Schmidt Happens (Schmidt Load #2)

by Susan Renee

  “So, you want to adopt older kids? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Yeah! Why not? Siblings! Cousins! Whatever. I don’t want to be part of something that rips families apart. I want to be the one who provides them a safe and loving home so they can feel normal and happy.”

  Damn, I think I’m having a brain orgasm.

  Is that a thing?

  “Were you a foster kid too?” I ask, still perplexed at why her passion seems as strong as it does.

  “No, but I worked with Big Brothers-Big Sisters through my sorority in college, so I got to spend a good bit of time with a few kids that…man, broke my heart. I wanted to be able to just bring them home with me and tell them that I would love them and everything would be okay. Shit just doesn’t work like that all the time, you know?”

  “Yeah…I know all too well, actually. It’s basically what I do on a daily basis. Family law can be rewarding, but there are still the days when I’m in charge of recommending to a judge what happens to the kids who are now being thrust into broken homes. Custody battles, emotions running high, kids that have no idea what’s really going on and blame themselves. It can be a soul sucking nightmare some days.”

  “I can only imagine.” Linda finishes off her beer. I watch as her empty glass is placed back on the table. “I’m sorry, Jack,” she says. “This conversation got deep real fast. I didn’t mean for that to happen. Talking to you feels so…easy.” She smiles.

  “It’s okay. I’m glad you’re comfortable talking to me. You’re beautiful by the way…stunning, even…in case I forgot to tell you or forget to tell you again later.” Linda blushes and looks away before turning her eyes back to me. I decide to change the subject. “So, you work at The Hole Punch?”

  “Yep.” She nods. “The pornographic sounding office supply store.”

  “What got you started working there?” I ask, chucking at her reply.

  She shrugs. “It was a job I had just out of high school to help pay my way through college, but since I went to college locally, I just kept working so I could help my mom out after my dad died.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know.” Her father is dead? She never mentioned that to me before.

  “It’s alright. It’s not something I talk about all the time. He was a fisherman. Died on the job years ago.”

  “And you said before that you went to school for business?”

  “Yeah. That’s about as generic as they come, right?” She chuckles to herself. “Nobody ever tells you when you graduate that you’ll have no clue where to start so you’ll just end up working retail for the rest of your life[NL5]…but it’s okay. I like it most days, well – at least while Jenna’s still there. It’ll be hell when she’s gone.”

  “Gone? Where is she going?” I hadn’t heard anything from Jacoby lately about her.

  “Oh, right, you wouldn’t know. Phew, sooo much happened tonight at the fashion show Jenna did today! But I don’t want to give spoilers. You should call Jacoby later. He’ll have a lot to tell you.””

  “Wow. Yeah, I guess I will.” I nod, trying to read her facial expressions. She’s not giving anything away. “But does that mean if she’s going somewhere that he’s going with her?” I start to worry a bit that my best friend is leaving town and neglected to tell me before making such a huge decision.

  “Don’t worry..” Her hand reaches across the table and lands on mine as if she’s comforting me. I wish she would keep it there for the whole night. “They’re not going far[NL6].”

  We spend a good hour or more making small talk and getting to know one another as much as we can before the volume of the music in the bar is turned up, catching Linda’s attention. She smiles and starts singing “Dance with Me Tonight[NL7]” by Olly Murs. Her upper body starts to move just enough that I can tell she’s tapping her feet under the table. A smile graces her face. She’s sheer beauty.

  “Dance with me?” she offers.

  “What?”

  “Do you want to dance?” she asks again. I look around the room to see not one other couple dancing anywhere.

  “Uhhh…I don’t see anyone else dancing,” I say to her.

  She smirks at me as she shimmies out of the booth. “Who the hell cares? Do you always do things that everyone else does?” she smirks.. Her body pulses to the beat of the song.

  I could easily love this girl already.

  I smile back at her. “Yeah, I do, actually.” I’m nothing if I’m not honest. I don’t usually take chances.

