A Pinch of Cool

Dear Reader,

There are times when everything seems to be going well.

Don’t be frightened. It won’t last.

I got the idea for this story during one of those rare moments when I arrogantly thought I could accomplish one of my goals. It was at that exact moment of total self-satisfaction when life stepped in and slapped me with a ripe tomato…thank you very much.

I like to think I can roll with the punches, but most of the time it’s more of a heavyweight championship. When goals come too easily, it makes me uncomfortable. I tend to crave the challenge, or else, what’s the point?

That’s why I brought Mya and Eric together. It seemed only right that they should battle it out and come to the only reasonable conclusion…well, I can’t tell you that conclusion here. You’ll simply have to read the book.

Please come visit me at www.maryleo.net. We’ll talk more.

Enjoy the tomatoes.

Best,

Mary Leo

So there they stood, arms locked around each other like they were old friends, buddies, soul mates, or even lovers.

To the world they were just another kissing couple at the airport.

However, Mya had a different take on the whole thing. Hers was more of the startled variety. Such as, when out of a crowd of people, a stranger calls your name and you try your best to recognize this person.

Okay, it wasn’t quite like that, but it should have been for all the contact she’d had with Eric over the years. Let’s see, the last real memory Mya had of him was when they were seven years old and he had just thrown a huge bucket of water over her sand castle. Of course, she had retaliated by wrecking his sand castle by bulldozing it with her sweet little feet.

She had seen pictures of him at various stages of growth and accomplishment, but who can keep up with all that changing? She was too busy with her own life to worry about Eric’s—he had just been the boy who tormented her and whom she loved to torment back.

Now Mya didn’t know what to say—which absolutely, positively never happened to her. Yet here she was in the arms of Eric Baldini, who, for some odd reason, made her pulse quicken and, for a brief moment, seemed enormously sexy.

A Pinch Of Cool

Mary Leo

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

A Pinch of Cool is Mary Leo’s third novel. She’s had careers as a salesgirl in Chicago, a cocktail waitress and Keno runner in Las Vegas, a bartender in Silicon Valley and a production assistant in Hollywood. She has recently given up her career as an IC Layout Engineer to pursue her constant passion: writing romance.

Mary now lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and new puppy.

I’ve been blessed to have known

quite a few extraordinary women in my life,

but none of them have impressed me more, been

as plucky, made me laugh, guided me, inspired

me, shown as much courage, and ultimately been

as cool as Katina Resann. This book,

my flamboyant friend, is dedicated to you.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

1

“MOM, DON’T CRY . I hate it when you cry,” Mya Strano said into the phone. Her mother had called bright and early on a Monday morning in April, just to chat, but there had been very little chatting. Just that silent thing mixed in with heavy sighing and runny-nose sounds, which only meant one thing. Tears.

“Who said I was crying?” Rita Strano spluttered.

Denial, that was the key. Always a clue to her mom’s true emotions.

“I can hear it in your voice.”

“A person can’t hear tears.”

“Believe me, Mom. I could hear your tears in my sleep.”

“How you talk.”

It was one thing to hear a friend cry, or see a coworker cry, or watch tears stream down Cher’s face in a movie. Why is it that she never got a red nose? Some people have all the luck. But when your own mother cried, it was almost surreal. Like, it couldn’t possibly be happening. Not to my mom.

Mothers weren’t supposed to cry, at least not on the phone to their daughters. The whole mother-daughter system wasn’t set up for such episodes. It threw the world off balance, blew the stars out of the sky, and made twenty-six-year-old daughters want to hurl themselves down flights of stairs for lack of knowing what to do to stop it—a completely unstable act, but acceptable given the extreme circumstances.

“Okay. So maybe I’m upset.” Ah, an admission. The first step in the order of things. “But who wouldn’t be? We’ve made that network more money than anybody else and just because we’re slipping a little…”

The knot in Mya’s stomach began to unwind, and she could forgo the stair hurling. A ray of light had beamed in through the tunnel of despair, or something equally as metaphorical.

