Cinderella Body Club Boxed Set Read online

  The Cinderella

  Body Club

  Jennifer Conner

  Sharon Kleve

  Angela Ford

  Amber Daulton

  Excerpt from Cinderella Had it Easy

  She opened her eyes and frowned. “Do I look any different?” she asked, expectantly.

  Raven shook her head. “Nope. I told you it was BS.”

  Always the optimist, Tess chimed in, “Maybe we did something wrong. You can ask your grandma on your next visit and then we can try again.”

  “Sure, that sounds like a plan.” Cami had to admit, she was a little disappointed. “Maybe Grandma will stay awake next time to finish the story.”

  The girls cleaned up their plates and washed out their glasses. Cami hugged each of them goodnight as they left and headed for home, and then she went off to bed.

  As she snuggled down under the cat quilt her mom made her, she stared at the ceiling, and began to drift off to sleep. “Prince Charming…where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Too bad the magic in the locket didn’t work.”

  Excerpt from Second Chance Cinderella

  My cat, Molly is my alarm clock. At 6:00 a.m. every morning, she climbs from the foot of my bed, wraps herself around the top of my head and her engine starts. She doesn’t care if it’s my day off or not. I found twenty pound Molly at a local shelter. Her mismatched eyes, one green and one blue, immediately stole my heart.

  I stretched, dislodging Molly. She jumped down, anticipating her morning meal of salmon delight. The wood floor in my small, one bedroom condo, felt cold on the bottom of my feet. I threw on a pair of old sweats, a cotton pull-over, and slid my feet into my fleece slippers.

  My coffee pot brewed two cups every morning right before I got up. What a great invention. Molly got her kibble and I got my much-needed caffeine.

  After two cups of coffee and a slice of wheat bread slathered with peanut butter, I shuffled into the bathroom. Still a little sleepy from all the wine the night before, I grabbed a comb and it easily slid through my normally tangled hair. That snapped my head around and I peered into my mirror at my now lighter, silky locks. Oh, my God. A sexy body, like one of the nurses from a daytime show, stared back at me. Beautiful, but with my green eyes and my small nose. I pulled the neckline of my sweatshirt out and peaked at my slightly rounder, fuller new chest. My once non-existent rear end, seemed to be perkier. It sort of worked. I giggled and danced around.

  Excerpt from Spellbound Cinderella

  “Oh yes Miss Tess, this definitely cries out red carpet. Or should I say runway for you.”

  Tess laughed. He thinks I’m one of the models. Now there’s a compliment or one damn-good sales person.

  “I’m not a model. I run an employment agency. Parker is one of my clients. I refer models to him.” Tess laughed and Franc joined in.

  “I assumed. How silly of me? Parker sends models to me for special occasions. He’s never sent a special someone. Is this your first date? Or is it just business” Franc teased with a wink.

  “Our second date actually if you count lunch today.” Tess shrugged.

  “Well he is one lucky man.” Franc turned Tess so she could she herself in the mirror.

  She smiled. She never dreamed she’d be wearing a dress this beautiful. Franc was right. She felt like she’d been wrapped in silk as the light-weight material touched her skin. The bodice gave just enough of a peak of her cleavage. I take back what I said to Cami about Cinderella.

  I don’t know if I’ll get the happily-ever-after but I am certain I’m going to have one magical night.

  Excerpt from Cinderella’s Enchanted Night

  “I just want to think about tonight.” Annalise shifted her face out of his grasp and licked his index finger. “Just you and me in these gorgeous clothes and in the most elegant Victorian-style bedroom I’ve ever seen. I’m not perfect, Elijah, and I have baggage you don’t want to know about, but let’s put everything else aside for tonight. Will you make love to me, and accept whatever happens in the morning?”

  Elijah tilted his head to the side. “I think you’re underestimating me about something but I don’t know what.” He reached up and removed a few strategically-placed jeweled bobby pins from her hairdo. Her curly locks cascaded around her shoulders. Then he pulled her shawl off her arms, took her purse and laid it on a nearby vanity. His chest rumbled as he spoke. “Okay, tonight will be about sex. Tomorrow, I want an explanation.”

  The Cinderella Body Club

  A Books to Go Now Publication

  Copyright © Jennifer Conner, Sharon Kleve, Angela Ford, Amber Daulton 2015

  Books to Go Now

  Also published on Smashwords

  For information on the cover illustration and design, contact [email protected]

  First eBook Edition –May 2015

  Warning: the unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in prison and a fine of $250,000. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages for review purposes.

  This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to any person, living or dead, any place, events or occurrences, is purely coincidental. The characters and story lines are created from the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

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  Cinderella Had it Easy

  Story 1

  The Cinderella Body Club

  Jennifer Conner

  Chapter One

  “Cinderella had it easy,” Cami joked, as she reached across the table to pour herself another glass of wine. “Come on, let’s have a reality check. Cinderella’s stuck in the middle of a terrible life, and then all of a sudden, there just ‘happens’ to be a prince.” She made air quotes with her fingers. “I know it’s a fairy tale, but back then, maybe it was easier for something like that to happen.”

