Big Girls Don't Cry (16 page)

“What was so important that I had to come right over?” Leena asked.

“This.” Sue Ellen went to the Formica kitchen table and picked something up.

“What is it?”

“The Remote-Control MegaMax.”

Leena frowned. “It looks like a vibrator.”

“No, it’s much more than just a vibrator. It’s your new best friend. Tell her, Lulu.”

“It’s wicked awesome.”

“What’s going on here?” Leena said.

Lulu snapped her gum before answering. “You’ve heard of Tupperware parties, right? Well this is a Sexware party. To introduce you to Sexware’s wonderful line of adult sex toys.”

Leena laughed. “You’re kidding, right?”

“Look, I don’t name the product,” Lulu said.

Sue Ellen threw her arm around Lulu. “She’s just starting out in this new business venture and I said we’d help her.”

“Skye was with us earlier,” Lulu added, “but she had to go because Lucy was in a labor.”

“Yeah, so I heard.”

“Cole wasn’t answering his phone so she went over there . . .” Sue Ellen’s eyes widened. “You were there. At Cole’s? You were. Don’t bother denying it. I can tell by the look on your face. Did Skye interrupt you two?”

“Anyone ever tell you that you have an overactive imagination?” Leena said.

“An overactive imagination is a good thing to have along with the Remote-Control MegaMax,” Lulu said. “Or the RCM as I like to call him.”

Normally Leena would have walked out right then and there. But her body was still all wound up and humming with unfulfilled lust. Maybe this was fate’s way of stepping in and preventing her from doing something with Cole. Maybe she should use the RCM to satisfy her needs.

“Satisfaction guaranteed,” Lulu said. “If you’re not happy, very happy, just return it within thirty days—”

“I’ll take it.”

Lulu blinked her black-lined eyes. “You will?”

“Yes.” Leena gave Lulu an aggravated look. “Isn’t that what you wanted?”

“Yeah but . . . you don’t even know how much it is.”

“How much is it?”

“Only $19.99.”

“Fine.” Considerably more than a bag of Cool Ranch Doritos, but more effective hopefully at taking care of her sudden lust-fest for Cole.

“Don’t you want to know how it works?” Lulu asked.

“I can read the instructions. There are instructions, right?”

Lulu nodded, still unable to believe she’d made a sale.

“Here.” Leena handed her a twenty and took one of the RCM boxes.

“Wait. Don’t you want to see the edible chocolate panties?” Sue Ellen asked.

“No thanks.”

“How about the vibrating panties?”

“I’ll pass. Bye.” A minute later, Leena was in her car and driving away, the RCM on the seat beside her. “I got out of there pretty fast, huh?”

Okay, talking to Cole’s cat was one thing. Speaking to a remote-control vibrator was something else again.

 
Of all the times for Mrs. Schmidt to stop and chat, it had to be today. She’d lived in the Regency Mobile Home Park for as long as Leena could remember. She loved wigs and blush. Today the wig was red to match the twin circles on her tanned and wrinkled cheeks. “Yoohoo, Leena! I haven’t had to chance to talk to you since you got back home.”

She couldn’t let Mrs. Schmidt see the MegaMax. Leena panicked and frantically looked around her car for something to cover the box with. Kleenex, too small. A roll of paper towels, grabbed and discarded. She searched the backseat and found a blanket she’d meant to take to the laundry. She quickly tossed it over the box just as Mrs. Schmidt came over to lean inside the open passenger-side window.

“What have you got there?” the older woman asked.

“I, uh . . . a sick animal. I’m taking care of it for Cole. Don’t come close. It might bite you.”

“What is it?”

“A cat.”

“I like cats. Maybe I can help.”

“No. It’s a dog.”

“But you just said it was a cat.”

“My mistake.” No, her mistake had been thinking she could return to Rock Creek and not have her life filled with embarrassing moments like this.

“Well I like dogs too.”

“Stay back.” Leena gathered the box closer, cradling it against her, making sure it was entirely covered.

“It says Max.”

“That’s the dog’s name. I really need to get him inside now. We’ll have to chat some other time.”

“Come over for some of my tuna casserole.”

“Yeah, I’ll do that.” Leena waited for Mrs. Schmidt to back up and head on home, but she showed no sign of moving.

