Sweet but Sexy Boxed Set (96 page)

•
Pedicure.

•
Facial.

•
Buy a little black dress.

She glanced back up at Suzie.
“Yes, ma’am,” she said.

Suzie added,
“And get some new makeup. Maybe a few new casual outfits, too. Head out this afternoon and take care of this list, then meet me back here at eight this evening. At that time, we will take stock of where we are and plot our next steps. See you then.”

With that, Suzie dismissed her, turning back to her desk and scribbling more things down in her planner. Patti let herself out, a half-excited twitter in her tummy, and a half-dread fissure of fear working down her backbone.

What in the hell had she just gotten herself into?

Chapter Three

Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, was the Mecca of outlet shopping in this neck of the woods, so where else would Patti set off to on a Saturday afternoon? And the pickin
’s, if you wanted to call them that, were mighty good. She’d scored on a great pair of red heels that would set off that little black dress she’d finally broke down and bought like it was nobody’s business. Two new pairs of jeans, a couple of nice-fitting clingy sweaters, another splurge on a pair of Tony Lama cowboy boots—black with red stitching—and some new lacy underthings that rounded out the casual clothes that Suzie had requested.

Of course, she added the lacy underthings on her own. She also purchased or treated herself to:

• Both pedicure and manicure.

• Hair trimmed and lightened, with both low- and high-lights.

• A facial, followed by a free makeup makeover.

• The new makeup.

• And just for kicks, a full body massage.

Time to pamper and to get serious.

The last thing she’d done was shop for new sheets, pillowcases, and comforter. She might not have time to totally redo the bedroom, but she could at least redo the bedding. At the very least, that would make her feel special.

So, she was set, she guessed.

Juggling the bags of bedding, the dress on the hanger, the shoe boxes, and assorted other bags of clothes and makeup, Patti headed for her car. The time was barely after three o’clock in the afternoon, so that gave her a good four-ish hours to get home, take stock of her loot, and head over to Suzie’s.

She had a bit of a walk to her car and wondered why she hadn
’t dropped some of this stuff off earlier. Rounding a corner, the toe of her winter boot caught on an uneven sidewalk and she pitched to her left, stumbled, and started a slow fall forward.

Packages tumbled. A bag ripped. One foot tripped over the other. And there was nothing Patti could do about any of it.

At once, a firm grip grasped her upper arm and she was suddenly righted again, even though all her packages kept going.

“
Oh!”

“
Patti?”

“
Jim?”

“
What in the world?”

“
I didn’t see…”

“
Here, let me help.”

Before she realized it, the flurry of activity that crossed her gaze was halted, she was up righted, and Jim Hamilton was crouching before her, picking up and retrieving all of her packages.

“Oh, here. Give me that,” she said, indicating the dress on the hanger. He handed it to her and she folded it over her arm. Within a few seconds, however, Jim had gathered everything up, stood very tall and square in front of her—when had he become so tall? And why wasn’t he wearing his button down collar shirt and trousers? Oh, they weren’t at school—and he was looking at her with an intense, expectant, look.

“
Where is your car? Let’s take these and deposit them there.”

“
Oh.” That was stupid. Couldn’t she say anything else? Nope. She pointed toward the parking lot.

Jim headed that way, and she followed. It wasn
’t every day that she saw Jim Hamilton out in public. In fact, she wasn’t sure she had ever seen him out anywhere, only at school. But as she watched his backside move toward her car, “it’s the silver Mazda, over there one row. Yes, that’s it,” she wondered why she’d never noticed how nicely he filled out a pair of jeans. Well, perhaps because she’d never seen him in a pair of jeans before? Or maybe she had, but never really had truly paid attention?

It was a mystery how these little things about Jim Hamilton kept popping up.

He stopped beside the car. She shifted the dress to her other arm, dug into her shoulder bag, retrieved her keys, and punched the unlock button. The car door clicked, and she reached, same time as Jim reached, while still juggling packages, for the door handle.

Their hands met, touched, and Jim dropped the cowboy boots
’ box.

“
Dammit.” He jerked back, and Patti stepped aside.

“
Here, let me.” She opened the door, and together, they piled her treasures in the back seat. Finally she shut the door and faced Jim, who was looking at her with some sort of contemplative and frazzled look on his face.

“
Thanks, Jim. I appreciate your doing that. Wow, funny seeing you here.”

He nodded, looked to his feet, shuffled back and forth for a second or two, and then lifted his face to look back into her eyes.
“Had to get out of Legend,” he said.

She well knew how that felt.

“And I’m not ready to go back yet,” he added quickly. “I know it’s late, but I’ve not had lunch yet. Want to get something to eat?”

Patti blinked, thought about that for a brief moment, and thought, why not? She had time.
“Sure. Come to think of it, I’ve not had lunch either. Sounds good to me.”

****

What in the world am I doing?

Calm down, Jim. It
’s lunch. With one of your colleagues. Nothing more, nothing less. Yes, of course, it’s adult conversation and companionship. Something you’ve been craving for a while.

It
’s Patti. Quirky, funny, Patti, who teaches fourth grade in your school. Nothing more, nothing less.

Then why are those big green eyes of hers looking at me like that?

Because you are stupidly giving her that same look back. Stop it, man. Now.

“
Where shall we go?” he eked out.

Patti glanced about. She twisted away from him slightly, her long, blonde, shaggy hairstyle, flipping as she did so.
“Well, over there is Hooters.” She turned back and flashed a wicked smile. “You should like that.”

He didn
’t want to think about hooters of any sort at the moment, since his jeans were getting a bit tight just standing there looking at her. He looked off in the opposite direction. “And there is Jane’s Diner over there. How about that?”

