by Stacy Eaton
Maybe if I found the man that I was supposed to be with, then perhaps I wouldn’t lose myself in cooking, or menus, or searching for the right supplier. Maybe, I’d be more interested in lying in bed, making love for hours, or having him cook me a meal. Something I’d never let Thomas do—well, not after the first time. Thomas prepared a meal for me once, but when I saw that he was using a jar sauce for the pasta, I almost kicked him out of his own kitchen. After that, I’d let him assist, but even that was difficult, because I had my way of doing things, and I expected him to do them that way.
I glanced at Paul, who was at the stove, preparing a large stock base for tonight. Oddly enough, I didn’t critique the people in this kitchen the way I did in my personal kitchen. Here, everyone had a style, a form of doing things, and I accepted that—appreciated it really. It was only in my own home that I tended to be overbearing and controlling when it came to how things should be done. Don’t get me wrong; I wasn’t shy to let one of my chefs know if something wasn’t up to par.
Would I ever find a man who didn’t think they were competing with my job? Or who could stand being in the kitchen with me while I cooked? I wasn’t sure, but I did hope so. Maybe this week, I’d find that man, a man who was independent, confident, kind, and didn’t need me to make him feel more like a man just by being at his side.
I might like to cook, but the last thing I wanted was an overbearing man who expected me barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. Okay, well, maybe barefoot and pregnant would be okay as long as he knew I was coming back to work.
Chapter Five
Harvey
I was running late, and I hated being late. Not that I had to be there for this lunch or meeting, but because I wanted to. I was looking forward to seeing what Maggie was going to do for our company, and quite honestly, I had nothing else to do with my afternoon.
I had been working for Jake for just over a year, and I had two weeks of vacation to burn. The next few months were filled with training and trips, so I decided to use my time while I could. I thought about borrowing Mike’s cabin on the lake, but since Maggie and Greg had been using that place for the last five weeks, I figured that Mike probably wanted the cabin to himself for a little while.
Although Mike was working all week, so maybe I could have gone up for a few days. That could have been nice, except I didn’t have anyone to go with me.
The last woman I dated, Sherry, broke it off about seven months ago. I thought things were going well, but I guess she didn’t like me traveling all over the world and only being home half the month—or less.
I had been married twice. My first wife and I married when we were only twenty, and she ended up hating the military lifestyle and left me to return home while I was on deployment three years into our marriage. I’d received one of those famous Dear John letters while I was in Iraq, and it had almost broken my heart—almost.
My next wife was four years later and lasted for five years. I thought we had a great thing going, but when I came home on leave and surprised her, the shock was on me, as I found her in our bed with her boss.
Since my second marriage ended, I’d dated a handful of women, but I couldn’t say that I’d been all in with any of them. I figured that after two failed attempts, the chances of finding anyone now were slim. Most women either had their families or had their careers.
Although I wanted a wife to come home to and had always hoped for a couple of children, I didn’t expect that now, and I was upfront with every woman that I met. I’d love to have a great time, but I wasn’t sure that I was looking for anything long term. I even explained to them that my job came first, and I traveled a lot. I never asked them to wait for me, never asked them to be monogamous, and so far, it was good. A bit lonely at times, and Holly got on my case often, but I was okay with that.
Maybe that was contradictory, wanting a family, and telling women that I wasn’t in it for the long haul. I guess if I ever found the right woman, I would change the way I thought, but I wasn’t holding out for that.
I pulled into our training facility and saw Joe and Wyatt off to the side of the lot smoking. “You know those things will kill you,” I said to them as I passed by.
“So will a gun, but you still shoot them,” Wyatt replied with a laugh.
That was kind of the mentality with all of us. Something was going to kill us, might as well enjoy the ride while you can. Although I tended to be the extreme one in the group, and by extreme, I didn’t mean the one that did all the unhealthy things. No, I was the opposite.
My body was my temple, and I only put the best into it—except beer. Beer was always allowed to enter the temple. I worked out, ate right, scheduled physicals, took vitamins, got my teeth cleaned twice a year. I made sure to get enough sleep—most of the time—and felt like I was twenty-five and not turning forty.
Most of the people were still sitting around the table in the classroom area, but Trevor was piling food on his plate. “Hey, man, you just get here?” I asked as I collected a plate and glanced over the spread.
“Yeah, Devon had a checkup this morning, ran a little late,” he said as Alice reached past me and grabbed a pickle spear off the plate. She glanced at me and then did a double take.
I hiked a brow at her as she leaned toward me. “Are you wearing makeup?”
Ah, shit! I had forgotten to get that cleaned off when we finished. Holy crap!
“Makeup?” Trevor jumped in with a laugh. “Are you?”
“No, I am not.”
Alice got closer to me. “Oh, you most certainly are! Why are you wearing makeup?”
“It’s no big deal, Alice. I forgot to wipe it off.”
“Why are you wearing it in the first place?” Trev asked before he turned to the group behind him. “Hey, our man is wearing makeup over here.”
I wanted to turn and bang my head against the wall as people started laughing and throwing out comments. Joe and Wyatt took that moment to return and asked what was going on.
