Playing With You (2 page)

Deena touched her fingers to her hair. “I like the idea of getting to know the town as I look around.”

“I wish you good luck.” Ricki handed the bag of cookies to Deena. “I’m sure you’ll find something you like.”

Deena took the bag. “It was nice meeting you, Ricki. No doubt you’ll see me back for more.” She held up the bag of cookies. “I have a sweet tooth that knows no end.”

Even though she didn’t know Deena, Ricki liked her and was tempted to offer to show her around but decided against it. She had enough going on with her home improvement projects and her crazy bakery hours.

Ricki gave Deena a little wave when the woman looked over her shoulder and smiled at Ricki.

When the door closed behind Deena, Ricki took a cloth and went around to the front of the glass cases and polished away prints left by a sticky-fingered child.

Her thoughts turned to tonight. It was Friday night, which she’d been dreading all week. With her busy day she’d almost forgotten the blind date her well-meaning aunt had set up. Aunt Madge considered herself to be something of a matchmaker and she was determined to find someone for Ricki. When anyone said “no” to Aunt Madge, it simply fell on deaf ears.

Ricki shook her head. Problem was, she didn’t have anything to wear tonight. She needed to head to the dress shop for something pretty and maybe a little bit on the sexy side—just in case her aunt really had found someone Ricki would find herself attracted to. Lettie would close up the bakery for her so that she’d have extra time to shop.

With a sigh, Ricki moved around behind the counter and headed back into the kitchen. For now she had the bakery to take care of. She’d worry about dresses and blind dates later.

“Dress shopping by yourself sucks,” Ricki mumbled to herself as she went through the dresses in her size on the sale rack at the dress boutique downtown. She should have asked Tess or Jo to come with her since Greta was no longer around.

Ricki’s closest friend, Greta, had recently moved to Idaho with her husband who wanted to be closer to his family. Greta had been fun to shop with and had a good eye for what looked attractive on Ricki’s curvy figure.

“Hi,” came a vaguely familiar voice from behind Ricki as she looked through the sale rack. She turned as the woman said, “Ricki, isn’t it?”

Ricki found herself looking into the pretty brown eyes of the blonde woman she’d met earlier today in Sweet Things. Ricki struggled to remember the woman’s name. “Hi,” she said when she came up empty.

“My name is Deena.” The woman smiled. “With all of the people who come into your bakery, I don’t expect you to remember.”

“Nice to see you.” Ricki smiled, feeling a little relieved to have a distraction from the chore of finding a dress on her own.

“Shopping for a dress, I take it.” Deena nodded to the sale rack of nice dresses Ricki had been looking through. “Something special?”

Ricki groaned. “My aunt set me up on a blind date tonight. I have no idea what to wear.”

Deena gave Ricki a mischievous look. “Your first blind date?”

Ricki nodded and glanced at the dresses. “I don’t know what’s appropriate for a first date with someone you don’t even know.”

“I can help.” Deena looked Ricki up and down. “You have great curves. Twelve?”

“Fourteen.” Ricki gestured to the dresses. “Not always easy to find something that flatters my figure.”

Deena started flipping through the dresses in Ricki’s size. “Ah, here’s one that would look great.” It was black with a bodice that was a little lower cut than Ricki would have picked out for herself. “It will show off your cleavage beautifully.”

“It’s pretty.” Ricki held up the dress and looked at it, then looked down at her generous breasts. “But I think this might say more than ‘nice to meet you.’”

“We’ll find a few for you to try on.” Deena was still looking through the dresses. “Here’s a pretty red one.”

“Red is kind of a bold statement.” Ricki took the dress from Deena. “But it’s lovely.” The dress gathered at the waist and flared slightly over the hips.

“Let’s check these dresses.” Deena moved to another rack of dresses that weren’t on sale. “I love this midnight blue one.” She selected a dress that was a little more on the conservative side and held it up against Ricki.

Ricki looked at the dress with a critical eye as she took it from Deena. “I think my grandma wore that dress.’”

Deena laughed. “It’s sexy. You’ll look great in it.”

Ricki shook her head. “I’ll try it on, but don’t expect much.”

With a grin, Deena walked over to another display of black dresses. “Why don’t you try this one?” She handed over a simple black dress that had a half-inch wide beaded V-cut neckline that glittered in the light. “I like the touch of sparkle.”

