“Yeah, but…” Your mom wouldn’t like her. What the hell was he supposed to do? Stay single forever?
Maybe so. To avoid situations like this one.
He didn’t know how it happened, but later, as the girls were tackling their homework at the dining room table, he found himself looking up the number for Dermamania on Google. Then staring at it for a good five minutes. What could it hurt? She’d mentioned a next time, even offering to bring temporary hair color for the girls. He’d told her he wanted to see her again, and he meant it. But he’d told Shelly it wouldn’t go anywhere. Dammit. And, of course, Ash and Mia would run home and tell their mom about Starla doing their hair. Then they would want her to do it again. And it would start all over. He was fooling himself if he thought it would ever end once it got started.
He dialed the number anyway, lightly banging his head back on the couch and silently cursing himself for an idiot. A girl answered, too chipper to be Starla. Starla had a lower, throatier quality to her voice that he liked. A voice that sounded like it could purr extremely dirty things in his ear.
Somehow, he managed to get his thoughts back on track and ask for her. A murmured conversation transpired as the phone was passed over, then, “Yeah?” was her cautious greeting. For some reason, it brought a smile to his face.
“Hey,” he said. “It’s Jared.”
His smile only widened as her voice brightened considerably. “Oh, hey! How are you?”
“I’m good. I hope it’s okay to call you at work. I never did get your number. If you even wanted to give it to me, I mean.” Shit. He was already making a butchery of things.
“No, it’s fine. That you called me. And that you want my number. I’ll give it to you. But you can call me here too, it’s okay.” He heard her draw a deep breath. At least she sounded as rattled as he felt. “I’m sorry, I just wasn’t expecting to hear from you.”
All at once, shame burned in his chest. He’d told her he wanted to see her again, and then, like an asshole, he hadn’t followed through. He’d broken that trust. Well, never again, everyone else be damned. Clearing his throat, he pushed on. “Listen, you mentioned bringing some stuff over to color the girls’ hair, and they’re asking, so I was just wondering…”
He had to cringe at how lame it sounded, but she bailed him out. “Yeah, sure! Just name a day.”
“Are you off Sunday?”
“Yep.”
“Six?”
“Great. No church?”
“I think we can take a night off.”
“Ooh, naughty. I like it. I’m already corrupting you.” He fidgeted at the tightening in his jeans. The way she said that… Apparently, the sudden blood diversion from his brain to his dick caused a short circuit. His mouth began saying things he hadn’t given it permission to.
“I don’t mean for you to think they’re the only reason I’m inviting you over.”
“Don’t worry. I saw it for the convenient excuse that it was.” She chuckled, and he almost felt guilty for the surge of lust that shot through him. When the hell had this turned sexy? He hadn’t meant it to.
“I’ll see you Sunday, then.”
She gave him her cell phone number, which he jotted down after leaping into the dining room and stealing pen and paper from Mia’s backpack. Both girls watched him with wary Dad-has-lost-his-mind expressions. He and Starla said their farewells, and he hung up, still under the watchful eyes of his daughters.
“What?” he asked them, and they quickly cast their gazes back down to their work. With a grin, he turned and walked out the door with one final statement. “Starla’s coming over Sunday.”
A duet of “Yay!” erupted behind him.
***
She showed up with a homemade pizza and another fresh batch of huge chocolate chip cookies. And, if possible, she looked even more beautiful than she had the last time he saw her. All in black: a long, loose top over tight jeans and tall boots. The stark contrast to her platinum hair, board-straight tonight with its pink and turquoise, was striking. He might have stared a little longer than he should have when he answered the door.
“You didn’t have to do this,” he said as she laid everything out in the dining room, amazed that she had done so. And that she had remembered how the girls had pestered her for pizza.