Free The Cinderella Deal by Jennifer Crusie Page A

Caroline.
    “What are you doing?” he whispered.
    Daisy put her hands on her hips and glared up at him. “I’m going back to the motel. This is my idea of hell, but I have been good for five excruciating hours, and now it’s time for me to be set free. Take me home, cupcake, or I’ll turn into a pumpkin right here before their very eyes. And the first one I show my real self to will be that patronizing anorexic dwarf with the bad bleach job.”
    “Hold on.” Linc patted her shoulder a little frantically. “I will get you out, I swear, but it will take some time. We’ll have to say good-bye. Can you stand it another fifteen minutes?”
    “Just about.”
    It took them half an hour before they’d said all their good-byes and the Crawfords would let them go. Daisy figured that unless Linc did something incredibly stupid, he was in. Then she saw him with Caroline again, holding her hand, looking into her eyes, saying good-bye. Laying the groundwork for laying Caroline next year. Well, the hell with them both. They deserved each other.
    And then she turned and saw the expression on Chickie’s face as Chickie watched them.
    Chickie must have watched her husband with a lot of women
, Daisy thought.
And Chickie hasn’t attached to Linc, she’s attached to me. The daughter she never had
.
    Linc, you dummy.
    Daisy moved up beside Chickie and sighed. “It’s so sad.”
    Chickie put her arm around Daisy and glared in Line’s direction. “Men!”
    Daisy looked surprised. “Oh, no. He’s not interested in Caroline that way. It’s just that she looks like his little sister. His little sister… Gertrude.”
    Chickie stopped, taken aback. “Oh?”
    “You see…” Daisy leaned closer as her mind raced ahead. “He adored her, and she died very young.”
    “Oh, no.” Chickie was horrified.
    Daisy got a faraway look in her eye. “They loved each other very much. He called her his little cupcake. She called him”—Daisy’s imagination faltered. What the hell had she called him—“Honest Abe. After the president. Lincoln, you know?”
    She saw Chickie frown and decided to retrench a little. “As a joke. She called him that as a joke. They joked around a lot.”
    Chickie nodded.
    Daisy tried to recapture the thread of her story. “And then one day—” She paused. How was she going to kill off this nauseating little creep? Disease? Murder? Act of God? How would she like Caroline to go? “She was hit by a truck.”
    “Oh, my heavens.” Chickie’s hand went to her mouth.
    It was a good thing Chickie was so full of gin. This was not one of Daisy’s best efforts. “And so, Linc is just naturally drawn to be kind to small blondes because they remind him of his little cupcake. Little Gertrude.”
    “Oh.” Chickie clutched at her, touched.
    Linc finally let go of Little Gertrude’s hand and turned to find them watching him. Chickie sniffled. Daisy wiggled her fingers at him.
    He walked over to them and took Daisy’s hand. “Well, it’s midnight, so I’ve got to get Cinderella home.”
    Chickie clutched his arm. “You poor, poor boy.”
    Linc looked at the gin glass in Chickie’s other hand and nodded. “Absolutely. We’ll see you tomorrow.”
    He put his arm around Daisy and pulled her out the door.
    “What was that all about?” he asked Daisy as they went out to the car.
    Daisy beamed at him. “I’ll tell you later, but it’s nothing to worry about.” Linc looked at her warily, and she added, “Unless you were hoping to sleep with Caroline someday. That would be bad.”
    “Daisy—” Linc said, but then Crawford joined them and cut him off.
    Daisy got into the car and smiled all the way back to the motel.
     
    Half an hour later Daisy came out of the motel bathroom wearing an oversize white T-shirt and saw Linc sitting on the opposite bed with his shirt off.
Merciful heavens,
she thought, and then she stopped thinking in words and went to pictures. Moving pictures.
    He scowled at her across her