  “Really?” Tess laughed. “You are up to your neck in history all day at the TV station. You know how it was in Cinderella’s time. Back then, they had no running water, no bathrooms, and no penicillin. No. Thank. You.”

  “You know what I mean.” Cami toed off her shoes, slid on her slippers, and tucked her feet underneath her bottom. She looked around at her best friends and realized how much she enjoyed her ‘girl’s night’ every Wednesday. Tonight, it was at her house. They used to meet at a word-of- mouth suggested Portland bar, but none of them could really afford the expensive drinks and food on their single girl budgets. Now, they rotated to each other’s house or apartment and brought apps and a bottle of wine. Cami found this more fun and a lot cheaper.

  “I can’t believe there are any Prince Charmings left in the world. The only men I’ve dated the past few months―no, make that years―are frogs,” Annalise said with a deep sigh.

  “We’re also not those fairy tale girls. We’re the geeky smart ones, not the trophy wife types. We put our energy into college degrees and aren’t concerned with matching our bra and panties,” Raven said, and then chuckled.

  “Hey,” Annalise protested, as she pulled her shirt out and peered down the front of it. “I think my bra and panties match. I boug
ht them as a set. It took less shopping time that way.”

  “Exactly. And, you bought them on sale from the grocery-slash, clothes-slash-hardware store, on your way home. You only bought it because your other bra had holes in it. You told me so yourself. We aren’t the kind of girls who live for shopping. Which is maybe why we are all sitting around here in our sweatpants instead of underneath some hot, gorgeous guy.” Raven made a check mark in the air with her finger.

  “Thanks for pointing that out.” Tess let out a little snort when she laughed.

  “I don’t even know what constitutes a normal girly girl. I guess I haven’t fit in that box since I was six years old.” Absently, Cami touched the long scar that ran from her eyebrow to halfway down her cheek.

  “Here’s to being single.” Annalise raised her glass and they all drank a toast. “And, to all of us finding true love someday.”

  “My grandma believes in true love,” Cami said.

  “The grandma I met at the retirement community? The one you’re named after?” Tess asked.

  Cami nodded. “I went to see her the other day. She gave me a locket she owned when she was a young woman.” She walked over to her purse and pulled out a small, worn satin pouch. She opened the package and held up the silver chain with the black and cream face attached. “The cameo on the locket is made of ivory and behind it, onyx.”

  “It’s beautiful.” Raven took the locket from her hand to inspect it more closely.

  “She told me a story about a young man she was in love with. They went to school together, but he barely noticed her. Then, he enlisted and was sent overseas in World War II. She wrote to him every day, anonymously. Every night, she made a wish that he’d come back safe.”

  “That a great story, but, it’s too bad she didn’t have the courage to be who she truly was and sign the letters herself,” Annalise said, as she ran her fingers through her brown hair.

  “Does this story have a happy ending?” Tess asked. “If it doesn’t I don’t want to hear it.”

  Cami smiled and continued, “So when this young man came back, Grandma Cami made one more wish on the locket. When she knew his train was coming in the next day, she wished that she would be beautiful for one day. One special day. And to have the courage to go up and talk to him, and tell him that she was the one who’d written him the letters.”

  “What happened?” Raven asked leaning forward in the chair.

  “The next morning, when she peered in the mirror, she looked like a combination of Betty Grable and Rita Hayworth. ‘A knockout. Hot and sweet,’ Grandma said.”

  “Don’t leave us hanging!” Annalise exclaimed and fanned her hands in the air.

  “That’s all she told me. She fell asleep.” Cami watched her friends flop back in the chairs as she left them hanging on the ending of the story that she didn’t even know herself.

  “You stinker!” Annalise cried.

  “Did she end up with him? Did she marry him?” Tess asked and held her hand out until Cami passed her the locket.

  “I don’t know. I know I had a grandpa, but he died before I was born. She didn’t talk much about him, so I never knew him. But, there’s something else. Before Grandma fell asleep, she told me that she believes this locket has magical powers. She’s not sure how it became that way, but she figures it was from all the wishing she did. But, she told me she was transformed into this beautiful, confident woman she saw in the mirror, so it must be magic. That’s why she wanted me to have it. I could see myself as I truly am.”

  “There’s no such thing as magic,” Annalise said, pouring herself another glass of wine.

  “With magic, there’s always a catch. Did she tell you what it is?” Raven asked. “I’m not going to make a wish and have a unicorn horn grow in the middle of my forehead.”

  “She said the only catch is that from the time you make the wish, the magic will only last from midnight-to-midnight.” She took the locket back from Tess. “I know it sounds nuts.” She leveled her gaze to meet the others. “But what if it’s true? What if we wished for Cinderella bodies and got them for twenty-four hours. What would we do?”

