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I Waxed My Legs for This?

by Holly Jacobs
ISBN 0-373-44109-6
Harlequin Duet #43, January 2001
eBook reprint 6/16

Love Can Be a Sticky Situation!!

Ouch! Carrington Rose Delany needs Jack Templeton, her long time buddy, to rescue her...from tearing wax strips? Jack has always been there for Carrie, and she's determined to return the favor. To educate the uptight lawyer, Carrie "tricks" Jack into a vacation. Soon he's discarding his briefs in more ways than one! But what about their friendship? And once Carrie's true feelings are revealed, will Jack be trading what they have for a crack at true love?

Book, Reviews, Excerpt

 

Reviews:

"Complicating her longtime best friend's life is nothing new for a freeI Waxed My Legs for This?-spirited dress designer. The tables are turned when the stuffy but sexy attorney doesn't react to her latest scheme--an attempt to jolly him out of his broken-engagement doldrums--in quite the way she expects. Holly Jacobs' I Waxed My Legs For This? is fresh and funny and more than lives up to its title." ~ Romantic Times Magazine

"Crammed with plenty of hilarious moments and loaded with enough sexual tension to knock your socks off, this is truly an enchanting tale. Ms. Jacobs' exceptional talent for penning extremely humorous and captivating romances is clearly evident in I WAXED MY LEGS FOR THIS? ~ Elena Channing, Heart Rate Reviews

I WAXED MY LEGS FOR THIS? kept me smiling from the title to the last page as I read it in one sitting. Holly Jacobs treats readers to her wit and humor in this tender, romantic romp where best friends learn they share more than friendship. ~Carol Carter, Romance Reviews Today
The title is only a hint of the humor you’ll enjoy as you read I WAXED MY LEGS FOR THIS? Holly Jacobs writes with such wit and style, I was laughing and sighing from start to finish. I’ll be haunting the bookstores for the next book from this talented new author.
~ Janet Bieber IN NAME ONLY, Ivy Books

Holly Jacobs creates two characters for you to love and root for, and a sweet romance that makes your toes tingle. Her characters have a way of worming themselves into your heart and you hate to say goodbye to them at the end. Ms. Jacobs is a romance writing talent to watch for and I know I will be eagerly anticipating her next book.
~Karen White IN THE SHADOW OF THE MOON -- Dorchester/Love Spell, August 2000

"Holly Jacobs' contribution for the January Duets is as clever as its title, and that's pretty darn clever!...Ms. Jacobs' unerring sense of humor is the star of I WAXED MY LEGS FOR THIS? ~Betty Cox, AOL's WCRG This book is highly entertaining and a must read! ~ Kathy Boswell, Romance and Friends

Book, Reviews, Excerpt


EXCERPT: I Waxed My Legs For This?
Holly Jacobs

Copyright 2001

Chapter One

Jack Templeton bound up the stairs that led to Carrie Delany's apartment, cursing her Bohemian spirit, the one that led her to lease a fifth story loft in a building that had no elevator.

"Carrie." He beat his worry onto the door with a rapid succession of raps. When she called, Carrie had just told him she was in trouble and to hurry. The entire fifteen minute race through traffic he agonized about what type of trouble she could have gotten into this time.

"Coming." The door slid open. Half of Carrie's blonde hair was in a pony tail, the other half trailed wisps down her neck. She was wearing a disreputable robe, peeking out beneath it his old football jersey - a shirt she'd borrowed back in high school and never returned.

Whenever Jack asked the jersey, Carrie told him it was dirty; that she'd get it back to him as soon as she'd laundered it. It had been over a decade, and either Carrie had the worst hygienic habits on record, or she intended to keep the jersey.

She looked fine. Relief flooded Jack's body. Carrie looked a little nervous, but fine. After all the grisly possibilities he'd been imagining, a stolen high school jersey wasn't much of a concern.

"Are you okay?" Jack waltzed through the door, slammed it shut. He made himself at home, tossing his jacket on a chair and settling on the couch. He patted the cushion next to him. "You look a little green."