  “Hmm…I bet you’re the type to never fart in public too. Am I right?” Her question makes me laugh out loud.

  “Well, I am a guy don’t forget.” I respond as she holds her hand out to me. I would be an idiot not to take it and follow her.

  “And now you’re a guy who gets to dance with his date. Come on.” She pulls me from my seat. In the back of the bar where we are, there is a slightly open area where she moves before turning into me and placing her hands in mine. Her body moves swiftly and feels incredible next to mine. The song has a swing feel to it so I grab her hand and turn her around before dipping her just enough to let her know that I know what I’m doing.

  “Whoa! You can dance?” she asks through her smile.

  “You never asked if I could. You just asked if I wanted to.” I smile back. As we move together, I look around just enough to notice that a few other ladies have grabbed their partners and joined us on the pretend dance floor. Before we know it, there’s a small group of us dancing around the cramped space. This might be the first time I’ve ever seen people dancing in this bar. When Linda makes eye contact with me towards the end of the song, I wink at her and then lift her up against my chest to swing her around. Her giggles vibrate against me as I wrap my arms around her curves. She pants into my neck as she catches her breath. When I lower her feet to the floor she continues to hold on to me. It takes all the control I have to not plunge my tongue down her throat like a horny teenage boy. Instead, I survey her beautifully tousled hair, bring my hand up to the nape of her neck and place a kiss on her forehead.

  “I didn’t know you could dance so well.” She praises. “I needed that.”

  “You’re not so bad yourself.” I nod in the direction of the speaker where Ed Sheeran’s “Shape of You” is now playing. “Do you salsa?”

  She laughs nervously. “Uhhh, not really.” She hesitates. Without giving her moment to second guess, I pull her into me. “It’s easy, just follow my lead.” I place my right hand on her back and bring her left hand up to my shoulder. We sway to the left and to the right in time with the music a few times before I signal that I’m going to move. My hip moves forward against hers, leading her feet to step in the right direction. She’s a quick learner. Soon, our bodies are shifting back and forth seductively and suggestively, and for a moment, I wonder if maybe I’m coming on too strong. I can see it in her reddened face. She’s opening the door and allowing me complete access to her if I want it, but that’s just the problem. She won’t understand why I don’t want it.

  We dance for a while longer, not noticing that it’s going on midnight. “I think I could use some air.” Linda tells me. She takes my hand and leads me outside where we both stand in the cool crisp autumn night. A strong breeze blows through, causing her to throw her arms around herself and shiver.

  “Are you cold? We can go back in,” I suggest. “Here. Take my jacket.”

  She backs herself into me, leaning against my chest. I take that as a sign that it’s okay to touch her and rub my hands up and down her arms to try and warm her up. “Nah, I’m okay. I have you to keep me warm.”

  I’m not sure how to respond to her. Do I tell her that she smells magnificent and that I would love to keep her warm all night long in my arms and in my bed? Do I tell her that dancing with her and having her body pressed against mine was more excitement than I’ve experienced in a long while? Or do I tell her that she’s probably making a huge mistake with me because I choose to spend
more time studying and working than fraternizing with members of the opposite sex? Or that every semi-long-term relationship I ever had went to hell in a hand basket? Okay, the one long-term relationship I had. And buy long, I mean a mere six months.

  When I stop rubbing Linda’s arms, she turns her body into me, snuggling her face into my chest. “You smell so good,” she says. “I bet all the girls tell you that.”

  “Hmm,” I murmur. “You would be surprised.”

  She raises her head to look at me, smiling curiously. The lamplight above us hits her face perfectly. She glows like an angel. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  That means there aren’t any other girls.

  “Nothing.” I shake my head and smile. “I’ve really had a great time with you tonight. I didn’t expect a drink to turn into a night of dancing. You’re pretty good.”

  She chuckles. “You’re not so bad yourself.” She stands there in front of me, looking at my face. My eyes shift from her lips to her eyes, back to her lips, and then back to her eyes.

  “It’s okay you know,” she whispers.