“Mom, how far are you slipping?”

Mya gazed at her light gray cubical walls and waited for the answer. This might take a while. The walls were littered with local fashion ads, mostly from SoHo, upscale restaurant logos, and pictures of New York street vendors. She especially liked the street vendors. Some of those guys were really cute in an entrepreneurial sort of way. There was something sexy about a guy who depended on his ability to pitch to make his living that was exciting to her. Not that she’d go off and have an affair with one of them. Not really. Okay, there was that one artist in Times Square who hocked those cute little cigar-box purses—so totally out now—but he didn’t count. He was actually an intellectual, caught up in society’s intolerance of the struggling artist.

All right, so she fell for the line, and until she came to her senses, they’d had a great time together…that one night, when he gave her all the purses, then left for Toledo to take over his father’s plumbing business. But that was ancient history, when she’d first arrived in the city. Something like that could never happen again, she told herself as her feet rested on a recently delivered carton of I Heart N.Y. T-shirts.

“Minor details,” her mother finally said.

“What?” Could her mother now hear her inner musings? Had she gone psychic?

“Stay with me, dear. Our ratings should be minor details to the network. We still get a ton of fan mail.”

Oh, yeah, crying mothers. “Mom, the network doesn’t care about fan mail. They only care about ratings.”

“Fickle bastards.”

Mya sat back in her Aeron—ergonomically chic chair. She thought she should simply get used to these mom-tears. They weren’t for anything catastrophic like a relative dying or a mile-long meteor heading for earth, although, to her mom, low ratings ranked right up there with a good blight, or the ever popular imploding sun.

Mya’s mother, Rita, and Franko Baldini, Rita’s long-time business partner and sometimes lover, were the stars of a network cooking show, La Dolce Rita. The show had been on the air for nine straight years. Lately, however, the show was hitting a dry spell, and her mother seemed to get all weepy about it almost every time Mya spoke with her. Only this time Mya was determined to do something, despite her mother’s inability to accept help.

“Mom, tell me what I can do for you.”

“You can be happy you’re not on TV. It’s a competitive, young world and I’m getting too old for it. You get one lousy wrinkle and they want to take you off the air.”

Her mom let out a long sob. It was simply too much. Mya wished she could be there to cheer her up, but Rita lived in Los Angeles and Mya now lived in New York City, a move she was beginning to…she couldn’t even think it…okay, a move she was beginning to regret. God, now I’m going to start crying.

She sat up straight and reined in her tearful thoughts. “That’s not true. Look at Emeril. He has wrinkles.”

“He’s a man, dear.”

“Okay, so Emeril’s not a good example, but age has nothing to do with your ability to cook and entertain.”

“Tell that to my producers. They probably want to replace Franko and me with a couple of teenagers in tight miniskirts and purple hair. I bet they’re even talking to Paris Hilton. Maybe if I dye my hair blond, and get a face-lift and wear designer clothes—”

“That’s it,” Mya announced after taking a swig of her raspberry-mocha low-fat latte. Her mother had come up with the perfect way for Mya to help.

“You want me to get a face-lift?”

“Not you, silly. The show. La Dolce Rita needs a face-lift and I’m the girl to give it one.”

“But how—”

Mya felt that rush of excitement she lived for. She absolutely loved to plan, and do, and make over. It was her passion to find the latest trend and bring it into focus. Actually, it was her job at NowQuest, a trend analysis boutique in the ultra-cool, significantly hip SoHo. Mya was addicted to cool in a way that only another trend spotter could understand. She woke up each morning and skimmed four big-city newspapers, watched MTV and the Style Network for countless hours, read hundreds of magazines, traveled with a small video camera, her laptop, a Polaroid, a picture-taking cell phone and started up conversations with strangers—hence the T-shirts and cigar-box purses—just to see what they were thinking. Mya was an information omnivore and reveled in every aspect of it.

