The Debra Dilemma (The Lone Stars Book 4) (18 page)

They were going to make him work for it.

Debra raised her hand. “Shouldn’t y’all have included me?”

“Are you kidding? You’re too easy on him. If you want retribution, you go to your best friends. Let’s face it, you’re too close to the situation that’s why we have to step in.” Sweet Louise waved at Summer. “Let him have it.”

“Okay, here we go.” Summer ruffled the paper out in front of her. “You need to watch all the romantic comedies of the last ten years—”

“Do I have to watch them with him?” Debra sat forward.

Summer looked from Laney to Grace to Sweet Louise. “We’re going to need a ruling on that one.”

“Of course she doesn’t. She isn’t being punished, he is.” Laney smiled. “Let’s make the movies optional for her. She may pick and choose the ones she wants to watch.”

“Next you’ll need to change one hundred stinky diapers—that was all Grace—and cook dinner for Debra every night that she isn’t working for the next month.” Summer sighed long and hard. “And since you burned down her kitchen, it looks like you’ll be cooking up here.”

“How am I supposed to change one hundred diapers? I only know one kid in diapers.” Warren shook his head. Debra’s friends weren’t going to let him get away with the girl until he’d proven himself.

“One’s all you need. You can start tonight.” Chord pointed to the sleeping baby snoozing away in some sort of foldable crib thingy.

“You have to host a princess tea party for Julia and her playgroup, help Clint coach Pop Warner football, carve an ice sculpture of a reindeer, make homemade strawberry ice cream, judge CoCo’s UIL One Act Play competition, win a chili cookoff, explain Daylight Savings Time to Grace and convince her that it’s a good idea, eat chocolate-covered crickets, bowl a perfect game, take your picture with a mime.…”

The list of apparently random things went on and on. He would gladly do them and more if it meant that Debra would be his, but none of the items on the list seemed to be about Debra.

Summer kept reading, “knit some pink leg-warmers, sing all of the songs from
Wicked
by heart, watch all seven seasons of GLEE—there will be a test—make aioli from scratch, find out what exactly makes Lucky Charms so magically delicious—”

“Oops. Should I be writing this down?” He shot Summer his most charming smile on the off chance that she’d take pity on him.

“Buy a case of Girl Scout Thin Mint cookies out of season, take a selfie with Willie Nelson and Justin Bieber at the same time, find Thor and ask him if he needs any nails to go with his hammer, eat only purple foods for a week, roller skate backwards, compete on
American Ninja Warrior
, have a cloud named after you, meet that crazy-haired guy from
Ancient Aliens
—”

“Wow, y’all have really thought this out. It’s impressive.” Debra nodded.

It didn’t go unnoticed that she didn’t jump in there and tell them to stop.

“Convince a cop to let you direct traffic, call Bill Gates and tell him that WINDOWS 8 sucks, eat a snowball starting from the bottom, make a cameo appearance on a soap opera, find out whether dark matter exists, make a portrait of Debra out of popcorn, invent a new color of glitter nail polish, spend the day with a Byzantine monk, recite pi to the millionth place by heart, find ten people who actually like dehydrated ice cream…” Summer just kept reading… “Shake Mother Theresa’s hand—”

“But she’s dead.” Warren shook his head.

Summer looked up from the list. “And your point is?”

She returned to the list. “Find the Holy Grail and return it to Indiana Jones. Eat a whole habanero pepper in one sitting, dress up as Jesus and ride a donkey through the Vatican’s courtyard, run for president of the Travis High School PTO, write a thesis on paper verses plastic, cure cancer, high-five that Indian goddess with all of those hands.…”

He tuned her out.

Warren was willing to do any or all of these things, but hopefully he wouldn’t have to do more than show Debra how much he loved her.

It was strange to have slept with most of the men in the room and have them now treat her like a sister. Debra loved watching them with their wives. It was nice to see people who genuinely cared about each other. She sure as hell hadn’t had a lot of that growing up.

In the interest of expediency, Warren’s list of “deeds” had been whittled down to ten items of Debra’s choosing. She had to admit, there were so many to choose from that picking just ten was going to take her some time. The list was folded in her back pocket.

