Forever comes in threes, p.1
Forever Comes in Threes, page 1
Forever Comes in Threes
Synopsis
Efficiency expert Perry Chandler lives what she preaches on her internationally popular podcast. She wakes at exactly the same time to begin her precisely scheduled day with no wasted minutes. Perry’s entire life is planned in advance, which is exactly how she likes it. How else do you get anything done?
Holistic, naturopathic physician Ming Lee greets every sunrise with arms outstretched as she opens herself to the earth’s slow, steady rhythm. Millions follow her podcast on how to live a healthier life by refusing to get caught up in the idea you must hustle to be successful. After all, what’s the point of life if you don’t enjoy it?
Perry and Ming are both sure they hold the key to success until the attraction sizzling between them, and the three rambunctious mutts they’re unexpectedly responsible for, teach them lessons in life and love that they never imagined.
Praise for D. Jackson Leigh
Blades of Bluegrass
“Both lead characters, Britt and Teddy, were well developed and likeable. I also really enjoyed the supporting characters, like E.B., and the warm, familiar atmosphere the author managed to create at Story Hill Farm.”—Melina Bickard, Librarian, Waterloo Library (UK)
Ordinary Is Perfect
“There’s something incredibly charming about this small town romance, which features a vet with PTSD and a workaholic marketing guru as a fish out of water in the quiet town. But it’s the details of this novel that make it shine.”—Pink Heart Society
Take a Chance
“I really enjoyed the character dynamic with this book of two very strong independent women who aren’t looking for love but fall for the one they already love…The chemistry and dynamic between these two is fantastic and becomes even more intense when their sexual desires take over.”—Les Rêveur
Dragon Horse War
“Leigh writes with an emotion that she in turn gives to the characters, allowing us insight into their personalities and their very souls. Filled with fantastic imagery and the down-to-earth flaws that are sometimes the characters’ greatest strengths, this first Dragon Horse War is a story not to be missed. The writing is flawless, the story, breath-taking—and this is only the beginning.”—Lambda Literary Review
“The premise is original, the fantasy element is gripping but relevant to our times, the characters come to life, and the writing is phenomenal. It’s the author’s best work to date and I could not put it down.”—Melina Bickard, Librarian, Waterloo Library (UK)
“Already an accomplished author of many romances, Leigh takes on fantasy and comes up aces…So, even if fantasy isn’t quite your thing, you should give this a try. Leigh’s backdrop is a world you already recognize with some slight differences, and the characters are marvelous. There’s a villain, a love story, and…ah yes, ‘thar be dragons.’”—Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews
Swelter
“I don’t think there is a single book D. Jackson Leigh has written that I don’t like…I recommend this book if you want a nice romance mixed with a little suspense.”—Kris Johnson, Texas Library Association
“This book is a great mix of romance, action, angst, and emotional drama…The first half of the book focuses on the budding relationship between the two women, and the gradual revealing of secrets. The second half ramps up the action side of things…There were some good sexy scenes, and also an appropriate amount of angst and introspection by both women as feelings more than just the physical started to surface.”—Rainbow Book Reviews
Call Me Softly
“Call Me Softly is a thrilling and enthralling novel of love, lies, intrigue, and Southern charm.”—Bibliophilic Book Blog
Touch Me Gently
“D. Jackson Leigh understands the value of branding, and delivers more of the familiar and welcome story elements that set her novels apart from other authors in the romance genre.”—Rainbow Reader
Every Second Counts
“Her prose is clean, lean, and mean—elegantly descriptive.”—Out in Print: Queer Book Reviews
Riding Passion
“The sex was always hot and the relationships were realistic, each with their difficulties. The technical writing style was impeccable, ranging from poetic to more straightforward and simple. The entire anthology was a demonstration of Leigh’s considerable abilities.”—2015 Rainbow Awards
Forever Comes in Threes
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By the Author
Romance
Call Me Softly
Touch Me Gently
Hold Me Forever
Swelter
Take a Chance
Ordinary Is Perfect
Blades of Bluegrass
Unbridled
Forever Comes in Threes
Cherokee Falls Series
Bareback
Long Shot
Every Second Counts
Dragon Horse War Trilogy
The Calling
Tracker and the Spy
Seer and the Shield
Short Story Collection
Riding Passion
Forever Comes in Threes
© 2022 By D. Jackson Leigh. All Rights Reserved.
ISBN 13: 978-1-63679-170-8
This Electronic Original Is Published By
Bold Strokes Books, Inc.
