She Writes Love... (8 page)

“Did you check out that meeting again after you left the bar?” David asked.

“I was going to but, remember that girl, Paisley, I told you about?”

“Yeah.”

“She was sitting in her car, not too sure if she wanted to go in or not, so instead we went and had coffee for three hours and talked.”

David turned his head and looked at me with a smile on his face. “Seriously? How did it go?”

“It went great, man. She’s an amazing girl.”

“I’m getting the feeling that you might like her.”

“She’s beautiful, smart, and really nice. We have a lot in common and we can relate to each other because of our circumstances. She gets me.”

“That’s great.” David smiled as he patted me on the back. “Are you going to see her again?”

“I gave her my number in case she ever wants to or needs to talk. So we’ll see if she calls.”

“You didn’t take her number?”

“Nah. I didn’t want to push things or make her uncomfortable.”

“Probably a good idea. I’m sure she’ll give you a call.”

We ran a total of five miles together and then I headed home. It was strange to me the way I told David things. Maybe it was because sometimes it’s more comfortable talking to someone you barely know than telling your family and friends that you’re close to.

As I was in the garage, sanding down one of the dining chairs, Brady pulled up.

“Hey, bro.” I smiled.

“Looking good, Ben,” he said as he ran his hand across the table I’d built.

“Thanks. What brings you by?”

“I had to get out of the house,” he said as he lit up a cigarette. “Linda and I had an argument about her spending habits again.”

I looked up at him and grinned. “You always have that argument.”

“I know. If she had a full-time job, maybe I wouldn’t care so much. But according to her, it’s not worth it with my work hours and trying to have to find daycare for Kara and she barely makes anything working part-time.”

“That is true. Our hours and shifts are changing all the time.”

I continued sanding while he vented about his wife. What he didn’t realize was that he was lucky she was around to even argue with.

“You know, Brady, never take Linda for granted. Look at me and what happened. Life’s too short to be arguing about things. A lot of couples don’t realize that until it’s too late and they’re no longer there to argue with.”

“Dude, you’re a downer.”

I glanced up at him with a smirk. “I’m right and you know it.”

He sighed as he put out his cigarette. “Linda invited you over for dinner tomorrow night around six o’clock. She’s making your favorite: roast and garlic mashed potatoes.”

“Tell Linda I’ll be there.” I smiled.

He patted my shoulder, smiled, and went home. I finished one chair and, before I stained it, I wanted to build the last one. It took me the entire day plus into the evening to get it built. I was just getting ready to jump into the shower to clean myself up when a text message came through from a number I didn’t recognize.

“Hi, Ben, it’s Paisley Logan. Maybe this is strange to ask, but would you like to go surfing with me tomorrow morning?”

I smiled as I replied back
, “Hi, Paisley. I would love to, but only if you promise to teach me.”

“I’d be happy to teach you. I have an extra board I’ll bring. We have to meet a little later because I don’t want to run into my brother, Keaton. So, why don’t we meet on the beach by the walkway at nine o’clock?”

“Nine o’clock is perfect. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Have a good evening, Ben.”

“You too, Paisley.”

I immediately stored her number in my phone. I couldn’t believe that she actually texted me because I didn’t ever expect her to. I was happy the rest of the night and I couldn’t wait to see her in the morning.

Paisley

A
s I sat on my couch, snuggled up with a blanket and Romeo curled up against me, I couldn’t believe I’d actually asked Ben to go surfing. Maybe breakfast, lunch, or dinner would have been more appropriate. Shit.
Who does that?
Who asks someone they barely know to go surfing? I sighed, since I wasn’t going to give it another thought. What was done was done and I was teaching Ben Preston how to surf tomorrow morning. As I reached over and opened my laptop, Romeo became irritated that I disturbed his slumber and jumped down. Bringing the laptop onto my lap, I opened up another
Dear Paisley
question.

Dear Paisley,

I recently met this guy who I’ll call Tom. We met at a club and exchanged phone numbers before the night was over. We danced, talked, and kissed, but that’s as far as things went. A couple days later, he called me and asked me to go on a business trip with him as his weekend girlfriend. I asked him what he meant by “weekend” girlfriend and he said that I would be required to act the part and have sex with him while on the trip and he’d pay for everything and buy me anything I wanted. No one has ever done that before and I’m thinking about going with him. I do like him and we had fun at the club. Did I mention he’s married? I don’t know what to do. Please help.