The dinner party was breaking up and sleepy kids hung limply in parents’ arms as everyone said their goodbyes.

This whole friendship thing was getting easier.

As she stood at the front door beside Warren and waved goodbye to Summer and Clint, who was holding a sleeping Julia, she wondered when exactly Warren was going to make his move. Other than kiss her, he hadn’t shown interest in much else.

Being that Summer and her family were the last to leave, this left Debra and Warren alone. Now would be an excellent time for him to kiss her, so she waited not so patiently.

“How about tomorrow?” He closed the door and leaned against it.

Right now would be a perfect time for him to make his move, but if she had to wait until tomorrow, she could hold out a little longer. On second thought, he probably wasn’t talking about kissing her. He put his arm around her shoulders and gently led her back to the sofa.

“How about tomorrow for what?” She watched him. Was it her, or did he seem a little nervous?

He waited for her to sit on the sofa and then he joined her. He didn’t pull her in close.

“To go shopping for furniture. How hard would it be to move your Christmas tree from downstairs up here? Or do you think we should start from scratch?” He seemed very eager, and she guessed that meant he wanted to spend time with her. That was good…a step in the right direction. After all, he was supposed to be winning her back, only he seemed unsure of how to do it. She needed self-confident Warren, Superbowl winning team owner Warren, not this wishy-washy version.

She liked her Christmas tree, but she supposed they could move it up here. Sharing it with her friends would be nice. In her heart of hearts, she was so excited to be included in a large family Christmas that she’d do whatever it took to make it happen. She’d never had a large family anything. “Are you sure you want my help picking out your furniture? It’s your house.”

Disappointment flashed in his eyes and he looked away.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to help.…” She wasn’t sure why he was disappointed.

“I would like your help picking out house stuff partly because I hate shopping and partly because I want you to feel comfortable in my home.” His voice was level.

“I’m looking forward to it.” She wasn’t sure what she was supposed to say.

“Good, so we’re on for tomorrow.” His voice died away and he looked down and to the left like he was mulling something over. “I’ll buy you breakfast so we can start early.”

“You’re not debating whether you should throw out some tired line about breakfast tomorrow like whether you should knock on my door or nudge me awake?” She was trying to make him smile.

“Maybe.” His eyes wouldn’t meet hers.

“You totally were.” She couldn’t believe it.

“I was not.” He still refused to meet her eye, as if he’d been thinking some pretty naughty thoughts.

“Oh my God, you’re picturing me naked right now.” So he wanted her as much as she wanted him. That was good to know.

He grinned and looked up. “I am now.”

She tucked her chin into her chest. “Good.”

His eyes turned huge and he licked his lips. “Stop with the chin thing.”

“Why?” She missed playful Warren.

“Lady, you’re causing me to have some seriously impure thoughts.” He sat back and casually put his arm around her.

“You should act on those. Soon…like now for instance.” She was just trying to help.

“I can’t.” He straightened his legs and crossed them at the ankle. “I’m enjoying the romance part of our relationship.”

It was on the tip of her tongue to comment that they didn’t really have a relationship, but she knew it would hurt his feelings. She couldn’t help but hope that this was the start of something special, and she sure didn’t want to set back the process any further. At the rate he was going, Mars would be colonized and forming their own Olympics team by the time he got down to business.

“I could do with a little romance.” She smiled to herself. The childlike part of her wanted fairy princesses and happily-ever-afters to help carry her out of the cave she’d hidden in for so long.

“Why are you smiling?” Warren grinned at her.

“I thought that I’d given up on happily-ever-after, but it’s good to know that I still believe in it.” Maybe it was ridiculous, but she still believed in the fairy tale. Even after everything she’d been through, she still believed. She felt like she’d gotten a piece of herself back.

“Does your happily-ever-after include me?” He tried to sound nonchalant, but his eyes held a world of hope.

“Maybe, if you play your cards right.” She put a hand on his knee.

His arm came around her shoulders and he fit her against him.

“Planning on busting out some of your old cheap moves on me?” She patted his thigh.