P.O. Box 249
Valley Falls, NY 12185
First Edition: June 2022
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
Credits
Editor: Shelley Thrasher
Production Design: Stacia Seaman
Cover Design by Tammy Seidick
eBook Design by Toni Whitaker
Acknowledgments
I’m most grateful to the inspiration for this story—my rescue pups Tucker, Molly, and JT. Their antics and affection have enriched my life more than I can express. Their distinct personalities and dynamics as a pack have taught me so many life lessons and provided endless hours of entertainment. The Terrors (https://www.facebook.com/djlterrors) were my first experience adopting rescues, which I’d encourage all dog-lovers to consider. So many incredible pets need forever homes.
Ironically, the publication of this book is both a celebration of my little pack and knife to my heart because it has unexpectedly become a tribute to my very special little guy, Tucker. A few weeks after I sent this manuscript to Shelley, I held him in my arms, our hearts beating together until the vet’s needle slowed, then stopped his. He had suffered a catastrophic, completely out of the blue, attack of pancreatitis that damaged his kidneys beyond repair.
I was Tucker’s third try at adoption, the first two having failed because of his shyness and strong bond with his foster mom. I came to see those failures as destiny because he and I were meant for each other. He rescued me from mourning over my first Jack Russell terrier, and he was the reason I later adopted Molly, his mother, because he needed company while I was at work, then JT because Tucker needed a playmate who liked to run and wrestle as much as he did. I love them all, but Tucker was the one who stayed up with me during long nights of writing. He was the one who would sleep next to me with his chin on my shoulder after I returned from an out-of-town trip. His loyalty and unconditional adoration lightened many sad or lonely moments, and my love for him grew to be as fierce as his for me.
Rest easy, my little man.
In loving memory of Tucker
2010–2021
Your brave little heart will always hold a place in mine.
Chapter One
Perry opened her eyes, instantly alert, nearly a full second before her alarm chimed and her smart house assistant, or SHA, greeted her.
“Good morning, Perry. It is oh five thirty Eastern Daylight Time. Today is Friday, July 15th, 2022.”
Perry rolled up to sit on the side of the bed, stretched her arms above her head, then stood to perform several more stretching exercises during the next ninety seconds. “Good morning, SHA. Four minutes, please. On my mark.” She dropped to the floor and began counting out twenty-five push-ups. “…twenty-three, twenty-four, mark,” she said, cuing SHA to start timing her four-minute plank, arms straight, after completing the twenty-fifth push-up.
“SHA, weather?”
“It is currently fifty-three degrees and clear,” SHA’s disembodied female voice recited. “Today is forecast to remain clear with a high of seventy-four. Air quality is moderate.”
“Well, that’s unusually nice weather to start off the weekend,” Perry muttered to herself.
“The air-quality improvement is unusual before the weekend respite from commuter traffic,” SHA noted.
Perry slipped in her earbuds, keyed her favorite exercise musi c, and ignored the computer’s unsolicited response. Her mind was already on next week’s podcasts—organizing your personal life so you’re more productive at home and better rested for the next workweek. She smiled to herself. This idea could generate another best-selling book for her.
“Four minutes.”
Perry was so engrossed in her thoughts, SHA’s announcement was like yanking off headphones that had been blocking the scream of her abdominal muscles. She dropped to the floor, sweating and panting for breath. No pain, no gain. She’d be sore, but she would stretch her abdominal muscles out later while she prepped for today’s podcast that would set the stage for next week.
“Shower at optimum temperature in ninety seconds,” SHA reported.
Perry rolled to her feet and dashed to the kitchen to grab a pre-prepared breakfast from the freezer and pop it into the microwave. “Start microwave in six minutes. Cook three minutes on high temp,” she said as she headed back to the master suite.
“Confirmed,” SHA responded.
Nine minutes until her breakfast would be ready. On Mondays and Fridays, she doubled her three-minute shower time to allow for shaving armpits, legs, and, um, private areas that might need shaping up. That left three minutes to dress, semi-dry her short hairstyle, and return to the kitchen as the microwave buzzer sounded the end of its cooking time.
She multitasked—mentally cataloging the studies she’d bookmarked on the most efficient work schedules—while she completed her morning grooming ritual.
Some podcasters trying to gain subscribers would pay “boosters” to call in with prepared questions if real-time stats showed listeners were getting bored and dropping off to click onto something else. Perry never needed to do that.
Today’s Timed for Success podcast would give her steadfast followers something to think about over the weekend so their questions could stimulate Monday’s discussion.
Before her framed master’s degree in business needed its first dusting, she’d already built a solid reputation in the business and manufacturing industry as an efficiency expert. While still in graduate school at Columbia, she began building teams that traveled to factories and business complexes to evaluate and advise them on how to streamline their workflow.
She also was in high demand as a speaker at business conventions. In fact, requests for her expertise were so frequent, she hired a production company to video a series of her training workshops that she sold from her website to small businesses that couldn’t afford her team’s consulting services.
