Flat-Out Sexy (29 page)

It didn’t seem like him at all, and it bothered her. Why did Elec have a history of dating bimbos when he so clearly wasn’t that type?

Crystal spotted them and beelined for their table.

“Oh, damn,” Suzanne whispered.

“Hey, y’all,” she said with a bright smile. “How are you doing, Suzanne?”

“Fine, thanks. You?”

“Great.” Crystal plunked down in the fourth chair at their table. “I’m so glad to see you. I took a chance coming out by myself so it’s great that I have someone to hang out with. Who are your friends?”

“This is Imogen Wilson, and this is Tammy Briggs.”

“Are you in racing?” Crystal asked Imogen.

Imogen shook her head and Crystal promptly lost interest. “Are you Pete Briggs’s widow?” she asked Tamara.

“Yes.”

“And now she’s dating another driver,” Suzanne said with a touch of triumph in her voice.

Tamara glared at Suzanne. She did not want this woman poking into her business.

“Oh, really? Who?”

“It’s a bit of a secret right now, so I’d rather not say.”

“Uh-huh.” Crystal said that like she didn’t believe for one minute that Tamara actually was dating a driver.

Which was irritating, but not enough to make her tell the truth.

“Well, I’m dating a driver,” Crystal said. “And it’s not a secret.”

Oh, no, why did she have the horrible feeling that Crystal was going to say …

“It’s Elec Monroe.”

Imogen gasped.

Tamara felt her blood pressure rise. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Elec was not dating this woman, but it irritated her no end that Crystal would just sit there and lie about it.

“Oh, really?” Suzanne said. “That surprises me.”

Recognizing that glint in her friend’s eye, Tamara kicked her under the table. Suzanne shot her a look that she interpreted as “put this bitch in her place,” but it wasn’t worth it. The whole thing would just escalate into some juvenile catfight.

She refused to fight over a man she knew was hers. Elec was. There was no doubt in her mind. If she said she wanted to take their relationship public, he would. She just wasn’t sure she was ready to go there, three margaritas or not.

“Why would that surprise you?” Crystal said, her voice sour. “He likes beautiful women.”

Before Suzanne could say whatever brutal thing was on her lips, they were approached by two men in golf shirts, who, to the astonishment of Imogen, asked her and Suzanne to dance.

“No, thank you,” Imogen said, shaking her head a little violently.

“It’s just a line dance, nothing too personal,” the one assured her with a friendly smile.

“I wouldn’t mind dancing,” Suzanne said. “You come, too, Tammy.”

“No, I’m fine here.” Despite her conviction that Crystal was a liar, she was feeling a little nauseous from both the drinks and the conversation, and she needed a minute before she could try to follow the patterns of the dance.

“Are you okay?” Suzanne asked her as she stood up and Imogen nervously followed suit.

“I’m fine.”

Suzanne stared at her for a second then decided she was telling the truth and went on to the dance floor. Crystal leaned over to Tamara and whispered, “Oh, my God, I’m so embarrassed.”

Fighting the urge to roll her eyes, Tamara asked, “Why?”

“Because I slept with Suzanne’s ex-husband and I just feel really uncomfortable about it. She’s clearly not over him and he is so over her.”

That was it. Tamara had intended to keep her mouth shut, but when this chick started slinging barbs at her best friend, she drew the line. She happened to know for a fact that Ryder still had a tremendous amount of feelings for Suzanne. So she turned to the blonde and said, “Oh, really? Sort of like how you’re sleeping with Elec?”

Crystal frowned, her plump lips pressing together. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I happen to know for a fact that you’re not dating Elec and you’re not having sex with him, so I’m just wondering if you’re lying about Ryder the same way you are about Elec.”

Her eyes narrowed. “I am not lying about either one of them.”

“Then why would Elec tell me the only time he’s seen you naked is when you send him trashy text messages?”

It was a hit. Crystal flushed red. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Elec is my boyfriend. Of course I’ve slept with him.”

“How can you, when every night he’s not working, he spends with me?” Okay, so that was a lie, but Tamara was buzzed on tequila and hopping mad.

“What?” Crystal’s red face drained entirely of color. “Are you trying to claim you’re dating Elec Monroe?”

“I’m not claiming anything. It’s a fact.”

“Whatever.” Crystal flagged the waiter down. “I don’t believe for a minute that he would be interested in someone like you. All plain and mom-ish. God, you probably have stretch marks.”

There was a buzzing in Tamara’s ears that was not alcohol related. Crystal had just hit on her insecurities and it hurt at the same time it made her furious. Without thinking through the consequences, she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and went into her in-box. She pulled up the last text she’d gotten from Elec, at two o’clock that day, and opened it. It read, “Long day. Wish you were here.”

She shoved her phone over to Crystal. “Read it.”

There was a flicker in Crystal’s eye, but she waved her hand in dismissal. “How do I know that’s from Elec?”

“Look at the number.”
You stupid twit.

Crystal did. “Well, that isn’t a very romantic text message.”

“How about this one?” She couldn’t believe she was stooping to this level, but Crystal pushed every button she had. She found one from the night before that read, “Can’t wait to see you Monday.”

“I would write that to a friend,” Crystal said.

She pulled her own phone out and Tamara had a sudden horrible feeling that this was going to get ugly.

Crystal scrolled through and turned the phone to her. It was a text from Elec that read, “you do look hot.” Even though it smacked her in the face, she took a breath and willed herself to be calm about it. It was lacking in capitalization and punctuation, which said to Tamara that he was rushing, because he always used proper English in his texts to her. It also sounded like he was answering a prompted question, and when she studied the data below the message, she saw it was dated two months earlier. Nothing inconsistent with what Elec had told her.