“No, ma’am. I have all new cheap moves.” With his free hand, he gently took her hand that was on his thigh and brought it to his lips, kissing her palm.

“Good to know.” She hooked her knees over his so that she was half sitting on his lap.

“I know I promised you some new moves, but I seem to remember you really liking this.” He picked up her right foot, slipped off her shoes, and massaged her instep. “Nice shoes.”

“Thanks, they’re left over from my floozy days.” Every muscle in her body relaxed and her eyelids drifted closed. “I take back everything I said about your old cheap moves.”

“You used to call me Magic Fingers.” There was pride in his voice. “Floozy days?”

“That’s what I’m calling the part of my life when I slept around. Floozy sounds so much better than slut.” The new Debra didn’t shy away from any topic. She was all about the talking it out.

“I like that you can talk about it…we can talk about it.” His touch became the slightest bit harder.

“No, you don’t.” She was damned if she did and damned if she didn’t.

“Nope, I hate it, but I’m proud of you for not shying away from it. It’s a part of our lives and pretending that it didn’t happen will get us nowhere.” His fingers worked their way down to her heel.

“You do have very talented fingers.” She practically purred. She hadn’t done that since…well, the last time he’d rubbed her feet. “This Christmas thing sounds like fun. Sorry I have to work.”

While she hated to miss anything, her clients needed her. Sometimes she was the only thing standing between them and the monster at home.

“I should have told you sooner, but I’m amazed at what you do.” His fingers continued to do amazing things to the bottom of her right foot. “You’ve always had such a huge capacity for love, but I didn’t see you taking it in this direction all those years ago.”

Did she have a huge capacity for love? She did care about every single person who walked through the front doors of Safe Place and she did worry about what happened to them after they’d gone. She cheered on their victories and cried over their losses. She was good at her job because she cared so much. She’d never really thought about it before. “Thank you. I never realized until now that I do care so much, and that’s a good thing.”

It shouldn’t have been a revelation, but it was. Caring about and loving people wasn’t a bad thing, it made her stronger and gave her a purpose. Since she’d come a long way in making peace with AJ’s birth—by embracing it—she’d learned a lot about herself.

“You know, that’s one of the reasons that you and your father didn’t get along. He didn’t understand kindness and compassion and I think he was a little bit jealous that you were born with it. He didn’t have love in him so he wanted to destroy what he didn’t understand.” One corner of his mouth turned up in a half smile.

“Really? You think?” Her mind had given up wanting her father’s approval years before he died, but in her heart she would always want his approval. Since he was dead, that wasn’t going to happen, but it was comforting to try and understand why he acted the way he had.

“I know. He wasn’t happy so he didn’t understand how others could be,” Warren sighed. “He was a hard man. That’s why he was so successful. I’ve been known to be hard a time or two.”

“I noticed. You’ve changed.” She shrugged. “I guess everyone does. Maybe it’s not changing so much as growing up. If only we could capture enthusiasm and naiveté and bottle it for our later selves.”

“That would be something.” He said with about as much enthusiasm as someone who was on the way to a root canal. “I have changed…or grown up. Some days I like that about myself and others I don’t. There is something to be said for optimism of youth. Back then, I was ready to take on the world.”

The awkward silence weighted down the air like oppressive humidity right before a storm.

She just couldn’t take it anymore. “You know, this would be an excellent time to kiss me.”

“You think?” A slow, cocky smiled worked its way across his face.

“Yes, I’m fairly certain.” She returned it.

Here was the self-assured man that she loved so much.

“Do you remember the first time I kissed you?” He settled her in close to him.

“Yes, it was by the pool. You claimed we had an algae problem so you needed to come by every day to check on it.” She crossed her legs and leaned into him. “I don’t remember ever seeing any algae, but I certainly am no expert.”

“I made that up. I was hoping to see you in your little red bikini.” He shrugged. “Any excuse, right?”

“So it was my little red bikini that drew you in?” Her father had hated that suit, which was exactly why she’d worn it.

“Well, that and the way that it was shrink-wrapped around you…mainly how it was shrink-wrapped around you.” He seemed to be stalling.