Stripper: The Fringe, Book 4

by Anitra Lynn McLeod

  Duster more felt her sudden shift than saw it. Instantaneously, Duster watched the whole of it fall on Diane. Her feet, their son’s feet, were not on a WAG, IWOG or Fringe planet but on the only independent one so far. Just about everyone on the WAG, IWOG or Fringe planets wanted to live on, destroy or exploit this one tiny world on the edge of known space. There was a certain amount of safety here, but danger too, because they had freedom. And sometimes you had to fight to keep your freedom. A fight you might lose.

  “I can’t promise the worst won’t come, Diane. I wish I could. All I can tell you is that Windmere is damn near invasion-proof. Mary’s played the game of getting off-planet and on-planet to the point I’m amazed light from the sun still manages to hit Windmere.”

  “She’s that good?”

  “Yep. Anyway, I lock up mainly because of the safety issues. Dogs and kids and other curious animals get loose sometimes. My biggest concern is our pool. Come on, let’s find you some shoes.”

  Clearly reluctant, Diane let him look through her footwear.

  He quickly chucked everything in her wardrobe. “Don’t you have something that won’t dig into your feet within a hundred steps?”

  Biting her lip, Diane cast her gaze to a battered backpack that she’d tossed in the corner of her closet. When Duster moved to open it, she said, “I can’t wear those.”

  Yanking open the pack, he found a ratty pair of blue sneakers. “These are perfect.”

  “They hardly match my dress,” Diane pointed out. She sat rather dejectedly on the side of the bed.

  “So?” Then he got it. She wanted to look nice, and she did, but she couldn’t wear those fancy shoes. “Diane. Look.” He found a pair of her socks and slipped them on her. He then laced up her ratty sneakers to her lovely—and at this moment driving him mad with lust—feet. “We are going to walk down the street to see the puppies. Downhill. Thing is, we gotta walk back up. You’ll thank me for making you wear these.”

  Mortified, Diane let him put the shoes on. “You know, these are the shoes I wore the night I gave birth to Scott?”

  “You haven’t worn them since?” He wished suddenly he could have been there with her to experience Scott’s birth.

  “No.” Diane considered her shoes, then leaned over, grabbed her battered backpack, dumped the contents on the floor, plucked up her fancy shoes, placed them inside, then rose to collect other items she also tossed within the gullet of the seemingly bottomless bag.

  “We’re going down street, not to another planet.”

  “I like to be prepared.”

  “For what? Honey, you don’t need all that—” Duster cut himself off. The only woman he knew who didn’t pack around a purse stuffed with junk was Mary. “Knock yourself out. We’ll strap the kitchen sink to my back if it will make you happy.”

  Diane grinned, then grabbed a few more items from her bathroom.

  Meanwhile, Duster checked on Scott and found he’d done a good job securing the house. “You only missed one window.”

  “In Mom’s bathroom.” Scott gave her a dark scowl, which she playfully returned.

  “We’ll have to work with her on that. You did a great job.”

  Scott grinned with pride at Duster’s compliment, then grabbed both their hands and yanked them toward the door, unwilling to wait one more second. “Come on, come on, come on!”

  As they walked down the dirt and gravel road, neighbors along the way waved, seemingly unsurprised to find Duster with a wife and child in tow.

  “Word spread quickly,” Duster whispered out the side of his mouth to her as he waved at another neighbor. “Bet a bunch of them are calling Richards right now to let him know we’re coming down the street.”

  Duster’s assessment was correct, as Steve Richards greeted them at the door with a huge grin. “Circle the wagons! Throw up the battlements! Duster’s on his way!” Steve waved his hands around in mock panic.

  Both of them laughed. Then Duster formally introduced Diane and Scott. They followed him through the modest house, one obviously well lived in by kids and dogs, to the backyard. Duster wanted his house to have this same clean but casually messy look.

  Muffin basked in the sun as five wriggly puppies nursed at her belly. Scott seemed ready to run at the dogs, but Steve grasped his shoulder. “Whoa, there. Gotta move slow. We don’t want to scare her.” Carefully, Steve had Scott give out his hand for Muffin to sniff.