“That was in response to when I sent him this picture,” Crystal said, punching buttons. She turned her phone to Tamara.

It was Crystal naked, which Tamara was familiar with, only this time she had a tiny die-cast car driving into her … eew. Tamara felt her mouth drop open and her eyes bug out. That was just beyond anything she would have ever thought made sense.

“You know, those cars rust when they get wet,” she told Crystal, suddenly feeling the desperate urge to laugh.

Crystal made a cluck of impatience. “Let’s both text him right now and see who he answers.”

Was she really going to engage in such a juvenile battle for male attention?

Apparently she was, because her fingers were already flying across her keyboard. “You’re on.”

They both typed furiously and hit Send right about the same time. Tamara’s was probably riddled with typos but the gist of it was that she was looking forward to making good on their bet.

Their phones sat on the table, next to each other, Tamara’s plain black and silver, Crystal’s pimped out in rhinestones. She glanced over at the dance floor and saw Imogen moving awkwardly and Suzanne getting into it, clapping her hands and smiling.

How long did it take to answer a text? She stared at her phone and willed it to chime.

It did.

Yes.

She opened it and read the message from Elec. “I can’t wait either. Been thinking about you riding me all day, Cowgirl. xoxo.”

Wow. He’d put hugs and kisses on the end. That made her feel all sorts of excited, as did the thought of being on top of him. The message was so personal, so beyond anything he’d ever written before, that she was almost reluctant to share it with Crystal. It was private.

But the other women yanked her phone out of her hands and read it. Her expression soured. But she rallied when her own phone buzzed. “It’s Elec,” she said smugly.

Then her face fell as she read it and Tamara decided she wasn’t even going to ask what it said. She didn’t like Crystal but she had no interest in rubbing Elec in her face. Not any more than she had, anyway.

“Aren’t you going to ask what it says?”

“No.”

Crystal shoved her phone at her. Tamara glanced down at it. It said, “Please don’t text me anymore. I’ve told you, I’m seeing someone else.”

“I’m sorry,” she said, and she meant it. It hurt to be rejected, she understood that.

Crystal stood up. “Fuck you, bitch.”

Well, alrighty then.

ON Monday, long after the margaritas had worn off, Tamara wondered if she should mention the little incident with Crystal to Elec.

But when he showed up at four o’clock looking sleepy-eyed and sexy and greeted her with, “I haven’t been able to stop thinking about your text from Friday,” she just smiled and kept her mouth shut.

Elec kissed her cheek, which she assumed was for the benefit of her kids, who were tearing around the family room. He said, “I think that’s the first time you got sexy in a text with me. I liked it. A lot.”

Yeah, she so wasn’t telling him what had motivated that.

She did confess, “I was out with Imogen and Suzanne. I had a little too much to drink.”

“I don’t care what brought it on, as long as you keep doing it.”

There were all sorts of things she wanted to keep doing.

So she leaned closer and whispered in his ear precisely that. “I plan to keep doing lots of things.”

“That is the best news I’ve heard in
days
,” he said.

“Rough weekend, huh?” she asked him sympathetically. He had a disappointing finish the day before when he’d blown a tire.

He nodded.

Hunter bounced up to him and grabbed his hands. “New Hampshire sucked,” she announced as she crawled up his legs with her feet. “You can make it up next week, though.”

Tamara was really going to have to sit her daughter down and have a stern talk about her language.

“Thanks, kid. I’ll try.” He held Hunter firmly while she finished her shimmy all the way to his upper thighs then dropped back down to the floor.

Hunter rolled her eyes and made a raspberry sound with her lips. “Don’t try. Just do it.”

Elec laughed. “Good point. Now should we go outside and fill up these water balloons I brought?”

“Yeah!” her kids both shrieked, running for the back door, flinging it open and tearing into the yard, leaving the door wide open for bugs to take advantage.

Elec shot her a bemused look. “Guess they like the idea of water balloons. Come on out and let’s see if I can hit you in the chest with one.”

“Elec!” Tamara smacked his arm. “I’m not having a wet T-shirt contest with my children around.”

“Like they’d think anything of it. They’d just figure you didn’t duck fast enough.”

He was wearing tattered jeans and sandals with a beer T-shirt, his hair flat under a ball cap, and he was so damn cute she was having a hard time not reaching out and squeezing the daylights out of his butt. Not to mention other things.

“You can hit me back,” he offered. “Make me look like I wet my pants.”

She laughed. “You’re crazy.”

“Crazy for you.” Elec leaned over and gave her a long, delicious kiss. “Mmm. Been waiting awhile to do that.”

“Are you coming?” Hunter called loudly from the patio.

Elec gave her a look, and Tamara laughed. “Don’t say it, not even under your breath.”

“What?” he said, all innocence, like he hadn’t heard the word
coming
and reached the same conclusion she had.

Knowing that she was pushing it, but unable to resist, Tamara leaned in and whispered in his ear, “I wish I was coming. On top of you.”

Elec moaned and squeezed her waist. “You’re torturing me.”

Torturing both of them. But she just smiled and said, “Yep,” and headed out the back door.

ELEC sat in front of the fire he had built, Hunter wiggling on his lap, and held his stick over the flame, watching his marshmallow turn a nice golden brown. Tamara was sitting next to him, her feet crossed at the ankles, her hair up in a ponytail, the firelight dancing across her beautiful face whenever she glanced over at him, a smile showing off her teeth.

Pete was on the other side of the fire, tossing marshmallows directly into the fire to watch them catch and implode in the dark.

Elec could honestly say that he had never been quite so content and relaxed in his whole life. They’d had ribs on the grill, corn on the cob, and potato salad for dinner, and they’d gotten soaking wet running around and slamming water balloons into each other.