  “What’s okay?” I ask.

  “It’s okay for you to kiss me.”

  Shit. Was I that obvious?

  “Linda, I don’t want you to…” I start, but Linda cuts me off.

  “Kiss me Jack.” Her hand glides up my neck and she reaches up on her tip-toes until her lips connect with mine. My hand clutches her waist softly at first, but soon I’m pulling her into me as tightly as I can. When her tongue slides, ever so softly, between my lips, my stomach bottoms out and I hear myself groan. I feel like I’ve just gone over the steepest hill of a roller coaster and there’s no stopping now. The jolt of adrenaline that shoots through me is unrelenting and I wonder if she feels it too.

  “Oh!” She gasps. I open my eyes to see her standing there, watching me with two fingers pressed against her lips.

  “I – I’m sorry. Did I…hurt you?” I stutter.

  “No. You didn’t hurt me at all.” She shakes her head breathlessly. “Did you feel that?”

  “Feel what?”

  The never-ending need to have your tongue rolling against mine?

  The desire to take you home and fulfill your every fantasy?

  Yeah. I felt it.

  Linda tilts her head, studying me, and for a moment, I feel as though I might be an alien from another world on display for all to see and misunderstand. “Do you want to come back to my place?”

  And there it is. The question I want so badly to answer, but don’t want to answer at all. I take a slow deep breath, knowing I’m going to be sending her home in disappointment. “Actually, I should probably get home…”

  “Oh. Yeah. Okay. I understand,” she says, clearly caught off-guard by my answer. She opens the front flap on her purse and rifles through it until she finds her keys.

  God, she must think I’m not interested.

  “No. I – I mean I want to, I just… I have a little bit of work to do before I get to bed, and Sam...”

  “Sam? Is that your roommate?” she asks.

  “Sort of, yeah.” I smile. “Of the four-legged bulldog variety.”

  She smiles, looking almost relieved. “Ohhh right. Your profile picture. Why didn’t I remember that? I love dogs.” Words have never sounded sweeter. She’s sexy as hell, she’s not a diva, and she loves dogs? What did I do to deserve this?

  “Yeah? Maybe…maybe you can meet him. You know, sometime,” I tell her.

  “Yeah. Sometime. I think I’d like that.” She smiles. “Sooo…”

  “Sooo, is this where we exchange phone numbers and promises to call each other?” I ask innocently.

  “Yeah. That would be great,” she says. I watch as she grabs her phone from her purse, backs us up so that we’re underneath the street light and snaps a selfie. She pushes a button on her phone and hands it to me. “Here. Send this to yourself and then you can write me back and then I’ll have your number.”

  “Oh. Okay.” I do as she requests, smiling to myself that I’ll have another picture of her to look at before I fall asleep tonight. “Done.”

  “Great. Now if I don’t hear from you, you’ll be the jackass.” She winks at me sweetly before reaching up on her tip-toes one more time, placing a kiss on my cheek. “Thanks for tonight, Jack. I hope I see you again.”

  “Is tomorrow too soon?” I joke.

  She looks back at me and smiles. “Good night, Jack.”

  Chapter 3

  Linda

  “So…you’ve gone most of your entire shift and haven’t mentioned a word about your date last night with the one and only Jack Schmidt. Did it go that well or did it go that poorly?” Jenna inquires while we finish up our restocking for the afternoon. She’s right. I have been unusually quiet about my night last night, but that’s only because I can’t seem to figure it out.

  “I don’t know.” I murmur, stuffing five-dollar bills back into their slot.

  “What do you mean, you don’t know?”

  “Jizz, I said I don’t know, okay?”

  “Uh, no. It’s not okay, and let me tell you why,” she argues.

  “Oh, this ought to be good.” I mumble.

  “Do you know how many times I didn’t want to talk about Jacoby or my possible feelings for him in the past six-ish months, but you persisted like the annoying little bitch that you are, until I came to terms with my feelings?”

  “Hey!” I frown.

