DAC_II_GenVers_Sept2013 (15 page)

“Thirty-eight or nine. I’m not sure. But I can fix your money problems. Stop betting on Jane and me,” Walter said.

“Clinton’s wife is older and it seems to work for them. I think he said she was two years older.” Daniel sipped his beer as he watched Walter squirm in the chair.

“Ha. Ha. Not funny,” Walter replied.

“No dude, I’m not making a joke. I mean what’s a decade or so? I heard older women like to teach you things. Think about it. She was probably waking up Saturday mornings and having sex with her boyfriend when you were still watching cartoons and thinking girls had cooties.”

“Did you agree to come out just so you could torture me?” Walter demanded.

“No. Like the good best friend I am, I have decided to help you get laid. Normally, I would try to get you to drink beer, but I’ve given up on that temporarily. So drink your healthy red wine and try to quit moping enough to listen to me,” Daniel ordered. “Amanda said you were in a bad mood all day just because your mysterious woman didn’t come to work.”

“Jane’s probably still mad at me. If Brenner would keep his eyes off her ass, I wouldn’t have to keep staking my claim over and over,” Walter grumbled.

Daniel had never seen his friend have it so bad for a female. In fact, Walter was the only man he knew who never cared if he had a date on Friday night or not. Even before the firehouse calendar women chased Walter, but they might as well have been invisible most of the time. If a woman didn’t say something Einstein-worthy in the first three minutes of conversation, Walter would go home to have dinner with his aging grandfather, never losing sleep over what he might be missing.

Until now. Until the mysterious Jane appeared.

Amanda had described her as crazy smart with nice legs. Whatever her appeal was, the older woman had his almost-too-logical-at-times friend tied in emotional knots. Amanda had also said that she had caught Walter trying to kiss the woman once, but thought he had been playing it very, very cool. So cool in fact that nothing had happened.

But
why
was Walter playing it so cool if he liked her so much? Could Walter actually be intimidated? Anything was possible, but it was hard to believe. He’d seen the blond giant steamroll over obstacles plenty of times. Acting too cool with a woman got you nowhere, especially not laid, plus it left room for some other guy to move in on her.

Until Walter figured out what he was feeling, his friend was never going to know if it was love or infatuation. Of course, that’s what he’d thought he had been investigating when he had finally talked his way into Amanda’s bed. Memories of their first time flashed with crystal clarity through Daniel’s mind, followed immediately by hotter ones from last night. His relationship just kept getting better, but it baffled him that he had found love before his sincerely-good-hearted, honor-your-parents, save-my-fellow-fireman friend Walter.

During the next lag in their conversation, their waitress appeared and slid three more glasses full of colorful drinks in front of Walter’s plate. Daniel laughed when it made his friend sigh loudly. That would be a total of seven so far. He laughed softly at his friend’s genuine misery about the wasted effort.

“Pick a glass. Any glass. Every fruity concoction comes with a pair of long legs that ends somewhere in heaven,” Daniel advised.

“Really? Okay, I pick Amanda then. At least she’s smart and I like her,” Walter said, glaring at his friend over all his teasing.

Daniel frowned. Even the idea of Amanda liking Walter that way caused a gut clench. Yep, he was in trouble. “Bro, don’t even joke about that. I would hate to have to give you another concussion so soon after the last one. Amanda is off the market. No Amanda for you. It’s bad enough she thinks you’re the best boss in the world. I hear about that every damn day now.”

“Daniel, there’s heaven,” Walter said, lost in his thoughts of Jane, “and then there’s. . .”

“. . .the problem when you come across a whole different kind of angel?” Daniel supplied, laughing into his beer.

“Something like that,” Walter admitted, frowning as he waved to the smiling group of women two tables over. Some had taken one look at him, dashed out to their cars, and brought back calendars for him to sign. Fortunately they had retreated back to their table afterward. But it was official now. His parents’ worst nightmare had come true. He was famous for a beefcake calendar. He was
Mr. March
.

“I found out the truth about angels and heaven when I slept with Amanda. Now I’m trying to figure out how the hell to get her to marry me,” Daniel said.

“What’s to figure out? She’s nuts for you. Just ask her,” Walter ordered.