  “I know what I would do.” Annalise wiggled her eyebrows with naughty innuendo.

  “We’re not the type of girls who will have frizz-free hair or perfect butts, and we usually don’t get lucky on the first date. But wouldn’t it be great for one day to be someone else? Midnight-to-midnight. And that we would look exactly the way we’ve always dreamed we could.”

  “I call BS,” Raven said.

  Cami had drank enough wine that she decided for once in her life to go for it. “I’ll try it. What the hell. What do I have to lose?” She picked up the piece of jewelry, laid it in her palm, and then waved a hand over the top. “Oh great and magical genie, I wish.” She pictured in her mind herself as the beautiful blonde with a perfect face.

  When she finished, Tess snatched the locket from her hand and repeated the same incantation before she handed it to Annalise. The locket continued around the circle.

  Cami placed the locket into the middle of the coffee table. “Let’s put our wine glasses around it, close our eyes, and join hands.” Raven rolled her eyes, but finally went along with the silliness. When the girls were ready, Cami said. “We wish, that for one day, we were all that ‘perfect’ girl. We wish we would be the one we imagine in the mirror.”

  She opened her eyes and frowned. “Do I look any different?” she asked, expectantly.

  Raven shook her head. “Nope. I told you it was BS.”

  Always the optimist, Tess chimed in, “Maybe we did something wrong. You can ask your grandma on your next visit and then we can try again.”

  “Sure, that sounds like a plan.” Cami had to admit, she was a little disappointed. “Maybe Grandma will stay awake next time to finish the story.”

  The girls cleaned up their plates and washed out their glasses. Cami hugged each of them goodnight as they left and headed for home, and then she went off to bed.

  As she snuggled down under the cat quilt her mom made her, she stared at the ceiling, and began to drift off to sleep. “Prince Charming…where are you? Come out, come out, wherever you are.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Too bad the magic in the locket didn’t work.”

  Chapter Two

  Cami rolled over and slammed her hand down on the snooze button. She knew doing that was a mistake. She’d go back to sleep and never wake up in time for work. Cami wasn’t a morning person. She wondered if her blood type was coffee. She didn’t have a problem with caffeine, she had a problem without it. Just five more minutes. No. It would turn into ten…fifteen…and then, oh, no.

  She forced her eyes open, and then pulled the rest of her body out of bed to head for the bathroom. Working to get the last dab of toothpaste from the tube, she stuck the brush in her mouth. When her eyes leveled in the mirror, she screamed, dropped the brush into the sink and ducked, holding her breath. Cami thought her heart would hammer out of her chest.

  She pulled up on the edge of the sink and stared at the stranger in the mirror.

  Cami wiped the toothpaste which ran down her chin with the back of her hand and brushed her now silky blonde hair out of her eyes.

  “Oh, my God. It worked. Grandma was right.” She looked exactly like the version of herself she’d pictured in her mind when she made the wish. She ran a hand down the smooth skin of her cheek where the scar had been since she was a child.

  Cami ran into the living room, grabbed her purse and shook out its contents until she found her cell phone which always seemed to be at the bottom. Her fingers trembled as she dialed.

  A sleepy voice answered, “Hello?”

  “Tess…Tess…Tess…Wake up!” Cami shouted.

  “Cami? What happened? Are you okay?” Tess’s startled voice asked.

 
“Get up and look in the mirror. Take your phone.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it. Now.” She waited, heard Tess’s mattress creak, the padding of feet, and then Tess’s scream.

  “What the hell?” Tess screamed over the phone.

  “It worked. I know! I’ll call you back.”

  Cami guessed that she was the first one awake and phoned each of the girls. They all agreed to meet at a centralized coffee shop in forty-five minutes.

  “Everything up to this point has been exactly what Grandma said,” Cami said as they huddled together at one of the bistro’s tables.

  “I don’t believe in junk like this,” Annalise said with a shake of her head.

  “Did you see yourself in the mirror?” Cami asked.

  “Yes. It looks kind of like me,” Tess said. “I look just like the girl who was in my mind when I made the wish, but another version.”

  “Sexy versions of us,” Raven said with a chuckle and pushed up her boobs.

  “I know what you mean,” Cami added. “I’m going to take advantage of today now that my hair’s straight, the flab around my middle is gone and the scar on my cheek’s disappeared. Live it up. If this me is only going to last for seventeen more hours, I’d better get going. Let’s call later and see what all of us have planned to do.” She paused. “It kind of stinks that it’s a work day. Man, I wish when we’d made the wish it was a Saturday.”

  “Yeah…Dumb us.” Raven laughed. “I have to go to work too.”

  Cami started to stand, stopped and pulled out her phone. “Let’s ask that guy over there to take our picture so we can remember this crazy day.”

  When she asked him to take their photo, he looked at her and then to the other three. “Four beautiful ladies together in one place, this is almost better than coffee.” He grinned, counted down, and Cami heard the phone’s camera take the shot.