He looked around the empty Tivioli lobby. “It looks like the party is over and everyone has left.”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m still here. Come on, let’s go.”
“What about locking up?”
“Skye, we’re leaving now,” Sue Ellen called out. Her friend was probably making out with Nathan in the theater office where the two of them had retreated.
Sue Ellen should be making out with Russ. “We need to go someplace private. My car.” She dragged him outside and down the street to where her pink Batmobile was parked.
“What’s going on?” he asked suspiciously.
“Nothing,” she said as she shoved him into the passenger seat. Only problem was that he wasn’t shoveable. “Okay, you can drive.” She dangled her pink Beanie Baby key chain in front of him.
Russ failed to see the huge honor she’d been willing to bestow upon him. “I don’t want to drive. I just want to know why you’re acting so strange.”
“We need to talk. And not at the Dairy Queen.”
“They’re closed.’ ”
“All the more reason to talk in my car.” When he still didn’t move, she added, “It’s about the team.”
That got him. Russ finally got into the car. She quickly hopped in and peeled out of town. Russ clutched the dashboard with white-knuckled fingers.
“You’ll want to put on your seat belt,” she said. “It’s the law.”
“So is driving the speed limit.”
Sue Ellen squinted into the darkness. She’d forgotten to turn on her headlights. She quickly fixed that. Okay, now she could see much better. She wasn’t going far. She turned her pink Batmobile into a pull-off along the two-lane highway leading out of town and cut the engine.
“Now will you tell me what this is about?”
Staring at him in the semidarkness, she lacked the courage to begin
the talk
. He didn’t seem ready to talk about their relationship yet. She had to warm him up first. And nothing did that faster than talking about the team. “What do you think about the team doing a community service project?”
“Which team? The wrestling team or the football team?”
“All your teams. Put together. They could do a cleanup of Barwell Street. Pull weeds, pick up garbage, sweep, that sort of thing.” If he hated the idea, she was going to say it was her sister’s and she was just passing it along. If he liked the idea, Sue Ellen was claiming it as her own. Leena wouldn’t mind. And too bad if she did mind. She’d left early tonight.
“My guys aren’t garbage sweepers,” Russ said.
“Of course they’re not. Bad idea.” She decided to try a little reverse psychology on him. “Just because the team over at Serenity Falls has done this doesn’t mean we have to.”
“Hold on a second. Anything Serenity Falls can do, we can do better.”
“Well, that’s what I told my sister, but she didn’t seem convinced.”
“Then we’ll just have to show her, won’t we?”
“Yes, we will.”
Russ hugged her.
Sue Ellen kissed him.
No fireworks.
He kissed her back.
Still no fireworks. A nice feeling but nothing special.
She tried not to panic.
She knew guys hated being asked where things were going, where a relationship was headed. Most of the time, it was the kiss of death as far of they were concerned; they were out the door faster than the Road Runner on that cartoon. Maybe she could get the info without actually asking that exact question.
“Are you happy?” she murmured against his lips.
“Mmm. We won our wrestling matches tonight.”
She shifted away from him. “I mean about
us
. Are you happy about us?”
“Sure. Why not?”
What kind of answer was that? Not one she was very happy with. “Why not? How about
why
?”
“Why what?”
“Why are you happy about us?”
“What is this, an essay question?”
“You’re a teacher. You’re smart. You should do great on essay questions.”
“Not on this kind of sappy stuff.”
“Sappy stuff?”
“Yeah. PA isn’t a touchy-feely kind of state. You should know that.”
“So that means that no male living in this state has to verbalize his feelings?”
“I told you I was happy about us. What more do you want?”
“More than you can give apparently.”
“Aw, come on. Be a good sport.”
“A good sport?” She was spitting mad now. “I’ve been a good sport for weeks now.”
“Yeah, you have. A real good sport. You’re a team player. Part of my team. I can count on you to carry the ball when needed. You’re my go-to gal.”
That sounded better. “I am?”
“Of course you are.”
