So distracted was she by her regrets about the evening, Ann didn’t register her son’s car in her driveway until she pulled into the garage. At the curb sat a sleek, red sports car as well. She wasn’t great about identifying models, but the car seemed way too flashy for one of David’s part-time security employees to be driving. Most of the men he hired were former military or retired cops. They had normal cars judging from what she’d seen in their building’s parking lot.
And why was her son at her house tonight? The garage door was fixed. She was sure Cal had reported that back to David.
She walked through the kitchen, but saw no one. A quick search of the house didn’t offer any clues. Finally, she spied David in the backyard, pointing and talking to a nodding Cal, who was dressed up like he’d been out on a date as well.
Had he? The idea of Cal dating, especially after the way he’d kissed her in the garage, did not sit well with her. What kind of man drove such a flashy red sports car anyway? In her experience, the ones who were trouble drove that kind of car—ones who snagged skinny, bleached blondes with silicone breasts and filled lips.
“Stop it.” A quick head smack with her hand brought on enough pain to snap her out of her idiotic, jealous thoughts.
But what had she expected? Guilt and longing did not mix well or allow a person any inner peace. Hadn’t she already decided Cal was too young for her? Cal should be able to do whatever he wanted.
She was out running around, kissing other men. Cal had no idea she was going on Mariah’s dates only because she was trying to avoid liking him more than she already did.
Since hiding out in her own house felt more foolish than her fit of jealousy, Ann took several cleansing breaths before heading to confront the two men in her life.
“Surprise. I’m here to foil your evil plans,” she called out, walking out the back door still in her shorter-than-normal, black dress and heels.
Her son suddenly looked incredibly guilty. Cal, on the other hand, looked like he was going to drag her to the garage again, or someplace else private. David was so focused on her unexpected appearance that he didn’t even notice Cal staring lustfully at her legs, but she sure did. The thrill she got from it had her calling herself all kinds of stupid under her breath.
“Why are you home? Megan said you had a date tonight,” her son protested.
Betrayed by a fellow female. Why should that surprise her? Her so-called friends did it to her all the time. “It was just dinner,” Ann said flatly.
Her son’s grin widened as his gaze took in her clothes. He elbowed Cal. “Don’t those look like date clothes to you?”
“They absolutely look like date clothes,” Cal agreed, crossing his arms.
Uncaring that David had no idea about her and Cal, Ann pointed a finger at the glaring man. “You have no right to pass judgment on me, Calvin Rodgers. You’re just as dressed up as I am. Are those date clothes you’re wearing?”
David’s stunned gaze now swung from her to Cal, as if finally taking in what the man was wearing. Her son was probably surprised by how rude his mother was being, but that just couldn’t be helped.
Ann rolled her eyes when Cal chuckled. David missed that too, because her son’s gaze was glued to Cal’s clothes as he inspected the man.
“If you must know, I’m dressed like this because I was trying to impress someone,” Cal said with total sincerity.
Ann rolled her eyes again—even higher this time. Curse Georgia Bates and her bad habits. They were obviously contagious. “Really? Did it work?”
Cal spread his arms. “You look like a woman who always tells the truth. What do you think? Do I look good enough for a date?”
Her narrowed, now irritated gaze had her son clearing his throat, trying to intervene… or stop a fight… depending on how you looked at it.
Needing to defuse herself before she said too much, Ann turned to her still mostly clueless man child. “What’s up with the unexpected visit, David? Don’t make me call Kendra to find out about your shenanigans.”
David jumped and checked his watch. “Kendra! Oh damn. I have to run. I’m supposed to pick her up in ten minutes.” He turned to Cal. “Don’t tell Mom anything, no matter what she says. It’s her Mother’s Day surprise.”
Ann frowned. “David, you know I hate surprises.”
“Normally, but you won’t hate this one. Be nice to Cal, Mom. He’s a terrible joker, but a really nice man under those fancy clothes he has on tonight.”
