Dating the Best Man

by Gail Sattler

  After he told Daphne about his idea, Cory hoped he’d be sharing good news.

  Chapter 6

  Daphne sagged as she sat on the damp bench and looked down at her feet. It had been hard enough to put her socks on, but now she didn’t know how she was going to double the effort to get her feet into her sneakers.

  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d been to a public pool. Aside from being so tired, she didn’t know why she hadn’t gone back sooner.

  Cory was probably pacing the foyer right now; impatient that she was taking so long to get dressed. He probably wouldn’t care if she was barefoot and her T-shirt was inside out, as long as she came out.

  Just to be sure, she looked at her shirt and ran her hand down the front. The drawing of the cute puppy with the big eyes looked back at her, upside down, so everything was good.

  If she could get up.

  The longer she took, the worse it would be.

  She pushed herself up, rolled her wet bathing suit into her towel, rammed it into her backpack and made her way out.

  She found Cory standing in front of the vending machine.

  “Hi,” she said softly as she approached him. She opened her mouth to apologize for taking so long, but snapped it shut. Saying sorry would be a reminder that she’d been at fault and add fuel to the fire.

  “Hi,” he mumbled, not even turning to look at her. “I can’t decide between that big chocolate-chip cookie and this chocolate bar. Which would you pick?”

  “The chocolate bar,” she replied without hesitation.

  His finger hovered between the two buttons. He picked the chocolate bar. When it landed in the slot, he put more money into the machine and also bought the cookie. “Here, you take the chocolate bar. I changed my mind.”

  He’d opened the cookie wrapper and taken a bite before she’d even started peeling the paper back from the bar. All she could do was stare at him. He hadn’t said a word about how long it had taken her to change. Not only was he not angry, he didn’t even seem to care.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?” he said between bites. “I’m hungry.”

  Not only was he not angry, now he looked apologetic.

  She turned and meticulously began to unwrap the chocolate bar, not wanting him to look at her while she tried to figure him out. “I have never seen anyone eat as much as you. It’s a wonder you don’t weigh two hundred pounds.”

  He laughed, causing her to look up at him. He took another bite of the cookie and grinned. “I hate to tell you this, but I weigh a good bit over two hundred pounds.”

  Daphne looked up. Way up. Actually, for his height, if he weighed “only” two hundred pounds, he would be thin. And he definitely wasn’t thin. Now that she’d seen him in a bathing suit, in all his masculine glory, she’d witnessed firsthand that while he wasn’t thin, he definitely didn’t have an ounce of fat on him. Everything was solid muscle, including his six-pack abs.

  And, as he’d claimed at Brad and Kayla’s wedding, he did have nice legs.

  If he didn’t have such a gentle nature, he would have been scary.

  Yet, even without knowing him, none of the other women in the pool had been scared of him. It had seemed as if every female past the age of puberty had at some point ogled him. A gray-haired elderly lady at least eighty years old had whistled at him.

  He hadn’t even noticed.

  At the sound of an excited scream, both of them turned to watch the activity in the pool. A young boy had just launched himself off the rope swing and was now yelling and flailing his arms and legs. Seconds before he hit the water, he stopped yelling and sucked in a deep breath, stiffened and raised his arms over his head, and transformed into a beautiful dive, smoothly going into the water.

  Cory ate the last bite of the cookie then threw the wrapper in the nearby wastebasket. “That’s what I wanted to do. Look at how he entered the water.”

  “That’s because he’s a skinny little twerp. As you just told me, you’re more than double his size and weight.” She turned to look at him, while he continued to watch the lineup for the rope swing. “I couldn’t believe my eyes, watching you behave like Tarzan on that thing.”

  Not only that, about half the people in the pool had stopped what they were doing to watch Cory sail through the air, every time his turn came up. He swung out farther than anyone else, probably because his weight gave him more momentum. Then, because of his strength, he didn’t let go until the rope was almost ready to start swinging back. His entry into the water was never graceful and always with a big splash, yet it was obvious he was having fun.

  Until he’d landed with a cannonball that splashed one of the lifeguards. Then he was politely asked to not use the rope swing again.

  “I never came here as a kid, so I have to make up for lost time.”

  She couldn’t imagine him as a kid.

  She especially couldn’t imagine what his mother must have needed to do to feed him.

  “Why not? I thought you grew up in Seattle, too.”

  “I did. Just not this part of Seattle.” He pressed his now-free hand over his stomach. “I’m hungry. What about you? Can we go for a snack? I know this great place not far from here.”

  She had a feeling he knew a lot of great places. “I guess so.”

  “In fact, we can walk. It’s—”

  “No!” She held up one hand before he could say anything more. “I’m not walking. I want to sit. Relax. Enjoy myself.”

  “Oh.”

  “We can drive.”

  “There’s not much parking. It would be best to take one vehicle and leave the other one here.”

  Again she looked up at him. Her first thought was to take her car, but he’d been so good to her, she didn’t want to force him to squeeze into her compact economy car again.