"I really did it this time," she said, quiet resignation in her voice. "Why do I do I keep getting myself in these messes? I mean, I'm almost in my thirties. I have gainful employment. I just got the okay on that dress for Jaycee Smith; you know, for the awards in Tennessee? It's my first major commission. Eloise was almost more excited than I was. I was going to call you tonight and tell you. Maybe even invite you to a celebration."

She shook her head and sank awkwardly next to him on the couch. "I just don't know how these things happen. I take my vitamins every day and run five miles on Sundays."

Jack lift his eyebrow at that statement. He'd been with Carrie on more than one of her runs.

She grinned. "Okay, I walk fast -"

"And stop at every hotdog stand, donut stand, candy store on the way."

"But I'm walking at least. And that's not the point. The point is, I'm not dumb, I take care of myself, but I still -"

"What is it this time?" She'd get to the point. Eventually. Sometimes Jack would allow her to meander her way around her trouble, but he was curious and not feeling particularly patient. Carrie's predicaments were always interesting, and inventive.

"This," she said, pulling her robe aside with flourish, and plopped her legs onto the coffee table. They were covered
in. . . something.

"What the h. . ." Jack cut himself off just in time. Carrie heard the potential swear word and frowned.
He substituted, "Heck. What the heck have you done now?"

He could see the tears gathering in her eyes and felt a wave of sympathy.

"I'm going to the beach this weekend to work on my tan," she offered, as if the statement explained the goop on her legs.

"And?"

"And I didn't want hairy legs. I mean, I'm a blonde for goodness sakes. You'd think the hair on my legs would be as light and as fine as the hair on my head. Unfortunately it's thick and black. I shave them in the morning and by dinner I have five o'clock shadow. It's embarrassing. So I decided to wax them."

She stopped and began to dig in the pockets of her robe, sniffing dramatically.

Jack reached in his pocket and pulled out his handkerchief. It wasn't fashionable to carry them, he knew that. But his mother had always been tucking one in his pockets when he was younger, and the habit stuck. It was a handy habit with a friend like Carrie.

He handed the cotton square to her and she gave a very unladylike honk into it.

"So you decided to wax your legs. What's the problem?"

She gave a muffled sob from the depths of his once pristine handkerchief. "It hurts." She hiccuped, a side effect whenever Carrie cried. "I pulled the first section off and it hurt like crazy. Now I can't make myself pull the rest off. I've sat here most of the afternoon trying, but I just can't do it."

"And you want me to do it?" Any residual worry evaporated. Jack's lips twitched as he dutifully tried to avoid smiling.
He knew Carrie would see the humor in the situation, but not until it was past.

"I didn't think it would be as bad as the time I asked you to get my class ring for me."

"Nothing could be that bad." The memory surfaced, though he'd tried to bury it deep. Carrie's puppy, Muffin, had eaten the ring and the vet had told them it would eventually come out. Jack had spent the better part of a week sifting through . . . byproducts searching for it. Carrie had claimed the duty made her sick and her parents refused to oblige her by doing it.

"You finally did find it." The smile she shot him almost made up for the task. Almost. "You even cleaned it up for me."

"But you never wore it again."

"Would you?" Her sobs turned to laughter.

That was the thing about Carrie; she never could make up her mind just what mood she was in. And when he was with her, Jack's moods shifted just as rapidly.

Carrie got herself into ridiculous situations and expected him to get her out. Then she somehow made him feel like a cross between a white knight and a court jester.

"So you think me pulling wax off your legs will be easier than digging through Muffin's muffins?"

"For you, not for me. It really does hurt." She shifted on the couch and placed her right leg onto his lap. "I think
it would be easier if we just talk and you pull when I least expect . . . OW." She yanked her leg off his lap and began massaging it. "That hurt," she said, looking at him as if it was his fault.

He tossed the piece of waxed and hair covered paper on the coffee table. "You said I should pull it off when you weren't expecting it."

"But I want you to do it when I'm expecting not to expect it." She rubbed the injured limb a moment and then placed it back on Jack's lap.

He rubbed the slightly red area. "Do you remember when you were ten and decided you could slam dunk?"

Carrie groaned and threw her head back against the pillow in the corner of the couch. "It could have worked."

"If you had let go. Jumping off the ladder and grabbing the rim was a decent idea, but hanging there -"

"I didn't want to fall and hurt something."