“Here’s the thing. Somebody has to fly out to Vegas for a client, so I’m thinking I’ll volunteer, but I’ll start the fact-seeking odyssey in L.A. with you and Franko. It should only take me about a week, maybe two at the most to get your show all hipped up.” A new set with a hot band, and maybe some guest appearances. “My head’s already whirling with ideas. I’ve got a buildup of vacation hours, so my boss won’t care. Then I’ll hop on over to Vegas, get our client all happy, take in a show or two—a girl’s gotta have fun—and fly back here with my research. How’s that?”

Her mother didn’t respond. Not really. It was more in the form of someone trying to get over a crying spell, with that breathy sound kids get when they want your attention. Apparently, her mother needed a bit more coaxing.

“Mom, you know you want me to do this.”

“Will I have to dye my hair pink?”

“Only if you want to, but pink hair is way out. A deep auburn might be nice, but I’ll check it out and let you know. It might be the Diane Keaton look, or maybe that was last year. We may add some sassy highlights just to give it that extra drama.”

Silence.

“Mom? Are you there? You can cook for me every day if you want. Fattening foods, like rice pudding with real cream and a pound of sugar. I’ll even gain some weight for you. C’mon, Mom. Let me at least pitch the ideas to you. If you don’t like ’em, you can hire some new agent to needle your producers, but please let me try.”

Mya glanced at the Hello Kitty clock on her desk. She had exactly ten minutes to get to a meeting about that very Vegas client, and she hadn’t even looked at her notes yet.

More silence.

“Mom. Say something, please.”

Mya pulled out her notebook on Blues Rock Bistro, the client whom she and her entire company were trying to convince to change their image in order to open a Las Vegas hotel and casino. So far, Blues Rock was interested, but they still hadn’t signed on the bottom line.

She skimmed her notes while her mother spoke. “If you really think you can help, then who am I to stop you?”

“Is that a yes?”

“Maybe you’re just what we need to get our ratings back into the top ten.”

“Great!” Mya opened her calendar on her ultra-thin laptop screen and skimmed her appointments. Her days were booked solid, but her evenings sucked. Not one real date. “I can be there a week from Thursday.”

“I have a meeting with the producers this Friday. I’d love it if you could be here for the meeting. I’m feeling especially vulnerable these days and I couldn’t take it if the meeting didn’t go well. I think I need all the support I can get.”

Like that is even remotely possible. How on earth did her mother expect her to be there by Friday? And with a presentation? She couldn’t possibly—

More sniffling.

“I’ll fly in this Thursday afternoon, but you have to agree to let me do this my way, or it won’t work. Actually, I’ve always wanted to—”

“Sounds fab, dear. I’ll send a limo to pick you up at LAX. Just phone me with the details. See you Thursday, sweetie. Bye-ee.”

And just like that, all was right in the world of daughters and mothers. There would be no hurling today.

THURSDAY, AT EXACTLY twelve noon, Mya strapped herself into the comfy leather window seat on Jet Blue’s A320 Airbus. She loved to fly Jet Blue. It was by far the coolest airline on the planet with its private in-flight TV shows and roomy aisles.

There was something grand about the thrust of a jet engine. Sexual. Erotic. Titillating. Am I horny or what?

Anyway, she liked the sound of it. The power of being propelled through the air above the earth. The wonder of looking down over the ocean and the city beneath her feet. Or maybe she was just excited about the whole concept of getting a mini-vacation and getting the hell out of the city for a while. It’s not that she didn’t love New York, she did, on Sundays and most holidays, but Mya Strano was a California girl at heart, and nothing could change that.

Okay, so there were a few things she liked about the city. Her upscale apartment in the Village, her coffee shop on the corner, not to mention the fabulous nightlife and the fact that her friends were some of the coolest people in Manhattan, or so they said.

