14. Frannie
After dinner,Andrew suggested we go somewhere to look at the stars. I’d been battling to keep my eyes open after my second glass of wine, so as much as I wanted to figure out if we had the possibility of a long-term future together, I had to beg off and tell him I was too wiped after my big move.
“Don’t worry, we’ll do it another time,” he said as he pulled up in Evan’s driveway. “You’ve had a busy couple of weeks. I hope you can sleep in tomorrow.”
“I have zero plans tomorrow except to settle in and get caught up on a few shows.” I turned to study him in the low light from the dashboard. He was easy on the eyes. With the dark hair and blue eyes most of the Stewarts were known for, looking at him definitely wasn’t a hardship. I tried to picture what he’d look like standing at the end of an aisle in a tux. He’d look good in wedding pictures, that was for sure.
“Can I walk you to the door?” he asked.
My face flamed as I knocked the images out of my mind. Nothing like jumping ahead. He hadn’t even kissed me yet, and there I was, picturing him getting ready to exchange vows.
“Maybe we could say goodnight here.” I glanced at the front window, wondering what Evan was up to inside. The light was on in the main room, so he’d either left it on for me and had already gone to bed or was waiting up for me. The clock on Andrew’s dash showed it wasn’t even ten. What kind of woman cut a date with a good-looking guy short and wanted to go home before ten o’clock on a Saturday night?
I was so busy thinking about how lame I was that I didn’t see Andrew lean over until his face was only an inch or two from mine. He was going in for the kiss. I should have anticipated it. A million thoughts raced through my head. Was my breath okay? Did I have steak trapped in my teeth? Should I keep my eyes open or shut them tight?
Then his lips were on mine, soft and warm. I waited for the butterflies. They didn’t come. What the hell was wrong with me? I was being kissed by an attractive, mature man who checked all of my boxes, and I got… nothing.
Maybe I was just tired? Definitely. Overthinking things? For sure. Any spark that might be trying to ignite in my belly had probably been doused in a torrent of debilitating worry. That’s all this was. First kisses had so much pressure resting on them. It was best to get it over with and out of the way to make room for the second kiss, and then the third. That’s when the magic would happen.
Andrew pulled back first. No telling how long I would have sat there with my lips glued to his while I considered every possibility as to why the butterflies in my gut had decided to hibernate tonight.
“Thanks for a great evening.” His smile held enough warmth to make my toes tingle, yet they stayed tingle-less.
“Thank you. I enjoyed seeing the art exhibit, and dinner was amazing.” I returned the smile, feeling like a distant observer who was watching two strangers end a date. Emotionless, I went through the motions of picking up my purse, opening the door, and leaning down for one last look at Andrew before he pulled away.
“I’ll call you tomorrow.” His brows rose, anticipating a reply.
“That sounds great.” With a final smile, I closed the door. Then wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the chill in the air while he disappeared down the drive.
Pete the Dog barely lifted his head when I walked in the front door. He was sitting on the couch, his paws tucked under his chin, right next to Evan.
“Hey, how was your big date?” Evan muted the TV and looked at me, his face full of expectation.
“It was fine.” Ugh. Fine was the kiss of death. “I mean, I had a good time.”
Evan’s head tilted, and he studied me with narrowed eyes. “So, it was good, or it was fine?”
“Both. It started out fine and then ended good.” I kicked off my shoes and bent down to pick them up.
“I didn’t expect you to be back so early.”
“It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, I get that. Do you have anything going on tomorrow? Maybe we can take Pete the Dog out on one of the trails.” Evan looked so comfortable wedged into the corner of the couch, his big body sprawled onto the chaise part of the sectional and one hand resting on Pete the Dog’s back. A little voice inside my head urged me to crawl onto the couch next to him and let him snug an arm around me while I fell asleep.
“Um, no plans. I was hoping to get caught up on some sleep. Can we play it by ear?” Hiking sounded good, but at the moment, I was too tired to make plans. Just walking the couple dozen steps to the bedroom and changing into my pajamas seemed like a Herculean task.
“Sure. Just let me know early. I’ve got dinner with the family tomorrow night. You’re welcome to come if you want. Mom wanted to make sure I invited you.” His grin took on an apologetic slant. “She said it’s been too long since you’ve come over for a Sunday dinner.”
My heart warmed at the idea of Evan’s mom thinking about me. She’d always been like a second mother, since I spent almost just as much time at the Bishops as I did at home. “I need to visit my dad tomorrow, but if we can work it in, I’d love to say hi to your family.”