Daniel shook off the suggestion. “Nope. It’s got to be the perfect timing. Until I get there, I’m just going to keep a smile on her face every chance I can.”

“Then stop giving me hell for nothing. You already know why I’m waiting,” Walter said.

Daniel nodded. “Yes. I guess I do. But you’re wound really tight, Walter. I’ve never seen you like this. The kind of holding back you’re doing leads to desperation, which has a habit of turning into crazy. Don’t do anything crazy. Your mega rich family will put a kill contract out on me. I caught hell when you changed your major from science to business. They can’t stand thinking the worst of you.”

“Don’t worry. Harrison still owns the corner market on crazy in our family. I’m not even in the running,” Walter said.

“I bet if you just showed up on the mysterious Jane’s doorstep, she’d let you in. Then the rest would just take care of itself,” Daniel said.

“That might work if I knew where she lived,” Walter said morosely. “She hasn’t volunteered the information, or asked me to stop by to check out her wallpaper. Even though I know she wants me back, I can’t get her to admit it enough to agree to go out with me.”

Daniel picked up his phone and sent a text. Two sips of beer later, he turned the phone around and showed the information to Walter.

“Dude, did Amanda just give you Jane’s address? That’s illegal. That’s why I didn’t cheat and get it myself from work records,” Walter exclaimed.

Daniel laughed. “Did I say this was Amanda? This is not Amanda. Where is your faith, Walter? This is divine intervention from the angel who owns my personal path to heaven. But definitely, definitely not Amanda. My girlfriend, and your employee, would never, ever in a million years do something that would hurt anyone.”

“Damn it, Daniel.” Walter ran a hand over his head, debating with his ethics, and lost. Seven glasses on the table mocked him. “Give me that.”

He pulled Daniel’s phone over to him, typed the address into his phone, and then shoved it back.

“Did it ever occur to you that your mysterious Jane gave Amanda the information assuming you would become desperate enough to use it?” Daniel asked.

“Jane doesn’t work like that,” Walter declared.

“That’s a delusion not worth cultivating by an educated man.
All
women work like that,” Daniel argued. “
All
women want you to do the chasing. Since you’ve never had to do that, it’s not surprising you suck at it. This means you have no choice but do what I tell you. Now go knock on her door. Take flowers with you as a bribe. It’s lame but usually works.”

“Why am I friends with you?” Walter asked.

“Because I am the only man you know who doesn’t think someone that looks like you should have way more game,” Daniel declared. “I know how you are, Walter Graham. And I know what you like. This one? You passed up ‘like’ with her a long time ago. It’s time to take your like to the next level and see if it’s as great as you think it’s going to be.”

Walter huffed out a breath. “And if Jane doesn’t let me in?”

“Stop with the doubts. She’s going to let you in. Don’t be such a dweeb,” Daniel ordered. “If she doesn’t, come back and pick one of these seven fruity drinks. You’re living every guy’s dream but your own here, Mr. March.”

Walter stood, slapped his friend on the back harder than he probably should have, and tossed a fifty on the table. “Buy them a round. I’m not coming back to a bar until the calendar mess is over. It’s too expensive. I need my money for other things.”

Daniel snickered as he motioned to the waitress. Yep, the man wasn’t interested in even finding out if any woman in the bar was smart or not. Mysterious Jane must be more brilliant than Walter’s scientist father. It was eerie though to see the most confident man he knew so insecure about where he stood with a woman. Walter was brave enough to charge into a burning building, but now stood by their table paralyzed by the thought of being rejected by the woman he wanted. Walter’s fall from god-like status into the realm of mere mortal men was almost more than he could stand.

“Why are you still here, Walter Graham? I extorted your girlfriend’s address from your employee for you. Whatever kind of perverted act she’s going to make me perform on her later is already on your head. Last time I lost a bet, my angel made me paint her toenails. Now get the hell out of here so I can pay out your drink return and go home myself.”

Walter sighed, nodded, and headed to his SUV.

***

“Great. It’s not enough I have bloating this time. No, I have to have a pimple on my chin and an eye infection too,” Jane complained out loud. She pulled on her favorite soft t-shirt, noting the tingling sensation as it scraped her sensitive breasts. Tomorrow was probably D-day for her period to show up. Her monthly torture seemed to only get worse as she got older. Wasn’t the monthly discomfort supposed to start easing up at some point?

