Open Doors (Suncoast Society #27)(22)

Unfortunately, she’d moved here with him from Georgia six months ago, and only knew three people from the local munch group. Moving back to Georgia wasn’t really an option for her. Besides, she wanted to stay in Florida.

Now she was recently single, lonely, trying to make new friends outside of work, and trying to meet people in the local community.

After Derrick returned, Marcia went to talk with him. If it was solely up to her, she’d have already signed Jenny on as a volunteer. After telling him about Jenny, he nodded.

“If you want her, ask her.”

“What do you think?”

“I think that I trust your judgment.”

She went to go bounce it off Loren and Leah first. Their men were helping out as DMs tonight, Kaden currently supervising a fairly rough takedown and feral play scene, Ross tutoring some people in rope.

In a few minutes, the four women were seated at one of the tables and discussing it. Marcia liked that Jenny had picked up on some of the same issues that she had already noted, and had some good suggestions.

“My parents ran a professional cleaning service,” Jenny said. “In high school, I spent my summers making extra money cleaning offices with them at night.”

“Will you come on Thursday at seven thirty, then?” Marcia asked.

“I’m sorry, I thought you said eight earlier.”

“I did, but I want to talk with you some more before the meeting starts.”

Jenny beamed. “Thank you. Oh, if you pick me to volunteer, there will be someone with a key to come let me in, right? I don’t like to be late.”

Loren and Leah exchanged a glance. “You’re hired,” they said together.

“Hired?” Marcia asked. “There’s no pay.”

“You know what we mean,” Leah said. “And if you don’t take her as a volunteer here, I’m going to take her as a volunteer. We just lost three at the charity I fundraise for. Speak now, or she’s coming with me.”

Marcia figured if her two friends were already on board with Jenny, it’d be stupid for her not to be as well. “Then welcome aboard as our first nondrafted volunteer,” Marcia said. “Seven thirty on Thursday, and you can help me with the prep work.”

Jenny beamed again. “Thank you.”





Jenny proved her worth that very night, staying behind after they closed, despite them assuring her it was okay for her to leave, and helping with clean-up.

She even volunteered to tackle the bathrooms.

While she was doing that, Derrick walked over to Marcia and leaned in. “She looking for a job? Hire her to take care of our house and office and free yourself a few hours every week. We wouldn’t have to worry about putting the toys away at home.”

That had been her main objection to hiring a cleaning service for the house, having to worry about their privacy.

“Seriously,” Leah said. “I’d hire her.”

Kaden smacked her ass. “We have a cleaning wench. You.”

She looked up at him and batted her eyes. “But, Sir, it would give me more time to volunteer here and at the charity.”

Batt batt batt.

Kaden rolled his eyes. “Okay, fine.” But his smile ratted him out.

Leah did an adorable little puppy wiggle and kissed him. “Thank you, Sir.”

Derrick snorted. “Nobody better ever tease me about ‘Mastering wrong’ again.” He directed a pointed gaze at Kel.

Kel held up his hands. “Hey, you two are married and getting some on a regular basis. You’re obviously doing something right. I claim no moral high ground here. I was just teasing.”

On the ride home, Marcia was going over her list on her phone.

“So what did you think tonight?” Derrick asked.

“I think we have a good start with Jenny, but we’re going to need at least ten other volunteers, in addition to the gang, to help us out. I know we’ll burn our friends out if we rely solely on them.”

“I meant about the party in general, but okay.”

Again, they hadn’t had a chance to play. They’d been too busy, and by the time the end of the night arrived, too tired.

She turned to him. “Derrick, if you wanted a private clubhouse, you failed. We now have a business that has to, at the very least, survive long enough to make us back our money and hit the break-even point. Which, thanks to all the incorporation stuff, will take a while. We now have a business that needs to be run like a business. If you’d asked me all of this before signing the lease with Kel in the first place and deciding we were going to do it, I would have pointed alll of this out to you then. Master,” she added with more than a little snark.

“In other words, suck it up?”

“Yeah, basically. I love you, but you have nooo clue what it takes to keep our office going, do you?”

Honestly? He didn’t. If she died tomorrow, he’d be f*cked. “No,” he quietly said.

She let out a sigh and put down the phone, reaching a hand over and laying it on his thigh. “I love you. And you’re stuck with me. But honestly? I wonder about you sometimes. Didn’t you think to look at the big picture when you were plotting all of this, or did Kaden forget to mention all of this to you when he was instigating?”

“I guess I didn’t.” He laced his fingers through hers and squeezed. “I’m sorry, baby.”