Safe. A family diner was safe. Right?

She shrugged and gave him an awkward smile. “Sure.”

He motioned that way, and she stepped in beside him as they took the short walk across the parking long. He held the door for her as they went in, and she, again, gave him a tentative smile, one that he didn
’t quite know what to do with.

Was she just being friendly? Had she ever even once given him a
“come-on” look or lingering glance? He didn’t think so. She was pretty much all business at school, except when she let her hair down once in a while in the teachers’ lounge. She was great at cracking jokes to ease the tension, particularly around testing times when everyone was a bit “testy.”

He
’d known her for years, but he couldn’t ever remember seeing her in a social situation outside of school. Was this lunch a first? He wracked his brain trying to recall.

No. Other than get-togethers at other teacher
’s homes, or at school events, this was it. Why?

He
’d had to ask himself that question, but the answer was obvious. The “no dating teachers” rule was the reason.

The hostess led them to a corner booth, and Patti slipped in the far side. He sat opposite her and couldn
’t take his gaze off her. She looked up at the woman, who was handing out menus and chatting, and smiled. He watched her pert, upturned nose, lazily lingered over her cute profile, and sighed.

Deep.

Hell. This lunch was probably a mistake.

“
Sir?”

He looked toward the chatty hostess.
“Hm?”

“
Something to drink?”

“
Oh, sure. Iced tea is good.”

“
Sweet or unsweet?”

“
Oh, sweet, of course.”

She nodded.
“Two sweet teas coming up.” Then she left. He gripped his menu and stared straight across the table to Patti, who rattled on….

“
I’m not sure I’ve ever seen you out of Legend, Jim. All these years.” She popped open the menu, perused it for a moment, then took a peek over the top. Jim realized he’d not even looked at his yet and wondered if he should. Eventually. “It’s kind of like the kids, you know?” she started in again, “they think the teacher’s live at the school and are surprised to see them in the Piggly Wiggly. Like they don’t belong there, or something. Kind of like you and me, here, now, in Pigeon Forge. Odd, huh?”

His thoughts exactly, and he gave a slight chuckle.
“Yeah. I know what you mean.”

Patti brought the menu up closer to her face.
“Oh, they have roast beef open-faced sandwiches. I shouldn’t, but…” She laid the menu down again. “Jim, you don’t get out much, do you?”

Immediately, he smiled and relaxed somewhat. This was Patti. Just random and unexpected Patti. No worries.
“Actually, no. I stick pretty close to home and school.”

She cocked her head to the side.
“Really? That’s a shame.”

Damned straight.

“You didn’t grow up here, though.”

He nodded.
“No, but Legend is home now.”

“
And before?”

“
I grew up in Texas.”

Patti sat her menu down on the table with a slap.
“I had no idea, Jim. Man, you work with someone for years and the things you don’t know about them.”

Time to remedy that. At least in your case, my dear.

Shit. What was he thinking? Well, he was thinking that he did want to get to know her better, that’s what. Rules be damned.

He shrugged.
“To tell you the truth, I don’t know a lot about you, either, Ms. Baker.”

She sat back against the padded booth.
“Heck, Jim. I’m pretty much an open book. Born in Legend. Live in Legend. Work in Legend. Story of my life.”

The hostess returned with their tea.
“Has ImaJean come to take y’alls order yet?”

They both shook their heads.
“Shoot. I’ll go get that girl.”

Jim watched her sashay away, and had it been any other time, he might have liked watching her sashaying backside, but at the moment he was totally and physically enthralled with the woman sitting across from him at the table.

He leaned forward. “Legend is a great place. I came here after graduate school looking for an administrative position. No family left in Texas, and I just made Legend my home. I like it just fine. But it sounds like you don’t?”

She stared at him for a moment.
“Jim, you should know me by now. I think big all the time, but I never act on it. I’ll likely never leave Legend, and well, you know, it’s probably because I am pretty happy here, if only I could just—”

She brought that thought to a close real quick, and for the first time ever, Jim sensed a little vulnerability in Patti Jo Baker. As her mouth snapped shut, cutting off her sentence in mid-stream, her eyes grew wider, and her face softened. And flushed.

He wasn’t sure what that meant, but he wasn’t going to find out at that moment because ImaJean, their waitress, stepped up then to take their orders.

“
What can I get for ya?”

****

ImaJean towered over their table, and suddenly, Patti felt like a kid again. Sort of like she’d just gotten caught with her hand in the cookie jar—or that she’d done something extremely embarrassing.

Thing was, the only embarrassing thing she
’d done at the moment was almost tell Jim Hamilton, her boss, that she would be happier if she only had a husband.

Shit!

She’d let her guard down way too much. Seeing Jim out of context, away from the school and in his tight jeans, and sitting casually across from her while she ordered—sipping his tea while peering over his frosty glass—was a bit unnerving.

Why? She had no clue. It was just…different.

“Ma’am?”

She glanced at ImaJean.
“Open-faced beef sandwich,” she told her.

“
Hot or cold.”

She grimaced.
“Hot.”
How else?

“
With gravy?”

“
Of course.”

“
Rolls or cornbread.” Geez. Too many decisions!

“
Rolls.”

“
Green beans or slaw?”

Crap!
“Slaw.”

ImaJean looked at Jim.
“Sir?”

He handed her the menu.
“Ditto. Right down to the slaw.”

ImaJean walked away, scribbling on her pad, and Patti sat back in her seat.
“Whew!” Jim grinned at her. For the longest moment, he just sat and smiled her way. And for another long moment, she found herself completely entranced by looking into his eyes.