9781618857569GettingitAllStorm (7 page)

Reaching
over, she patted his wrinkle-wrapped dead dick as he sat slumped and disheveled
next to her. “I think in this case we all might be glad to know the coals are
still hot.”

He
blushed outrageously as he stumbled upright, awkwardly stripping off the condom
and pulling up his underwear and jeans.

“Nice
underpants,” she noted dryly while with a few elegant practiced moves she slid
her dress and lightweight sweater back into place. Poking in her small purse,
she produced a comb.

“Yeah?”
Matt paused in zipping up his jeans.

“Sexy.
I hope they were for me. Maybe I’ll get a chance to get the full effect later,
now that we’ve got the preliminaries over.” She smiled.
Easy
and confident again.

Matt
drew a heavy breath of relief. Christy seemed no worse the wear for his stupid
and totally surprising attack. Still, he shouldn’t assume. And he was slightly
shocked to find the hint of accusation circling around his own fragile male
ego. If she were the instigating “secret admirer” then she had to assume at
least a partial burden of blame for bringing the coals back to flaming life.

He
shook his head as he dragged on his flannel shirt. Old, ancient feelings of
male/female gameplay rattled around. He felt horribly out of practice.
Old, inexperienced.
Adolescent angst rose up and bit him in
the ass. Or was it Christy’s spike heel prints? He suddenly laughed.

Christy
beamed, combing and stroking her white-hot mane back to where she wanted it to
be. “That’s good to hear. You were looking a little stricken there for a
minute, ole buddy.” She moved in front of him, checking out his naked chest and
arms with appraising palms. “Don’t get me wrong, Matt. Considering I’ve
wondered what kind of fuck you’ve developed into for some years now, you didn’t
disappoint. If anything, you pretty much surprised the hell out of me. And that
doesn’t happen often enough in my somewhat dreary dating life. I might start
taking a much closer look at the available widowers in town from now on. I’ll
just be sure not to stand in front of a sofa when I turn on my full come-hither
charms.”

Matt
enclosed her with his grateful arms, drawing her close. “You are one terrific
woman to put up with an old stumblebum like me. I had a great hot date planned
for us and now that we’ve got the ‘hot’ part out of the way, maybe we can still
have a nice evening and get to know each other.”

That
sounded like the same line he had used on Lucy. Not good.

She
gave a rueful chuckle, settling comfortably against his chest. “I’m afraid
that’s about all there is to me, Matt.
A hot fuck.
That’s pretty much what I’ve been noted for for some time now, and I’m not so
sure they aren’t right. I look good. I lay good.
Could be a
worse way to live a life.”

He
held her away to take an appraising look. “We’ll see. I’ve got take-out from
Antonio’s, his braised ribs special, plenty of wood for a crackling fire,
couple of nice bottles of wine, Buddy’s guaranteed-to-get-me-some-action
romantic CD’s, even some date-night DVDs—HD quality, no less. Stick with me
kid, and you might get another shot at my ‘secret admirer’ shorts.”

“Now
don’t go all gooey-
pooey
on me, Matt,” she shrugged,
showing no reaction to the secret admirer tag. “I’m not used to being treated
like permanent girlfriend-potential, although I have to admit I do have on a
very sexy thong that could probably use a little drying out, so I just might
take you up on that cozy evening in front of the fire you’ve got planned.”

“
Ooooo
,” he purred roughly. “Then you’d be naked underneath
all that fine finery. You just might set off my cave-man instincts again. Think
you could handle that a second time?”

“I
think I could probably replace that pack of heavy-duty condoms in my purse with
a chunk of firewood and I’d have a pretty potent weapon for keeping you in
line.” She rose on tiptoe to kiss him on the mouth. “You got a deal.”

Arm
in arm, she guided him toward the kitchen area of the open-plan cottage living
room. “How about we start with a nice glass of wine from one of those bottles
you mentioned?”

Matt
glowed.
Comfortable.
Sexy.
No
pressure. What more could a man ask? He was pretty damn sure before the evening
was out, Christy Swanson, local loose lady, was going to get another look at
his sexy shorts.

And
he was going to get another look at her without her thong.

Chapter
Three

At
the second chair of The Crowning Glory, Dorothy Ardmore’s cell phone rang.

“Excuse
me,
Brunnie
.” She flicked off the hair dryer with her
thumb, the styling comb in her other hand hovering over her elder client’s
stylish poof of feathery white hair. “That might be
Sarabeth
.
She’s usually early for her appointment. I hope there’s no problem.”

Brunhilda
Mendle
smiled sweetly at the reflection of her
ancient self in the mirror of the hair salon and gave an understanding wave of
her hand. “No problem, Dotty dear. Take your time. I’ll just sit here and try
to figure out how you can work the same magic on my face that you do on my hair
with those talented hands.”

“Aren’t
you
sweet.
” Dorothy put her grooming implements down
and reached for the small instrument, silencing Keith Urban mid-lyric. “Hel-lo-
oo
,” she trilled, walking away from her station.

“Oh,
Dot, she did it! She won! Already! I can’t believe it.” It was Lucy.
Wailing away.
“All I got was a kiss, well, I don’t mean
that. A kiss from him, I mean, I’ll probably remember it all my life, but I was
hoping for maybe just a little more. A real date, maybe.
At
least.”

Dorothy
sat down in the nearest empty shampoo chair. Amelia looked over from across the
salon from the first chair where she was clipping a young brunette’s bangs.

“You
okay? You look…did somebody die?”

“What?”
At least she could still breathe and make sounds. “No, I’m fine. It’s Lucy. You
know how…you know Lucy.”