Ann looked at smirking Cal who ducked his head, trying to hide his amusement from David. She was tempted to say she’d already had a preview of what was under Cal’s clothes, but what kind of drama would that cause?
Instead, she turned her cheek up for a kiss and accepted her son’s quick hug before he ran off like the lying coward he was when hiding something from her.
She knew better than to ask Cal what this nonsense was about though. Men rarely betrayed each other. Unlike her daughter… but she’d deal with Megan later. She had creative ways of making her daughter suffer for such sins.
Cal waited until David’s car backed out of the driveway and sped down the street before he spoke again. “You sure look fantastic this evening. Hot date tonight?”
Momentarily ignoring the question, Ann looked over her poorly landscaped backyard. Now and again she dug a hole and transplanted something. That’s about as far as she ever got. Gardening was the one task her husband had done that she hadn’t been able to absorb.
“I’m home early, aren’t I?” Ann huffed out a breath and screwed up her nerve. “How about you? You’re pretty dressed up yourself.”
Cal put his hands in his pockets as he walked to her. “I got dressed up for you, hoping you’d be here, even though David swore you wouldn’t be. The truth is I wanted you to see me in something other than work clothes and a tool belt for once. I’ve been told I clean up pretty nice.”
She didn’t want to stare at him, but her eyes wouldn’t stay off his crisp blue shirt and navy slacks. “Are you wondering if how you look is worth the price of a ticket?” His low chuckle over her teasing sent her nerves joyfully jumping, especially when he stepped even closer to her.
“Actually, I’m wondering if I look good enough to kiss. You sure do.”
Ann sighed and dropped her gaze from his. “What am I going to do with you, Cal?”
“Are you taking suggestions now? My list is getting longer and longer.”
His cocky answer triggered genuine laughter. He was quick minded, good humored, and…
“You do clean up pretty nice, Cal. Want to stay for a beer?”
Cal reached out a hand and pushed her curled hair behind one shoulder. “Yes, I would love to stay for a beer. Would it scare you if I said I wanted to stay for breakfast too?”
Ann laughed. “Yes, it would. I don’t have enough beer to help me see that as a good idea.”
Cal grinned. “Okay. Can we at least dance in your kitchen? I love slow dancing. Do you like to dance?”
Ann groaned and then she heard it. That sound—that sound she’d heard twice before. She’d been the one who’d made it, and this time she wasn’t even kissing him.
“I can’t talk about this any longer,” she said, picking up his hand and dragging Cal along with her as she headed back to her kitchen.
His laughter over her cowardice filled up her backyard. “What’s wrong, Pretty Ann?”
She didn’t answer him. She didn’t dare. There was no telling what kind of nonsense would come flying out of her mouth.
Chapter Nine
Beers turned into beers and nachos. They ate them during a lively discussion about ethical investments which to Ann meant putting her money in companies that were trying to do good in the world. Their conversation bounced around other topics while Cal drank a third beer. Then suddenly they were both just quiet. The comfortable silence was surprisingly nice… or at least it was to her.
Sighing after two minutes passed unbroken by words,
Cal pulled out his phone. He thumbed through it until a soft guitar melody drifted from the speaker. He stood and held out his hand.
Ann put her hand in his and let him pull her, and her suddenly weak legs, out of her seat.
Two beers had gone straight to her head this evening… or maybe it was the smell of Cal’s aftershave as he drew her body close to his. It was amazing how being held in his arms felt exactly like the place she was supposed to be right then.
He gracefully began to glide her around the room to the music. Darkness fell the rest of the way as they danced. Soon the only light was the one she’d turned on over the kitchen sink.
The atmosphere was not the beautiful restaurant Greg had taken her to for dinner. But the man? This man was the right one in the right place at the right time. She felt light and pretty when she was with Cal.
And she felt happy.
She felt like maybe it was finally time to take the kind of chance she hadn’t been willing to take before he’d come into her life.
