“As a heart attack,” I said. “I’ve tried it my way and I’ve failed. I’m ready to try it your way.”
“Have you called Lance, yet?”
“He’s not up before eleven on weekends.”
“Call him,” she said. “He’ll want to wake up for this. I’ll be there in an hour.”
I’d met Lance, a tenth-grade math teacher, my second year working at Pinewood High School. I fell in love with him at first sight. He’s gorgeous, fit, and a better dresser than me. He’s also gay, and my best friend after Dilly. Dilly loved Lance, but Lance was wary of Dilly. He felt she sometimes took advantage of me or pushed her agenda on me, but he usually only said that after I’ve chosen something she suggested over something he suggested. In any case, I knew him better than she did and I knew he’d kill me if I called him before eleven.
So, I didn’t call him. I turned on the T.V. and watched the news until Dilly knocked on my door. She bustled inside, shaking the rain off. She’d left her umbrella on the porch, but the rain was coming down sideways, so she’d still gotten wet. “Oh, my god,” she said. She wrapped me up in a big hug and jumped up and down with me. “My baby has finally decided to become a woman.” She held me out at arm’s length. “I’m so very proud of you, Carrie.”
“Don’t go getting too carried away,” I said. “I’m not going to go completely wild. I’ll still be me, just spiced up a bit.”
“Uh-huh,” she said, letting go of me and stepping into my living room. “Where’s Lance?”
“I haven’t called him, yet.”
“Well, call him, sugar. I’m not going back out in that rain for love or money, but it’s supposed to let up after lunch. We’ve got to start planning and we can’t do this without Lance.”
I called Lance and he screeched louder than Dilly had at the news and said he’d be over in an hour. Then, I sat on my couch with Dilly. She may have been up before her normal wake-up, even during the week the library didn’t open until ten, but she looked alert and chipper and happy.
“Okay,” she said. “What brought about this change?”
“Another bad date. I’m not ready to jump on the bandwagon that says I’m cursed, but it couldn’t hurt to take a break and, during that break, I want to have fun. I want to try out being a bit wild and irresponsible.”
“Tell me all about this guy and the date, so I can thank him.”
I groaned. I just wanted to forget about it. “You know Pauly Pickle?”
Dilly scrunched up her nose. “Eww, why would you go out with him? Isn’t he a junkie?”
I gave her a weak smile. “He just looks like a junkie. Not all of us age well, you know. He’s a janitor at the school and he does a good job, he’s very reliable.”
“So you went out with him?”
I snorted. “No, I went out with his younger brother, Ray Pickle. He was kind of cute in high school.”
“Oh, yeah,” she said, her eyes widening. “I forgot about him. He was cute. Is he still cute? What’s he doing now?”
“He’s a clerk at the courthouse,” I said. “And yeah, he’s still kind of cute, but he also dresses like he’s nineteen and he still lives at home with his mother.”
“Oh.” She leaned away from me like my curse might be contagious. “Oh, no. Where’d he take you?”
“Well, he walked to my house, so he could save gas money, and I drove us out to the lake for a picnic.”
She scrunched her nose up and scowled. She was not an outdoorsy girl. “Was he under some delusion that picnics are romantic?”
“If he was, he got it all wrong. The only food he brought was stale bread for the ducks.”
She smiled. She knew me so well. “I can only imagine that went over like a ton of bricks.”
I might get a little bit carried away when it comes to protecting our native wild life, but I don’t think it’s ever wrong to look out for those weaker than ourselves. “He didn’t believe me when I told him bread is bad for ducks. I even showed him an article on my phone about how ducks should eat bugs and weeds. He said it was probably fake news and he was going to feed the bread to the ducks anyway.”
“How cruel!” she said. “Did you show him the pictures of that wing thing they get from a diet of bread? Did you tell him they die?”
“Angel wing. And yes, I did. He didn’t believe me or he didn’t care. I just…I mean…What a monster.”
“Did you tell him about the poisonous algal blooms that too much bread in the pond can cause?”
