by Merry Farmer
A deep sense of awkwardness that bordered on shame spread through Laura’s gut, killing any lingering warm fuzzies she had. She couldn’t very well tell her friends, “I’ll let you know when it happens.” The only thing that made her more of a freak than the rockets and dinosaurs was the fact that she was twenty-nine years old and still a virgin.
“We definitely didn’t talk about those kinds of things,” she said, evading the question.
“Aw, too bad,” Melody said. “I’ve always liked talking to Mom about the things going on in my pants.”
Laura hoped her cringe wasn’t too obvious, even if she did want to kiss her friend for shifting the focus away from her.
“Mom is great with advice,” Calliope agreed, leaning in toward Laura’s face with an eyeliner pen. “But I prefer to keep some things a mystery.”
“It’s no mystery that you and Craig Pickering attempted every single position in The Perfumed Garden,” Melody teased her.
“Wait, is Craig Pickering Brian Pickering’s brother?” Laura asked.
“Yes,” Melody and Calliope answered at the same time.
“You two were sleeping with brothers?”
“When we were in college, yes,” Melody said.
“Oh,” Laura replied, shaky. Yep, she was definitely in way over her head. Every one of her friends had light-years’ more experience in the sack than she did. Heck, every woman in Haskell probably did. Ted could date any of them, could date a woman who actually knew what she was doing, but no, he was stuck going out with her. And she’d freaked out and bolted the first time he’d kissed her.
But you went back for more, she reminded herself. You didn’t let fear stop you from doing something you really wanted to do.
And if she was honest with herself, she really wanted to do Ted.
But he would know the second he touched her that she was utterly clueless between the sheets. And, like way more guys than she wanted to count before him with whom she’d been upfront about her virginity, he’d suddenly get all skittish and “respectful” with her and back off. Back off so far that she’d never hear from him again. The last thing she wanted was to lose Ted as a friend because he got squeamish when he figured out she was a proverbial unplucked flower. And then he’d realize he should be dating someone more sophisticated, someone like Sandy. And Laura would have to sit back and watch as they two of them snuggled and engaged in PDA in front of her. And—
“Breathe!”
The sudden command from Calliope—now holding a tiny make-up brush with eyeshadow on it—snapped Laura out of her panicked thoughts.
“Are you all right?” Rita asked, coming around Laura’s side to check on her.
“Yeah,” Laura gasped. “I just let my thoughts run away from me for a second.”
“Where’d they run, Alaska?” Calliope asked.
Laura tried to laugh like she was in on the joke, but a wheezy sound came out instead. “I’m just a little nervous about tonight,” she confessed, not wanting to lie to her friends.
“Psht, you’re gonna have a great time.” Rita cuffed her arm, then returned to helping Sandy fix Laura’s hair.
“And don’t worry about things going somewhere you don’t want them to go with Ted,” Calliope added, meeting Laura’s eyes with deeper understanding than Laura expected. “Or not going where you want them to go. Close your eyes.”
Laura did as she was told, and Calliope brushed eyeshadow on her lids.
“Ted is a nice guy,” Calliope went on, then added, “But not too nice.”
Laura sat quietly and let her friends finish with their make-over. What did she want out of this date anyhow? She’d never been able to live up to the expectations that most women had an easy time meeting, but she’d also managed to avoid unnecessary heartache by clinging to obscure interests. She had a feeling that there was no way back and no way out of the situation she’d landed herself in with Ted. And all because she’d been stupid enough to start falling for someone who was way out of her league.
“There,” Calliope said at last, leaning back. “Perfecto.”
Melody hopped up from the chair where she’d been sitting and came around to take a look. “Ooh! You’re so pretty.”
“Hair’s done,” Sandy announced. “Stand up so we can see the whole picture.”
Laura stood, still shaky from her near-panic attack, and held her arms out so her friends could judge her. They hummed and cooed in appreciation.
“You look so fine that Ted’s not going to be able to walk right all night,” Sandy announced.
