Lacey, delighted by this display of enthusiasm, put on the brakes and rolled down the window, grinning up at him, so happy this encounter was going to continue, if only for just a few more seconds.
“I’m glad I caught you,” he said, not even out of breath from his sprint. He pulled a business card out of his jeans pocket and handed it to her. Their fingers brushed as she took the card from his hand and she felt that jolt of electricity again. Their eyes locked and he leaned down until they were on eye level. “You should really call me,” he said, huskily. “I mean, if you have anymore questions. I’d really like to hear what you have to say. About the properties.”
Was it just her imagination, or did this Sex God sound nervous? “I think we probably know everything there is to know about them, but thank you. I’ll call you if I think of anything. And I’m certain my mom will probably come up with something to interrogate you about.” There, just the right tone. Professional, yet playful. She was getting better at this.
“Call me anyway. I’d really love your input. You see, my brothers and I are having a little competition. Instead of using a pain-in-the-ass interior decorator, we all chose one of the row-houses and each of us picked out all the fixtures and colors and stuff. You probably noticed that they were all a little different, right?”
Lacey nodded as her heart sank. He hadn’t been interested in her. He saw her as a guinea pig for some manly real estate competition with his brothers. She wasn’t a potential sex kitten to him at all. How could she be so foolish? She tried to keep her face impassive as he continued.
“Well, whichever house sells first determines the design scheme we’ll use for our next project, which is huge. And whoever is responsible for it will earn bragging rights until the end of time. So, give it some thought, and let me know which one you liked the best, okay?" He pointed to the card. "I’m really curious what impartial observers like you and your mom would prefer,” He said, smiling like he hadn’t just crushed her.
Lacey recovered quickly and returned his smile with an incredibly fake grimace. “I’ll think about it and let you know. Thanks again for the tour.” Lacey said, rolling up her window, she threw the card on the dashboard, put the car in gear and turned away so he wouldn’t see her face fall in disappointment.
“When are you going to call him?” Diana asked eagerly, as they drove away from the subdivision. She grabbed the business card Lacey had flung on the dashboard and examined it closely.
“I’m not,” Lacey said, checking the rear view mirror to get one last look at him.
“Why-ever not? He really liked you. And you liked him. It was so obvious.” Diana rolled her eyes and tucked the card in the rear view mirror, where her daughter couldn’t help but see it, constantly.
Lacey snatched the card out of the mirror and threw it back on the tiny dashboard. “You heard him. Obviously, he’s not in the market for a girlfriend or whatever. He’d rather use us for some free market research.”
“So what? Can’t you do both? Work and play? You should call him. You’ll regret it if you don’t.”
“Maybe. But that’s the chance I’m willing to take. He’s way out of my league anyway.”
“Whatever do you mean?”
“You said it yourself. He’s a dreamboat. I’m not his type at all. He should be with someone like Serena. Willowy and elegant. Not someone short and prone to gaining twenty pounds if they even look at a Twinkie. Like me.” She had meant to make this declaration sound light and self-deprecating, but her voice broke at the end and she felt tears of disappointment welling up in her eyes. She only hoped her mother wouldn’t acknowledge her obvious over-the-top emotional reaction. If Diana said one sympathetic word, Lacey was going to start bawling right then and there.
But she didn’t. Instead Diana said something so shocking Lacey nearly had to pull over. “Well, dear, if you’re sure you don’t want to make the first move, then I wouldn’t worry about it. You are most certainly just his type. And I’m sure you’ll be hearing from him.”
“What do you mean? 'I’ll be hearing from him.’ How would that happen exactly? I just gave our first names. Please tell me you didn’t slip him my phone number.” Lacey’s face flooded with color at the idea of her mom pimping her out like that. He was going to think she was positively pathetic. Not that she cared. Well, maybe a little…
“I thought about doing exactly that. But decided you wouldn’t be happy with me if I did something so obvious. No, I was more subtle than that,” Diana said smugly.
“What did you do, Mother?”
“Well, while you were attempting to chat him up, I was signing Serena’s guest book. With your name. And email address.”
“You didn’t.”
“I most certainly did.”
“Mom. How could you do that? Now I’m going to be flooded with emails from her. She's going to try and convince me to make an offer on one of those row-houses. Or even worse, she'll want to show me a bunch of properties I can’t afford either. You know real estate agents. They’re like pit bulls. Once they get a hold of you, they don’t let go.”
“Serena struck me as a sensible girl. I’m sure she will not harass you. And if she’s as smart as I think she is, then your email address will find it’s way into the correct, hunky hands anyway. So, you’re welcome.”
“Hunky hands? Really?”
“Well, they were hunky. And very large.”
Lacey groaned. “Please tell me you did not just comment on the size of his hands. I think I’m traumatized.”
“Don’t tell me you didn’t notice. How could you not? That young man was a prime specimen.”
“Yes, I did notice. But you are definitely not supposed to notice big hands. Hunky or otherwise.”
“Why-ever not? I’m single and vital. Just because I’m in my fifties, does not mean I’m dead inside, you know. If I was ten years younger, you might have some competition.”
“Oh my God. Why am I suddenly picturing him as my new step-daddy?” Lacey shuddered at the thought of her mother, happily married to the hot builder, while she went through life as a spinster, collecting spoons, dressing her dog in embarrassing outfits, and knitting away the profound loneliness. “Thanks, Mom. This conversation has taken a disturbing turn, and I’ll be looking for a therapist tomorrow.”
“My pleasure, dear. Now, can we stop at Starbucks? All this big hands talk has made me parched. Besides, I think one of the fellows who works there has his eye on you. If the Handy Hunk doesn’t email you then perhaps you should give Lars a try. He makes an excellent triple-foam latte.”
Tempted to beat her head against the steering wheel, Lacey pulled into the parking lot of the Starbucks on the corner, just a few blocks from her mom’s house, and waited in the car while Diana went in to retrieve her coffee. No way was Lacey going in there to be the victim of another one of her mother’s romantic ambushes.
As she waited, she couldn’t help but wonder, would she hear from him? If only to ask her about the house? Maybe he just brought up the whole 'I want your impartial opinion’ thing as an excuse to talk to her again. Perhaps her mom was right, for once, and he was interested in more than just pumping her for information. Hopefully, an entirely different kind of pumping was on his mind. A small part of her thrilled at the thought, but she quickly stopped her mind from wandering down that path before she could get too excited.
She refused to overanalyze this little episode and turn it into a big deal. If he wanted to take this weird chemistry between them to the next level, then he was going to have to make a real effort and ask her out on a date. No more games. Until that happened, she wasn’t going to think about him. At all.
“What the hell was all that about?” Serena asked her cousin suspiciously as she observed him standing on the sidewalk, watching the hot little red car fade away in the distance. She could not believe that he was actually showing some interest in something besides work.