He kissed her again. Still no fireworks. He squeezed her one breast. The left one, as always. Nice. Not spectacular but okay.
“We okay, my go-to girl?”
“Yeah, we’re okay.” Sue Ellen wondered if she was being greedy by asking for more than okay. She should be happy with what she had and not want more. Maybe she didn’t deserve more. She wasn’t settling; she was accepting. There was a difference, right?
Russ might not be the most romantic guy on the planet, but he was dependable. Reliable. You could set your watch by him. He always kissed her the same way. Always squeezed only her left breast. Plus he was the coach. Respected around town. Reliable and respectable were good things, especially to a girl who’d grown up to be called Our Lady of the Outlandish.
Okay, then Sue Ellen was doing pretty good here. Nothing to worry about. Nothing more she wanted. She wasn’t making do. Convincing herself of that should be easy. It was her new goal.
Leena woke the next morning to find that Cole was gone. He’d left a note:
I didn’t want to wake you. See you later.
Could the man be less romantic? Where were the flowery declarations that she was the most awesome woman he’d ever encountered. That he didn’t think she had thunder thighs. That he loved her just was she was.
Hold on. Love wasn’t in her plan. But then neither was having mind-blowing, life-altering sex with her boss. That was definitely not in her BlackJack’s plan of action to regain her modeling mojo.
He’d sure helped her regain her female mojo, though. He might not have written anything romantic in his note, but he’d said plenty last night the second time they’d made love. Or had it been the third?
She smiled and stretched, then caught sight of the time on her bedside clock. She had to move it or she’d be late for work.
She made it on time, just barely. She’d had to gather her hair into a no-fuss ponytail and swipe on lip gloss, eyeshadow, and a touch of mascara while she drove to work. Yeah, she’d heard the news reports about how that kind of multitasking was dangerous to do, but Rock Creek didn’t have a rush hour. Didn’t have much traffic either. Still, she felt guilty enough to promise herself she wouldn’t do it again.
Mindy greeted her when Leena walked in. They talked about the party for a moment or two. No sign of Cole yet. Seeing her looking around, Mindy said, “He’s in his office.”
“Oh. Okay. That’s fine.” Leena felt herself blushing like an idiot.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine. I’d better get to work.”
For a Saturday, it wasn’t busy. Later, when Mindy offered to cover the desk while Leena took her morning break, she accepted and headed toward the staff room. Cole was there. She already knew he didn’t have any patients waiting and his next appointment was half an hour away.
They reached for the coffeepot at the same time, their fingers meeting on the handle. Their fingers intertwined, their eyes met, and the next thing she knew he was kissing her.
He pulled back. “I’m sorry. That was inappropriate.”
“Yes, it was,” she said primly before switching to her vamp voice. “Do it again.”
Seconds later they were in his office with the door locked. He had her backed up against said door and was kissing her senseless. Tugging her closer, he lifted her right leg so her pelvis was cradled against his arousal. The soft cotton swirls of her skirt allowed him easy access to her panties.
“Not here,” she said.
She could feel the disappointment coursing through his body as he freed her leg and let it slide back down to the floor.
“Over there.” She nudged him toward a nearby arm-less chair and finished undoing his jeans.
He helped her, getting his and her clothing out of the way. She kept her skirt but got rid of her underwear. He barely got a condom on before tugging her down onto his erection. She was already slick with wanting him. He filled her, taking total possession of her body. She arched her back and tightened her grip on his shoulders. Her orgasm came fast and furious. Her inner muscles milked him, and wave after wave of seismic pleasure consumed her. She bowed forward, resting her head on his shoulder as he buried his face in her hair and reached his own orgasm.
Her skirt still covered them both, hiding their intimacy from view and somehow making it even racier. She lifted her head to grin at him with satisfaction. “You do inappropriate very well.”
He grinned back at her. “So do you.”
Leena was still grinning when she returned to the reception desk.
“Looks like the break did you good,” Mindy noted.
Cole did her good, and Leena couldn’t be happier about it. For now . . .