Laura let out a weak laugh. She would have said more, but a knock on the front door sent all of her courage flying out the window.
“I’ll get it,” Will called from somewhere downstairs.
Laura hadn’t realized Will was home. The idea that he could have heard all of their sex talk was mortifying. But not as much as her friends nudging her to the edge of the balcony separating the loft from the rest of the apartment as Will opened the door.
“Hey, Ted. Come in,” Will said.
A few seconds later, Ted walked from the front hallway into the main room. Laura got an eyeful of him in jeans and a nice shirt with a tie and a blazer, hair looking perfect, flowers in his hands, before he glanced up and saw her. As soon as their eyes met, she gripped the edge of the balcony to keep herself from falling as nerves and desire threatened to buckle her knees.
Chapter Nine
“Whoa.”
The single word rushed out before Ted could stop it. Laura was breathtaking. Her body was sheathed in something soft and blue-green that made him think of a waterfall or a mermaid. It left her arms and shoulders bare and showed off her breasts. Why hadn’t he noticed before that she had such amazing breasts? Her hair had been curled and piled up on her head in a style that made him want to pull the pins out one by one to watch it cascade down through his fingers and over her naked skin. But it was her face that had his heart and groin fighting for the blood racing through him.
She was gorgeous. And she was terrified. She wore make-up that brought out all of her strongest features, but her eyes didn’t need anything artificial to shine. Her body didn’t need the fancy dress either. In fact, it wasn’t her surface appearance that had knocked the wind out of him, it was her excited, anxious, expectant expression. He wanted to wrap her in his arms and kiss her senseless, and at the same time, he wanted to sit her down and talk her out of hyperventilating.
“Okay, I think the stunned silence has gone on long enough,” Calliope said, moving to the edge of the balcony to stand beside Laura. “Hi, Ted.”
“Hi.” Ted’s voice cracked. He cleared his throat, laughing at himself for being reduced to speechlessness, and tried again. “Hi Calliope, hi ladies.” He waved to the crew standing around Laura, then zeroed in on her. “Good evening, Laura. You look amazing.”
“Do I?” Her voice rose an octave.
“You absolutely do.” Everything about her was so charming, from her surprised blink to the way she gripped the balcony’s railing. “Why don’t you come down here so I can see the full picture.”
“Oh!” She flinched. “Right. Just a second.” She held up one finger, then lifted the hem of her skirt in a less than graceful move and rushed for the hallway behind the loft.
In the half-minute it took for Laura and the girls to come downstairs, Ted turned to Will and quirked his brow up with more than a little gloating.
Will chuckled and thumped Ted on the back. “You’re one lucky man,” he said. “Who would have guessed that Laura would clean up so well?”
Ted had to swallow his instinct to tell Will off for being rude. He and Laura were friends, after all, and he was probably just teasing. “I’m pretty sure I’m the luckiest man in town,” he answered with just enough serious to let Will know he’d only let the teasing go so far.
The ladies walked into the main room, Laura in the center, like a queen and her court. She looked even better at eye-level than she had fro
m on high.
“Wow,” he said, walking forward to meet her. He offered her the bouquet he’d had Melody put together earlier. “You really do look amazing.”
Laura took the flowers, smelling them briefly, then meeting his eyes with a blush. “Do I really? This isn’t my dress, and it makes me look, I dunno, not like myself.”
“It makes you look gorgeous,” he argued.
“Yeah, exactly.”
Ted blinked at her, then shifted to stare at her with a look of mock disapproval. “You are beautiful, you know. Even if you don’t think so. It’s not the dress that impresses me.”
She started to giggle, but stopped before she could do more than breathe out and straightened. “You know what?” she began, the spunk he was used to seeing in her returning. “Tonight, I’m just going to accept that and not argue. Although I personally think that confidence has more to do with Mrs. Clutterbuck’s dress and the hard work my friends here put into dolling me up.”