Grateful her yoga shorts were at least stretchy and comfortable, Jane sighed as she pushed her rarely worn black rimmed glasses up her nose. Feeling about as frumpy as it was possible for a woman to feel, she trudged to the refrigerator to fill her favorite mug with milk. She was dunking a second cookie, and feeling slightly better about life, when the doorbell rang.

Checking the clock on the wall as she walked to answer it, she peered through the viewer at. . .

Walter? What was he doing here?

Opening the door, her nose immediately registered spicy male and flowers.

Flowers?
Her gaze fell to the single red rose in his hand.

“Walter?” His name encompassed all her questions.

“You wear glasses?” Walter exclaimed, smiling when she looked embarrassed over the fact. “I didn’t mean to sound so shocked. They make you look seriously cute.”

“Yes. . .well, I hate wearing them. I usually wear contacts,” Jane said. “Why are you here so late?”

“Because I’m an optimist?” Walter suggested. “Here—I brought you a flower. I was going to buy you a couple dozen, but their credit card machine was down. This was all the cash I had in my pocket after the bar.”

“Bar?”
Of course. Walter had been drinking and gotten some harebrained idea he just had to share.
She sniffed for liquor but smelled only wine. Not knowing what else to do, Jane sighed and took the rose. “Thank you, Walter. What’s the flower for?”

“What’s the flower for?” Walter parroted. He scratched his head. Daniel forgot to fill him in on the possibility that there might be a quiz. “Can I come in?”

“Sure. . .I guess. Sorry if I seem a bit slow. I’m not used to entertaining men after ten o’clock at night,” Jane said, as she stepped aside and motioned for him to enter.

She got a whiff of heat and masculinity as Walter passed by, but this time she kept her sigh of longing to herself. She was quite proud of her self-control until Walter turned and smiled as the door clicked shut behind him. No man had ever looked so totally pleased to have just walked through her door.

“I don’t usually show up on women’s doorsteps uninvited, either. Thanks for letting me in,” Walter said.

“Sure. Okay. So what did bring you here?” Jane asked finally, the butterflies inside her stomach fluttered around the cookies she had eaten. She wondered briefly if Walter was always going to possess the ability to cause nervousness in her. “Before you answer, you should probably know that I smell secondhand smoke, red wine, and oddly enough—another man’s aftershave on you.”

Walter laughed at Jane’s accurate observations and acute sense of smell.

“That’s amazing and probably Daniel. He likes to hug. Daniel is Amanda’s. . .” Walter paused. Should he say fiancé? No. Not yet. “He’s Amanda’s boyfriend. . . and mine too, I guess. We’ve been best friends since we shared a nanny.”

“Look—it’s really late and I don’t need to hear about your sexual experimentations with your friends,” Jane said, turning away from him.

“God no. . .that’s not what. . .why would you even go there?” Walter demanded. “I said we shared a
nanny
. Our parents shared a babysitting service.”

“Oh,” Jane said, her face flushing with the magnitude of her error. “Well, now I’m the one totally embarrassed. Sorry. I don’t know why I even said that. It’s late. Sometimes I forget that you. . .I don’t even know what point I’m trying to make.”

She stopped talking and just shook her head, totally ashamed of her wicked thoughts.

“Maybe you mean that sometimes you remember I’m a man and forget that I’m a lot younger,” Walter finished, tagging along behind her into the kitchen. He smiled when he saw her lay the rose beside a cup with a frog on it. The smile got wider as she dunked a cookie down inside.

“I didn’t say any of that,” Jane retorted. “Stop trying to put words in my mouth—or my head. It’s late. I’m tired. I had a late dinner with friends last night. I was trying to get to bed early.”

“Speaking of being young though, I was drinking wine up until a few moments ago. You’re the one drinking milk and eating cookies at ten o’clock. So who’s being the kid, Jane? You’re eating kid food,” Walter declared, grinning at her deliberately dunking another chocolate chip cookie into the mug before taking a big bite of it.

“I’m a big girl, Walter. I can do what I want whenever I want,” Jane replied after swallowing. She realized the innuendo of that statement when the chiseled blond statue in front of her grinned wickedly. No cookie in the world was good enough to satisfy the craving for him that hit her full on.