m happy. Looks like we both got lucky in love. You’re the most breathtaking thing I’ve ever seen.” That got me a long kiss. I laughed when I heard a firecracker burst overhead. Oh man… it was like living one of those sappy movies I’d been watching for the last two years.
    Ella cupped my chin in her hand and turned my face back to her. “Wouldn’t it be great if we didn’t have to wait clear ’til December to get married?”
    “I’d marry you tomorrow if I could, Els,” I said. Another, smaller firecracker popped from somewhere in the parking lot. “Still, what with my dissertation defense and all… .”
    She nuzzled me a bit more . “Nicky?”
    “Hmm?”
    “Tell me about us, Nicky. You’re so tense, tonight.”
    “I guess I am. It’s been one heck of a day, Ella.” I pulled her into a one-armed embrace and she snuggled up against me. “So… what about us, specifically?”
    Her enchanting gaze made it easy to remember why I’d been attracted to her. “Tell me about how we met, Nicky. You know I can never hear that story enough.”
    I paused. Sure, I liked this story too . Our initial courtship had been rather magical. But I wondered why she’d been asking for it so often, as if she needed some kind of ongoing reminder.
    “Well?” she said expectantly.
    I smiled wide and gazed at the western mountains where the sun had already gone to sleep. “Once upon a time,” I began. Ella always had a penchant for fairytales and giggled every time I started it that way. “Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful young woman named Ella. Ella, because of her sophistication, beauty and intelligence was the prime envy of her stepmother and stepsister.”
    “Oh, Nicky, don’t tease.”
    I smiled at her. “Ella’s father did what he could to protect Ella from the stepfamily, but Ella’s stepmother, the old witch—”
    “Nicky!” she cried in disbelief. “How could you say such a thing about the woman?”
    Put politely, Ella hadn’t presented either her stepmother or stepsister as saints, the few times she’d even mentioned them. I still didn’t know their names. Apparently, Ella’s home situation was so unpleasant that when the time had come to ask her father for permission to marry his girl, Ella had told me that it was better to just write him a letter and have her deliver it. A letter? I had asked her. Did the man not have e-mail? Or a phone? Something about “keeping me out of the mess.” I complied and I guess it was good enough. Nevertheless, Ella’s extreme evasiveness combined with the obvious animosity toward her step family bothered me. I hoped that one day she’d trust me enough to fill me in on the details.
    “Sorry, sorry,” I chuckled. “Anyway, Ella’s stepmother always wanted her daughter to be the prize of the household. She’d do everything she could to make sure that Ella never got