Page 52 of Class Act

Ford laughed, and Wesley cleared his throat to cover a spot of amusement that I was very pleased to have caused.

“It’s not every day I scare a computer to death,” Ford said with a grin.

His expression lit me up inside, and I wanted to keep sassing and goading him. It was thrilling somehow, an element I’d never experienced with a man before.

“Hillary was right; you look good,” he said.

Oh. I was suddenly breathless.

“Daddy.” Hillary was back by my side, and I stepped back, lengthening the distance between Ford and me. “Some of the tadpoles are growing legs.”

Ford walked with her to take a look, and I watched them go, noticing once again how nice he was to look at. And he never did what I expected him to do--which was exhilarating but also so, so scary. I was constantly off balance around him.

When the family of three returned to my side of the room, Hillary and Henry said quick goodbyes and took off. Ford, however, paused at the doorway and shot me a full smile that had my fingertips tingling.

“Until next time?”

It seemed silly to pretend we’d never see each other again, and a little ill-behaved piece of me was happy that whatever this was, it wasn’t over yet. He’d asked me about kissing. If that wasn’t an opening in the armor, I didn’t know what was.

I nodded and replied, “I’ll be ready.”

So, so ready.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

My friends and I were seated around what we considered our round table in a back corner of our favorite Mexican restaurant a few days later. Back here the music wasn’t quite as loud, and we could stick around for a while. The smell of peppers and seared meat floated to us from the open kitchen, and I reached for the chips and salsa when I was sure everyone else had taken some. We always came straight from school in the late afternoon. The beauty of being in our thirties is that we’d stop caring about appearing “old” and openly admitted that we didn’t want to wait in a line to be seated. And we wanted to be home early enough to slap on stretchy pants, flop on the couch, and enjoy the ice cream pint we’d been saving.

“You know who’s kind of cute?” I asked once I’d swallowed my mouthful. “Wesley, the computer guy at school.”

I’d been toying with adding him to my list of potential date options. Ford was number one, of course, and I wouldn’t pull the trigger on dating Wesley if he continued to show signs of warming up. But, on the off chance that Ford retreated back into his protective shell, Wesley could be fun to get to know better.

Meredith shook her head and took a chip from the basket. “Nah. Too fair, too thin, too . . . vanilla for my taste.”

Lizzie laughed. “You’d only like a guy if he was dark and hairy and came swinging a club at you.”

We all chuckled as Meredith rolled her eyes. “I’d club him back.”

“Exactly,” Aryn responded. “That’s your kind of love talk. Mutual clubbing.”

“Good grief,” Meredith sighed.

“If we’re wrong, then tell us how things are going with Brooks VanOrman and the second annual show of horrors?” Ruby said as her head popped up over her menu. Her eyes nearly disappeared as she grinned at Meredith. “Halloween does seem to be your favorite time of year to haunt the man.”

“Okay, first of all, last year was his first year as HOA president, and it was a happy accident when I realized he was upset about my outdoor Halloween decor,” Meredith replied.

“Was he upset? Or were other neighbors upset, and he came to see you on their behalf?” Aryn asked.

“Brooks VanOrman speaks on behalf of the neighborhood, so it’s one and the same.” Meredith scooped up some salsa and crunched on it.

“Can you get kicked out of your condo over this stuff?” Lizzie asked with concern as she sipped her sarsaparilla.

“I doubt it.” Meredith’s face grew thoughtful before she shook her head firmly. “No. I haven’t crossed any actual boundaries.”

“Good. Then I’ll still come over tomorrow with my Halloween stuff so we can get you set up right.”

Lizzie’s grin was kind of scary, and I shared an amused glance with Aryn before circling back. “Okay, but back to Wesley,” I said. “He came to fix my computer during parent teacher conferences last week. He didn’t say much, but he seems nice. My blind date with Shane didn’t go well, but I’m wondering if Wesley might be a candidate. Anyone know if he’s single?”

“Actually.” Aryn did a little head bop, and her cheeks grew pink, which had us all zoning in, frozen mid-chew, to see what she’d say. “Wesley and I went to high school together. We, uh, sang in the concert choir and kind of knew each other.”

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