Page 13 of Midnight Serenade
“Yeah? Like, noticed how?”
His chuckle warmed my heart. It told me I was overstepping, but he didn’t mind so much. Whew. Crisis averted.
His tone became suddenly accusing. “Is she there with you!”
Umm, backpedal, backpedal! “Rafe, yes or no. It’s a simple question.” I could avoid outright accusations like nobody’s business. Distract! Deflect!
He groaned. “She’s beautiful,” he said with a sigh. “I’ve wanted to ask her out for forever now. That’s why I was extra prickly about your dumb book.”
“My books are not dumb!” I said indignantly.
“Sorry, love. You know what I meant.”
“Does that mean you’ll pick us up at my suite in a few minutes?”
“Us?” he squawked, then cursed. “Do you mean to tell me that Micaela is sitting right there, listening to our conversation?” he asked with a growl.
I looked at Micaela, who was staring at me wide-eyed, her mouth gaping, looking like maybe I would need to treat her for shock soon. Was it raise the feet to heart level, or raise the feetaboveheart level? I could never remember.
“Umm... yes?” I cringed, waiting for him to curse at me. But he didn’t.
He chuckled. “You’re trouble, you know that?”
“Only the best kind, I swear!”
He chuckled again. “I’ll pick you guys up in ten.”
I set the walkie down on the nightstand and used a random magazine to fan Micaela. “Don’t swoon on me, girl. You’ve got a date. You need to get ready.”
She panicked and put the cheese platter down with athump.“I don’t have time to run to my room; what am I going to wear?”
I eyed her. “We look like we’re close to the same size, except for our height difference. Let me see what I can find.”
I opened my closet and looked through my cocktail dresses. My black lace dress hit below my knees. It might work for Micaela. I pulled it out and hurried to her. “Wear this one. It should fit. Use my makeup and hair products.” When Micaela just sat there, not moving, I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked directly into her eyes. “I should have checked. Are you okay with this?”
She nodded, still wide-eyed.
“Thenmove,woman! Go get ready!”
She jumped up like someone had rammed her with a cattle prod, then dashed into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. Kazi growl-roared, and she shrieked, then opened the door to let the cat out. He’d been asleep in the bathtub. Kazi prowled toward me and licked my bare leg, then he made a face and sneezed. I laughed at him. “It’s lotion. I bet it tastesawful!”
Micaela came out, trying to pull the hem of the dress down. “Holy—Micaela, you look hot!”
She scowled at how much leg was showing. The dress only hit her mid-thigh, as she was quite a bit taller than I was, but it fit everywhere else perfectly, showcasing her curvy figure.
“What size shoe are you? I have big feet, so I doubt we wear the same size.”
She gave up on the hemline and looked down at her bare feet. “I’m a ten.”
“Yeah you are, girl! Just keep that in mind.”
She made a face at me, and I chuckled. I thought sometimes that being a writer had made me quirky over the years, and it had also had given me an odd sense of humor, which had only gotten worse as I’d aged.
“You’re in luck. That’s what I wear. Let me dig out my black heels for you.”
When we were appropriately gussied up, Rafe knocked on our door. Kazi opened it, and Rafe gave him a friendly pat before he looked up. He saw Micaela andstopped. He stopped moving, and he even looked like he’d stopped breathing. I wanted to remind him he had to breathe, but didn’t want to break the magic that was happening right before my eyes. Oh my gosh! I was an awesome matchmaker!
My cynical side warned me to wait a while and let their relationship progress before I started slapping myself on the back, but I chose not to listen. Who needed cynicism anyway?