“I didn’t bother. He clearly wanted to pretend science and fact don’t exist. There was no talking to him. So, I grabbed the bag of bread, dumped it out into the trash can, being sure nothing was left where the ducks could get it, and shut the lid tight.”
“Good for you. I can’t stand a man who thinks he knows everything. What did he do?”
I shook my head, anger I thought I’d buried re-emerging. “He demanded I pay him fifty-two cents for the lost bread and then asked me to take him home.”
“The nerve,” she said. “You left him there and told him to walk home, right?”
I stared at her for a long moment. She was so much harsher than me. “Um, we were six miles from his house, Dilly. I paid him the fifty-two cents and I drove him home. Then I hung out at the bookstore until I felt better and had calmed down.”
“What’d you buy?”
Dilly was almost a bigger book junkie than me. I showed her my purchases and she oohed and aahed over them. I lent her two that I knew I wouldn’t be getting to anytime soon.
“How’s it going with Wayne?” I asked. Dilly liked to pretend she was care-free and uninterested in a serious relationship with anyone, but deep down she was a huge romantic. I might want a husband and a family, but I was realistic about it. Stable family life and passionate romance didn’t go together well, and I knew it was a dreamer’s silly wish to expect to find a man I could trust to care for me and our family and for him to also be someone I loved with any sort of fictional-level romantic attachment. I’d never admit that to Dilly, though, or she’d insist I read her entire collection of romance books.
She pursed her lips and looked away. “It didn’t work out. I didn’t expect it to. We were just having fun.”
Dilly knew that I knew she was a romantic, but it was not something either of us admitted aloud. I knew it hurt Dilly every time one of her romantic hopes was crushed. “What happened? It seemed like you two got along really well.”
She looked down at her hands, picking at the polish on her thumbnail. “Turns out all those trips he was taking for ‘business’ were actually for another woman. You know I don’t date guys who are dating someone else, no matter how casual we are.”
“I know.” If it was me, I’d want sympathy and hugs, but Dilly just liked to pretend the guy had never mattered to her and move on. “It’s good you found out the truth before he got attached and things got messy.”
She stared out the window, her eyes a bit damp. Dilly hated to let anyone, even me, see her sad or disappointed, so I waited until she cleared her throat, swiped at her eyes, and turned to me. “I’ve already forgotten him. And I’m ready to go out and flirt and have some fun with my girl tonight. Chicks before dicks and all that.”
“Gals before guys.”
“Dames before dudes.”
“Babes before pork steeples.”
She snort-laughed. “I can’t believe you just used the phrase pork steeple.”
I smiled, glad to see her laughing. “Believe it, baby. This is just the beginning of wild, cut-loose, care-free Carrie Harrison.”
She clapped her hands in glee. “Where’s your computer? We need a list for this shopping trip. I don’t want you buying a bunch of clothes you aren’t going to wear this time.”
I took her back to my office and we visited Dilly’s favorite on-line clothing shops until we had a pretty good idea of what sort of clothes I was looking for. I won’t say I was excited about the styles, but I thought I might a
ctually wear the outfits we found. Dilly called it a more classic or traditional style that could still be sexy if I wore it right. And maybe bought clothes with a tighter fit.
Lance showed up an hour later than he said he would, just as we were ready to head out. He brought sandwiches, so we stayed in and ate. And then we went shopping. My first step in my life make-over was to spend a good chunk of the money I’d been saving for new furniture on new clothes. I got three outfits for going out, a slinky, sparkly racer-back top and skinny jeans, a lacy, sheer top and a pair of black pants, and a nearly sheer, low-cut blouse paired with a short, flouncy skirt, as well as two new outfits for work with a closer, more modern fit. I also get my hair done in a more modern, chunkier style, and I even bought my first pair of sky-high heels. I’d probably kill myself in them, but I had great life insurance, so Harrison would benefit.