  “Oh, suck it up. I meant bitch in the best possible way.” She smirks, though it doesn’t make me feel that much better. “Look, the point is, you’re my person, Linda, and I’m your person and I care. That and Jack is Jacoby’s best friend so I’m bound to hear both sides. So, come on!” She whines. “You’ve gotta give me something!”

  I sigh loudly so she hears that I’m irritated. “I’m not sure what I can give you, Jizz. The date was nice. It was better than nice, actually. We drank, we talked, we even danced and oh, my God, did you know he could dance?”

  “No.” She shakes her head. “He doesn’t seem the type.”

  “Right? I know but let me tell you, that guy has some moves!” I tell her.

  “Yeah?”

  “Mmm-hmm. So anyway…that was pretty much our entire night until I told him to kiss me.”

  “You told him to kiss you?” Jenna asks.

  “Yeah. I mean, I could tell he wanted to, and I had been thinking about it for a while, so I just helped him along a little bit.”

  “And?” She pushes.

  “I…he was as gentle and passionate as he could be and then turned me down when I invited him back to my place. So, there you have it. That’s how the date went.” I shove my inventory papers back into my desk and sink into my chair in a huff. “Wait…it’s Sunday. What the hell are you even doing here today? You never work on Sundays.”

  “Wait, wait, wait.” Jenna waves her hands, dismissing my question. “Are you upset because he didn’t come home with you? Is that what your pissy mood is all about? Poor Linda didn’t get laid last night?” Jenna follows me to my desk and sits on the edge, waiting for my response. “And I’m here to get some paperwork done for corporate before we have to start working on holiday shit and I lose track of it. Bethy wasn’t available today since I needed her yesterday. No biggie. Now answer my question.”

  I throw up my hands in frustration. “I looked hot, Jizz! I even wore that purple sweater dress that you like to borrow. It fit tight in all the right places and I know he was enjoying the show.”

  Jenna snorts. “The show.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I ask, irritated.

  “Are you even listening to yourself, Linda?”

  “What did I say?” What the hell is her problem? Why is she making such a big deal about this? I don’t even want to be talking about it!

  “Okay, let me see if I have this all correct. Stop me if I’m wrong.” She starts counting off on her fingers. “You met him at the pub wearing your sex
y purple dress looking as hot as a whorehouse on dollar night, you had great conversation all throughout the night, you danced, you snuggled with him and he kissed you?” The tone in her voice rises and she raises her eyebrows watching for my response.

  “Yeah,” I mumble as quietly as possible.

  “I’m sorry. I couldn’t hear that. What did you say?” She teases.

  “I said yes. Yes, to all those things, yes,” I shout. “But…”

  Jenna raises her pointer finger at my face. “No buts…Linda, what happened to you last night was a perfectly normal date and it sounds to me like it went splendidly well. Don’t brush it off like it was nothing just because he didn’t treat you like a piece of meat. I know that’s what you’re used to, but Jacoby warned you that you didn’t know Jack. Perhaps this is what he meant. Not every guy wants to jump in the sack after talking for an hour, you know.”

  “Huh. And here I thought they just liked to pick up innocent women off the side of the road and take them back to their Jacked-Up garage to get it on.” I reply snidely, making reference to her relationship with Jacoby.

  “Shut up. That was totally different and you know it,” she retorts.

  “Yeah, well, you got laid, didn’t you?”

  “Why does everything have to be about sex with you?” Jenna asks.

  “Because I like sex! I haven’t gotten laid in several weeks, and I was practically performing a mating dance for him last night, but he didn’t bite! Not even a little!”

  “That’s called being a classy guy, Linda! Stop taking your panties off for every person with a penis who walks by you! You’re better than that! You’re beautiful and you’re intelligent and you deserve a good guy with his head on straight to treat you like a damn queen!”

  Clearly, I’m not going to win here. Ninety-eight percent of me knows Jenna is right. Jack isn’t a bad guy at all. He’s definitely not like other guys I’ve gone out with. He’s different. Not a bad different, just, different.