Mad About Meg:
MariCarr
Chapter One
“Whatdo you mean you don’t have my rental car anymore? I called weeks ago to reserveit,” Meg asked exasperatedly. Her flight to Eros Isle had taken three timeslonger than it was supposed to due to an oncoming storm and an unexpectedlayover in Houstonbecause of some faulty gauge on her first connecting flight.
“Yesma’am, I’m sure you did, but as I said before, when you didn’t arrive by five o’clock we rented it to someoneelse. This policy was stated in the rental agreement you signed,” the harriedclerk answered.
Theairport was packed even though it was midnighton Thursday. Every Valentine’s Day weekend, the small tropical island hostedits own romance fest called Cupid’s Carnival. Meg watched a program about it onthe Travel Channel over Thanksgiving break. At the time, she thought theromantic escape was just the salve she and her fiancéneeded to spice up their waning relationship. She immediately began saving hermoney and booked their nonrefundable escape to Eros Isle the second weekend inFebruary as a surprise. The nonrefundable part didn’t bother her until shecaught her two-timing boyfriend unwrapping anotherwoman under the tree on Christmas Eve. Unwilling to justify losing such atremendous amount of money, she decided to forge ahead with her long, romanticweekend, sans the romantic part. If nothing else, the trip to the island was awelcome break from work and winter weather and she could use the long weekendto figure out where in the hell she had gone so wrong with her life.
Unfortunately,her real-life experience wasn’t turning out to be the sun, fun and fiesta theprogram promised. She’d already missed her first whole day of vacation,spending it on overcrowded planes and waiting in interminable airport linesrather than lounging by the pool at her resort hotel drinking fruity drinkswith umbrellas in them. Then to add insult to injury, she’d spent the last twohours waiting for her luggage which apparently was—at this very moment—on aslow boat to China. An extremely annoying airline agent was now in possessionof her name and hotel information with plans to send her luggage on “just assoon as we find it.” Yeah right. Chances were good she would be back in Virginia before it evermade an appearance.
“Doyou have any cars left?” Meg asked disappointedly. She specifically rented aconvertible sports car, looking forward to four days of cruising around theisland with the top down.
“Ihave one vehicle left.” The clerk was clearly relieved she wasn’t going to kickup more of a fuss. Quite frankly, she was too tired to complain. “It’s a veryroomy mini-van.”
“Terrific,”Meg answered with a sarcastic smile. “Plenty of leg room for little old me andno luggage.”
Signingall the appropriate forms, Meg waited inside the door of the airport while anemployee of the rental agency fetched her mini-van. She killed the time tryingto recall exactly what she’d put in her carry-on bag as she waited. No moreclothes, she thought, glancing down at the comfortable travel outfit she’dworn. Having spent the last twenty-two hours in it, she would have preferred toburn it rather than have to wear it again tomorrow. She had all her money—thankgoodness, her camera, her passport and hotel information, aspirin—hallelujah andher now useless cell phone. She’d dropped and broken it while waiting for herconnecting flight in Florida.
Yep,I’m now officially in Hell.
Finally,the employee pulled up with what the rental agent had referred to as ‘a finecar.’ Clearly, her definition of ‘fine’ varied somewhat from the agent’s. Ifshe had any strength left in her body, she would go back and beat the guy overthe head with her busted cell phone. Looking down at the directions to herhotel, she silently said a prayer that the heap of junk in front of her wouldmake it the ten miles she needed to drive.
“Hereyou go, miss.” The young valet offered her a smile she felt the incredible urgeto run her fist through. “Welcome to Eros Isle.”
Asif on cue, the sky opened up and rain began to come down in a deluge. Drippingwet and cold, she climbed into the monstrous van, prayed the windshield wipersworked and made her way out of the airport parking lot with her head poundingand her teeth chattering.
Afterthirty minutes of poor visibility and two missed turns, she finally found theright road. According to her directions, she was only a mile from herdestination and a quick glance at the clock told her it was nearly 1 a.m. Thunder and lightning was nowaccompanying the pounding rain and the deafening sound of it was only adding tothe pressure building behind her eyes. She should have taken a couple of thoseaspirin back at the airport.
Brightlights in her rear view mirror blinded her for a moment as a car came up behindher too quickly for her comfort. “You’ll just have to hold your horses, hotshot,” she murmured to the car now riding her rear bumper.
“Back off, asshole.” The car continued to drive tooclose. She tapped on her brake lights twice hoping the driver would get themessage, but the car continued to crowd her.
Apparentlytired of tailgating, the car crossed the double yellow line and began to passher. She was even more annoyed when she realized it was an enormous limousine.
“Ohperfect,” she mumbled. “Rich boy too important to wait.”
Suddenlya pair of headlights approached from the opposite lane and Meg’s heart stoppedin her chest as she watched the limo speed up to pass her before careeninghead-on with the other car. All she could see before slamming on the brakes wasthe limo’s license plate—MAD 1—taunting her. Meg swerved off the road and intoa ditch as the limo began coming back into her lane before fully completing hispass. Her mini-van came to a relatively easy stop despite the fact Meg wasscreaming her head off and not really focusing on her driving. Looking up, shesaw the limo continue down the road and the taillights of the other vehicledisappearing behind her.
“Whatkind of place is this?” If she ever got her hands on that limo driver, she’dkill him.
Takinga deep breath and trying to still her shaking hands, she hit the gas in anattempt to pull back out onto the road. Spinning tires
