Dating A Silver Fox (Never Too Late)
Dating A Silver Fox
Book Five of the
Never Too Late
Series
by
Donna McDonald
* * * * *
Copyright 2012 by Donna McDonald
Cover by LFD Designs for Authors
Edited by Toby Minton
Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to the author and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the author's work.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is coincidental.
This book contains content that may not be suitable for young readers 17 and under.
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Acknowledgements
Thanks to all those who participated and voted in the “Name The Baby” contest. Thanks to Joely Dabson for the winning name of “James Davis”. JD turned out to be quite the little character. I hope you all enjoy him
Thanks to the book groups of Defiance, Ohio for their input on a “Sexy 60” cover. I spit popcorn all over my computer laughing at your feedback on my choices.
Thanks to Karen Lawson for ‘accidentally’ submitting the entry I loved and could actually find and purchase. And thanks to all who submitted to the Sexy 60 contest
Special Thanks To Nicole Dadone
I would like to offer a very special thanks to Nicole Daedone and Kim Howerton of
OneTaste
. Nicole Daedone is a leader of the Orgasmic Meditation movement and the author of a very good book called
Slow Sex
where she discusses her thoughts and philosophies on female orgasm in detail.
My introduction to Nicole was
via a TED talk that I blogged about
in February of 2012 when I was researching sexual healing for women, not really intending to use or mention any one technique in my story. But I kept stumbling as I wrote Lydia’s story. I was finding it challenging to try to write in the perspective of an older, sexually stifled woman. At the time, I was specifically looking for an exploration of sexuality that would work for any age and focus on teaching women to value their own pleasure. Growing up in the 1960’s, and having read extensively on practices such as Tantra and the Kama Sutra, accepting Orgasmic Meditation as a creative personal path of sexual exploration wasn’t much of a stretch for me. You can make up your own mind.
I need to also seriously thank Kim Howerton, who works with Nicole, for patiently answering all my emails and for beta reading the parts of the manuscript containing references and hints about OM, humorous as I sometimes made them out to be between my struggling characters who were looking into it as a way to connect emotionally as well as physically.
My heroine, Lydia, is probably luckier than most real women. If she had been willing in the story to practice OM, Lydia would not have had to look further than my hero, Morrie. But instead Lydia is resistant to the idea of her own pleasure, of deserving her own pleasure, as are many women. In the story, I was thrilled with every tiny achievement Lydia and Morrie made on their path to getting together.
No—I haven’t forgotten that my story is fiction. I just know there
are
women like Lydia in the real world, women who think it’s too late to have the life they want, the love they want, the sexuality they want. Opening up to finding a path of healing—whatever that path happens to be—is one of the bravest things a person can ever do.
I am grateful there are people like Nicole who are willing to share their ideas with the rest of us.
Dedication
This book is for Linda Elliot who read the entire Never Too Late series and then wrote me in August of 2011 to tell me Lydia McCarthy’s negative attitude problem would be greatly fixed if she ‘got laid’. I never intended to fix Lydia when I created her, but a person—even an author—should never say never.
I hope you think the situation works out well for Lydia.
And yes, I still really believe it’s never too late for love and romance
Chapter 1
“Good evening, Mrs. McCarthy. I have a table for one available right now if you’re ready,” the hostess said.
Lydia nodded, deftly avoiding eye contact with the curious gazes of two couples waiting for a larger table. Widowed in her mid-forties, she had long ago grown accustomed to the pitying looks she received dining alone. At sixty-seven, the remaining discomfort was minimal.
She drew herself up to her full five-foot-six height and exhaled loudly at their rudeness, making sure they heard. Normally, she would have said something to dissuade them of openly expressing unwanted sympathy, but miscellaneous confrontations tended to ruin her dinner.
“Red wine, Mrs. McCarthy?” Andrea asked pleasantly, stepping around the hostess who had fled after pulling out the older woman’s chair.
Andrea had been watching for her twice-weekly regular customer, not because she liked the woman and looked forward to serving her, but because kowtowing deference was simply expected. She had learned that the first time she’d served Mrs. McCarthy and received a hand written note with a list of improvements instead of a cash tip.
“Yes. Thank you, Andrea,” Lydia replied formally, stiffening in her seat as the two couples from the lobby ended up at the table for four next to her. She shook her head over the bad judgment of the hostess, steeling her nerves to deal with the distraction they were sure to cause. Their current jabbering and laughter did not bode well.
“Chicken Alfredo, Mrs. McCarthy? It’s excellent tonight,” Andrea suggested, already writing it down, because this was Tuesday and she had long ago committed the meal rotation to memory. As the newest server on alternating evening shifts, she had inherited the unfortunate honor of always taking Mrs. McCarthy’s table on her nights. Tips were better in the evening, but sometimes she was glad to serve at lunch instead. She made sure to have days when the bitter woman never came by.
Schooling her expression into a patient smile, Andrea kept her eyes trained on the menu as Mrs. McCarthy pretended to study it as if there might be something more appealing. It was a truth that the complaining woman had turned her into a better server, but her sorority hazing hadn’t been as bad on her personal self-esteem. Now all Andrea could do was pray for a newer server to join the evening shift and relieve her torture.
“Fine. I’ll have the Chicken Alfredo. Please make sure it doesn’t sit too long before you bring it out this time. It was practically iced over when I got it last week. There’s nothing worse than hardened Alfredo sauce on cold, slimy pasta,” Lydia said, her attention drawn once more to the laughing group at the next table.
Oh there’s worse, Andrea thought bitterly jotting down an obedient reminder on her pad, tightening her face at the rebuke until her fake smile actually hurt her cheeks.
“Yes, Ma’am. I will watch the timing tonight,” she said, turning with a quiet sigh of relief to leave.
“Andrea?” Lydia called, rolling her eyes in exasperation.
“Yes?” Andrea asked, turning back and hoping like hell her irritation over the delayed escape wasn’t showing because she needed her job.
Lydia handed her distracted server the folded menu that she’d forgotten to take away. “Are you feeling okay this evening? You seem a bit preoccupied.”
“I’m fine. Thank you for asking,” Andrea said politely, biting the inside of her jaw.
“Try to get some extra sleep, dear. Young people don’t realize how much a lack of sleep affects their mental capacities,” Lydia said, eyes darting again at the loud, bright laughter just beyond her as the sommelier arrived to pour the first glass of wine.
“Yes, Mrs. McCarthy. I’ll keep that in mind,” Andrea said, turning again and walking quickly away before the woman could stop her with another lecture.
Lydia frowned at the noise level caused by the incessant laughter that kept erupting from the group next to her. With their gray hair announcing their aging process, both couples looked to be close to sixty.