“Oooh, that’s beautiful.” Ricki joined Deena at the display. “I like that.”

“How about a dressing room?” A pretty woman who clearly worked for the boutique joined them.

Ricki handed the dresses to the woman. “You lead, we’ll follow.”

The petite dark-haired woman led them to the dressing rooms in one corner and opened the door to one of the rooms. She put the dresses on a hook on one wall inside the room. “I’m Drew.” She smiled as she came back out of the room. “Let me know if you need any other sizes or anything else.”

“Thanks.” Ricki slipped into the room and smiled at Deena before she closed the door behind her.

“I want to see how they look on you.” Deena’s voice was slightly muffled through the dressing room door.

“Okay,” Ricki said.

After she stripped out of her T-shirt and jeans as well as socks and shoes, she picked out the low-cut black dress to try on first. She slipped it over her head and tugged it down. It had a button at the neck in the back and she slipped the button through the loop. She frowned as she looked at her reflection in the vertical mirror and adjusted her breasts in the plunging neckline. It was even more revealing than she’d realized. She tugged down the dress that came a little high on her thighs.

“Uh, I don’t think this one works,” she called out.

“You have to model it out here,” Deena said.

Reluctantly, Ricki opened the door and stepped out into the hallway that ran along the length of the dressing rooms.

“That’s beautiful,” Deena said. “Look at your reflection.” She took Ricki by the shoulders and had her face the full-length mirror on the far wall. Deena stood behind Ricki as she smoothed the arms of the dress, her cool fingers brushing Ricki’s skin. Deena was close enough that Ricki caught the scent of her lilac perfume.

Ricki cocked her head to the side. “This dress says ‘come on in and get some.’”

Deena laughed and Ricki smiled at the infectious sound as she looked at the woman’s reflection while she stood behind Ricki.

“Okay, maybe this is a second date dress,” Deena said with a grin.

“Try a much farther down the line dress.” Ricki stared at the large amount of cleavage showing. “Maybe date five or six.”

“Ha.” Deena let her hands slide down Ricki’s arms before stepping back. “A woman as beautiful as you is not going to last three dates, much less five, before you go to bed with someone.”

Ricki felt her cheeks heat. “It might take me a bit longer than that.”

“Why don’t you try on the red one?” Deena said.

Ricki slipped back into the dressing room, glad to get out of the much too revealing dress. She put the dress back on the hanger and set it on the hook she designated as “definitely no.”

The red dress was pretty but felt tight across the bust line and the hips. Still, Deena insisted on seeing it.

When Ricki came out of the dressing room, Deena cocked her head to the side. “The color is good on you and I like the dress.” She reached forward and adjusted the dress at the waist. Ricki was surprised by how familiar Deena acted each time she adjusted Ricki’s dresses. “But you’re right,” Deena said as she let her hands fall away from Ricki’s waist. “It’s a little snug. It might make it hard to sit comfortably.”

“You’re telling me.” Ricki headed back into the dressing room and shimmied out of the too-snug red dress and hung it on the “absolutely not” hook.

“I like this one,” Ricki said when she had the midnight blue dress on. It looked better than she’d thought it would. “It fits well.”

“Come on out,” Deena said.

When Ricki walked out, Deena took her by the shoulders and looked her up and down. “Attractive, but you were right earlier. It’s too conservative.” She turned Ricki around, still holding on to her shoulders. “This dress says look but don’t touch. Ever.”

“Oh, come on. It’s not that bad.” Ricki laughed. “Besides, if I don’t like this guy that might be the exact message I want to give him.”

“Trust me.” Deena smiled at Ricki over her shoulder in the mirror. “I have an eye for these things and this is not the right dress for you. Now try on the next one.” She gently pushed Ricki toward the dressing room door.

“Okay, okay.” Ricki couldn’t help laughing again. She stripped out of the blue dress and hung it on the “no” hook.

Next came the simple black dress with the sequined neckline. The moment Ricki put it on, she knew it was the right dress. It hugged her curves, but wasn’t tight and made her waist and hips look slimmer.

She struggled with the zipper that ran up her spine from the waistline to the neck and couldn’t get it up by herself. “Here I come,” she said as she opened the door.

