Hmm. Amy didn’t know where this was going, but so far, she was glad that she was along for the ride.
--- ~ ---
Amy was a bundle of nerves. From the moment he’d walked in the class, she’d seemed like she was about to jump out of her skin. He wanted to put her at ease.
“Listen. Obviously you’ve heard about what happened in my class this morning. It really wasn’t that big of a deal, and it’s not what I wanted to talk to you about.”
Her sky blue eyes widened. “It’s not?”
“No.” Now that they had that settled, Matt continued on with what he’d come here to talk to her about. “You said that someone was going to move on to phase two. How had you decided to pick that person?” Matt spoke slowly to make sure that Amy heard what he said since she was so on edge.
“Um…” She licked her lips again, and Matt had to swallow a groan. She was so unbelievable sexy and she had absolutely no idea.
He was hoping to change that. Soon.
Amy sucked in a shaky breath and continued. “I score my dates, as you might have seen in my notebooks, from one to ten in three categories: Chemistry, Personality, and Smell. I had planned on moving to phase two with someone who scored an average of eight or above.”
Matt nodded, following along, “Okay. What did I score?”
“You?” she squeaked.
Amy’s skin turned pale, and for a split second, Matt thought he might have been out of the game so long that he had actually misread her signals. That maybe she hadn’t had as good a time as he’d thought she had. That she wasn’t actually attracted to him at all.
“I didn’t actually score you. I mean, on paper,” Amy admitted.
Okay. He hadn’t been expecting that answer. Matt had seen her notes, and they were detailed and thorough. When he’d dropped her off on Friday night, he’d pictured her going inside, saying hi to Scooby, maybe putting on sweats, and then grabbing her notebook and writing him up.
Still, he could work with this. “What would my scores have been if you had?”
“Ten,” Amy immediately answered, her voice becoming less shaky and quiet and sounding much stronger. “On all three categories, you would have received a ten.”
Hearing her say that caused his chest to swell with pride. A smile spread across his face, and Amy mirrored it with one of her own, which caused an area farther south than his chest to swell with something other than pride.
“Good. So that means I’m eligible to move on to phase two. Do I need to sign anything or arm wrestle some other guy who’s in the running?”
Matt knew that they would need to really talk about this. About taking their relationship to a new level or ‘phase.’ Amy would need to process it and they’d have to discuss any possible repercussions, but he thought starting the conversation with a little playfulness couldn’t hurt.
“Are you joking?” Amy asked with a hint of hurt in her voice and a pained look on her face.
Great. So maybe playfulness had not been the way to go.
Good job, Kellan.
He needed to do damage control. Now. “No, I’m not joking. I mean, yes, I was kidding about the arm wrestling but not about wanting to be a part of phase two.”
“Why would you… I mean… You don’t have to,” Amy stuttered as her eyes searched his for some hidden meaning or intention.
He’d pictured this going a lot better in his head. Matt realized then that he was doing this whole thing ass backwards. Knowing Amy, he should have led with the facts and then moved on to the lighthearted banter.
Okay, take two.
“I’ve been thinking about this since you told me what your plan was at dinner Friday night. And you mentioned what happened in my class this morning. Well that just helped me make up my mind. I feel like we’ve grown really close in the short time we’ve known each other.”
Amy nodded her head in complete agreement. “We have.”
He lowered his voice to just above a whisper. Even though he knew the door was closed, he did not want anyone overhearing what he was about to say. “We know where we’re both coming from. You know that I am not looking for any kind of serious relationship, and I know that you want to explore your sexual side.”
She nodded again.
“And to be honest with you, I’ve been walking around with a hard-on since the second I met you.”
“You have?!” she asked in what looked and sounded like utter and total disbelief.
“Yes, I have.” He motioned down to the semi erection he was sporting right this very moment.
Amy’s eyes moved down his chest to his lap, and the second she landed on it, she sucked in a quick breath.
“I like you, Amy. I care about you. I think you feel the same about me, and I also think that we can give each other exactly what we need.” His voice held a gravely tone to it, and that blush he’d grown so fond of crept up her cheeks.
“But what about our jobs? I mean, the kids already suspect something, and in this town, if anyone finds out then everyone will know an—”
He placed his hand back on her leg and she instantly stopped talking. He rubbed his thumb in slow circles around her inner knee as he explained. “We are consenting adults. Nothing has to change here at school. And as far as I know, you weren’t planning on putting an ad out in the paper even if the person you were doing this with was a guy you’d met online. It’s our business what we do behind closed doors, not the town of Hope Falls.”
Amy bit her bottom lip as her mouth turned up into a nervous smile. “Okay, but we’ll have to be careful. I don’t want people making more of this than it is, especially after what happened to you in class today.”
Matt knew that part of the reason Amy wanted to be careful was to protect him. But he still didn’t like hearing her say that she didn’t want people making more of this than what it was. Which he knew made him a hypocrite, but he couldn’t help how he felt.
“Okay, we will be CIA-undercover careful,” he agreed, trying to lighten the mood a little.
She laughed and her smile turned from looking nervous to looking excited. “Okay. We’re really going to do this?”
