Page 18 of Her Devoted HERO

“I had Buddy purchase the company so we could check up on you. It turned out to be a wonderful investment.”

“Let me get this right, you bought a company so you could invade my privacy?” Kenna asked incredulously.

“No. Not at all. Buddy bought it. He had to really fight for it, but he got it. I had him immediately look you up so we could send some matches your way. We wanted to build your confidence. But there was no need. When you first signed up, you were getting plenty of hits on your own. The problem was, you didn’t respond to anyone. Kenna, I despaired. For over a year, you did nothing until SailorBoy69. Now you’re rejecting him? Seriously, what are you thinking? He’s a dreamboat.”

“Dreamboat?”

“That’s what we would call them in my day, Honey. In my cougar days, I would call him all sorts of other things. Mostly I would just call him up and have my way with him. But now that I hit ninety, I decided to go back to how we talked in the forties. It seems more ladylike.”

“Rosalie, I can’t keep up,” Kenna moaned. She sank back against the kitchen counter and looked at the ceiling. “I can’t believe you had Buddy buy a company just so you could see my profile.”

“I can’t believe you deleted it. You need to re-post it immediately. You also need to continue corresponding with SailorBoy69.” Then there was a pause. “Unless he was untoward. Was he unseemly?”

“You mean you didn’t read our e-mails?”

“No, Buddy didn’t feel comfortable reading the e-mails, he just told me that you two were communicating with one another. Was he a cad?”

“No Rosalie, he was a perfect gentleman.”

“Well, in that case, you need to re-post your profile and get back in touch with him. Tonight.” Despite the woman’s age, her voice was firm.

“Rosalie, I’m going to bed.” Kenna’s tone was equally firm. “I need to get Austin ready for school early in the morning.”

“Kenna, you need to come into the land of the living. Trust me, I had seven husbands. Men are wonderful.”

“How can you say that? You had seven husbands. Obviously, things went wrong.”

“Nonsense, I only divorced three of them, four died. And they died happy. You’re too young to have given up on men. Don’t make me take matters into my own hands.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Put your profile back up,” Rosalie said ominously.

“No.”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Fuck nugget!

***

Dex was damn glad that he had set up his computer to ding if an e-mail from “SNMP” should come in. If he hadn’t, he might not have been able to download her profile information in time before she deleted it. It was a near thing.

He sat in his dark living room, staring at the glowing screen of his laptop, and started the methodical process of finding out everything there was to know about So Not Mary Poppins aka Kenna. She was Kenna Wright, divorced for nine years. Graduated three years ago with a nursing degree, and was now an oncology nurse. Lots of legal filings showing that her deadbeat of an ex-husband had to have his wages garnished in order to pay child support. But even so, most of the time the great state of California couldn’t even find his happy ass to collect the money.

He also found out what her second job was. She was the personal secretary to Rosalie Randall. Hell, he remembered watching that woman’s movies. She’d been stunning back in the fifties and sixties. She lived in La Jolla and had an amazing on-line presence, and was in the process of writing her seventh memoir.

Dex didn’t do a deep dive on Kenna, he just found out the basics, where she worked and lived. Okay, maybe he stepped over the line a little to find out about the bastard of an ex-husband, but he didn’t pull credit reports or DMV records. He was a good boy. But now that he knew where Kenna worked, he had to figure out how to make it seem like an accidental meeting.

He needed to think about this.

When he woke up the next morning to find an e-mail from Rosalie Randall in his in-box, he burst out laughing. Apparently, this was going to be a hell of a lot easier than he had anticipated.

***

“You can understand how important this new foundation is going to be. It’s imperative it is done right. When Buddy told me that Chief Petty Officer Evans had worked on a program for disadvantaged youth, I thought he would be a perfect candidate to help with this new foundation I’m starting.”

Kenna looked at Rosalie as she sat on her verandah, smiling so sweetly butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth. Then there was Dex. He was smiling just as broadly. She was ready to blast both of them. But, how could she? Rosalie had brought in five different representatives of missions in San Diego, County and they were all sitting around the table sipping iced tea. Nope, she couldn’t have a shit-fit in front of them.