  “Why?” Scott’s voice was filled with awe at being so close to something he’d wanted for so very long. Having a puppy was Scott’s holy grail. Well, at this stage in his life it was. Duster figured that was bound to change as he got older.

  “Mothers can get protective,” Duster said, crouching, letting Muffin sniff him before he pet her. “We don’t want her to be afraid of you, so she has to smell you first and make sure you’re not a threat to her babies. Be careful, move slowly and talk softly. Okay?”

  “I will.” Scott settled himself reverently beside the dog and petted her for a while before he turned his attention to the puppies.

  Diane too let Muffin sniff her hand, then stroked the dog’s short black, tan and white fur. As she and Scott talked quietly beside the dogs, Duster and Steve went over to discuss the building of a shed.

  The next time she glanced over, Duster had his vest and shirt off and was working with Steve to guide huge posts into holes. He was sweaty and glistening. She couldn’t take her gaze off him. All the muscles in his arms and back strained with effort. So arousing did she find the sight, she blushed when Duster finally caught her gaze and winked.

  Eventually, Scott grew bored with watching the puppies nurse and went over to help. “Can I take my shirt off too?”

  “Sure.” Duster nodded.

  “Is there anything I can do?” Diane offered.

  “This is guy stuff, Mom,” Scott declared.

  Biting back a laugh, Steve said, “Be right nice of you to bring out some lemonade. There’s a pitcher in the fridge. Glasses in the cabinet beside.”

  “I’d be glad to.” While in the kitchen, watching them through the window, Diane jumped when a soft voice came from behind her.

  “Hi.”

  Diane spun around. A woman her height with short, curly, black hair, wide brown eyes and a beaming smile offered her hand. “I’m Rena. You must be Diane.”

  “Yes. I”—Diane took her hand—“it’s nice to meet you.”

  After giving her a squeeze, Rena released her hand and then appraised Diane from her ratty-shoe-covered feet to her hair. “I see why Duster waited.” Rena’s voice was low for a woman and throaty.

  “I, um—thank you?” Diane tried desperately for it not to come out as a question, but it did anyway.

  Rena laughed as she touched her belly. Given her size, she had to be at least five months along. Diane fought down a conflicting pang of jealousy and fear. Every woman she’d met on this planet so far was pregnant, and not one of them seemed afraid of the prospect of giving birth. Why couldn’t she be stronger?

  “It was a compliment,” Rena said. “Please don’t listen to gossip. Now that you’re here, I hope the noseykins will find something else to worry over besides the ancient history between me and Duster.” Rolling her eyes, Rena added, “Knowing some of them, the four of us will quickly be involved in wife swapping or other such nonsense. Your kids and mine will henceforth be cast a dubious eye.” Rena leaned forward dramatically, waved her hands in the air, then laughed as she leaned back. “Hate to say it, but you just signed up to be part of what passes for daytime drama around here.”

  Utterly at a loss for words, Diane blurted the first thing that came to mind. “You’re very pretty. I mean, Duster speaks highly of you. I—oh, brother—I’m nervous. You weren’t supposed to be here. In the back of my mind, I thought you might be, so I brought my fancy shoes.” Diane nodded to her backpack.

  “That I didn’t give you the chance to slip into.” Rena laughed a softly encouraging laugh that Diane echoed.
“Trust me, you look a far cry from me.” Rena looked down at herself. “I’m wearing my husband’s old pants and one of his ratty shirts. I don’t usually dress this badly, even when I’m at work, but I’m supposed to be helping paint.”

  “You look fine,” Diane offered diplomatically.

  “I look like an escapee from a yard sale.” Rena laughed again.

  “What type of work do you do?”

  “I work in research and development. I specialize in weapons.”

  “Weapons?” Diane felt queasy. Her brain kept wanting to forget that her family lived on a world they might die having to defend. Just because the IWOG had left Windmere alone for a while didn’t mean they would continue to do so. If they ever saw a chance to take the planet from Michael, they would.

  “I know it can seem so blissful here, but we still have to be vigilant. Anyway, I met Duster and Steve while working at the lab.”