And the men she had admitted to dating, she’d kept the street vendors on the DL, were so perfectly cool that occasionally she’d have to break up with them just to see if the separation genuinely hurt. Most of the time, it hadn’t. Not really.

Not that she hadn’t actually felt emotion for a few of them. She had, but most of the guys hadn’t been able to feel any real emotion in return. Which would have been fine if she were a rock, but seeing as how she had flesh and bones and a beating heart, she wanted something a little more emotionally satisfying.

At least that’s why she had broken it off with totally cool, and totally full of himself, Bryan Heart. He was by far the hipster of all hipsters. The Brad Pitt of her fashion-obsessed world, but after he told her that he couldn’t let himself fall in love with her until it was cool to be in a relationship, she had to end it. The irony was that as he walked away, he told her not to worry, because as soon as relationships were back in again, she’d be first on his call-back list.

That was over a year ago and she was still waiting for his call.

So, all right, she had a thing for radically cool guys.

Could be worse!

But that wasn’t her only problem with living on her own and running with the in crowd. The transition from one coast to another had been an almost insurmountable task.

It was probably the one thing in Mya’s nearly perfect life that somewhat confused her. Of course, she blamed this malady on the weather more than anything else. Mya wasn’t used to all that cold, and wind, and snow, sleet, ice, rain and outrageous humidity that could melt a girl’s skin right off her sexy little body. She was more the sunshine and occasional earthquake kind of chick, and all that other stuff was way over the top.

The thing was, Mya wasn’t a quitter. Not ever. Nothing deterred her when she was on a quest for success.

Two years ago, Mya had decided that twenty-four was way too old to be living at home and living off of Mom, so she packed up her stuff to make her way in the world. Start her own life. Find her passion. Make her mark.

Anyway, that world was New York City, where she landed the absolute coolest job a girl could have. On a scale of cool dream jobs, it had to rank number one. But that was two years ago. Now, she missed her family, and the beach, with all those cute surfer-type guys, and maybe a little of that California nightlife, and well, maybe she just needed to go home for a while. To let her mother dote on her. Cook for her.

All right, so she missed being pampered. Who wouldn’t with a mother like hers? Rita was one of those fifties moms who cooked a real breakfast every morning and darned socks. And let me tell you, my socks can use some darning.

But what was even better than darned socks and sunshine was the fact that she was flying home to help her mother fix a problem that Mya was crashingly certain she could solve.

Mom and Franko were on a downward spiral to oblivion. When Mya had checked, their ratings were falling right through the proverbial floor, and Mya was only too happy to turn that trend around. She was the queen of finding the tipping point, and loved the challenge of searching out the latest cool, then applying it to a struggling business. Mya knew about cool from the moment she started coordinating her own Care Bear outfits while she was busy learning how to walk. It was only appropriate for her to recreate her mother’s show and add some raw wow! to the pot.

Mya spent the entire flight to L.A. in her own little world of au courant. She had her laptop purring with ideas for the set, their clothes, the food and the whole feel of the show. She cross-referenced various reports on popular cooking magazines and interviews with top chefs and various well-known foodies. Then she added a couple of opinion reports from teenage hipsters, and data from Vegas strippers—they were the latest trendsetters.

She momentarily flashed on erecting a pole in her apartment, but then thought how pathetic it would be if she never had the opportunity to use it. She’d have to hire somebody to have it taken out and even her neighbors would know that she had no sex life. Of course, she could probably find a cute street vendor to do a pole dance for her, then she could keep it.

Could I be more of an embarrassment to myself?

Never mind all that, Mya had a keen eye for cool no matter what the venue.

There was only one little pesky problem on Mya’s overflowing plate of things to do…her boss, Grace Chin, a delightful woman, who should have been happy for Mya.

However, Grace hadn’t reacted quite the way Mya had expected. It was more of a reaction in the category of popping a vein when Mya had told her she was combining a vacation with her business trip to Vegas.