Girl in Lust

~*~

D
ear Girl in Lust,

First of all, the key word here is “married.” He’s married, so that means hands off. Just the fact that he is married and wants to take you as his weekend girlfriend to have sex screams total douchebag. Think about his wife and how you’d feel if your husband did that to you. It sounds like he does this kind of thing regularly and he’s only in it for the thrill. You’ll ultimately get hurt in the end, so I would advise you not to speak to him again. He’s flawed as a man and I know you have more respect for yourself than he’s giving you credit for.

I shut down my laptop, picked up Romeo, and headed to bed. I already knew that I’d be up all night thinking about Ben and tomorrow’s surfing adventure.

****

“M
eow. Meow. Meow.”

I opened my eyes to Romeo staring me in the face and yelling that he was hungry. As I looked over at the clock and saw it was seven, I climbed out of bed and headed to the kitchen for coffee and a can of Fancy Feast. Romeo followed behind me and stood by his bowl in anticipation of the can opening and food hitting his bowl. Grabbing my phone and cigarettes, I headed to the garage for a smoke. Nothing important was sitting in my email, which was always good, and there were no missed calls or text messages from anyone in my family. I knew Keaton would be at the beach this morning around six or seven like he always was, so telling Ben to meet me at nine was safe. It was bad enough that I was going to be interrogated tonight at family dinner. After I changed and packed my bag, I grabbed both surfboards, strapped them to the roof of my car, and headed to the beach. My stomach was doing flips and I felt like I was going to say something stupid when I saw Ben. When I pulled into the parking lot, I saw Ben’s truck and an open space next to him. As I pulled in, he was just getting out.

“Hey.” He smiled.

“Hey. Did you just get here?” I asked as I got out of my car.

“Yeah. I just threw the truck in park when you pulled up next to me.”

He walked over and helped me untie the surfboards from the roof. I opened the back and took out my bag. As I was putting on the wetsuit, I couldn’t help but notice what Ben was wearing.

“Board shorts?” I smiled.

“I did a little research and went to the store last night. I wanted to be prepared.”

I handed him his board and I took mine. As we headed down the beach towards the water, I scanned the area for Keaton. The good thing was that it was a cooler than normal day and there really wasn’t anyone at the beach, so we pretty much had the water to ourselves.

“You’re not afraid to be cold, are you?” I asked.

“Not at all.”

“Good. The water can be pretty cold this time of the year.”

I gasped when he took off his navy blue t-shirt. The definition of his abs, Apollo belt, and his happy trail were arousing me. Ben Preston, the fireman, was way sexier than I thought. I snapped back into reality and tried to get my hormones under control before we hit the water.

We put our boards in and I told him to paddle and follow me. As soon as we paddled far enough away from shore, I sat on my board and went over a few tips with him. I felt embarrassed because he was smiling at me the whole time I was talking.

“A wave’s coming. Watch me first and then you can catch the next one.”

“I would be more than happy to watch you.” He smiled.

As soon as I felt the pull of the wave, I stood up. “Woo hoo,” I yelled. When the wave ended, I paddled back to where Ben was.

“Wow. That was amazing.” He smiled.

“Thank you. Are you ready?”

“Yeah. I think so.”

“Okay. Watch the wave line and when I say ‘go,’ start paddling towards it. Remember to keep your back arched as much as you can to avoid the nose of the board dipping down. You want to keep that up.”

“Okay. I’ll remember.”

“Let’s go.” I smiled as we both paddled out to the wave. As the wave was about to break, I yelled at Ben.

“Pop up, now!”

He did and then stood up and was able to ride the wave for a couple of seconds before falling over. I couldn’t help but laugh because I was having flashbacks of Keaton.

“It takes a lot of practice,” I said as I paddled over to him.