“Yes,” he answered firmly. They were definitely going to do this.
Chapter Eighteen
Amy stood nervously on Amanda's doorstep and rang the bell. Yes, another Book Club meeting. As much as she loved them, she wasn't looking forward to the inevitable interrogation that was sure to occur tonight. After all, there was nothing that these ladies loved more than a good old-fashioned romance in the making—and they could sense it like sharks could sense blood in the water. Amy could downplay all she liked, but these women were going to smell the pheromones coming off of her a mile away!
Even if she were able to play coy about Matt specifically, they were certainly going to quiz her about her online dating activity. Heck, who wasn't quizzing her about that these days? And that was yet another topic that Amy was far from eager to discuss.
Dang. All these years, ever since they were kids, she had looked at Nikki being the center of attention and thought that it must be so much fun. Nikki had sure looked like she was having fun! But now Amy realized that it wasn't that being the center of attention was objectively fun—it was that it was fun for someone like Nikki. Not someone like Amy. She shuddered inwardly. Most assuredly not someone like Amy!
Amy smiled as—speak of the devil—Nikki threw open the door. Her little sister, wine glass in hand, squealed when she saw her and reached out to drag Amy inside.
“Girls!” Nikki called as they walked to the living room. “Look who I found! It's the woman of the hour herself!”
Gulp.
She saw that all of the girls were here. In addition to Nikki, the living room was currently home to Amanda, Karina, Sam, Lauren, and Lily. Six ladies. Six pairs of eyes. All firmly trained on her.
Again...gulp.
Still, maybe this was a good thing, she reasoned. What was her project about? Self-discovery. And what
good was self-discovery if it didn't lead to personal growth? So instead of viewing this as an extremely uncomfortable instance of being put on the spot—as the Amy she used to be would have—she could view this as a great opportunity to practice being in control of her life, her choices, her thoughts, and her boundaries. She would share what she felt comfortable sharing and be politely demure when the topics got too personal.
Easy!
Right?
Sure...it would be easy...with, um....six pairs of eyes staring at her expectantly....
She took a deep breath. Hey, there was a reason she had used the word “practice,” right? Hopefully said practice would eventually make perfect. Tonight might not be that night.
“So...?” Karina asked, always the one to jump in and say what was on everyone else's minds. “How goes the online dating?”
Amy cleared her throat and struggled not to blush—a struggle she was probably losing, but whatever. She smiled and did her best to appear poised. “I see someone spilled the beans about that, huh?”
“I think the real question is who didn't spill the beans about it!” Nikki jumped in, quickly and enthusiastically.
Amy shot her a look. “In other words, don't blame you. Is that what you're saying?”
Nikki adopted a faux heart-warmed expression. “Awww, sis,” she said, hamming it up. “You've always known me so well!”
The girls laughed, and Amy grinned along with them. Wow. She was finding that, as much as she loved hanging out with the girls when she was mainly an observer, it wasn’t so bad to be part of the action sometimes.
“Wait!” Amanda cried suddenly, smiling broadly. “We can't push her for information until we offer her the proper incentive.”
Amy gave her a puzzled look.
“Well,” Amanda amended, “maybe I should have said the proper social lubricant. Red or white?”
“Oh, white, definitely. The sweeter the better. Riesling or Moscato, if you've got it.”
Lauren snorted, “If we've got it. Please. You sweet, naïve little thing...”
“Good point,” Amy agreed.
Once Amy had her glass of wine in hand, it was clear that there was not going to be any more stalling or putting off the inevitable. Six faces were looking at her expectantly. She shrugged and said, “So what do you want to know?”
Karina waggled her eyebrows. “All the dirty details, darling!”
Amy laughed. “None of those, I'm afraid. Wacky stories? I've got plenty of those. But naughty tidbits? Not a one.”
Sam said enthusiastically, “Wacky can be fun, too! Let's hear those!”
Amy nodded, trying to determine the best way to frame the narrative. She decided that it would be best to keep the stories light and funny, in keeping with the mood of the gathering.
“Well,” she began, “one of the guys had a baby fetish.”
“What?!” the girls shrieked.
“Oh, yes. I've actually researched it online since the whole thing happened—”
“Of course you have,” Nikki interjected, but Amy did not let that slow her down.
“—and apparently there is this whole community of fetishists who dress up in diapers, have people feed them baby food. It's quite fascinating, in a strange way.”
“Very strange,” Lauren concurred.
“At any rate, things seemed to be going fine until he started cutting up my food for me.”
“Oh, God!” Nikki exclaimed. “What did I tell you, Amy? I hope you got right out of there.”
“Yes, I did excuse myself to use the restroom. I was a little too taken aback to simply walk out of the restaurant altogether. Although, with what he’d said to me after I told him where I was going, it is clear to me now that that is exactly what I should have done.”
“What did he say?” asked Amanda breathlessly.
Amy shook her head ruefully, her trademark blush rising. “He asked me if 'wittle Amy had to go potty-wotty.'”
“Oh. My. God!” shrieked Nikki.
Amy whirled on her, a horrible thought running through her mind.
“Nikki,” she said urgently. “You are not allowed to tell Mom or the boys about that!”