  Diane nodded because she didn’t want to seem overly nosey.

  “Let’s just put everything on the table.” Rena looked out the kitchen window to where Duster, Steve and Scott worked. “I love your husband very much.”

  Diane couldn’t help it—she stiffened.

  “As a friend,” Rena quickly qualified. “Duster is a good man, a kind man. I miss being able to be in the same room with him. By the same token, I’m very married to my husband and love him in a completely different way.” Rena’s gaze lingered on Steve’s naked back and chest with the same lust Diane had for Duster’s. It was the exact same heat-filled look Mary cast on Michael. “Despite what some will tell you, I’m no more carrying a torch for Duster than he is for me. We were friends who played with the idea of being more but quickly realized the futility of it. We moved on, but the rest never seemed to grasp the obvious.”

  “That’s what Duster said this morning. He said he missed being able to talk to you.”

  “It’s mutual.” Rena sighed. “Everyone thinks they’re protecting us somehow, but in fact, they made everything far more difficult, especially on Duster. We just want to be friends. That’s all.”

  “I’m not worried about you and him. Believe me, I’ve bigger and better on my plate to worry about.” Feeling she said too much, Diane turned her attention to the lemonade. “I was just going to take this outside.”

  Rena pulled a tray from one of the lower cabinets, and handed it to Diane. “This will make it easier.” Rena passed her a few glasses filled with ice that Diane placed on the tray. She then filled them from the pitcher.

  “Come with me.”

  Rena grinned. “You know, I’m really not supposed to be here. Just stopped by to grab my—oh, hell. I’m lying. I heard you were going to be here, and I just couldn’t wait to check you out, I guess. Burning curiosity and all.” Rena appraised Diane with a probing gaze. “I had to see the woman that a man would wait seven years for.”

  “Just remember, he’s a man I waited seven years for.” Diane looked away, then back. “And honestly, I don’t mind. In fact, I’m glad. Relieved, I guess.”

  “One big hurdle over.”

  “Yes.”

  Rena smiled. “You’ve got a lot more hurdles beside me.” She had a perfect toothpaste-commercial smile that engaged and disarmed all at once. “Let’s take this out to the thirsty men slaving over my much-needed potting shed.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Diane had been gone a long time. Getting curious as to what she could possibly be doing in the house, Duster almost let go of the support beam when she emerged, chatting and laughing with Rena. Rena looked good. She’d cut her black hair short, and it fluffed around her face, making her big brown eyes seem even bigger. Dropping his gaze, he saw her belly swelled with her third child. He couldn’t wait for Diane to have that same curved body and that swaggering gait. For some crazy reason, Duster found pregnant women extremely attractive. They made him feel protective and even more of a man. But Diane’s reluctance seemed genuine. They needed to talk about what had happened when she’d given birth to Scott. Duster wished again he could have been there. Maybe the birth wouldn’t have been so terrifying for her if he had been.

  Once they’d settled the post, Steve dramatically clapped his hands to his face and screeched, “Oh my gosh! Run! Worlds are colliding! Quick, quick, call out reinforcements! Duster and Rena together again!”

  Tossing back her head with that laugh Duster well remembered, Rena stepped forward with a tall glass of lemonade for Steve, then swatted him playfully on the arm. “I snuck back over after leaving Susan with the kids. I can’t believe you didn’t get a step-by-step report.”

  After kissing Steve with a hardy, smacking smooch, she turned to Duster, and said, “Dare we?”

  “We dare.” Duster swept her up into a gentle hug, then set her away so he could peer down into her face. “How are you?”

  “Very good. I missed you. And I like your wife.”

  Duster looked up expecting Diane to have a troubled look on her face. But she didn’t. Diane smiled, completely unperturbed. Obviously, the two women had spent some time talking in the house before they’d come out. And he found himself wondering just what the two ladies had discussed.

  Diane offered a glass of lemonade to Scott, then offered one to Duster.

  After taking a few greedy swallows, Duster gave Diane a tight wink, and said, “I like my wife too.”

  “Oh, count me in,” Steve said with a hearty nod. “Any woman who makes it possible for my wife and my friend to be within a freaken’ mile of each other gets my vote.”