We got home in time for a late dinner of take-out pizza. Lance and Dilly had also gotten new clothes, so we all dressed and got ready at my place. Dilly talked me into wearing my most daring new outfit, the sheer lacy top. It was long-sleeved and high-necked, but it revealed my midriff and the black bra I wore under it was entirely visible. I fought the urge to cross my arms over my middle and slid on the black pants and my new heels. I looked in the mirror and wasn’t sure I knew who the woman looking back at me was. I swallowed hard. I was a healthy, active twenty-eight-year-old who deserved a night out, who deserved to have fun. I put on the cute, dangly earrings I’d gotten and went out to the living room to wait for Dilly with Lance.
“You look gorgeous,” Lance said. I swear he had tears in his perfect green eyes. “I always knew you could be this beautiful.”
I scowled. “The appropriate thing to say, Lance, is that I’ve always been this beautiful.”
He didn’t back down an inch. “You were hiding all your beauty under those granny clothes and that uber-responsible attitude. You’re lucky I looked beyond skin-deep or I might never have bothered giving you the time of day.”
“I appreciate your sacrifice.”
“And now it’s all been worth it. You are going to kill it tonight, Miss Carrie.”
“As are you, Sir Lance.” He was looking very fine in a button-down shirt that fit him just so, and tailored pants. “I hear you deserve this night out as much as I do.”
He waved a hand. “I’ve seen it before, but it never gets easier, you know?”
Lance had stumbled upon a tenth-grade girl giving an eleventh-grade boy a blow job. He’d had to haul them both to the principal’s office. It wasn’t anything we all didn’t know went on, but it was never easy seeing it firsthand. As much as those kids thought of themselves as adults, they were children to us. “I do know. Liza said the girl is Edie Woods. She’s creating quite a reputation for herself.”
Lance frowned. “Liza will talk to her, of course, but I get the impression things aren’t so good for Edie outside of school. We can’t go home with them, you know.”
“Sometimes I wish I could just adopt them all.”
“In happier news,” he said. “Shane is doing great. He’s really found his niche giving guitar lessons to freshmen and leading the brand-new rock and rollers club.”
It was a dorky name, but it seemed to be drawing quite the interest. Shane was an eleventh-grade boy who’d been bullied for being gay by several older kids in the school. He was in a dark place, but Lance had stepped in and helped him find ways to make school a more enjoyable experience. Of course, the bullies had been punished, but that was no guarantee they’d leave Shane alone. The guitar lessons and the club had elevated Shane’s self-confidence and he seemed like a much happier kid.
“You did good, Lance.” I stepped over and gave him a hug. “All the kids are lucky to have you.”
“How’s Kayla doing?”
“Not good.”
“I’m ready to go,” Dilly shouted. She stepped into the living room in four-inch stilettos and a skin-tight dress that barely covered her ass and put her cleavage on full-display.
“You do know we’re just going to Philistine’s, right?” Lance said. Philistine’s was a nice club near the college, but it was more laid-back than Dilly’s outfit.
“That just means everyone will be looking at me.”
Lance rolled his eyes at me. “Of course. What was I thinking?”
“I’ll just run next door and tell Cody we’re ready to go,” Dilly said.
“Okay,” I said, before her words sank in. She was halfway to the door, when I grabbed her elbow and pulled her back. “What did you just say?”
Her lips curled up in what Lance called her evil witch smile, and I knew she was up to something. “I bumped into him when I carried your trash out after lunch. He said he would love to join us tonight.”
My heart flipped and my stomach roiled with nerves. The last time I’d seen him, I’d been running away as fast as I could after I’d woken up clinging to him like a sex-starved spinster. My cheeks heated at the memory and I just couldn’t…I couldn’t face him. In large part, because it had felt beyond good to wake up wrapped around him, a very important part of his anatomy hard and heavy against my thigh. “He’s a jerk,” I said. “Why let him ruin our night?”
Dilly waved her hand. “You want to have fun? That man has fun written all over him in big letters. Seriously, if you don’t want him I’d be more than happy to take him off your hands.”
Something bright and white hot flashed through me and I had a sudden vision of just how happy he’d be to see Dilly in that revealing outfit on his porch. My stomach roiled again and I felt worse at that idea than I’d felt at the mention of him joining us. Was I actually jealous? Oh, no. No, no, no. Carrie Matilda Harrison had better control of her emotions than that. Carrie Matilda Harrison would not let emotions get involved with the deadbeat Neanderthal next door. “I’ll go tell him we’re ready,” I said, my mouth disagreeing with my brain.
