It takes work. And you have worked. Most efficiently.”
Missy dimpled, something Sara would never be able to do. “Why thank you, Sara. I think that’s the nicest thing you’ve ever said to me. I’m glad somebody appreciates everything I’ve done to achieve what I have,” she added with a glance at Hayden.
“Whatever floats your boat, honey,” Hayden said and crossed her legs as a TDH—tall, dark and handsome—walked past.
The movement caught the man’s attention and he checked out Hayden’s legs, then met her eyes, all while carrying on a conversation with the man next to him.
“And that would be why you’re here, Hayden.”
“You need my sophisticated style and wit?”
“I want to know how you can attract anything with a Y-chromosome.”
Hayden gave a smile that visually purred. “With the sophisticated style and wit I just mentioned.”
After a glance at Hayden’s climbing hemline, Missy raised her eyebrows. “We call that something else where I come from.”
“No doubt because you lack sophisticated style and wit,” Hayden drawled.
“Hey!” Sara signaled a time-out. “Can we please focus on me? I need help with the man/woman thing. I’m not doing it right.”
“I didn’t think you were doing it at all.”
Sara gritted her teeth. “Well, that would be the problem, Hayden.” She inhaled, knowing she was going to have to tell them everything. “I’m not hooking up with the right kind of men and when I do, I’m Teflon woman—they don’t stick around.” She told them about Mr. Kiss-and-Run from Friday night.
“Well, it’s no wonder—you were making out with him in a public place!” Missy lowered her voice. “A bar. He thought you were one of those kind of women and didn’t take you seriously.”
“I’ve found that men take that sort of thing very seriously,” Hayden said.
“So why did he pretend not to know her? My mama always said, men won’t buy the cow if they can get the milk for free.”
Hayden rolled her eyes. “They’ll just get the milk from another cow.”
“I didn’t give him any milk,” Sara pointed out.
“Maybe that was the problem.”
Missy glared at Hayden. “Well, maybe if all the cows got together and agreed to stop giving milk—”
“They’d end up as hamburger.”
“Not if they chose their herd carefully,” Missy snapped.
“Who cares about the herd? Pay attention to the bull.”
“That is just so typical of you.”
Hayden blinked. “Moo.”
“This is not helping,” Sara said.
“What did you expect?” Missy speared a tomato wedge in her salad so hard she broke a tine on her plastic fork.
“I was hoping for help in attracting men from Hayden and figuring out which ones to attract and how to keep them from you.”
Missy got all huffy. “I can attract men! But I’m engaged, so I choose not to.”
“Right,” Hayden said.
“I can!” Missy glanced around, then peeled off her sweater revealing a tight black sleeveless shell. Then she turned her diamond engagement ring around to hide the stone.
Sara had no idea how big the diamond was, only that when the light caught the stone and it flashed, the reflection left a blue-green dot in her vision.
After fluffing her blond hair and throwing back her shoulders, Missy waited a couple of beats, then picked up the broken fork and gasped. “Oh, no! My fork broke!”
Oh, please. Sara rolled her eyes so hard she felt the muscles twinge.
And yet, there was an instant response. “Here, take mine,” said a man from the next table at the same moment another passing by handed her one from his tray.
“Here you go.” Then he just stood there.
Smiling widely, Missy took the fork. “Why, aren’t you both so sweet,” she gushed as only a Texas belle could.
“I need a fork, too,” Sara said. No one even blinked. But then, she hadn’t expected them to.
Missy held the attention of the men with her smile long enough to make her point, then released them by turning back to her salad. The man with the tray looked as if he wanted to linger, so Missy tucked her hair behind her ear, the flashing diamond visible once more.
Very neatly done. Disappointment crossed the man’s face and he left. Missy shrugged back into her sweater.
“Not bad,” admitted Hayden. “Just don’t try going one on one with me.”
“I doubt that’ll happen.” Missy’s voice was lethally sweet. “We don’t move in the same social circles.”
“I’m not moving in any social circles!” Sara dropped her head to the table. “I give up.”
“But you haven’t started yet,” Missy said.
“What’s the point? I’ll never be able to stop men in their tracks the way you and Hayden do.”
“But do you truly want to?” Hayden asked.
Sara raised her head just high enough to prop it on her fist. “Maybe not stop so much as slow them down.”
“And then what?” Missy asked.
“What do you mean ‘and then what’?”
“What are you going to do with them when you’ve got them?”
“Well, I don’t know. I was hoping we could talk about that after I found somebody.”
“I think that’s been your problem. We should be talking about afterward before.”
“Huh?”
Missy reached into her wedding tote, withdrew a Palm Pilot and unfolded a keyboard for it. “You need a goal and a plan to reach it.” She looked at Hayden. “Am I right?”
“Yes.” Hayden crossed her arms over her chest and watched the parade of men coming down the escalator. “Much as I hate to admit it.”
Missy’s fingers were poised over the keyboard. “So, what do you want, Sara?”
Well, this was it and she’d better pay attention. “I want a man who’s interested in making a life with me.”