  Scott observed everything with wide, curious eyes. “Why are you so fat?” Scott pitched the question to Rena, who laughed.

  “She’s not fat, Scott, she’s pregnant,” Diane said, flashing a kids-say-the-darndest apology look to everyone.

  “How many?” His gaze wandered back to Muffin with her brood of five.

  Everyone laughed.

  “Only one,” Rena said. “One at a time’s enough for me.” Snaking her arm around Steve’s waist, she added, “You must be Scott.”

  Scott nodded and offered his hand. “I’m Scott Jennings. Who are you?”

  “Rena Richards.” After giving Scott’s hand a squeeze, she said, “I’ve heard you know how to play a challenging game of Go Fish.”

  “I could beat you, if you—” Remembering his manners or perhaps displaying them for his father’s eye, Scott said, “It’s nice to meet you.”

  “It’s nice to meet you too.” Rena smiled up at Duster. “He looks just like you.”

  “He’s my dad,” Scott said with obvious pride.

  Duster felt like his heart would just about explode with joy.

  Diane was genuinely disappointed when Rena had to leave. Scott, Duster and Steve finished setting the support beams for the potting shed, then they made their way back up the hill after Scott declared he wanted the runt of the litter. A female, the tiny puppy was all black except for a big splotch of white on her muzzle. “Like a cool mask.” He babbled on about possible names for the puppy as they walked home.

  “Glad I made you wear those shoes?” Duster asked as they trudged up the hill. Over one big shoulder, he carted her backpack.

  “For more than one reason.”

  “What?”

  “They broke the ice with Rena.”

  Duster’s expression asked for details without him having to say a word.

  “I explained to her that I had brought my fancy shoes on the off chance she might be home. I wanted to show off and, oh, I don’t know. Be a woman in that way. Compete with her when I didn’t have to. She commiserated and put me at easy so quickly I understood instantly why you missed her.”

  “Rena’s a neat lady.”

  “She is. I like Steve too. He’s funny, like Rena. Silly, dramatic and just openly honest. I can’t believe how he made Scott calmly accept that the puppy he wanted couldn’t come home with him today.” Diane shook her head with a soft laugh. “Both of us dodged that bullet.”

  �
�Steve has had a lot of practice explaining things to little kids.” Duster held her hand and kissed it. “I’m sure I’ll only get better at it myself.”

  “I’m sure you will.” It seemed every time she turned around, kids and babies were the topic of conversation. Or she was faced with reminders about the precarious nature of the very planet they lived on. Deftly turning their discussion to a different path, Diane asked, “What are our plans for the rest of the day?”

  “Hmm. Well, how about lunch, then a swim and—does Scott take naps?”

  “Not anymore.”

  “Darn. Puts that idea on hold.” He waggled his brows. “I saw you checking me out without my shirt on.”

  “Bedtime will be here soon enough,” she offered diplomatically. By then, she hoped her irrational fear about giving birth again would be gone. She was a little less worried after talking with Rena. Her first had been difficult too, but the rest were practically a breeze.

  “Not soon enough for me. Hey, we could invite MacKay’s boys over and have a little nosh and a swim. Sound good?”

  “Wonderful.”

  Billy and Jared were boisterous boys who taught Scott how to make fart noises by cupping his hand to his armpit. Duster taught both her and Scott how to swim. By the time the sun set, everyone was slightly sunburned and had water-logged, pruney skin. Scott was barely able to eat dinner before staggering off for bed.

  “You got Jared and Billy home okay?” Diane toweled her hair dry from her shower. Duster might not have noticed, but she’d brushed her lashes with mascara and dabbed a bit of perfume to the back of her neck and gloss to her lips before she’d swaddled herself in a burgundy silk short robe that barely covered the swell of her bottom. It seemed, as worried as she was about the outcome of their mating, she certainly wanted to indulge in the mating itself.

  “Ended up carrying them over. Easier and faster.” Duster seemed to have a lot of energy. He practically brimmed with it, and Diane had almost none. Unceremoniously, he sat and chucked off his shoes, the sweats he’d pulled on to take the twins home, then his swim trunks.