Another Saturday Night and I Ain't Got No Body (A Page Turners Novel) (23 page)

Good tipper, without being pretentious.
Maggie appreciated that, as she had worked as a waitress when she was younger. She followed him through the restaurant and out onto the sidewalk.

“Can I walk you to your car?” Jeremy asked.

“I walked. My office is only about three blocks from here.”

“Well, then, can I walk you back to your office?”

“Oh, you don’t have to do that,” she said. “I’m fine, Jeremy.”

“I know, but I want to. I’m not quite ready for our date to end.”

“Me either,” she said softly as her heart tumbled a little further.

“Shall we?” He stuck out his elbow.

“Okay.”

She slipped her arm through his, grinning at his chivalry. He pulled her close to his side and put his hand on top of hers.

“Tell me about your boys,” he said as they began to walk. Jeremy threaded his fingers through hers.

She had forgotten the simple act of holding hands and reveled in the joy of walking down the street with someone by her side, their steps in sync as they meandered down the sidewalk.

The three blocks passed in a blur of laughter, and then they stood outside of her building, neither quite ready to say goodbye.

“I had a great time with you today,” he said.

“Me, too.”

“Please tell me I’ll see you again.”

She laughed. “You
will
see me again.” 

He raised his hand and stroked the side of her face, his fingers twisting gently into her dark hair. “I’m really glad I met you, Maggie.”

A shiver went down her spine as his thumb caressed her cheek. He leaned down and touched his lips to hers. Something deep inside her came alive, and she found herself gripping his shirt as she pulled his face closer and pressed her lips to his. A passion buried within her came bubbling to the surface, and she pressed her body tightly against him. His free arm came around and clutched her, his fingers splaying across her lower back.

She realized they were in front of her office building and pulled free, her breath ragged, and her body instantly missing the warmth of his.

“Well, I better get back to work.” She smoothed down her hair.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to work again,” he teased. “When can I see you next?”

“Soon.” She turned to the door of the building. Then in a flash of very un-Maggie-like spontaneity, she turned back, grabbed Jeremy’s head, pulled him back into a fierce kiss, and pressed herself to his chest. She released him and looked up into his eyes.

“Very soon.” She grinned and, without looking back, disappeared into the offices of Wilson, Benton, Grant, and Hayes.

20

Sunny dipped her finger into the dollop of whipped cream floating in her iced white chocolate mocha. She figured if she could date four different men in one month, she could branch out from her plain vanilla coffee drinks as well. “I liked this book and I love the idea of having an enchanted pair of pants.”

“Maybe if you would have had some magical jeans, Sunny, all that horse manure might not have stuck to your butt,” Edna said with a cackle.

The Page Turners were gathered around a small table in their favorite Starbucks the following Wednesday discussing their latest book choice. They had let Piper choose a book this time around, and she had picked
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants
. It was a coming-of-age novel about four teenage best friends who found a magical pair of jeans in a second hand shop that amazingly fit all of their four different body types and looked good on each of them. The girls shared the jeans, sending them through the mail as they spent their first summer apart from each other. Somehow, the magic of a great pair of jeans spurred their self-confidence and carried them through their separate teenage rites of passage.

Piper had loved the book, Cassie had enjoyed it, Maggie found it boring, and Edna had skimmed the highlights then decided to watch the movie instead.

Sunny had filled the book club in on the adventure of her last date the previous Saturday, before they had delved into the intricacies of the novel. Edna’s last comment produced peals of laughter.

“Maybe if I would have had a magic pair of jeans, one of these dates would be my Prince Charming. Then I wouldn’t be spending my time falling off horses, playing video-games, watching baseball, or upchucking onto my lawn after ingesting too much wine and wasting an evening listening to boring dribble about interest rates,” Sunny said, which sent the girls into another round of hysterical laughter.

“So if
we
found a fabulous pair of jeans that would help all of us,” Piper said, her voice soft and thoughtful, “what would you want them to help you with?” She looked toward her aunt.

Cassie laughed. “I would definitely want some magical, fat-burning jeans that would transform my size sixteen butt into a size twelve butt!”

The women laughed along, but the look on Piper’s face made it obvious that she wanted a deeper, truer answer.

“For me,” Maggie said, looking at Piper, “I would want a pair of jeans like in the book that would give me confidence, that would help me to be able to give my heart away again, and to be able to trust another man.”

Piper’s eyes stayed on Maggie for a moment, then dropped to her lap where she was twisting a gold ring around her thumb. “If I had some magic jeans, I would wear them when I could hang out with my mom all day. We could go shopping, and to lunch, and she would laugh with me again,” she said all in one breath.

Sunny’s heart broke for this precious teenage heart that longed for her mother’s love. She could tell by the tears in Cassie’s eyes, that her friend was feeling the same thing.

“That day may still come,” Cassie said in a soft voice. She took Piper’s hand and squeezed it.

“Hey, I have a great idea,” Sunny said. “This Friday, let’s go to lunch and all go shopping together. We can shop until we find a great pair of jeans for each of us.”

Piper beamed. “Oh, that sounds fun.”

“Since we’re shopping for jeans, let’s wait to eat until
after
we try on clothes,” Cassie suggested. “Then we could go out for supper and maybe see a movie.”

“I can get off by three on Friday, so I’m in,” Maggie said, after checking her schedule on her phone.

“Well, I’m in,” Edna said. “I need to find a marvelous pair of jeans for my date on Saturday night.”

“Your what?” Sunny choked.

“My date.”

“With whom?”

“With Roy, of course. Couldn’t you see we made a love connection that afternoon at the ranch?”

“Roy, as in Levi’s dad?” Piper asked and she wrinkled her nose. “Isn’t he kind of old?”