  She swallowed hard. “We can take your truck.” She paused, not sure if she was telling herself she was doing the right thing or to give Cory a few seconds to process the shock.

  She cleared her throat. “Now. Before I change my mind.”

  * * *

  It wasn’t as though he’d never had a woman ride in his truck before, but when he hit the remote to unlock it as they approached, he felt lost—and this time he had no compass to guide him in the right direction. Except for being with her brother, this was the first time she was going to be inside a vehicle with a man since the man she should have trusted the most had done the worst thing a man could do to a woman. It was a step she had to take, and she was doing it with him.

  Now, he needed to do the right thing. He just didn’t know what that would be.

  He walked to the passenger door, opened it for her and waited. With the height of the running board and her short legs, he didn’t know how she was going to get up. When he’d bought the truck there had been an option for an extended step but he hadn’t taken it. Now he wished he had.

  Cory extended one hand. “Do you need help getting up? A boost?”

  “No.” She shied away from him. “Please don’t touch me.”

  “Okay.” Lowering his hand, he quickly stepped back. He watched helplessly while she grabbed the back of the seat then struggled to balance enough to climb up. She really could have used a boost, but right now, if he touched her, being behind her as she crawled up, he’d probably come out of the situation with a broken nose.

  Except for being a little big, he liked his nose the way it was.

  His stomach flipped as she started to lose her grip. He stepped forward, willing to take the risk of getting kicked in the face, but at the last second she regained her balance and clambered up, poised awkwardly on the seat with her legs hanging down like a fish flopping out of water.

  As soon as she was still, with her stomach pressed on the seat and her feet braced at the bottom, she turned her head to look at him. “See? I made it.”

  “I knew you could do it.” As the words came out of his mouth he hoped a bolt of lightning wouldn’t strike him dead. Watching h
er in that awkward position, he didn’t want to think of her getting into his truck if she were wearing a dress. On the way home he would stop in at a lumber yard and build her a step block that he could put behind the seat.

  Getting out shouldn’t be as bad. He hoped.

  When she had set herself upright and was seated properly, he pushed the door closed and ran around to the driver’s side.

  She didn’t fasten her seat belt until after he’d fastened his. The second he started the motor, she pushed the button to lower the window.

  He made sure not to make any sudden moves, just as when he came across an injured or distressed animal.

  “We’ll be there in a couple of minutes. It’s only a few blocks.”

  She turned and gave him a very forced smile that was so tight he wondered if it hurt. “It’s okay.”

  It was probably the longest four minutes in history by the time he parked. At least they hadn’t caught a red light.

  He sat with his hand on the key as she pushed the button to roll up the window. The second it was up, he shut the motor off and got out, giving her as much time as she needed to slide out.

  He stood back until her toes finally touched the ground.

  “Are you okay?”

  She gave him a shaky smile. “Yeah. I am. Thank you for being so understanding.”

  He shrugged his shoulders. “It’s not a big deal.” At least it wasn’t to him. But he couldn’t imagine being so scared of anything that it would disrupt his life and relationships with others the way it had Daphne’s.

  “There shouldn’t be many people in there at this hour. We should get served quickly.”

  Daphne nodded. “We can’t be too long. I don’t want my car to get towed when I’m not there.”

  “It won’t be. But we both have to be up early for work tomorrow, so we shouldn’t be too long.”

  Sure enough, once inside they were seated immediately, and placed their orders. Once the server was out of earshot, Cory cleared his throat. “How were you today at the pool? I mean, without your glasses on. I never asked how well you can see without them. You seemed to be doing fine, but I don’t really know.”

  “I can’t read without them, and I lose details. In an emergency I could probably still drive, and I certainly don’t bump into things. Why do you ask?”

  “I was just wondering what would happen if you lost your glasses, how much you could see.”

  “Did that answer your question?”

  “Yes.” But not really. His real question was about how helpless she would be, and the answer was that she wouldn’t be totally helpless, but her vision was impaired. Sometimes the details were important—especially when trying to provide a description to the police.

  He reached into his pocket. “I brought this for you, in case you ever need it.”

  He put the can on the table and waited.

  She picked it up. “Bear spray? Isn’t this illegal?”

  Cory grinned. “Nope. In some states it’s restricted, but here in Washington it’s not restricted for personal protection for those over the age of eighteen.”

  Daphne shook it to feel the weight. “But I don’t walk anywhere alone at night.”

  “It’s not just for walking alone in bad neighborhoods in the middle of the night. Lots of women have it for any time they are walking anywhere alone, including if you work late and you’re going through the parking lot alone in the dark.”

  She stared at the can. “Where did you get this? This is hard to get.”

  He gave her a weak smile. “I work where there’re bears. It’s regular stock. I bought it from the supplier. I got you the small size. The can I carry sometimes is pretty big.”

  Her face paled. “Have you ever had a bear try to attack you? Have you ever used it?”

  Cory shook his head. “No. If you treat bears with respect and don’t encroach on their territory, they’re okay. The problems are when they get too used to people, or worse, when people leave food out for them.”

