it was good. He made me dinner and wooed me a little.”
It had been a few days since the date, but she and Tuesday had barely connected between work and other stuff, so this was the first time they’d been able to talk about it all.
Tuesday put the slippers down, and they moved on, this time it was Natalie who paused to look at a framed photograph that had been hand-tinted. “Wow, this is fantastic.” She turned to Tuesday. “This would look perfect in the front hallway, don’t you think?”
Tuesday nodded, and Natalie bought it, tucking it carefully into the rolling cart she brought to fairs, green markets and swap meets.
“Did you sleep with him?”
Natalie snorted. “You’re so shy.”
“Whatever. Did you?”
Natalie shook her head. “Nope. We did get naked, but it was to swim. And it was dark so I saw some—well, okay a lot—when he just stripped off and jumped in.” A smile came unbidden, and because it was Tuesday, Natalie gave in. “Everything is how I left it last. We kissed a lot. He felt me up. But we got out, and I dried off and got dressed and so did he, and he brought me home.”
“Ugh. Lame. You said his cock was still nice and sturdy, so what’s the story?”
Natalie laughed. “Sturdy?”
“Like a farm work truck, I’d imagine.”
This made Natalie laugh so hard they had to stop so she could get her breath. “You’re so broken and wrong, Tuesday. Thank goodness for you. We didn’t because I wasn’t ready.”
“Ready? You’ve already fucked him. What’s the holdup? It’s not like you’re a virgin.”
“You should get laid yourself, since you’re so invested in what I’m doing. Jeez.”
“Mine are better,” Tuesday said in an undertone as they left the jewelry stall they’d stopped at.
“Duh.” This particular craft market had a wait list, and Tuesday was on it. Hopefully soon she’d be able to get a stall at some point.
Tuesday waved a hand. “Anyway, you like sex. He’s gorgeous. Why aren’t you ready?”
“I needed a little time and he gave it to me. That said a lot. We talked. We flirted. We kissed. It’s all good. The pace works. If he was only after me to fuck me, he won’t come around again.” Just as he had been concerned about people after him for his celebrity, she needed him to want more than sex from her.
“Ah. I get it. I guess that’s fair. If he passes your test and calls to ask you out again, will you go?”
Natalie couldn’t afford to lie to herself, and Tuesday would know it, anyway, and call her out. So she went with blunt. “Yeah, definitely. I like him. He’s funny and obviously talented. Plus he cooks.”
“Always a plus.”
“He’s nosy, though. I ended up telling him more than I had intended to. Back in the day, we just had a lot of sex and drank. This talking thing is new.”
They laughed at that.
“So you’re... This is you dating him. For real?”
“Yeah. Maybe. I don’t know. So far it’s one date. But I just needed to do it like a real person. I wouldn’t have banged some random dude on the first date, either. That doesn’t erase all the other things I pause over. He’s still...” Natalie whipped her hands all over the place. “A tornado? A storm? He’s messy, and he comes with a lot of stuff I don’t want or need.”
“Whether you need it or not is a whole different conversation, Nats. Anyway, he didn’t ask you to marry him or go out on the road with him. Right now he’s farmer Paddy, and you’re the librarian. Come to think of it, that sounds like a really hot book I’d totally read. So live a little. It’s not that serious.”
Natalie blew out a breath. She wanted him, at least for the next little while, so it was really in her best interest to let Tuesday talk her into it. Tuesday rarely steered her wrong.
Tuesday linked her arm with Natalie’s. “We’ve spent enough money, and now I’m starving. I need a lot of pancakes and pork products.”
“Yes, please. Let’s go put this in the car, and we’ll get brunch.”
* * *
PADDY WAS UP EARLY, needing the physical activity to ease the burn. Even masturbating in the shower hadn’t made it better, so he’d been out with Ezra in the orchards since the sun had risen.
The work, being outside and the cool morning air that would be gone in just a few hours, all combined to make a far more relaxed Paddy, along with Ezra, making their way up the front steps of their parents’ place for breakfast.
The sound hit him immediately. A smile broke over his face as he remembered his nieces were with Vaughan that week.
Kensey and Maddie looked up from where they poured pancakes with their grandmother and squealed at the sight of two of their uncles coming in.
“That’s how I wish I was greeted every time I came into a room.” Paddy knelt and held his arms open to get kisses and hugs from the girls. “You guys are getting way too big. Stop that now.”
Vaughan grinned at his daughters. “Second and third grade already.”
It was a little bittersweet because they didn’t live there with their dad. Instead, their mother had primary custody and lived in nearby Gresham. But Paddy had to hand it to Kelly. She’d had more than one opportunity to leave the area for school and her job, but she’d turned it all down so their daughters could see their dad on a regular basis.
They’d married too young and divorced too quickly. Vaughan and Kelly’s marriage had been a casualty of their lifestyle as well as their age and inexperience at being in a relationship.
Paddy looked over at his brother. Vaughan had never truly let go of Kelly. There’d been plenty of women so it wasn’t as though it hindered him in the sex department. But there’d been no one he’d been interested in for longer than a week or two, and he only rarely went out.
Kelly and Vaughan had gotten together for the same reason they split; they had an intense connection and chemistry. But at twenty-three and twenty-five, neither Kelly nor Vaughan had known how to manage it, and it had exploded.
Paddy stepped to the side as the girls moved to Ezra, grilling him about the animals he kept. “Yes, of course we’ll go horseback riding after breakfast. You can come over and see the goats, too. Violet herds them.”
The girls thought that was hilarious. A pig herding goats? And yet, that’s exactly what Ezra’s crazy, bossy pig, who thought she was a dog, did.
“Coffee just finished.” His mother motioned to the coffeemaker with a spatula. “Mary and Damien are on the way up, too, so you boys need to put the extra leaf in the table.”
They all moved to obey their mother, and ten minutes later the dining room was filled with the happy noise of