Ted’s grin widened at the old-fashioned way she phrased it. He wanted to argue her into accepting how awesome she was every day, but it seemed like a safer bet to say, “Whatever the cause, I’m proud to show you off to the whole town as my date tonight.”
Laura’s momentarily confident smile slipped. “The whole town?” She swallowed and pressed her free hand to her chest.
Words weren’t going to put her at ease, so Ted laughed and moved to take her arm. “Well, we’re walking over to the Cattleman, so whoever sees us. But trust me, they’re going to like what they see.”
“I hope so,” she murmured. Before he could call her out for not appreciating herself, she turned to her friends-slash-prep-team. “Thanks guys.”
“Any time,” Sandy answered.
“Seriously, any time,” Calliope added. “As in, I want to see you two kids going out a whole lot more often after this.”
“I wouldn’t say no to that,” Ted said.
“Yeah, well, that’s because I haven’t had a chance to humiliate myself yet,” Laura told him, her eyes round. But there was enough humor there for him to brush off the self-esteem issues and switch to holding her hand instead of escorting her.
“Do you want to leave those flowers here?” Melody asked as they reached the hallway and their shoes. “You can come back and get them later. I just hate to think of roses and alstroemeria sitting out on a table without water all night.”
Laura laughed and walked the bouquet back to Melody. As nice as it would have been to see Laura carrying his flowers around, the fact that Melody’s worrying had broken Laura’s tension was a blessing.
With the flowers taken care of and shoes recovered from the hallway, they left the Clutterbucks’ and began a leisurely walk into the heart of town.
“I should have asked to borrow a better pair of shoes,” Laura said, glancing down at her feet as they peeked out from the flowing hem of her borrowed dress with each step. “These old loafers definitely don’t go.”
Ted made a show of lifting the hem of her skirt to get a look when they stopped to cross Main Street. “They look fine to me.”
He inched her skirt a little higher as a joke, but caught sight of a pattern of old, pink scars. His heart did an odd twist in his chest, but lucky for him, Laura realized he was teasing her and burst into a giggled, “Stop! People are watching us.”
A few Haskellians out walking did glance their way, but no one was staring. Ted let her skirt go and escorted her across the street. “If they are watching, then all they’ll see is two people who get along really well out to have a good time.”
“Is that what this is?” She arched a brow.
Ted treated her to a mysterious smile. He thought about the PSF-brand condom in his pocket. “Maybe,” he said. “We’ll see where the night takes us.”
He thought his line was pretty good, but when he glanced to her as they stepped up on the curb on the far side of the street, that odd combination of exhilaration and panic was back in her eyes.
“What’s that look for?” he asked as off-handedly as he could.
“Nothing,” she answered with a tight squeak. “I just don’t go out on dates very often. I don’t know what I’m supposed to do or what you expect of me. I’m afraid I’ll do it wrong and embarrass you. And we don’t have a great track-record with food. Salsa on my dress? Ice cream dripping down my hands?”
Ted paused when they reached the steps leading up to the Cattleman Hotel’s porch. “Stop worrying,” he said, turning to face her. “Nothing you could possibly do would embarrass me or fail to meet expectations. I like you, Laura. I like you a lot. And all I want to do is hang out with you, eat some good food without spilling it—which I’m confident we can do—and make sure that you enjoy yourself.”
“All right. But if the night ends with chocolate mousse all over your tie, don’t blame me. I warned you.”
Ted fought the urge to laugh. Instead, he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles, like some kind of hero in a fairy story. Then, just to make her laugh, he said, “Chill out, princess. You don’t have to try to impress me. I was impressed the second I saw you in this…this….” He gestured to her dress, overcome with the urge to run his hands up and down the silky fabric and to feel the shape of her underneath.
“It’s called a dress,” she said with just enough sarcasm to widen his smile. “And it’s not mine.”
“Maybe we should get you one like this, then.” He pivoted to continue on, still holding the hand he’d kissed as they climbed the stairs to the hotel.
“It’s not really my style,” she argued.