  She stared at the can and began to read the warning label. “This is bad stuff.”

  “I know. But it’s not going to cause permanent injury. Usually all you have to do is aim it and a potential attacker will back off. Which means, if you’re ever in a situation that you might need it, it’s got to be handy. You can’t tell someone to wait while you dig it out of your purse, like I’ve seen you do with your cell phone. You have to either have it already in your hand, or in an outside pocket of your purse, when you can reach your purse in seconds. Otherwise it’s not going to do you any good.”

  “Thank you. I don’t know what to say. I feel better already.”

  He didn’t want to say that for her situation it wouldn’t have done any good, being a date-rape situation where she knew and trusted the guy. It was only meant to improve her confidence, which right now, was the biggest hurdle.

  She reached for her purse, opened it and put the can inside. “This is great, except I don’t have an outside pocket on my purse. So you know what that means.”

  She looked up at him and smiled. The first really joyful smile he’d seen since he’d started seeing her again. Her beautiful eyes lit up, showing mix of browns like different shades of chocolate. Her smile brought out a dimple in her cheek he hadn’t known she had.

  She jerked her head, tossing a few strands of her full-bodied hair out of her eyes, for a few seconds making it fluff behind her as though a summer wind had touched it.

  Then she looked into his eyes. Really looked. As though he was the only thing in her world that mattered.

  Her gorgeous smile was for him and him alone.

  He nearly went into cardiac arrest.

  It was difficult to speak. “No,” he choked out. “I don’t know. What does it mean?”

  She pressed the clasp to her purse shut and patted the top of it. “It means we have to go to the mall tomorrow.”

  Before he could respond, the server appeared with their orders. “Here you go. I don’t mean to rush you, but we close in twenty minutes. Enjoy.”

  Daphne kept smiling at him even after the server left, making it hard for him to think.

  If only she could smile at him like that another time.

  He cleared his throat. “As nice as it is to have something to help with self-defense, there are times when that won’t be enough. Like when you’re caught completely off guard and you don’t have those two seconds it takes to get the spray out, even if it is in an outside pocket. I’ve been checking around, and I found a place that teaches women some basic self-defense stuff. It teaches you what to do to escape when you can’t overpower.”

  As expected, the more he talked, the more her smile faded. “I’ve seen ads in the paper for stuff like that. They seem kind of scary.”

  “The wife of one of the other rangers teaches a session, and I talked to him about it. I’ve met her a few times. It’s probably good because even though she’s not as short as you, she’s still pretty small.” And, he didn’t want to say it out loud, besides being short, Tyler’s wife was also a little overweight and likely not a candidate for a physical fitness test. So if Allie could fend off an attacker, then Daphne could, too. “Would you like to try it out?”

  “I suppose I could. It’s probably a good idea. We should start eating so they can close up.”

  While they ate they talked about some of the antics at the pool, including Daphne scolding him for the cannonball that had gotten him kicked off the rope swing.

  He left a bigger tip than usual and paid the bill, and again found himself watching Daphne struggle to get into his truck without help. This time didn’t seem so awkward, which gave him hope, although he was still going to build a step for her.

  More encouraging, even though she opened the window the second he turned on the motor, she wasn’t so stiff. Although he still didn’t reach toward the CD player. This time she had the bear spray and he didn’t want to be her first victim.

  Hopefully, after the self-defense c
lasses, she wouldn’t have any victims.

  This time they caught the red light on the way to rec center’s parking lot, and it didn’t matter.

  He found a parking spot where she could open the door all the way without hitting another vehicle. After she slid out of his truck, Cory walked her to her car.

  After she unlocked it, she turned to him. “I don’t know what to say. For the first time in six months I’m not so scared of what could happen. I feel like I’m getting back some of the control of my life.”

  He smiled. “Then that’s great.”

  She stepped closer. His heart began to beat faster.

  “Thank you.”

  Just as he opened his mouth, intending to say that she didn’t have to thank him, she shuffled forward, extended her hands slightly and rested her fingertips on his stomach.

  At her touch, he froze, unsure of what to do, but terrified of doing something wrong.

  Since she was right in front of him, looking down, all he could see was the top of her head, the top of the frames of her glasses, and the tip of her nose sticking forward from her hair.

  Transfixed, he watched as she shuffled again until she leaned against him, with her hands pressed on his lower rib cage. Then she turned her head and pressed her cheek to his chest—right over his heart, which was pounding like a freight train.

  He wanted to wrap his arms around her. To lift her up so he could hold her against his chest instead of his stomach.

  He wanted to kiss her.

  Instead his hands trembled as he rested his fingertips to her shoulders and lightly brushed her soft, smooth hair with his thumbs. At his touch she stiffened slightly, then relaxed and leaned against him.

  He’d never been so scared in his life. But at the same time, he didn’t want this moment to end.

  Her hands never left his chest, never went around to his back or even to his waist. They remained on his chest, where she could push if she wanted to.

  He hoped she didn’t want to.

  On the street, a car horn sounded and a male voice hooted through the window then yelled, “Get a room!”