****

Ben

T
he water was cold, but I didn’t care. Watching Paisley surf was exciting. And I mean in more ways than one. I never knew a girl that surfed before and it was quite a turn-on. As the wave crashed down on me and I lost my balance, I didn’t care because, for a few seconds, the adrenaline that shot through my body was incredible. It was a rush that I’d never felt before.

“I want to keep going.” I smiled.

She smiled back and we continued to catch waves for the next hour. I was learning, and Paisley said I was doing great for someone who’d never surfed before. We paddled back to shore and dried off with our towels. Paisley stripped out of her wetsuit and I couldn’t help but stare at her bikini-clad body. Damn, she was hot. She threw on a hoodie over her bikini top and put on a pair of yoga pants because the air was cool.

“Thank you, Paisley, for asking me to go surfing today. I really enjoyed it.”

“You’re welcome. Thanks for coming along.” She smiled.

I pulled my phone from my bag and saw that it was ten thirty. “Are you hungry? We could go grab some breakfast.”

“Actually, I’m starving. That sounds great.”

We grabbed our bags and the surfboards and headed to our cars. As we were walking through the sand, I saw Finn and Olivia staring at me from a few feet away. “Great,” I said.

“What?”

“That’s my brother and soon-to-be sister-in-law staring at us.”

“Oh. Busted by
your
family now.” She smiled.

“Ben?” Finn said as he looked at me strangely and then over at Paisley. “Did you go surfing?”

“Hey, Finn. Hi, Olivia,” I said as I leaned in and kissed her cheek. “Yes, I did. This is Paisley and she was kind enough to teach me to surf today. Or at least attempt to teach me.”

“He did great.” She laughed as she shook Finn’s and Olivia’s hands.

“Well, we need to go. I’ll call you later,” I said as I began to walk away.

“You better!” Finn pointed at me.

I sighed and looked over at Paisley as she smirked at me.

“I know what you’re thinking right now. It’s like we’re having some secret affair and we just got caught. But I get it,” she said as she nudged my shoulder with hers. “I will be the topic of your family’s conversation until you make up some lie to shut them down.”

“True. Just like I’ll be the topic of your family’s conversation until you shut them down.”

“You’re right. Would you like to come to dinner at my parents’ house tonight? If I’m going to shut them down, I can’t think of a better way to do it.”

I couldn’t believe she asked me to dinner. It excited me; something I hadn’t felt in a very long time. “I would love to help you shut your family down, but only if you promise to help shut mine down next week.”

“Deal.” She smiled as she held out her hand and we shook on it.

The feel of her soft skin on mine sent a charge through my body like a bolt of lightning. Suddenly, I felt alive again and, in some way, it scared me. We walked a block to a café where we both ordered coffee and omelets. I told Paisley that I had plans for tonight, but I was going to cancel them because I’d much rather help her shut her family down. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and sent a text message to Brady.

“Hey, bro. I’m sorry but I can’t make it for dinner tonight. Give Linda my apologies and tell her that I’ll make it up to her.”

“Dude, you better have one hell of an excuse to back out of one of Linda’s dinners.”

“I met a girl.”

“That’s good enough. You can tell me all about her tomorrow at the station.”

“Thanks, Brady.”

“You didn’t have to cancel your plans,” Paisley said as she sipped her coffee.

“It was just dinner at my friend Brady’s house. His wife is a really good cook and she feels sorry for me, so she invites me to dinner every once in a while.”

“Your brother, Finn, seems really nice. Do you have any other siblings?”

I looked at her, debating whether or not to tell her about Leah. “I have a half-sister named Leah.”

“Oh. Does she live around here?”

“No. She lives in Texas with her mom. Sixteen years ago, my dad went on a fishing trip with a bunch of guys from the station. He and my mom had just separated and he met Lindsey at one of the local bars and got her pregnant. It was a one-night stand and neither one of them wanted anything more. Before she called him and told him she was pregnant, he and my mom worked things out and got back together. Lindsey’s a nice woman and she’s a good mom. All she asked for was child support for Leah because she’s deaf and she has a lot of medical bills.”

“She’s deaf?” Paisley asked.

“Yeah. I used to go and visit her every couple of months for a weekend. The last time I saw her was when she and Lindsey flew here for Amy’s funeral. I haven’t been there since Amy died, but we skype a lot.”