No worries. Mya had both the new client’s research and her mother’s revamp succinctly under control and ready for total buzz liftoff.

MYA WAS ALMOST GIDDY about five hours later as she stepped off the plane and made her way over to Baggage inside LAX. She lifted her checkered orange-and-pink French luggage off the baggage carrousel with absolute abandon and walked right out the glass doors and even though it was raining, she knew it wouldn’t last. That was the thing about L.A., the rain only had a bit part.

Mya actually hummed that old song about how it never rained in Southern California, as she happily pulled her bags over to the side to wait under the overhang for the limo her mother had promised to send.

Not to worry.

Hum. Hum. Hum. It was only a matter of time before the limo driver would pull up looking for her. He might even hold up a sign with her name written on it, and she would be whisked away in the back seat of plush luxury, humming as the driver maneuvered the crowded streets of one of America’s finest cities.

Hum. Hum. Hum.

Mya stared at the endless stream of gnarled traffic trying to get past security and cops while the rain continued to fall. A chill swept over her. For a brief instant, she wished she’d been smart enough to pull a sweater out of her bag, but the instant passed when she saw a limo heading right for her.

Right on time…well…almost, but who cares?

Mya began to pull her luggage up to the curb when the limo stopped a few yards away and the driver got out.

“I’m over here,” she called, while waving her arms. She now stood out in the rain. She thought maybe the driver couldn’t see her. After all, the airport was extremely busy, so she began to walk toward him. Just then, a Chinese family of four approached the limo and the driver opened the back door.

“Wait! That’s my car!” she yelled, but no one paid the slightest bit of attention to her. When the family was safely tucked inside, and all the luggage, red Samsonite, was loaded in the trunk, the driver hopped back in the front seat and drove away…in Mya’s limo, no doubt.

The question of the moment was: How could the driver mistake a Chinese family for Mya? Could he be that stupid?

Okay, so apparently that wasn’t my limo, but where is it?

She told herself to relax. Take a deep breath. Slowly let it out. Count to ten, or twenty, or one million. Something. Anything to relax.

She rolled her luggage back under the overhang and waited.

So, maybe her plane was a little early getting in, which would explain why her limo hadn’t arrived yet, plus getting through all that security stuff had to take a long time.

It started to rain harder and Mya, wearing nothing but a sleeveless sundress, purple ankle socks and brown heels started to shiver.

There’s no shivering in California.

She pulled a long strand of golden-red hair off her face, and wrapped her arms across her chest for some warmth. All right, perhaps it was raining a little more and a little longer than she had expected. Not something to worry about. Her limo would arrive at any moment, and the driver would probably bring a warm towel for her to dry off with.

Could happen.

She pulled her cell phone out of her cigar-box purse. Hey, with some fifty purses to choose from, a girl’s gotta find one she likes, even if they were so last year.

She phoned her mom’s cell.

No answer. She wanted to leave a message, but her mother had never figured out how to retrieve them, so why bother.

Mya had left precise flight information with her mother, even faxing the itinerary as a backup. She just didn’t understand where that damn limo could be.

She called Franko.

Of course, there was no answer. He didn’t like cell phones so he never had it with him. She pictured his poor little lonely phone stuck in a drawer somewhere just ringing and ringing.

“Okay, I’ve reached my crazy point,” she said out loud.

After waiting a good twenty minutes, with the rain still coming down, and no limo in sight, total frustration took over and Mya decided to simply take a cab.

Just as she was about to call her mom and tell her the new plan, she noticed an old beat-up van idling off to the right. There was something white taped up to the side window. When she looked harder, her name was scribbled in big black letters on a piece of white paper.

Now what?

Her mind whirled with scenarios. Maybe things were worse at home than she’d thought. Maybe her mother had lost all her money in some bad cooking deal and the only thing she could afford was a used van. A white used van, with Georgia plates.