“Sweet
thing,”
Brunnie
Mendle
offered to the mirror, pushing a wayward snow-white strand back into place, “to
be so efficient in the office and such a social misfit out. You are much too
forgiving to your young friend, Dorothy. You should shake her up a bit.”

“I
think,
Brunnie
, that’s what just happened. She got
shook up. I’ll take this outside, okay? Be right back.” She headed for the back
entrance of the shop.

Amelia
cocked her head as Dorothy passed. “It’s the Matt thing, isn’t it? Poor girl is
in way over her head.”

“Matt thing?”
Brunnie’s
elegant if elderly hand swept up to cup her
ear nearest Amelia. “Matthew Bartholomew? Has someone finally shaken his tree
hard enough to get some real action out of that man? I want to know all,
Dotty!” she called as Dorothy bolted through the back door, passing her next
client who was just arriving from the parking lot.

“I’ll
be right back,
Sarabeth
. I’m almost finished with
Brunnie
. You need a wash? Angie can take you right now.”
She rushed into the back parking area, looking for the nearest car to lean
against, maybe a little shade.
Someplace to sit.
She
was suddenly feeling a very strong need to get off her feet.

“I’m
sorry about calling you at work,” Lucy whined into her ear. “I was going to
wait ‘til tonight, and I tried, but Carmen was being so nice today that—”

“Carmen?
Lucy, you never call Carmen, Carmen.” Anything to prolong re-hearing what she
knew she was going to have to face.

“I
know. He asked me to. At least, when there are no clients around. I don’t know
how I feel about it, though. I mean, he is my boss and everything and we’ve had
a really good working relationship, with me thinking of him as Mr. Anders
instead of, you know, Carmen.”

Dorothy
found an abandoned plastic milk crate between two giant SUVs. She flipped it on
its end and sat in the shade of the behemoths.

“Lucy,
let’s go back to why you called.” It was surprising how calm her voice was.
Dry.
Almost normal.

“Oh,
right.” Lucy took a deep breath and released it. “It’s really my fault. The
news, I mean. That Christy, she wanted us to get together so she could gloat—”

“‘That’ Christy, Lucy?
Thank God, there’s only one. What if there
were
two of her?
Or more?
The way
she looks. What did she say exactly?”

“Well,
she wanted us to get together so she could make her announcement. But I just
had this feeling, you know what I mean? She sounded so…so superior. So…smug…”

“Okay.
Okay.
And?”

“Well,
I guess I got kind of excited. You know how I can get sometime. I asked what
her announcement was going to be. I couldn’t wait. I needed to know right then.
I mean, if it had something to do with Matt—and what else would it have to do
with—I didn’t want to make a bigger fool of myself by asking for another date
or something stupid. You know?”

“Another date?
You had a date with Matt already?”

“Well,
kinda
. I was going to tell you. It just sort of
happened. You know with Sam, and all. We had a really nice drive.”

“Yeah,
right, your car, Sam.
Go on, Lucy.”

“Well…”
The breathless young woman took another deep breath.

Dorothy
hopped up and kicked a nearby discarded coffee container halfway across the
parking lot. She sat back down.

“She
told me to calm down,” Lucy finally continued, “that she was sorry, but—”

“Sorry?
Christy was sorry?”

“She
said she won the bet. They had…gone to bed. Together!
Her and
Matt.
She and Matt.”

Silence.

“Dot?
Dorothy?”

“Well,
I guess that’s that. I’ve…I’ve got to get back to my comb out.” It took her
forever to gather her strength and push herself up off the plastic crate.
Probably had square indents in her butt now, she thought.
Must
be gaining weight.
That was where it always went. She’d have to check
that.

“She
still wants to get together.” Lucy’s voice was perky. “Could you?
Tonight, maybe?”

“No.”

“No?”

“I’ve
got a date. With…I’ve got some things to do.”

“Maybe…tomorrow?
She seemed anxious to
kinda
talk about it.”

“I’ll
bet. Blow by blow. Bang by bang. Ram it in by…I always wondered how well hung
he was.”

“Oh!
Gee.” Lucy giggled.
“Me too.”

Dorothy
stared at the phone for a second. “Did she say anything about calling me? Or
was I just—”

“She
seemed kind of annoyed with me for getting it out of her, so she asked me to
ask you to call her. She didn’t want to disturb you at work.”

“But
I have been disturbed, haven’t I?” Dorothy bit her lip. “Sorry, Lucy, I didn’t
mean anything by that.”

“That’s
okay. I feel
kinda
…empty, myself. I’m not really sure
why.”

“Well,
I guess it just wasn’t much of a competition.” She forced a small chuckle. “We
gotta
get ourselves a life, Lucy.
Or
lives.”
She leaned against a Mercedes SUV.
‘Mercedes’
SUV?
Jesus, what was
CoveHaven
coming to? “Lucy, would you do me a favor? Call
Christy and tell her I appreciate her letting us know about what happened.
And congratulations.
I’m sure they’ll be…no…tell her I’m
busy for the next couple of days. Maybe this weekend we can get together.
Sunday.
Maybe we can have lunch together Sunday.”

“You
mean like after church?”

“Church?
Yeah. Like, after church.”

“Sure.
I’ll tell her. Uh, how do
we
—”

“Tell
her we’ll each check with you. You can be our social secretary. You’re really
good at stuff like that, Lucy. I’ll call you…maybe tomorrow. And Christy can
check with you too. Thanks for calling me.”

“Yeah…sure.
It’s a bummer.
Right?”

Dorothy
laughed out loud. “You got that right, babe. Guess I was just hoping for a
little more fun and games, myself.” She was feeling a bit better. “Well, at
least Matt’s back in action. I take it everything worked fine? He had no
problem doing the deed.”