Flat-Out Sexy (13 page)

“I’m not that good of a cook.”

“But you make a mean apple pie. And you know that it was never just that flaky crust you were offering up.”

“I appreciated the double entendre when we were married, but it’s not really appropriate now.”

Ryder made a face and took a sip of his beer. He had wanted her to flirt back a little. Why, he wasn’t really sure, but it was damn disappointing that she didn’t. “When have I ever been appropriate?”

“Good point. Which leads me to another reason I’m calling. What the hell happened between Tammy and Elec Monroe?”

That made Ryder grin. “If you don’t remember what happens between a man and a woman at midnight in the bedroom, maybe you need to get out more, sugar.”

“You know what I meant, smart-ass.”

“Actually, I don’t. They spent the night together. What do you think happened?” Ryder rolled his eyes for the benefit of his beer bottle.

“Why would they do that?” Suzanne demanded.

See, this was where he didn’t understand his ex-wife. Or any woman for that matter. “Uh … because they wanted to?”

“Don’t be obtuse.”

He didn’t even know what that was, so he didn’t see how he could stop being it.

Suzanne didn’t wait for his answer. She continued, “If Elec had a thing for Tammy, why didn’t he just ask her out? She’s not a one-night-stand kind of girl.”

“They just met last night, Suz. There was no
thing
, it was more like lust at first sight. And she clearly is a one-night-stand kind of girl because she did just that. It’s no big deal. It’s good for Tammy.”

“Except that now she’s upset and feeling bad about it. She thinks he’s a player.”

“Why would she think that?”

“Because I accidentally might have told her that. I always see Elec with some dumb blonde … I was trying to protect her and make sure she knew that she should take it for exactly what it was—a night of fun.”

Ryder sighed. Suzanne meant well, but sometimes she needed to mind her own damn business. “Except that Elec is moping around crushed because he asked her out, she said yes, then she just texted him and canceled. Probably because you freaked her out.”

“He really did ask her out? How do you know?”

“Because he told me. He was here not five minutes ago apologizing for making free with my coach and looking for some advice. He wants to go out with her, there’s no question about it.”

“Oh. Shit.”

“Shit is right, sugar. Do you think Tammy likes him?”

“I actually think she does, because she’s not the kind to sleep with a guy unless she does like him, you know what I mean? So I guess we need to fix it since we messed it up.”

Ryder plopped down on his couch. “I didn’t mess anything up.
You
did. But I told Elec I’d throw a barbeque and invite Tammy. Getting ’em in the same room is a start, don’t you think?” Beyond that, Ryder figured it was up to Elec and Tammy to sort things out. They were big kids, and if they wanted to be together, they’d find their way there eventually.

“That’s true, but maybe not a barbeque. Then she’ll bring her kids and she’ll use them as a shield. No, we have to have something more intimate or they’ll both just avoid each other.”

Clearly, Suzanne didn’t share his philosophy of standing back. He also knew her well enough that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. “What do you want me to do? Just tell me so I can go to bed. I’m tired.”

She gave a huff of impatience. “Sorry. Didn’t realize I was keeping you from your bed.”

“Care to join me in my bed?” He knew she would say no, but just the thought that there was any possibility that she might say yes had his worn-out body stirring to life.

“No, thanks. I prefer my own bed, where you’re not stealing my covers all night.”

“Sounds lonely.”

“Everything’s a trade-off. My vibrator has never once pissed me off, whereas you …”

He didn’t want a list of all his flaws and infractions, so Ryder just said, “Point taken. But if your batteries ever die, you know where to find me.”

“And you probably won’t be alone.”

Ouch. Okay, this conversation was going all sorts of wrong. Ryder could hear the bristling from Suzanne clear through the phone lines. He kicked off his shoes and tried to deflect the tension. “So you want me to throw a party or what?”

