Joan Kelly - Hungry for boys

"I didn't mean to make a fool of him. He asked for it." I slowed as he passed through town. "Do you think he might tell your father?"

"Don't know." He rubbed his cheek, looked more worried than ever. "I just don't know."

I should have felt great about our clever little night at the Tylers' and getting away without Lorrie and Keith's old lady finding us tangled naked in that one, big bed. But now I had Todd hanging over my head.

He was asleep when we came in. Warren slumped into a kitchen chair while I started some oil heating in the frying pan and went to change my clothes. The day was clear and cool and pretty. If only I could enjoy it.

It must have been the bacon that woke Todd up. He grumped through the kitchen, staring daggers at me. To hell with him. I didn't want to have my summer fouled up, and I wasn't going to go around acting like he was the Almighty and I should kiss his ass. After all, he'd been the one who'd taken out after me. Of course, I knew that that wouldn't cut much mustard with Mr. Lomax. All he'd need to know was that some skin games had been taking place in his antique shop. Between his son and good old Shelby, his trusted employee.

While I served up the eggs and thought of all this, Todd glowered at Warren, then at me.

"My father's coming up today." He had a cruel smile on his face.

"How do you know?" I asked, turning an egg.

"He comes up on weekends lots of times and besides he's supposed to pick up Warren and me."

"You could always call him," I blurted, "and tell him you decided to stay another week." Todd wheeled, stared hotly at me.

"Are you crazy? I think there are a few things he would like to know."

I put Warren's breakfast before him. He stared down at the tablecloth like a beaten dog. I looked directly into Todd's face. The superstud, the swaggering spoiled brat.

"You know you wouldn't be such a bad guy if you grew up a little. You're good-looking, sexy…" My best wistful look, a sigh. "Might have been fun." He stared, amazed at my smile, my unworried brow. Then I turned and cracked another egg into the skillet. Todd stalked out of the room.

Sure enough, Maurice Lomax pulled up in front of the shop just past noon. He came in all smiles, his pretty wife Catherine frowning behind him. I had the impression that she was sniffing around to find some fault with how I'd been running things. Maybe Maurice was too.

We smiled and shook hands, Maurice bowing slightly towards my hand. Catherine said something to break the tableau of his eyes searching mine.

Maurice brushed a hand back through his grey hair. "I hope you found things interesting in Holdenville." He chuckled to let me know it was a joke.

"I like it… I like running the shop." He was going over my receipts. Catherine moved regally around the shop, wiping dust here, rearranging a plate there.

"Hmmm," from Maurice. He nodded, lifted bushy brows. "Not bad for two weeks."

"Really!" I gulped, dried my sweaty palms on my jeans. "I thought maybe I wasn't selling enough…"

"The antique business requires much patience. You just can't expect a twelve-hundred-dollar dresser to be gobbled up by the first customer who happens in." He closed the ledger and clapped his hands together.

"Well, boys, are you ready to return to the city?"

Warren was standing back by the door looking hangdog. Todd bounced on the balls of his feet like he was a bomb about to go off. The lightning flash of an idea streaked in my brain. I didn't wait to consider yes or no. I saw that Todd, for some reason, was caught in the tangles of his night in pursuit of me. Maybe he was questioning himself, maybe not. I wasn't sure. But I knew I couldn't lose anything by giving him a chance.

"The boys have decided to stay another week," I blurted. "Maybe two."

Maurice looked at me a fraction too long. "Oh?" He turned to Warren who had brightened immediately, guessing what I was up to. "Is that right, Warren?"

"Yeah, Shelby said she didn't mind. And the fishing is terrific up at the pond…"

Todd scuffed his feet, looked about to say something. His father turned.

"I thought you had plans for this week in the city, Todd?"

"Dad?"

"Yes?"

Todd opened his mouth, shut it again. "I think I would rather stay up here for a while more. The fishing is pretty good."

Somehow I kept myself from sighing relief. Catherine had picked up the strange vibes and was trying to stare some kind of truth out of me. I just smiled politely.

"Well then," Maurice said, "we must be on our way. I promised Catherine I'd take her to lunch somewhere besides a roadside diner. We have a few miles to go yet."

I stood on the front steps with Maurice talking about the shop, about some new things he would be bringing up the following month. Catherine leaned out of the window of the Eldorado.

"Maurice, let's go on please."

He took my hand again, didn't release it until I looked up at him. "Take care with the boys," he said, hanging a more subtle meaning on his words by a squeeze of my fingers. "They're young and not used to a real woman."

"Mr. Lomax," I began, red-faced from his insinuation.

"Don't you think I have enough experience with life to know when something is going on? Why Warren looked as if he was teetering on the brink of heaven and hell." He laughed easily, squeezed my fingers again. "I think you'll be good for them. But don't spoil them either. You have a good heart, too good sometimes."

I blushed, dropped my eyes.

"Please don't feel ashamed because I know your little secret. I might be many things, but I am not a prude." He touched his lips to my fingertips and let go my hand. I managed a shaky smile and blinked up at him.

Catherine honked, tapped on the inside of the window.

"Goodbye." He looked back once more before he drove away.

My legs were shaking as I went back inside. Todd stood by the refrigerator all ready to be angry again but, when he saw my smile, a grin broke through. I decided then to keep my secret… that his father knew anyway. And didn't care. I went brashly over, hands on hips.

"So I guess now you think you deserve a little reward for being so big about everything." Todd swallowed, looked as hangdog as Warren had only minutes before.

"Okay, I'm sorry about last night." Swallowing again. A little pride perhaps? Warren went out the back door and sat in the chair under the big cottonwood.

I took Todd's fingers, laced them tightly through my own.

"Come on." I took a step towards my bedroom.

"Where we going?"

"You want that reward, don't you?"

By the time I'd dragged Todd down the short hall and closed my bedroom door behind us, his jeans were tight through the crotch. He fumbled with the buttons of his shirt, gazing at me as if in a trance.

"You're really something, Shelby Jean. Did you know that?"

"Yep," I grinned back and pressed my face against his muscled chest.