Deena clapped her hands together. “Gorgeous. You look simply gorgeous.”

“Can you help me with this zipper?” Ricki turned so that her back was to Deena and held up her shoulder-length hair up with both hands to get it out of the way.

“Of course.” Deena’s cool fingers ran along the length of Ricki’s spine as she slid it up to the neck and a shiver ran down Ricki’s back.

Ricki let her hair fall back to her shoulders as she stared at herself in the mirror. “I really like this one.”

“It’s perfect.” Deena looked at Ricki’s breasts. “It shows just enough cleavage to be sexy without saying ‘tackle me now.’”

“And it’s a good length.” Ricki brushed her fingers over the hem of the dress that came to just below mid-thigh.

“It’s exactly right.” Deena gathered Ricki’s hair and held it up on top of her head. “You should wear your hair up with this dress. It will show the elegant line of your neck.”

Ricki nodded as Deena released her hair. Ricki glanced at the price tag and her eyes widened. “I’m not so sure this is the right dress after all.”

Deena waved Ricki’s concern away. “It’s perfect and worth every cent.”

“You’re right and I absolutely love it.” Ricki put her hand on the handle to the dressing room. “Now to get home and take a shower and get ready. It was a long day at work.”

She went into the dressing room, slipped out of the dress and put it on the hanger which she hung on the “no way I’m letting this one go” hook.

When she was dressed, she brought all of the dresses out with her.

“Let me take those.” Deena took the rejects and put them on rack of dresses clearly intended for the clerk to return to the floor. The clerk, Drew, was just outside the room and Deena handed the remaining dress to her. “She’s going to take this one, Drew,” Deena said. “But first we’re going to do a little more shopping.”

Ricki raised her brows. “More shopping?”

“You need some great shoes to go with that dress,” Deena said and took Ricki by the hand and led her to the huge display of shoes. “I’ll lay odds that you need something that says, ‘I’m sexy.’”

Ricki laughed. It was amazing at how natural it felt for Deena to act like they’d been friends for ages.

“Look at these.” Deena held up dressy shoes with heels that had to be three inches.

Ricki frowned. “A little high, don’t you think?”

“Nope.” Deena picked out two more pairs with two and a half to three inch heels. She showed the heels to Drew who nodded.

“What size?” Drew looked at Ricki’s feet. “Around an eight?”

“Good eye.” Ricki sat in a chair by a mirror and took off her shoes and socks again as Drew left to get her size.

Drew returned with four boxes. “I didn’t have one of the shoes in your size, but I picked out a couple of others you might like.”

Ricki rolled up her jeans before slipping on the shoes. She wobbled as she stood up. “I think you’re crazy, you know that, don’t you?” Ricki said to Drew who raised an eyebrow. “I’ll kill myself in heels this high.”

“They look wonderful.” Deena looked exceptionally pleased as Ricki walked back and forth, testing them out. “You’ll be fine.”

Ricki looked down at the shoes then sat in the chair again and removed the shoes. “These are a little tight across my toes.”

“Try on this pair.” Deena handed her a pair of red heels that Drew had brought out.

“Red?” Ricki took the heels. “The dress is black.”

“It’s the style now,” the clerk said. “Shoes can accent your wardrobe rather than just being something to get you around in.”

“If you say so.” Ricki slipped on the heels and stood. “These are actually pretty comfortable.” She walked back and forth in front of the mirror. “They are cute.”

“Sexy as hell, is more like it,” Deena said.

Ricki tried on the other two pair of shoes but ended up choosing the red ones. The clerk carried the box of shoes up to the front register where the dress was waiting.

Just when Ricki thought they were finished, Deena led her over to the costume jewelry, hair clips, and dressy purses. “Do you have jewelry?”

“I have diamond earrings that will go with that dress,” Ricki said. “That sparkle at the neckline is more than enough.”

“Right.” Deena picked out a pretty black, slender hair clip. “Do you have clips?”

“Not as pretty as that one.” Ricki shook her head and Deena held the clip as she went to the selection of evening purses. They spent a few minutes picking out an attractive little beaded black clutch that would go well with the dress.

Ricki carried the purse and hair clip and Deena accompanied her to the register.

“What were you here looking for?” Ricki asked Deena. “I didn’t even think to ask. You didn’t come here to dress me.”