Growing up, Evan’s house was the complete opposite of mine. As an only child, my home was always quiet. Evan loved coming over because he didn’t have to share the remote control with his brothers or take turns playing video games. My mother doted on him, too. She almost always had a fresh plate of cookies waiting after school and my dad always had time to toss the football or baseball around with him.
And I loved going to his house even more than he loved spending time at mine. There was always something going on over there. His older brothers would sometimes let us go fishing down at the creek with them or tag along to the swimming hole. While my parents tended to be overprotective, his mom and dad gave the boys more freedom.
As we got a little older, Ruby came along. She was like the little sister I’d always wanted and never had. Then I left for college and Evan moved away. When I came back to town, I stopped over a few times, but it wasn’t the same. Evan was the glue that made being around his family so special. I’d missed that, especially after my mom passed and I started to lose my dad.
“You want me to put a movie on? I can make some popcorn,” Evan offered.
That sounded like just what I needed. If I tried to go to bed, I’d probably lie there for hours, processing through every second of the evening I’d spent with Andrew.
“That sounds good. I’ll probably fall asleep though,” I warned.
“Wouldn’t be the first time you started snoring on me during a movie.” Evan patted the couch near Pete the Dog’s head. “Come on, dog. Make room for Frannie.”
“I’m going to change first. A movie means I get to wear my pjs, right?”
“Absolutely. Bring on the fugly flannel pants.” Evan got up to head to the kitchen. He must have been sitting for a long time because his limp was more exaggerated than usual. He tried to hide it, but I could tell his leg was bothering him.
“Want me to get it?”
“Hell no. You go get comfortable, and I’ll make the popcorn. I’ll even do it on the stove the way you like it. Butter and salt, right?”
“Right. Thanks, Ev. I’ll be back out in just a minute.” I was used to dressing up for work, but couldn’t wait to slip on my cozy, comfy pajamas and curl up on the couch.
I flipped on the light and closed the door behind me as soon as I entered the bedroom. My clothes hadn’t been unpacked yet, so I lifted the suitcase onto the bed so I could find my ugliest pair of pajama bottoms. The suitcase wouldn’t sit flat. There was something underneath it, though I hadn’t seen anything when I set it on the bed.
I turned it onto its side and felt around on the colorful comforter. My fingers touched a chunk of something rubbery. If Pete the Dog had chewed up another one of his indestructible toys on my bed, he was going to spend the night on the floor.
But it wasn’t a chunk of chew toy. It was the remains of my Magic Mick. Oh no, no, no, no. My cheeks froze. Ice slithered through my veins and my whole body went cold. I’d hidden Mick in a safe place. How did he end up in pieces in the middle of my bed? I turned toward the closet. Instead of finding the moon pie box on the shelf, it was empty.
How had Pete the Dog reached the closet shelf? I’d never seen him jump that high. Then I looked down. The remains of my moon pie box sat on the closet floor. Maybe hiding my vibrator in a box that used to hold chocolatey treats hadn’t been such a good idea. Still, I couldn’t figure out how the dog had reached the box in the first place.
Oh my god. What if Evan had seen it? The ice on my cheeks gave way to a blazing heat. If the dog had chewed up my vibrator in front of him, surely he would have said something when I walked in the door. That was the kind of incident Evan lived for. He’d be able to tease me about it until the day he died.
Based on how hard my heart thumped in my chest, I might be the one dying first. I wasn’t sure what to be more upset about… the possibility that Evan might have found what I’d been hiding in the closet, or the fact that I’d just lost the only thing that had ever been able to bring me to a toe-curling orgasm.
My heart raced, my cheeks burned, and my mind spun completely out of control. I took a deep breath to pull myself together. If Evan had found my vibrator, he would have started teasing me about it as soon as I walked in the door. It was probably safe to assume the damage had been contained to my bedroom. I could figure out how to find a replacement for Magic Mick after I’d had a good night’s sleep. Maybe if things continued to progress with Andrew, I wouldn’t have to find a replacement at all.
Feeling much more settled, I felt around on the comforter until I’d found every last piece of what used to be Magic Mick. I sealed them in a zippered pouch and whispered a thanks for all the joy he’d brought me over the years before I laid him to rest in the bottom of the trash can. Then I slipped on my ugliest flannel pj bottoms—the ones that looked like a unicorn had thrown up all over them with rainbow stripes and black polka dots and distorted images of My Little Pony knockoffs.
I grabbed a pillow and went out to the family room, bracing myself just in case Evan had been biding his time before he launched into teasing me about my plastic pleasure stick.