Sue Ellen was waiting for Leena when she got home later that afternoon. She was practically dancing with excitement.
“I put together a website for you. A little work on the side. And I printed up business cards on my computer. Here, look.”
Sue Ellen proudly handed one over.
LEENA RILEY
Pet Detective and Pet Therapist
“Why would you do this?”
“You said you wanted more money. And since you found that missing turtle—”
“Tortoise.” Leena had found it only because she’d almost stepped on it. “I wish you hadn’t done this.”
“What are you so crabby about?” Sue Ellen followed her inside and stared at Leena intently as she dropped onto the couch. “Oh no. You didn’t . . .” Sue Ellen zoomed right over to the couch, sat down, and went almost nose-to-nose with her. “You did! You slept with Cole!”
Since there had been very little sleeping going on last night and certainly none during her break at work today, Leena said, “I did not sleep with him.”
“Yes, you did. Don’t even bother lying to me. You slept with your boss. And that’s why you’re crabby. Unless the sex was no good? That could also be why you’re crabby.”
“The sex was great.” The words were out before Leena could stop them.
“I figured it had to be. I mean, look at the guy. He’s Cole. People and pets adore him.”
“So everyone constantly tells me.”
“You don’t adore him?”
“Why should I?” The possibility that she might scared her spitless.
“Because you had great sex with him.”
“True, but it’s more complicated than that. He’s my boss.” Leena slumped onto the couch. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t think straight around him. I need a new boss.”
“Hello?” Sue Ellen waved the business card she’d created. “That’s why I did the pet detective-therapist thing for you.”
“I need a
paying
job.”
“Some of these pet detectives make good money. I saw a special on Animal Planet about it. And pet therapists aren’t cheap either. You can help people become as emotionally available to others as they are to their pet. Help them erase behaviors that might trigger jealousy because their pet has taken up too much space in their heart.”
“I need a job that pays me well right now, not at some imaginary point in the future.”
“Well, that would be at the animal clinic. There’s nothing else available that comes close.”
“Then I’m doomed.”
“Doomed to have great sex with Cole. Yeah, it’s a tough life but someone has to live it.”
Leena grabbed her sister’s shoulders. “If you tell a living soul about this, I will tell everyone about your boob job. Including Russ.”
“Relax. I can keep a secret.” Leena gave her a look. “Well, not always, but this time I will.”
Leena prayed that was true.
Two weeks later, Leena was listening to Sheryl Crow on her BlackJack as she power walked down Barwell Street. Things were good. She’d lost the weight she’d gained since coming back to Rock Creek. But more important, she was starting to feel good again about her body. Even her thighs. She was faking it less and making it more. Making it with Cole.
Not that this was all about him. It was all about
her
.
Okay, and him too. She avoided thinking of him as her boss. She also avoided thinking of him as someone she was falling for big-time. For once she wasn’t planning ahead, but was basking in the moment. Every sexually fulfilling, orgasmic moment. Yum.
She hummed along with “Soak Up the Sun” as she passed the recently added whiskey barrels on Barwell Street planted with colorful red, white, and purple petunias. The flowers were courtesy of Greenley’s Garden Center and the work courtesy of Rock Creek High School wrestling team. Maybe there was hope for the world after all if a business in Serenity Falls was willing to help out Rock Creek. Maybe there was even hope for her and Cole.
The thought made Leena pause in front of Sisters of the Poor Charity Thrift Shop.
“See something you like?” Sister Mary asked.
The nun, like her nephew, had a way of sneaking up on her. Leena had learned to just accept it.
“You really need someone to make a nice window display for you. I think you could do a lot more business if you changed a few things.”
Sister Mary drew her inside. “Show me.”
Leena stopped near the door. “Right here. This mannequin. You’re not putting her to the best use. The clothes she’s wearing aren’t very flattering. Vintage clothes are in, but you’re not taking advantage of that. Look.” She exchanged the polyester pants and flannel shirt with jeans and a ruffled shirt. Then she added a chunky bohemian-style necklace. “There. That’s better.”