Smiling, Cal dipped her with a flourish at the end of the song. When he brought her up, she removed her hand from his and laid it against his face.
“I had to kiss two other men before I realized that your kiss was the only one capable of making me feel what I was feeling for you. I’m sorry I’m not coming to you more experienced. I swear nothing I’m doing is to make you jealous. Do you believe me?”
Cal let a ragged breath out as his hands slid to rest on her waist. “Were the guys rich and handsome?”
Ann nodded. “Yes. They were both rich and handsome.”
“Did you like them?”
“Only one of them,” Ann said honestly. “But I didn’t fall in love in with him.” Cal’s man grunt made her laugh. “What’s with the grunting? I thought you’d be happy with that statement, since it was the last warning you gave me.”
Cal frowned as he looked at her. “I am happy. I just wish I was rich and handsome. You deserve someone like that.”
Ann ran her fingertips down his clean shaven jaw and over his perfect lips—lips that knew exactly how to kiss her. “You’re the most handsome man who’s ever looked at me. But more importantly… you’re the man I want. I’m sure about that now. Sorry it took me so long.”
Cal’s forehead touching hers wasn’t exactly the move of the evening that she’d been hoping for from him after listening to her bare her soul. Then she heard that sound again—that sound she’d heard when they were kissing. Only it definitely wasn’t her making it this time.
Something wonderful burst in her chest and the sound she did actually make was joyful.
Her mouth was on Cal’s before she could second guess the aggressiveness of her action. Even caught off-guard, the man she was kissing only needed a nanosecond to catch up. His tongue plundered her mouth for real this time with no hesitation. Hard, insistent hands lifted her against him and she went up on her toes to help Cal find the best possible fit.
The kiss got real serious then. Cal’s knees bent until he could lift her up and let her slide down him. There was no mistaking the question he was asking with his tempting body, yet his kisses got lighter as he eased gently away. His voice was a whisper, barely loud enough to be heard over the music still playing on his phone.
“Tell me, Pretty Ann… have you figured out what you want to do with me yet? I think it’s obvious to both of us what I want to do with you.”
Looking at him and thinking about the many, many possibilities, Ann suddenly made that same soulful sound. She made that sound that she now and forever was going to associate with the man looking at her like she was… well, everything important in the world to him.
Her answer was to hold his gaze while she sank back to her feet. Smiling at him, she led a wickedly pleased and grinning Cal down the hallway to her bedroom.
Jellica didn’t do mornings, so it was rare for them to get together so early. The four of them were huddled around Georgia’s dining room table sipping bitter brew her friend liked to pass off as coffee. Ann really wasn’t in the mood to be making any revelations to them, but she hadn’t wanted her friends to worry about her either.
She stared into her still full coffee cup a moment longer and then lifted her gaze. “Let me just get this over with. I slept with Cal last night and it was more amazing than anything I’d dreamed.”
“Did it hurt?” Jellica asked.
Three sets of concerned eyes were turned her way. “Not really. Well, I got a little sore after the third time, which was very early this morning. I’m definitely going to have to start Kegeling to keep up with the man if this continues. He either has a lot more energy than me or I’m not getting things done for him as well I should be.”
Silence greeted her honest answer. Humor kicked in and Ann giggled as she stared back at the open-mouthed women she called friends.
“Sorry. That was probably TMI. I know it’s only this way in the beginning, but it had been a long while for both us. And you know, I’d forgotten how nice it was to be intimate. I can’t believe I went so long without sex. I feel very lucky that I picked someone so good at it. Lord, the man has talented hands. Cal also kisses well and with the best sense of timing. All that experience of his is actually quite nice.”
“Are you keeping him?” Georgia asked, getting to the information they all wanted to know most.
“I want to—I think. But I’ve got one more date Mariah set me up with that I’ve said yes to,” Ann said, hoping Georgia didn’t press for more information than she wanted to give.
