An Inconvenient Wedding...
Finally it was time to give her the ring, and Sue didn"t hide her disappointment when she saw it.
"Told you," Justin whispered.
Jake simply smiled and slipped it on her finger.
"I now pronounce you man and wife," the preacher said. "You may kiss the bride."
He lifted the veil and was struck that she would wear so little make up and still look stunning. She really does have simple but elegant taste. She"s going to throw a fit when she sees her new wardrobe. He already knew he would be assigning Mrs. Parker and her team of seamstresses with a new wardrobe. This time he would have to let Sue talk to her about what she wanted. He didn"t know whether to be relieved or annoyed. He was glad she wasn"t into all the flashy and flowery material women seemed to crave but all his efforts to please her were in vain.
As he bent to kiss her on the lips, she gave a slight turn of her head so he kissed the side of her mouth instead. "Well honey, aren"t you full of surprises today," he teased. Having managed to catch her off guard, he wrapped her in his arms and gave her a long kiss on the mouth.
She was too stunned to react in time to stop him. Several men chuckled and the single women sighed as if imagining he was kissing them. When Jake let go of her, he shot her a triumphant look. She looked flustered and then furious.
They turned to the people as the preacher announced, "I present to you Mr. and Mrs. Jake Mitchell."
She was reluctant to walk down the aisle with him so he gently led her by the arm. "We don"t want to disappoint the people. Remember, it"s only for six months."
She sighed and started walking with him.
Excerpt:
December 1899
ake Mitchell was good at two things: making money and
managing people. What he wasn"t good at was getting Sue Lewis to stop coming by the bank where he worked every day. It wasn"t that Sue was outwardly rude, but she was persistent and vocal. This particular day was no exception. He was sitting in his office when he heard her enter the bank.
"I want to speak to someone in charge here," she told one of the tellers.
Jake closed his light blue eyes and ran his hand through his short dark brown straight hair. He rubbed his neatly trimmed beard and sighed. He was only thirty-five but when he heard her nagging voice, he felt like he was sixty. She could wear any man out.
"Mr. Mitchell, that woman is back," George Leroy said. "So? Take care of it," he replied.
"I"ve done everything I can but she won"t go away."
Jake shook his head. How did George ever expect to take over as president when his father retired if he couldn"t handle one woman? "I"m the vice president, George. I"ll be working under you soon enough. You need to learn to handle these kinds of customers."
"That"s easy for you to say. You handle people better than I do."
"Now is the perfect opportunity for you to work on that." He heard her constant demands for a resolution to her
family"s debt every day for the past two weeks. She came in around noon every single day and said the same thing. He had unsuccessfully tried to resolve her dispute, but she wouldn"t listen to any of the logic he presented to her.
"I don"t want to talk to her," George whined.
"I talked to her on Monday," Jake said. "Now it"s your turn."
"I talked to her yesterday. And Mr. Edwards talked to her last Friday."
"So we"re all taking turns?" He sighed. "Then it"s Edwards" turn again. We"ll just go in circles because there"s nothing else to do. We can"t solve her problem."
Noah Edwards was in charge of the mortgages. He really was the ideal person for her to talk to, though it wouldn"t do her any good.
"Miss, you can"t just walk back there," the teller exclaimed. "I will not be treated so rudely," she snapped. "I know my rights as a customer."
Jake cringed as she walked past the teller and into his office. He made a mental note to buy a lock for his door.
Sue was actually easy on the eyes, despite the fact that she wore her blond curly hair in a bun. Her face was nice to look at. Her hourglass figure and ample bosom were even better. Her green eyes and fair complexion would grab the attention of any man, but her aggressive behavior turned men off, which was why she was still single at thirty-three. No man wanted a nag for a wife. They also didn"t want the debt she came with. Every man knew that her parents were in desperate financial straits and if they married her, they would have to take that debt on themselves. Considering the size of the debt, Jake understood why men shuddered to even consider a courtship with her. Had she been blessed to remove either her debt or nagging, she might have succeeded in marrying someone. However, she had two strikes against her, and those were two strikes too many.
"I demand to have a conversation with you since you"re the vice president," she ordered.
Jake sighed. The teller had no experience to withstand her stormy emotions.
George and the teller quickly left the office.
Great. Now I"m stuck with her. "I have nothing new to say to you," Jake finally told her. "You don"t have a case."
She sat in the chair in front of his desk and folded her arms. "I won"t go away until the issue is resolved."
"It is resolved." Why am I wasting my time? The woman simply refused to listen to reason.
"Not to my satisfaction."
Suddenly, an idea came to him. "I"ll be right back."
"I"ll stay here all day if I have to. I won"t leave just because you run and hide," she warned as he stood up.
He stopped himself from rolling his eyes. "I said I would be right back." He made sure to emphasize the words "right back." He grumbled as he left the office and went to the backroom where he could grab her family"s folder. He shut the file cabinet in irritation and stomped back to his office.
Her eyes grew wide.
She didn"t expect me to actually return. He placed the folder on his desk and opened it. "Have you seen these contracts?"