“Explain, Melton!” Alex said with a laugh. “If you don’t explain the reasonable explanation that you are totally trying to come up with at this very moment, you are going to be ruined for life.”
This was the last thing that I wanted. Wait till I got my hands on my sister—gah! “There is a very reasonable explanation for it.”
“You have a new gig as a cross-dresser?” Jake asked with a smirk.
“Funny, no, that’s Joe’s other job.”
“Hey, I only did that twice. It was fun, and man, the tips were damn good.”
“So, what’s with the makeup?” Jake approached me and ran his gaze over my face after he grabbed hold of my chin. “Your eyes are so pretty.”
I slapped his hand away and growled, “Get your hands off me, you ass.”
“You know, I might be new to this group, but I don’t think you’re going to live this down until you explain,” Maggie said softly beside me and handed me a hoagie.
“What’s this?”
“Had it made especially for you. Whole wheat with turkey and loaded with veggies, dry.”
I leaned forward and kissed her cheek. “You are the best. When you get tired of Blaire, you let me know.”
She laughed as Greg yelled from the table that he heard that. I added a little fruit salad to my plate and a couple of pretzels, grabbed a bottle of green tea, and went to take a seat.
“Nope, you can’t sit here until you explain about the makeup,” Drake said and then studied me carefully. “Your eyes really do stand out more now, though.”
“Jesus, guys, I’m on a television show, alright? It’s no big deal; I’m just helping my sister out last minute, and they wanted my skin even and to make my eyes pop. We were running late, and I forgot to remove it. Okay? Everyone understands now, right?”
People were looking at one another, and then Greg leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms as he smirked. “Depends on what show it is that you are on.”
Ah, shit! I wanted to
hang my head, but I didn’t.
Greg continued. “See, because I know for a fact that your sister is working on a new television show about finding love while dancing.”
“Wait! Who is your sister?” Maggie asked quickly, her eyes wide and excited.
There was no out here—none, zip, zilch, zero. “Holly Melton, the producer.”
Maggie giggled. “Oh, I love Holly! I interviewed her for my romance column. I thought the idea of that show was fantastic! That’s so funny; I was just talking to Greg about it the other day.” She turned to Greg. “Why didn’t you tell me that he was her brother?”
Greg began to laugh, and then he was laughing so hard he was crying. His actions started everyone else laughing just because Greg was making such an ass of himself. I sat down and proceeded to eat, pretending like nothing was wrong.
“Your—” He kept on cackling. “Dancing!” He swiped at his eye, his hand on his stomach like it was trying to keep it from bursting. “Oh, my god! You’re dancing for love!” He howled, and that just got everyone else going harder. Before I knew it, I was chuckling, and then as the jokes began to explode around the room, I sat there and laughed till I cried. Maggie handed me a napkin to wipe the makeup off my cheeks, and that just got everyone laughing more.
By the time we got settled down, my stomach was cramping from laughter, and my cheeks ached from smiling. I hadn’t laughed this damn hard in so long, and god, after last night, I needed it, too.
Maggie sat down next to me. “So, you’re a contestant?”
“I’m a stand-in.”
She frowned. “So you aren’t competing for a second date?”
I shook my head. “No, Holly said I wasn’t this girl’s type. I only did it to help my sister. She was in a bind because one of the guys broke his leg water-skiing.”
“But what if you do it and find out that you like the girl? Are you going to do a second dance?”
I shrugged. “I have no clue. Until eight this morning, I didn’t know I was doing this one.”
Most everyone started asking questions about it, and after the first few, Maggie began answering them. I did not miss the fact that this woman knew a hell of a lot more about what I was getting myself into, and I listened intently.
“What’s the dance look like?” Joe asked.
“Why? You want to be my partner?”
“Well, you do look awful sexy with that smeared makeup on. Let me take your picture.”
“Don’t you dare.” I reached for his phone, and he jumped back.
“Alright, guys!” Jake stood up to get everyone's attention. “Let’s clean up a bit and get moving. We will all be sure to watch Harv make a fool out of himself later.”
I was still eating, but others cleaned up and then got seated while Mike set things up on the big screen and logged into our new website that was going live soon. It looked clean and welcoming, but also business-like and patriotic, too. Maggie, Jake, and Mike took turns talking about different aspects of the website and what they hope to add soon, including more training, photographs, and bios about all the instructors. Although for safety reasons, they wouldn’t be too extensive. That information could be shared during classes and meetings like we usually did now.
Then they started showing off the videos that Maggie had been creating. They were fantastic. Not only did Maggie work up a great video about the delivery of the medical supplies that we had done a few weeks ago, but she had also done a few others.
Jake had collected a bunch of random videos that we’d shared with him, and she had compiled a fantastic five-minute video of us doing different things. From training to travel, and even some of our more stressful moments when we were under fire, and civilians were put to work to show what they learned.
A couple of the guys whistled when it was over, and Alex spoke up. “I just want to make it known that while I absolutely love what Maggie has done, and I honestly do. I have been trying to get Jake to do these things for months!”