Questions generated by samples of those videos on her company’s website were the catalyst for her two very successful books and, eventually, Timed for Success.
The timing of the new podcast—just before the pandemic locked down travel and office buildings worldwide—couldn’t have been more perfect. While her teams became busier than ever helping businesses transition their operations online so their employees could work from home as much as possible, the reduction in travel and speaking engagements mostly freed her to handle the twice-weekly podcast and begin research for a third book.
Even when the pandemic lockdown basically ended, businesses were still rethinking their workflow. Having employees operate from home had saved the companies and the workers valuable time and dollars. Organizations would still need smaller main corporate offices and have occasions when a project team would need to come in so they could physically work together, but the no-longer-commuting employees were happier, sick days were significantly fewer, and overhead expenses were shrinking. So many firms were taking the next step and exploring flexible working hours and more work-from-home positions, making next week’s podcasts a hot topic.
She shook the last of the shaving cream from her razor and rinsed before shutting off the shower.
“Initiating microwave,” SHA recited.
She took precisely three minutes to dry and dress herself in the clothes she’d laid out the night before, mousse and dry her hair, then brush her teeth, and returned to the kitchen just as the microwave beeped to signal her breakfast was ready.
She carried her breakfast tray to her office, where an industrial hot-beverage prototype machine was pouring the last drops of a steaming hot chia latte. The amazing machine could produce up to thirty different hot or cold coffee or tea specialty drinks, in addition to regular coffee. She’d already decided to invest in the start-up company that was about to go public to gear up for production and market it as equipment that could replace 90 percent of a business’s human baristas. It would never call in sick, demand health insurance, ask for paid vacations or holidays off, or require payroll taxes or unemployment insurance. Plus, a rent-to-own agreement could be a huge boost for a small business.
In short, it was another win-win. She was rolling, with no obstacles in sight.
She shoveled her scrambled eggs onto half of her English muffin to take a big bite. While her multiple computers booted up, ideas for more podcast topics sprang up like the dandelions in her neighbor’s lawn.
She yawned before she stuffed the last of her eggs and muffin into her mouth. What was up with that? Her day had barely begun, and she was bursting with ideas. Perry stretched her arms left, right, then overhead to loosen her shoulders. She was about to pass the mid-thirty mark. Maybe she should add some quick yoga poses to her morning or before-bed routines. Yeah. Before she made any changes, she’d research which time would be more productive.
Her breakfast consumed, she returned to the kitchen, quickly washed and dried her plate and fork, and then stowed them in the cupboard. She glanced at her Apple watch. She was actually thirty seconds ahead of schedule, so she gulped the last of her latte and jogged the few steps back to her office to shove her mug onto the coffee/tea altar.
“SHA, dispense twelve ounces of Earl Grey and three teaspoons of sugar.” The caffeine should bring her up to regular speed and alertness levels.
She tapped preprogramed keys on one computer to initiate a rotation of top stories from news sites she trusted. She listened as the computer-generated voice read a headline, then followed with a summary of the story before going to the next. While she listened, she scanned her email, which automatically triaged into folders identified as podcast, seminars and events, personal, and “other.”
Weeks could go by without new personal email, which consisted primarily of a rare note from an old college buddy. Her current friends would text to get in touch. The still-empty folder did trigger a reminder, though, and she quickly texted a time-and-place confirmation to the woman she’d arranged a first date with for tonight. She was pleased to get an immediate “looking forward to it” reply.
Perry hunched her shoulders and rubbed her palms together before settling her fingers on the keys to peruse the email from her last podcast. Some days, it was hard to focus on the foundation of Chandler INC because the desire was so strong to check the response from a vigorous podcast discussion. It was like having Christmas every day.
Because the podcast had millions of followers in every time zone around the world, she had three assistants who worked in shifts to read each email and create a spreadsheet that would summarize the subject or question and rank it according to the number of similar emails.
She eagerly scanned today’s spreadsheets, then dove into the thirty or forty individual emails they considered worthy and unique enough to forward in full. She took notes as she read, her pen slowing after the first dozen.
Who the hell is Dr. Lee? And what does her woo-woo podcast about Finding Natural Balance have to do with efficiency?
* * *
Perry checked her watch again. Her date was six minutes late, but she spotted the tall blonde standing at the hostess station and scanning the restaurant for her. She stood to catch Diane’s attention, then waited as she glided to their table like the runway model she could have been.
They’d met when Perry attended a men’s soccer match with business colleagues, and she had been instantly intrigued. The daughter of the soccer franchise’s owner, she secured sponsors for the team. If men handed out those sponsorships, Perry imagined Diane was very successful at her work.