“Want me to open the car door for you and Max?” Mrs. Schmidt asked.

“No, I can do it.”

“Nonsense. You’ve got your hands full there.”

Leena clutched the MegaMax closer. Why hadn’t she thought to ask for a bag or something before leaving Lulu’s? A plain brown paper bag would have been ideal.

“Have you spoken to your mother lately?” Mrs. Schmidt asked as she opened the car door for Leena.

Leena shook her head and kept her attention focused on keeping the box covered.

“Well, the next time you do, be sure to tell her I said hi.”

“Will do.”

“I heard Mrs. Petrocelli tried to sue you using Cole’s cousin Butch. He’s not a lawyer, you know. He’s attending culinary school.”

“Uh-huh.” Fifteen more steps and Leena would be at the front door.

“I didn’t approve of Mrs.Petrocelli doing that and I told her so. I stuck up for you.”

“That was nice of you.”

“It’s the least I could do. I mean, I’ve known you since you were a baby. Your sisters too. Things have changed a lot around here since those days.”

“Uh-huh.” Four steps to safety.

“Want me to open the front door for you? I hope you locked it.”

“I did.” Leena juggled the box to stick the key in the lock. That’s when the blanket slipped.

Mrs. Schmidt stared at the Remote-Control MegaMax displayed on the box and looked at Leena. “That looks like one sick puppy.”

“It’s a gift for someone else,” Leena said lamely.

“Then you should have gone for the Remote-Control Ultra MegaMax,” Mrs. Schmidt said with a wink. “Enjoy.”

Four hours later, Leena still hadn’t recovered from that episode. She also still hadn’t deciphered the instructions, which were more complicated than building the space station. She wasn’t about to ask Lulu or Mrs. Schmidt for assistance. Or Sue Ellen either.

Maybe she should have gotten the vibrating panties instead.

She’d gotten the batteries inserted properly, but no matter what buttons she pushed, it just sat there.

She had a robe on, underwear off, and was all ready for the big guy to do his satisfaction-guaranteed satisfying. Instead he was a big disappointment and she was rapidly getting out of the mood. Gee, just like real life.

Maybe the batteries were old. She had more in the kitchen. Taking the vibrator and remote with her, she left the bedroom. She got the batteries and sat on the couch to take the old ones out and replace with new.

A pounding on the front door almost rattled the vibrator out of her hands.

“I know you’re in there,” Cole said.

“Go away!”

He pounded again and the damn door just popped open, revealing her sitting on the couch. She tossed the vibrator onto the coffee table and quickly covered it with the newspaper lying there. The one with Cole’s picture in it.

“I need to talk to you,” Cole said.

“This isn’t a good time.”

“It won’t take long. Come on, Leena. Let me in.”

“Okay but—”

He was sitting next to her on the couch a second later. She tugged the robe a little closer around her. His hair was still damp from a shower and he smelled really good. She was acutely aware of the fact that she had no underwear on. Which distracted her from the fact that the remote was still on the couch between them.

She grabbed for it. Of course, that’s when the MegaMax decided to work. The newspaper shook and hummed.

Cole’s attention moved from her to the coffee table. “What’s that?”

“Nothing.”

He moved toward the paper.

“If you touch that, I will have to kill you.”

Something in her voice made him hesitate and lean back.

“You came here to talk, so talk.”

Hard for him to do when the demonic MegaMax now refused to turn off. She frantically pushed more buttons on the remote.

“Give it to me,” Cole said. “Maybe I can help.”

“No! I don’t want anyone to help! I just want to be left alone!”

“Uh, maybe we should talk another time,” he said, belatedly realizing she was not in the best of moods.

“Great idea.” She practically shoved him out the door, locking and bolting it behind him. Then she lowered the blinds.

“All right, you worthless pile of sex technology, it’s just you and me now.” Grabbing the still shaking vibrator in one hand and the remote in the other she headed for the bedroom. “Put up or shut up.”

The Remote-Control MegaMax responded . . . by dying. Just like Leena’s hope of getting any satisfaction that night, or any other night she remained in Rock Creek.

Chapter Ten

Leena hadn’t had the Monday jitters since she was in middle school. But she had them big-time the next morning. She had yet to decide how to treat Cole. She’d caught a break, sort of, last night when he’d left without discovering the remote-control vibrator on her coffee table. She was sure she would never have heard the end of it if he had found out what was under that newspaper.