“Yes, a dinner party. A victory party for today’s race. We’ll have it tomorrow night at your condo. And we’ll invite Ty and Elec as the top three. We’ll let Ty bring a date, and you tell Elec that Tammy will be there. I’ll drag Tammy over, telling her it’s just Ty and you, then we’ll feed her wine all night. This will be perfect, don’t you think?”

He thought Suzanne was cracked if she believed that Tammy was going to be happy about being set up on a date with Elec after she had just canceled her own plans with the man. But there was no arguing with Suzanne when she was playing matchmaker. Hell, there was no arguing with Suzanne most of the time. That had been their problem—he had argued.

Old habits died hard, because he couldn’t completely bite his tongue. “Tammy is going to be hopping mad at you, Suz. She’s not going to like being set up like this.”

“I’ll tell her you ran into Elec last minute and invited him since he finished third.”

“Okay, whatever you say. You handling food or am I? And what time?”

“Seven. I’ll take care of food. You invite Elec and Ty.”

“Alright, now let me grab some sleep since I’m suddenly entertaining tomorrow.”

“Fine. Good night, Ryder.”

“Bring your pie,” he demanded before she hung up. If he was going to get stuck jumping through hoops, he wanted some apple pie, damn it.

There was a pause and he waited for a snarky remark and a refusal. But Suzanne said, “You’ll get your pie.”

Holy shit. That almost sounded like she was saying … Ryder opened his voice to ask for clarification, but Suzanne had hung up.

He sat in stunned silence for a second, then went for his shower. A cold one.

TAMARA stared across the table at Suzanne and set her iced tea back down. “Why are you throwing a victory party for Ryder?”

She had agreed to this spontaneous lunch with Suz between her morning and afternoon classes because she needed her friend’s opinion on Elec. He hadn’t responded to her text message and she found that odd, to say the least. She thought that he would have either argued or else sent an “Okay, thanks” kind of text. But he had been totally silent and she didn’t know how to read that.

Then Suzanne had blindsided her with an invitation to a dinner party she was hosting for Ryder. Which, frankly, just didn’t sound like a good idea for a whole lot of reasons.

“Because I called to congratulate him and he was very forlorn,” Suzanne said, dumping three packs of sugar in her coffee and stirring it vigorously.

“Forlorn? Ryder?”

“Yes. He went on and on about the parties I used to give him and how I always made him a pie, and I just felt bad. I opened my big mouth and said I’d have a party for him, now I absolutely have to have you there to help me get through this without murdering him.”

That did seem likely, and a sour ending to a victory party. “I guess I can ask Beth to watch the kids, but I can’t stay out late. My kids went to bed really late last night after the race and they’re going to need to be in bed by eight. Beth can put them to bed at my house, but I can’t ask her to sit around for hours. How many people are going to be there?”

“Not many. Like ten, tops. That’s why I need you there. It’s going to be awkward.”

“Wow. I can’t wait then.” Just how Tamara wanted to spend her Monday night after one of the strangest weekends of her entire life. She had managed to avoid Geoffrey around campus that morning, and was hoping to do the same in the afternoon, but what she really needed was a good night’s sleep after watching a chick flick in her pajamas, not a night making small talk.

“Thanks, babe. You don’t know how much this means to me.” Suzanne took a deep breath and glanced around the sleek deli. “Where is the waitress? I’m starving.”

“I don’t know. But I wanted to tell you I canceled my date with Elec.”

Suzanne didn’t exactly look surprised at that news. “Why?”

“Because I got to thinking about my in-laws and my kids and what you said about him being a player … and I thought about the text message he got when we were together and I just decided it’s a bad idea.” And she was sticking by her decision. Even though she felt mildly nauseous and discontent, and had developed a nervous tapping of the foot.

“What text message did he get?”

“Some woman sent him a picture of herself naked.” She would be lying if she said that hadn’t been bothering her for the last twenty-four hours. That woman had looked amazing. Tamara hadn’t looked that good ten years ago, pre-babies and gravity. It was scary to compare herself naked to that waxed and perky body.