Dilly frowned. “Don’t you dare un-invite him, Carrie.”
“I would never do something so rude.” I marched out the front door, down the porch steps and over to Cody’s door before Dilly could stop me.
I rang the bell and waited, tapping my toe on his wraparound porch. He really did have the best porch. Cody flung the door open and froze, his eyes raked over me with a heat that made me tingly all over. I was also frozen because he looked amazing. He was wearing his typical t-shirt and jeans, but the shirt was a little more fitted than usual and his jeans were dark and had a bit of a shine to them. His rugged belt did not match his equally rugged boots, but it didn’t matter, the whole package was mouth-watering.
He cleared his throat and my eyes rose to his face again. He was clean-shaven for the first time since I’d met him and his hair was slicked back like he’d just gotten out of the shower, only a few strands slipped over his forehead and into his face. “See something you like?”
“Not a thing.” I put my hands on my hips and forced a frown. What the hell was wrong with me? I did not find him attractive. He was entirely wrong for me. “You?”
His eyes roamed over me again and I repressed a shiver. “Dilly said you were trying a new look. It suits you.”
“Thanks.” I was thrown off guard by his sincere compliment and hated that the word came out a bit breathless. “You and Dilly seem to have become fast friends.”
“That a problem?”
I bit my lip, considering, and his eyes zoomed to my mouth, making it very, very hard for me to think. Was it a problem that he and Dilly were now friends who discussed me behind my back? Hell, yes, but he didn’t need to know that. “It’s fine,” I said. “But you should probably know that she just got out of a messy relationship, and I don’t want you getting the wrong idea. She’s really not ready to be dating or…Whatever…” I was totally lying through my teeth. What in the ever-loving hell was wrong with me? It was just that the idea of him making a move on Dilly right in front of me…Because he wasn’t good enough for her, of course. Not because I was jealous.
His mouth twisted into a frown. “I’ve got no intention of making a move on your friend. Are you saying you don’t want me to go out with y’all tonight?”
“Well, of course it’s not that I don’t want you to join us,” I said. “It’s just that—”
“Great.” He stepped through the doorway and brushed by me, pulling the door shut behind him. “Let’s go. You can ride with me.”
“Well, no, actually I was going to ride with Dilly and Lance.”
His lips pulled into a dramatic frown. “Well, I can’t go alone. I’m new around here and I don’t know my way to the club. I didn’t think you’d want Dilly to ride with me, but—”
“Oh, for the love of moles and molehills. I’ll ride with you. I’ll just tell the others to meet us there.”
I went back to my house and told Lance and Dilly the plan. Dilly looked way too happy with the arrangement, and I got the distinct impression I’d just fallen into one of her traps.
Cody was already in his truck, the engine humming. Before I reached his driveway, though, he hopped out, jogged around the front, and opened the passenger door for me.
I accepted his help up and onto the high seat and buckled my belt while he closed the door. His nice manners had struck me a bit dumb, but by the time he’d rounded the front of the truck, I’d reminded myself of all the times he’d been severely lacking in manners.
He pulled to the end of his driveway. “Which way?”
Dilly and Lance had already gone, so I couldn’t tell him to follow them. “Take a right and then another right out of the neighborhood.”
We rode in silence, except for me giving him directions, and pulled up in front of Philistine’s ten minutes later. Philistine’s was an old warehouse that had been converted on the inside, but the outside was pretty much untouched. “Nice place,” Cody said.
“It’s better inside.” There were lots of people heading inside and it was hard not to feel the buzz of anticipation and energy in the air and get excited. I jumped out and met Cody at the front of the truck. He took my hand and it felt good, natural and warm. I should have dropped it, but it had been a long time since I’d been out to a club and I was more than a little nervous. It felt good to have him by my side, unflappable, clearly used to an active night-life.
The Deadbeat Next Door Page 7