“You’re right,” he agreed. That earned a surprised and anxious look from Laura. Ted shrugged. “Your style is more of a sexy pair of tight jeans covered in dino dust and a shirt that’s unbuttoned just enough. My favorite.”
He winked, then jumped ahead to hold the door for her, which put him in just the right position to catch her bright blush at his comment.
All Laura could think about as she sat across a cozy table from Ted in the Cattleman Hotel’s restaurant was that if their fossil really was two dinosaurs captured in a moment of mortal combat, they still probably had it easier than the struggle going on in her gut. Ted was being a perfect gentleman. They’d managed to keep the conversation going since they stepped out of the Clutterbucks’ apartment and into the wilds of Haskell together. The food was excellent, and she had managed not to spill anything on her borrowed dress—or stain it in any other ways.
But at the same time, the air crackled with anticipation, and Laura didn’t have the first idea of where to go with it. She figured she should be leaning in to him, batting her eyelashes, and oozing sex appeal, but she was well aware that her sex appeal was roughly level to that of a cat coughing up a hairball.
“And if we are able to expand our cattle operation,” Ted was in the middle of saying, “we might even be able to buy up part of the Albright ranch next door. Dad’s heard that Frank Albright is looking to retire, and last I heard, neither Guy nor Jimmy were interested in moving home to pick up where their dad leaves off.”
Ted practically glowed as he talked about the possibilities for his ranch and the life he was immersed in. Laura tried to give him her undivided attention as he talked about it. She also tried to rest her elbow on the table and pose in a provocative way, like Sandy would. But she accidentally knocked her fork off the table in the process.
“You okay there?” Ted asked, a chuckle in his voice, as she ducked to the side to retrieve it.”
“Yeah, I’m good. How often do people move away from Haskell and not come back?” she asked as she straightened. She put the fork back on the table, then rearranged all of her silverware, just to have something for her hands to do.
Ted leaned back in his chair. “These days? More often than not. In Dad’s generation, the guys stuck around more, but ever since the economy changed, it’s tough for a guy my age to find a steady job in this part of the state. Well, unless you happen to be an eng
ineer or an astrophysicist.” He punctuated his comment with a warm, sly look.
Heat rushed to Laura’s face. There was no way she was going to let herself become the topic of dinner conversation again. Even though she knew Ted liked her stories of traveling the world. “So how come you stayed when other guys were leaving?”
“I couldn’t very well leave Mom and Dad to run the ranch on their own,” he answered without hesitation. “I started helping Dad with the day-to-day stuff on the ranch when I was barely old enough to ride a horse.” He fingered his napkin on the table, a brief frown passing over his features. “I never stopped to consider any other job, really.”
“And do you regret that?” Laura leaned forward—not with a sultry pout to snag his attention, but with genuine interest in what his life had been like.
Ted tilted his head to the side in consideration. “Not really,” he started slowly, and with a faint wince. His gaze drifted up to meet hers. “It never bothered me that I haven’t been anywhere until I met you.”
Laura inched away from the table, pressing her spine into the back of her chair. “Sorry,” she said, spirits sinking. “I didn’t mean to go ruining your life or anything.”
He burst into a laugh. “Princess, you didn’t ruin anything for me. You opened the world up.”
She overrode the swell of uncomfortable emotion that comment brought by pointing at him and saying, “Okay, what’s with this new ‘Princess’ thing?”
His grin widened. “What, you don’t think it suits you?”
“No,” she said on a breathy laugh.
“But that’s definitely a princess dress.” He nodded toward her plunging neckline.
Part of Laura wanted to cover her surprising cleavage with her napkin. Oddly enough, the rest of her kind of liked being looked at that way by Ted. “Funny, but I feel more like the ugly step-sister than Cinderella.”
Ted shook his head. “You’re too nice to be an ugly step-sister. And definitely too smart.”
“Okay, well, at the very least, I’m one of the woodland creatures who helped Cinderella get ready for the ball.”