But she was still faced with the dilemma of how to handle their make-out session in his kitchen yesterday. Would he refer to it? Should she? Was that why he’d come see her last night? To warn her again that he wasn’t the settling-down type?

Should she take the first step and assure him that it was nothing? Act like a woman of the world instead of one who’d had her heart bruised and broken before coming to Rock Creek? Not that she was still pining over Johnny, but she sure wasn’t looking for any more romantic entanglements. And Cole was as
entangled
as a guy could get.

The bottom line was that there were certain similarities between Johnny and Cole. Both men were good-looking charmers. Both had commitment issues.

Nope, she definitely was not in the market for romantic entanglements. She just wanted to get her modeling mojo back and get out of town ASAP.

Before she did something foolhardy like having sex with Cole.

Leena arrived at the animal clinic a few minutes early and was greeted by Mindy at the back door. Good. There was safety in numbers. Cole couldn’t say anything with Mindy present.

“Have you heard the news?”

Leena’s heart stopped. “What news?” Had Mrs. Schmidt told everyone about the MegaMax? Or had Skye talked about finding Cole and Leena making out in his kitchen? Or had both R-rated news flashes hit town?

“Cole was listed as one of the state’s sexiest bachelors,” Mindy said.

Leena sagged with relief. “Yeah, I heard that.”

“You did it, didn’t you?”

Did it? With Cole? Yeah, almost but not quite. Had Skye been talking? She was hardly the quiet type. Odds were Skye had talked.

“You’re the one who nominated him, right?” Mindy said.

Realizing that Mindy was referring only to Cole’s new sexiest-bachelor-in-PA status, Leena let out the breath she’d been holding and simply shrugged. She had no desire to discuss the ad.

Instead she opened the clinic and chatted with the clients about their pets. They all had stories to tell.

“Sarge and Gunny work together.” Tina Demato smiled and shook her head at the two terriers lying at her feet. “Gunny is afraid of heights, so he moves a chair over to the kitchen counter. Then Sarge jumps up on the chair and the counter to get any food that I might have left out. I couldn’t believe it until I saw it with my own eyes.”

“My Doberman Dobie ate my fiancé’s engagement ring last year,” Tony Kreutz said. “I brought him right in and Cole saved him. Saved the ring too.”

Leena preferred the dog stories to the phone calls from women looking to meet Cole. He refused to take any of them, making her write down messages instead. Payback for her putting him in the newspaper.

After the first twenty, she told the women that he’d just eloped and was no longer on the market.

“Then his picture shouldn’t be in the paper. That’s false advertising,” one disgruntled seductress wannabe complained.

Leena was happy to keep busy. When she wasn’t answering the phones or welcoming the clients, she “redecorated,” hanging up posters on the waiting room wall—a yellow HOT TEMPERATURES CAN BE FATAL TO YOUR DOG on one side and a blue DON’T LEAVE ME IN HERE—IT’S HOT! on the other. She placed an adorable framed print of golden retriever puppies in the middle. She’d found everything just sitting in the storage room, waiting for her to make the place look better.

She couldn’t do much about the gray plastic chairs in the waiting room or the standard venetian blinds on the front window. But, thanks to the thrift shop, she’d added a nice valance in shades of yellow and blue that spruced things up. And she’d moved the local no-kill shelter donation station up to the reception area where clients checked in and out, which made it more visible and thus increased the spare change dropped in it.

Yeah, she liked getting things accomplished. It prevented her from dwelling too much on Cole and the mutual seduction scene in his kitchen yesterday. She’d felt the sexual chemistry brewing between them, but she was still surprised by how fast things had gotten out of control—hard and wild and raw. She got all hot and bothered thinking about it, so she tried not to.

Having completed her “redesign” of the waiting room, Leena spent the rest of the day avoiding Cole by working on the accounts payable files. While doing so she couldn’t help noticing how great her latest manicure looked; she loved the burgundy-toned nail color Mai over at Mai’s Nails had selected for her. She also couldn’t help noticing how many outstanding invoices there were. And how many file folders were marked with his notes—“Pays with fresh stuff from garden” or “Pays with snowplowing.”