Edna cackled again. “You’re only as old as you feel, so some mornings I’m about eighty, but some nights I still feel twenty-five
!
Hee. Hee.”

“What are you all doing for your date?” Sunny asked.

“He’s taking me dancing.”

“Oh, fun. Are you going to the dance clubs downtown?” Maggie asked.

“No, we’re going square-dancing.”

“What?” Sunny asked. All of her comments seemed to begin with that word. “What do you know about square dancing?”

“Oh, it can’t be that hard. They have a guy up front yelling at you telling you what to do next. Grab your partner, swing her around,” she sang in a loud sing-song imitation of a square dance caller. “Do-se-do, Promenade, one foot, two foot, red foot, blue foot. You do the hokey pokey, and you turn yourself around, and that’s what it’s all about!”

The two couples seated at the next table gave Edna a round of applause, to which she smiled, batted her eyes, and ate up the extra attention.

“You’re right.” Maggie wiped a tear from the corner of her eye that had eeked out as she laughed at Edna’s rendition of a square dance caller. “That does sound easy enough. You’ll have to let us know how it turns out.”  She laughed easily. Shaking her head, she looked at Sunny as if to say, “Hey, she’s your neighbor.”

“Okay, so we know what Edna is doing Saturday night, but who has a date lined up for Sunny this weekend?” Cassie asked.

They all looked at each other but no one responded.

“Oh, I do,” Sunny said. “His name is Beau, and we have a date with a sofa, a bowl of popcorn, and a movie. Hurray.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Cassie said. “You promised to give us six tries. Doesn’t anybody have any ideas for this weekend?”  She looked at the faces of Maggie, Piper, and Edna, who stared blankly back at her.

“Well, do
you
?” Piper asked.

“Well, no.”

They each picked up their coffee drink and took a sip while Sunny picked at the half-eaten blueberry muffin on the plate in front of her.

“It’s fine, you guys,” she said. “I don’t have to have a date
every
weekend.”

“Shh. We’re thinking.” Cassie stared intently out the front window as if a cute guy might walk by on the sidewalk with a sign reading,
Cute, smart, funny guy looking for a date with a blond
e
, curly-haired, second-grade teacher, who is carrying fifteen extra pounds in her hip area.

“Well, how does a nice, single, thirty-something go about meeting men?” she finally asked.

“Maybe you should go to some of the clubs. There should be a lot of guys there,” Piper suggested.

“Not,” Sunny said. “I’ve gone out dancing with the other teachers before, and it’s a big meat market. You don’t really meet or talk to anyone. It’s a bunch of horny guys looking for one-night stands, and they are not interested in me when a bunch of gorgeous, skinny twenty-something’s are shaking their little bitty butts around on the dance floor. And the cleavage that’s on display is crazy. It makes me want to stand on the stairway above the dance floor and toss coins into the crowd to see how many I can get to land in all the boob-cracks.”

“Oh, we should totally go do that!” Maggie laughed. “That would be hilarious.”

“Okay, so no clubs,” Cassie said, keeping them on task. “How about your church
?
Aren’t there some nice men there?”

Sunny attended church with Edna, and though it was a small chapel with a lovely pastor, attendance was minimal with the Sunday crowd mainly the retired, Social-Security receiving set.

“There are lots of nice men there,” Sunny replied. “But they are all in their eighties. No offense, Edna.”

“None taken,” Edna said. “I don’t want to date any of those old farts either. Those widowers are just looking for someone to feed ‘em, keep track of their pills, and measure out their Metamucil. No thanks.”

Cassie chuckled. “Okay. No clubs and no old men from the church. What about your work?”

“There are four wonderful men at my school, but their wives might not appreciate me trying to date them,” Sunny teased.

“Geez, this is hard. Where are you supposed to meet men if you’re single and work primarily with women?”

“Tara’s mom goes out on tons of dates,” Piper contributed. “She meets them all online.”

“Of course,” Maggie said. “Why didn’t we think of this before
?
A couple of the secretaries at my firm are always talking about online dating.”

“Oh, c’mon guys,” Sunny said. “I don’t know if I’m ready to step into that mess yet. I really am fine hanging out with my dog, and I’ve always got you all.”

Going out with men her friends knew was one thing, but the thought of a complete stranger taking her on a date had Sunny’s chest constrict
ing
with panic.

“Oh, everybody is doing it,” Edna said. “I’ve checked out Cupid.com and the Craig’s List classifieds.”

“You what?” Sunny asked. There was that word again. Edna just seemed full of surprises today.

“It’s fun. You should at least check it out,” Edna said.

“Okay, we’re moving this party to Sunny’s house. Everybody grab your stuff.” Maggie pulled her purse strap onto her shoulder. “Let’s go see if we can find Sunny a match!”

* * *

“Maybe we should try ETranquility.net. I’ve heard they really look for someone that you’re compatible with,” Sunny said. Thirty minutes later, the whole book club crowded around her kitchen table as they waited for her laptop to sign on to the internet.

“You have to answer lots of questions, and then they choose your date. You don’t even get to look at profiles,” Edna explained.

“You should try the cupid one,” Maggie suggested.

Sunny typed in the website address. “All right. Here goes nothing.”

Nothing is what Sunny hoped they would find. How had an innocent conversation over coffee morphed into her searching the internet for cupid’s match?
How pathetic am I that I can’t find my own date?

A black and red screen popped up with cheesy cupids, hearts, and arrows streaming across the page. The words,
Let Cupid shoot an arrow through the heart of your perfect match
,
arced across the screen following the path of an arrow and pierced the heart of an un-naturally good-looking blond fireman.