Ready for Love. Gwyneth Bolton

walked her to the front door of the office and picked up the stack of pink memo slips her receptionist had left in her in-box. There was a message of a call from Terrill marked urgent.

      Without thinking she rushed to her desk and dialed his cell phone number.

      “What happened? Is everything okay? Is Penny okay? I knew I should have gone to the funeral. We could have cancelled everything for a few days—” Maritza went off into a barrage of questions as soon as Terrill picked up the phone.

      “Calm down, calm down, nothing is wrong. Everything is fine. I just wanted to hear your voice. How are you?” Terrill’s voice sounded strained and a little weary.

      Maritza sighed. He didn’t sound like everything was fine. And why the heck did he want to hear her voice?

      Kissing him had been such a bad idea!

      Yet knowing that and stopping the big old grin that started to form on her face seemed to be impossible to get together. She plopped down on her white leather office chair. It rolled just a little and stopped.

      “I don’t understand, Terrill. If it is not about Penny or our business, why would you want to hear my voice?”

      Terrill chuckled. It was a sound that normally would have grated her nerves and gotten under her skin. But for some reason in that moment she was relishing the sound of it. It sounded sexy and made her insides get gooey.

      Not good.

      Change the subject.

      “How is Penny? I haven’t had a chance to speak with her since she left.”

      “She’s doing as well as can be expected.” He sighed and she could hear the stress in his voice. “Big Mama’s death was unexpected and sudden and Penny is going to need time to cope.”

      “She can take as much time as she needs. I can certainly hold down the fort here at the company.” It would be hard, because she and Penny were a perfect team. But she would do whatever she could to help her friend out in her time of need.

      “We know you can handle things, Maritza. But I didn’t call to talk about business. I just wanted to hear your voice.”

      “You just wanted to hear my voice and that was urgent?” Maritza winced at the breathy sound of her voice.