"So you screamed for me to help you down." Jack pulled another strip.

"Ow! I should have kicked you harder." She rubbed the offended area.

"You kicked me hard enough to break my glasses." He pulled another sheet.

"Hey! That was too fast. You didn't let me recover from the last one."

"Sorry. But we're almost done with this leg." Jack rubbed the exposed skin for her.

"So, what's new?"

"Since we talked yesterday?" She paused a moment. "I dumped Ted."

Jack had never liked the guy. He had shifty eyes and a habit toying with Carrie’s hair. Jack had no rational explanation for why, but Ted’s habit set his teeth on edge. Trying to forget the fact he wouldn’t miss Ted a bit, Jack tried to sound sympathetic. "I’m sorry. You've been seeing him almost a year. What happened?"

"Well, last night, while we were at dinner I decided he'd never do."

Jack pulled another sheet, but Carrie didn't even yelp this time, just glared at him and rubbed.
"Because?”

"We both ordered the fettucini."

Jack should have been used to Carrie's twists and turns. He was a lawyer, used to sorting through mountains of information to get to the truth. But with Carrie, the twists left him lost in the muddle of her weird brand of logic.

"And?"

"And I realized if I was with you, you would have ordered the shrimp."

He smiled encouragingly, because she was right, he would have ordered shrimp. But that didn't explain why she'd dumped Ted.

Carried smiled right back and nodded her head.

Jack shook his head. "I don't get it."

Slowly, as if he was just a bit dim, she explained. "When you order shrimp I always steal some. That way I get the best of both worlds - my fettucini and your shrimp. I mean it's just like when we go to the movies. He never gets the Juju candies and I have to buy my own along with the licorice and it's too much. I look like a pig."
Jack ripped off two more sheets in quick succession.

"Ow!" Carrie glared. "You're enjoying this."

"One leg down, one to go." He grabbed her left leg and pulled it onto his lap with the right one. "So you dumped him because he ordered the wrong food?"

Carrie shook her head and blushed. Jack stopped. He'd seen many things in the years they’d been friends, but her blushing wasn't one of them.

"No." She shrugged. "I dumped him because while he was kissing me goodnight - a rather sloppy, pathetic kind of kiss, I might add - I realized that you weren't a sloppy kisser. Not that I'm asking you to kiss me," she hastily added. "It's just that I want to find a man someday who can kiss as good as you and knows how to order the proper food and all."

Jack stopped, mid-rip.

"Hey, finish it off, that's even worse, making me worry about when you're going to finish . . . Ow.” She jerked her leg off his lap and rubbed the hairless strip of skin. “Doggone it. Men don't have to have hairless legs. It's not fair. Maybe
I'll move to Europe where women can go hairy."

"When did you kiss me?" Jack asked, ignoring her grumbles. He didn't remember kissing Carrie. He'd been kicked by her, and there was the time she set him on fire, the time she locked him in a locker for an entire health period, the time . . . No, Jack was sure he'd never kissed her. Looking at her lips he was equally sure he'd remember it if he had.

"Why Jack, I'm hurt. Chemistry class, I was a junior, you were a senior?"

He waited, still unable to remember a kiss.

"I was mixing chemicals and they blew up. I passed out. There I was, lying on the floor and you leaned over and gave me the most wonderful kiss I've ever experienced. You quite ruined me for other men. I worried you didn't kiss me again because I didn't kiss good enough. When you went away to college, I spent my senior year practicing. I hoped the next time you were home, we could try again."

Jack took her leg back and ripped three sheets off, one after another, out of sheer frustration.

"Hey, that wasn't nice," she protested.

"And that wasn't a kiss." He kept his voice low and tried to relax the tension in his jaw. "I was giving you mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."

Book, Reviews, Excerpt

From the book: I Waxed My Legs for This?
By: Holly Jacobs
Imprint and Series: Harlequin Duets
Publication Date: 1/01
ISBN: ISBN 0-373-44109-6
Copyright © 2001
By: Harlequin Enterprises
® and ™ are trademarks of the publisher.
The edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.
For more romance information surf to: http://www.eHarlequin.com

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