Cal had not been pleased with her noble intentions, especially after her obvious enthusiasm for what happened between them. After kissing her senseless in her kitchen this morning, he’d left shaking his head before the coffee pot had even finished brewing.
But a promise was a promise in her book, and Ann always kept her commitments, even the uncomfortable ones.
Or maybe she was just a bad woman. Maybe all those years of being nice had culminated in her wanting to have her way now. In her mind, she was coping the best she could with falling in love so hard when it had been the absolute last thing she’d ever imagined doing again.
Plus, this next date wasn’t like the others anyway—it wasn’t even one she wanted—or one Mariah even expected to turn out to be a match. She certainly had her own ideas about it, but she couldn’t tell anyone what she was planning. As a mother who’d raised two willful children, she well knew successful manipulation worked best on those who suspected nothing.
Ann held up a hand and crossed her fingers. “One last date and then everything in the rest of my life can go back to normal. Then I can think about what I want to do with Cal.”
Trudy snorted. “Honey, three times in the same twenty-four hours is only normal in men under twenty. If that’s what you’ve found in your forty-something younger man, you might not want to waffle in your decision about keeping him. Sounds like the man has it bad for you.”
“I have it bad for him too,” Ann said, worriedly biting her lip as she nodded. Why wasn’t she throwing her arms wide in acceptance of what she’d found? Cal had been nearly all she’d thought about since the day she’d met him.
Trudy shrugged and then sighed loudly. “Seems like the good men either die on you or leave you for someone half your age. I say keep the ones that make you happy for as long as you can. In between finding those men, you can go years and years with nothing worth talking about.”
“Or you can put your fate in the hands of someone like my daughter who thinks she knows what’s romantically best,” Georgia said sullenly. “I say—what’s the benefit of letting someone else pick the man you take to bed? Because I’ve never figured it out. I don’t think I work that way.”
Ann chuckled at Georgia’s complaining. “Mariah gave me a folder containing at least a dozen of the best looking men I’ve ever seen in my life. And best of all, those guys picked me first. It only took meeting two from that folder to know Mariah is brilliant at what she does. They were not
hing like the hairy chested mechanic with the gold chains, who hit on me last month. The men I met were great.”
“Except you didn’t end up sleeping with either of those men my daughter foisted on you,” Georgia pointed out.
Ann shrugged. “Well, no… but Mariah couldn’t know about Cal. Meeting him was just…”
“… the way finding love is supposed to freaking work,” Georgia said firmly, rudely finishing the sentence.
Ann started to argue in Mariah’s defense again, but that wasn’t even what this was about. Georgia had her own axe to grind with her daughter. Ann had been hoping not to have to chase after any severed heads resulting from that axe, but that was just the nature of friendship, wasn’t it?
“I hear what you’re saying, Georgia. I can see why you’d think that. After all, Dr. Colombo caught you doing a toilet repair on his way to see Mariah. Are you suggesting we hang out in The Perfect Date’s lobby and waylay the best looking ones before Mariah hooks them up with twenty year olds?”
Georgia snorted and shook her head. “The opinion I have is definitely not about my stupid interaction with Hollywood.”
“Isn’t it?” Ann challenged, ignoring the nickname. “The man met you naturally. He asked you to dinner naturally. You only said no because of who and what you think about him. You’re not even giving him a chance just because he’s rich. Technically, the natural way didn’t actually work in your case, but only because of you. It was nothing Mariah or Dr. Colombo did.”
Georgia huffed. “That’s an oversimplification.”
“Is it? Cal isn’t any better or worse than those two handsome, wealthy guys Mariah set me up with. Both were very nice men. I just want Cal in a way I don’t want them. Why I feel like that is mostly a mystery to me, except that Cal makes me feel very comfortable just being myself.”
“Because Cal is retired military and his father is a handyman. You relate on a financial level and probably several others. Hollywood doesn’t have to relate. People work their asses off to please him… not the other way around.”
Never Say Never Page 6