She’d pulledher dress back on, but it was wrinkled. He liked the fact than anyone she would pass in the hall was going to know damn well what she’d been doing with her Saturdayafternoon.
“I love how organized you are,” he said. Shari was the kind of woman who had casseroles in the freezer. Stuff like that always impressedhim.
He dragged on jeans and a shirt and they headed up to her place, where he tried to forget the fact that the last time he’d been here he’d lostconsciousness.
She went straight to the freezer, so she must be as hungry as he was. “Vegetarian chili? Potato-and-cheese soup? Or…hmm, the label fell off. Mysterycasserole?”
As though he did it every night, he walked to the cutlery drawer and took out knives and forks. “Let’s have mystery casserole. I feel adventurous.” He even remembered where she kept the placemats andnapkins.
“I’ve got wine and beer in the fridge, if you like,” she said, taking the foil cover off the dish and inspecting it. With a shrug she stuck it into themicrowave.
He opened the small freezer above her fridge just to have another look at the neatly stacked casserole dishes. “This isamazing.”
She chuckled. “It’s mostly survival. I’m usually too tired to cook when I get home from work, and who wants to make a full meal for one person? So, since I love to cook, I make a stew, or soup or pasta and freeze it into smaller portions.” She scratched her nose. “It sounds kind of ‘lonely single woman,’ I guess, but it works forme.”
“No.”He shut the freezer door and turned to stare at her. “It’s terrific. I eat way too much take-out because I’m lazy. Well, I also go out a lot because I work alone and live alone. There are days my larynx could fall out while I’m brushing my teeth and I’d never notice. Sometimes I never talk to anyone allday.”
“That sounds like heaven. I’m talking all day—” she grinned “—or yelling for order or listening to hundreds of high school kids. You’ll find out on Tuesday. Your larynx may fall out fromoveruse.”
“I’m looking forward to it.” And amazingly, he was. He was curious to see Shari in her work environment. He had a feeling she’d be a dedicated teacher. He bet she was also the unknowing recipient of a few male teenagefantasies.
She also probably had a busy social life and he was horning in on it. “It’s Saturday night. I’m not keeping you from something, amI?”
“No, I—” She gasped and slapped a hand across her open mouth. “Oh, I forgot. I do have plans. It’s the going-away party for one of the teachers. I can’t believe I almost forgot.” She blushed adorably when she glanced his way. “I’ve had my mind on other things. Chapter seven is a personalfavorite.”
“No problem,” he said, not happy about the tug of disappointment in his belly. He was Mr. Casual. He shouldn’t care that Shari already had plans for tonight. But he did care. He hadn’t spent nearly enough time naked with her, or enough time just talking. “I’ll head out and find a burger orsomething.”
“No, don’t do that. We’ve got time for dinner. The going-away party is at one of the teachers’ houses. We were all invited to bring someone if we wanted. You’re welcome to come withme.”
Usually, he avoided other people’s work things like the plague, but a Saturday night without Shari didn’t hold a lot ofappeal.
“Okay, I’ll come with you, if you’resure.”
“I’m sure.” She eased closer and placed her lips against hisneck.
“There are a few more diagrams I’d like to explore in chapterseven.”
That Lance Flagstaff had created amonster.
Luke would love to buy the guy abeer.
If he wasn’t already living inside Lance’sskin.
Since when had his life turned into this weird combination of fiction andfantasy?
He was going to have to admit to Shari that he’d writtenSex for Total Morons.He knew that. But she was having so much fun tutoring him and he was having as much fun letting her that he wasn’t quite ready to let the real world intrude. An annoying little voice inside him whispered that he was in trouble here. Shari was showing up in his idle dreams about the future, and more and more he was seeing her in his fictitious psychiatrist—the one who would be pivotal in saving or damning his tortured hero. Once again, he wondered about the fine line between fantasy andreality.
As his father’s son, he had to accept that he wasn’t the right man for Shari with her romantic heart, her china patterns and golden wedding anniversary dreams. He’d have to come cleansoon.
But not quiteyet.