A bunch of us laughed as Jake replied, “Yeah, well, who wants to listen to you jack-jawing. Maggie is much easier to listen to.”
Greg snorted. “That’s not what you said to me the other night.”
“Wait! What?” Maggie spun on Jake. “You said I wasn’t nice to listen to?”
Jake’s features went dead serious as he put his hand to his chest. “Never.”
“Bullshit!” Greg crowed. “You said that if you had to listen to one more thing that Maggie wanted to change, you were going to go nuts!”
Maggie’s jaw dropped. “I thought you liked my ideas.”
Jake came to stand in front of her. “I do! I do, Maggie. I love your ideas; we just don’t need to do all of them in the first month you are working here.”
For a second, I thought she would cry, and Jake looked like he was going to freak, but at the last second, she giggled. “Okay, fine, I’ll slow down my ideas. It’s just nice to be taken seriously.”
“You got it.” Jake looked so relieved, and then serious as he glanced my way. “Although we are going to need to update Harvey’s profile to read professional dancer.”
“I’m never going to hear the end of this.”
Alice stepped around me, patting my back, and stopped next to Maggie. “See what I have to deal with all the time?”
Maggie put her hand on Alice’s shoulder. “I feel for you, I honestly do. At least you aren’t the only woman in the office anymore.”
“That is an excellent thing. I was about to lose my mind with all these men.”
“I got your back, Alice.”
“It’s I got your six,” I said to Maggie.
She smiled at me. “Yes, that is what you military people say, but us pure-blooded civilians say, I got your back.”
“Yeah, okay,” I replied with a snicker.
Alice took a seat next to me. “So what was it like?”
“What?”
She rolled her eyes. “The dance show, you idiot.”
I shrugged as Maggie took a seat beside me to listen. “I guess it was alright. I mean, I was only there for a few hours, and we started taping immediately and learning the dance.”
“Yeah, you think you’ll be any good?” Maggie asked.
“No.” I smirked her way. “I suck at dancing. I’ve never been into it.”
“Ah, my daddy used to say that if you want to win a woman’s heart, learn how to take her around the dance floor,” Alice said almost dreamily.
“Seriously?” I asked her. “Do women seriously like men who dance?”
“Yes!” Maggie and Alice replied in unison.
Maggie grinned at Alice. “Jinx. There is something so damn sexy about a man who can dance. They don’t even have to dance well, as long as they can make a woman feel special.”
I rested my elbows on the table, oddly interested in what she was saying. “How do you make a woman feel special when you dance?”
“Look her in the eye, hold her tight. If your hand is on her lower back, rub her spine with your thumb.”
Alice continued. “Lead her, don’t let her lead you. Make sure to take charge, stand up straight, and don’t be soft—but don’t be a Neanderthal either. Women like strong men who are in control on the dance floor.”
“Do they?” I said with mock-seriousness, and Drake, who had taken a seat next to Alice, grinned.
“Don’t get all smart-assed with me, buddy. You asked. We are just trying to help you find love on the dance floor,” Alice said.
“I told you that I’m only doing this for my sister. I have no intention of finding love or even lust.”
Alice turned to Drake. “Famous last words, huh, Drake?”
Drake nodded. “Yep. He’s toast.”
“Whatever. If you all don’t mind, I’m going to get out of here and go enjoy my week off.”
“Alright, twinkle toes,” Trevor said as he slapped me on the back. “You have fun. You might want to ask Maggie or Alice what they use to take their makeup off
at night. Don’t want it to clog your pores.”
I shoved Trevor away. “Get out of my face, moron.”
Chapter Six
Ali
It was Wednesday, and I was exhausted and sore—like everywhere. After spending two days working muscles and contorting my body in ways that it hadn’t moved in years for several hours, and then rushing to work and spending another ten hours on my feet, I was whipped. My lower back ached, my feet throbbed, and all I wanted to do was find a spa and get a full body massage and spa treatment.
Sadly, that wasn’t in the cards as I worked on the dance routine once more. I pretty much had it down pat, and I was getting more excited—and a whole lot more nervous. As Cal talked to someone about a change, I wondered if any of the men I was about to dance date with liked to go to the spa?
Cal returned to Victor and me and said to take a break. I thought about how tomorrow's practice would be shorter as we went to the actual location of the dance, and then we’d run through it there to make sure that I had it down, and they could make any changes for the location and environment that might need to be made. I would only have time to run through it a couple of times before I’d be rushed from the location so that the men could practice.
I couldn’t believe that it was almost time for my dancing dates. I was still a little in awe of the fact that I had even agreed to do this. I stood on the side of the studio, sipping from my water bottle, when Holly joined me. “Off-camera, how are you holding up?”
I chuckled. “I like how you said off-camera.”
“Yeah, I know, on-camera, we want you to be all excited and positive, but this is your friend asking you how you are doing, not the producer.”
“I’m nervous!” I blurted out. “Like crazy nervous, but excited too, and my entire body hurts.” I held my pinkie up. “Except my pinkie, it doesn’t hurt—yet!”