“Oh, don't worry about that,” said Karina sincerely. “What happens in Book Club stays in Book Club.”
Amy grinned, catching the reference easily. “Is that the first rule of Book Club?”
“Hell, no,” Karina replied with a wide grin. “The first rule of Book Club is ‘Don't forget the wine.’ The second rule of Book Club is that you don't talk about what happens in Book Club outside of Book Club. But the third rule of Book Club is the one that most directly concerns you right now, and that is that anyone who comes to Book Club in the midst of any sort of romantic crisis—or anything interesting happening on the romantic front, really—has to unreservedly tell all. Now, spill.”
“That's all well and good,” Amy said, “but I still need to hear her say it.”
Amy looked at Nikki pointedly until the younger sister spoke.
“Fine, fine,” she said miserably, “your secret's safe with me. I won't tell Mom or the boys. Even though it's a really good story. And even though it will pretty much kill me to keep it to myself. I still won't tell.”
Nikki had delivered the last portion in a miserable tone of voice, peppered with sighs, and Amy could tell that she was angling for permission to spill the story, regardless of Amy's own reservations about it getting out. Amy was not going to give in to this emotional manipulation, no matter how innocent it might be.
“Good,” she replied happily, moving on with her story. “This is the great part. While I was in the bathroom, the waitress actually saw him put a pacifier on my plate. Taking pity on me, she retrieved my purse and brought it to me in the bathroom and then snuck me out through the kitchen. As crazy as the date might have been, at least I have a good story out of it. How many people can say that they've actually been snuck out through the back kitchen during a date?”
To Amy's surprise, every hand in the room went up. She shook her head. Well, this was just one more piece of evidence that her journey of self-discovery was one of absolute necessity. She obviously had some serious catching up to do in the experience department.
“Well,” she said sanguinely, “at least now I can say I'm among you.”
“Ugh,” Amanda said. “If that is the caliber of guys you are finding through your online dating efforts, I think you need to move your focus a little closer to home. Why don't you go out with Matt? He's absolutely adorable, and he's Henry's nephew! So you know he's a great guy! Plus, if you got married—”
“Getting ahead of yourself much, Mand?” Karina laughed.
“I'm just saying! I'm Henry's goddaughter. If Amy married Matt, that would make us related. I mean...sort of. Close enough, anyway. And that would be great!”
Amy just smiled. She did not want to reveal anything about her connection with Matt or what was—or was not—going on between them. She certainly didn't want them finding out that Matt was her phase two. Come to that, she didn't even really want to get into explaining what phase two was.
Especially not with Nikki in the room. Amy didn't believe for one moment that, when push came to shove, Nikki would be able to keep her mouth shut about Amy's exploits. If there was one thing she did not need, it was her brothers finding out about phase two!
Luckily, it seemed the conversation was moving on without her. That was good. One thing that could definitely be said about these ladies, especially once they got a couple of glasses of wine in them, was that their attention spans were relatively short. Amy was thanking her lucky stars for that right now.
It gave her time to sit back and contemplate that subject that she definitely didn't want to talk about but was perfectly happy to spend hours upon hours thinking about—phase two.
--- ~ ---
Times like these really made Matt wish he weren’t a man of his word. He’d agreed to keep playing basketball—just until Ryan’s sched
ule cleared up—with Justin…and Amy’s brothers.
It wasn’t that they were bad guys. Jake was a great guy and kept Matt very entertained with crazy stories about the firehouse and various women he’d hooked up with.
And Eric was probably one of the most stand-up guys Matt had ever met. He actually reminded Matt a lot of his grandfather, who was the best, most honorable man Matt had ever known. But things had been weird between him and Eric since the Student Service Day. Matt really wasn’t sure what Eric’s deal was.
Honestly, before he and Amy had made their arrangement, Matt didn’t really care. He hadn’t done anything more than flirt a little. But now, now they were going to do a whole lot more than flirting, and call him crazy, but that fact did not put Amy’s brothers on the top of the list of people he wanted to hang out with.
At this moment, he really did not want to honor his obligation. But not only had his grandfather taught him to stand when a lady enters and exits a room, he’d also drilled into him the concept that all a man had was his word, and if he went back on that he was nothing. Matt really didn’t feel like he had a choice.
So here he was, headed into the Community Center to go shoot some hoops. The one good thing he’d have to say about keeping his commitment was that he was getting in a lot better shape. After the first game had taken so much out of him, he’d begun running again. He was up to three miles a day. Physically he was beginning to feel a lot like his old self again.
Opening the glass door to the Community Center, he stepped to the side, holding the door for Sue Ann and a few other ladies who all happily informed him that they’d just taken a Burlesque class and offered to show him some moves.
He smiled and told them, “Maybe some other time.” Making his way to the gym, he was trying to reconcile how in the world ladies of their age did that style of dance. He didn’t know, but one thing he did know was, this town was made up of people that constantly surprised him.
Before he even made it through the double doors of the gym, he heard sneakers squeaking as players ran up and down the court, the basketballs hitting backboards and bouncing on the polished wood floor, and his name.
Snow Days (The Hope Falls Series) Page 14