“Are you serious? How do you know?”

“He showed it to me.”

“Why? To get you excited or something?”

Yuck. “Why would seeing some hot chick naked get me excited?” Nothing like comparing yourself and coming up short to really get the juices flowing. Please.

“Well, I don’t know! Maybe it was some kind of ménage fantasy or something. So who the hell was she and why was he showing it to you?” Suzanne dumped yet another sugar packet in her coffee after tasting it and making a face.

“He was annoyed by it. He said he went out with her a few times and now she won’t stop texting him. He didn’t seem overly impressed with her method of pursuit. I’d almost say he was disgusted with her.”

“That says good things about him. But he should know that’s the kind of women he’s been dating and that he can’t expect much better than that. Did he say what her name was?”

“Crystal.” Tamara made a face. “Blond. Built.”

Suzanne grimaced. “Oh, I know who that is. A total pit lizard. She’s always tramping around the garage looking to hit on drivers. I swear, if that girl had as many sticking out of her as she has sticking in her, she’d be a porcupine.”

Tamara grinned at the metaphor. “That’s a beautiful way to put it.”

“Why, thank you.” Suzanne flagged the waitress, who indicated she’d be there in a minute. “God, I could eat my arm. What is taking so long? We haven’t even ordered yet.” She refocused on Tamara. “So what did Elec say when you canceled your date?”

“He didn’t answer. At all. What do you think that means?” Feet still sore when wearing heels for an entire day at the track, Tamara halfway kicked off her sandals and hoped no one would notice.

“I think it means that he’s choosing to ignore what you said. He’s lying in wait, planning his next move.”

“Really? I just find that hard to believe. More likely, he just didn’t care enough to respond.” Which kind of really bummed her out. Not that she could go out with him, but it would be nice if he did actually want to.

Suzanne rolled her eyes. “Oh, Lord, we’re going to have to dust off your boy radar, girl. Of course he cares. He would not have asked you out in the first place if he wasn’t interested. And the number one rule of men is that if something happens or something is said that they don’t like, they just ignore it, hoping it will go away.”

Somehow she could believe that. “So what should I do?”

“Wait a minute. You canceled. He let it drop. You don’t have to do anything now.”

Shoot, Suz had a good point. “Right.”

“Unless you want to see him again …” Suzanne raised her eyebrows and looked at her expectantly.

“No, no, of course not.” Not really. She was pretty sure. Maybe. “I don’t know. I have no clue what I’m doing and I just feel like crap.”

“Wear a great dress tonight,” Suz said. “That will make everything feel better, I promise.”

That might work when you were five, but at thirty-two, it wasn’t likely.

ELEC stood outside Ryder’s condo sweating bullets. He had no idea if Tamara was there or not, and he was as nervous as a cat in a roomful of rocking chairs. Normally he slept late on Mondays, but after getting a call from Ryder the night before about a half hour after he’d talked to him saying the party was a go, and for the next night, Elec hadn’t slept much. In fact, it was fair to say he hadn’t slept at all.

He’d done a lot of tossing and turning trying to figure out what to say to Tamara and how exactly he could convince her that there was no sense in pulling the plug without at least a date or two. That seemed fair to him. Maybe after a few dates they would discover there wasn’t anything between them except sexual attraction, and he wouldn’t be stuck with a case of wondering “What if?” Though somehow he doubted he was going to lose interest in Tamara after a few dinners. But he might never get the chance to find out because there was nothing slick about him, and he was well known for keeping his mouth shut instead of using it to cajole anyone into anything.

There was no hope for it. If she didn’t want to see him, she didn’t want to see him. Wasn’t a hell of a lot he could do about it.

It was that thought that had him sucking in a breath and ringing the doorbell. Maybe just showing up at Ryder’s would speak volumes to her. And if it didn’t, he’d deal with it. Life had dealt him tougher stuff than one sexy, intelligent woman turning him down.