Hard and Fast(29)

       
           



       

"With my mother, it was Mace," Imogen said. "Living in Manhattan, I  usually felt safe because there were always people around, but my mother  made my carry Mace at all times, and I'm sure it was the smart thing to  do. Of course, if I had ever been attacked, I probably would have  dropped the stupid can before I could use it."

"No kidding." Tabby shrugged. "So, I freaked out, of course, and was  going to run back into the ice cream shop, but suddenly there was Jack,  standing next to me. He tells the guy to move along, that I'm with him,  and he shouldn't be talking to teenage girls anyways."

"The guy looked annoyed, but he did leave right away, and then Jack  looked at me and asked if I was alright. I nodded, because I had no spit  left in my mouth and couldn't talk, and then he offered me a ride home.  I nodded yes." Tabby grinned. "And then he yelled at me for being  stupid enough to accept his offer of a ride and how did I know he was  any better than that other guy? So then I was mortified, and he marched  me into the store and made me use the pay phone to call my mother to  come and pick me up. He even got on the phone and told her in a very  respectful voice that a rather unsavory man had been talking to me and  he felt that, for my safety, she should come on up and fetch me. And the  whole time I'm thinking not only is my mother going to be furious with  me, this cute, cute boy thinks I'm a foolish little girl."

"That does sound rather mortifying," Imogen said sympathetically, adding some sugar to her tea. "So what happened?"

"I politely thanked him, then sat down at a picnic table outside,  assuming he was done with me and pretty much just wanting to die. But he  sat down on top of the table, feet on the bench, and started talking,  telling me how he's going to be a famous stock car driver and telling me  all about his car. I didn't know squat about racing, which seemed to  please him as much as if I had been a fan, because this gave him the  chance to tell me everything from the ground up. He told me his name was  Jack and he told me that he'd seen me in church, that I always sat in  the eighth row next to old Mr. Hodgkins. Now I was shocked that he could  know that, when I'd never seen him before. I mean, I would have noticed  him, right?" Tabby held her teacup in front of her mouth and smiled.  "But he told me he knew where I sat because he was always looking down  on me. He sang in the choir and he was up in the loft every Sunday. And  my heart just about exploded in my chest with excitement. I mean, a  choirboy? Even my mama couldn't object to that, right?"

Imogen pondered that. "Mothers can always find something to object to, but that was a definite notch in his favor, I'm sure."







"Exactly. So then, proving he hadn't been listening all that hard in  church about lust and lying, he led me around the side of the shop on  the pretext of picking me some scraggly wild-flowers. He asked me for my  phone number and he asked me to the movies. Then he kissed me." Tabby  put her hands on her cheeks. "I was so shocked, both at him, and at me  for letting him. But have mercy, it felt fine. I'd shared a kiss or two  with a boy before, but this was something else entirely, and I still had  the taste of him on my lips when my mama pulled into the parking lot.  And we've been together ever since."

"You stayed together all through high school?"

"Yep. We never broke up, not even once, not even for a day. Jack started  racing on the local track and worked his way up to earning a little bit  of money at it while I was finishing school. We started out dirt poor  with nothing but our faith in the future and our love. We've been  together twenty-one years and had all manner of ups and downs, and yet  marriage and loving Jack have never been hard. Life has been hard at  times, but marriage never has been. Now we have four beautiful,  occasionally bratty kids, a gorgeous house, and Jack's career, and I  feel very blessed."

Imogen had a lump in her throat staring across the table at the pure  contentment on Tabby's face. She loved her husband, and he loved her,  and they had built a life together.

She had never expected to pine for hearth and home and a man to call her  own, but at that moment, watching the joy of one woman's love for her  husband, Imogen truly felt the ache of wanting that for herself.

Tabby's cell phone chimed in her purse and she gave Imogen a shrug of  apology. "I'm sorry, I'm not usually the rudest woman in the world, but  do you mind if I see who this is? I want to make sure it's not the kids  or Jack. We have a deal that he always calls me when he arrives at the  next racetrack so I know he made it safely."                       
       
           



       

"Sure, of course. I don't mind." Imogen was pondering anyway, thinking  that Tabby's story of meeting and falling in love with Jack didn't  follow the Six Steps at all.

Tabby checked the screen on her phone, then said, "It's Jack. Let me take this. I swear I'll only be two minutes."

"No problem. Take your time." Imogen pulled out her own phone, aware of  exactly who she was hoping to have a voice mail or text message from.  Not that she was really expecting Ty to contact her until he had the  camping details, but she couldn't help but think it might be nice to  hear from him since she had just spent the night with him.

Pulling out her own phone, she got excited for half a second when she  realized she did have a text, until she opened the message and realized  it was from Evan Monroe. He was asking if he could call to make plans to  go out to dinner.

Oy. This was what she got for flirting with a man she wasn't really  attracted to. Now she had to find some way to turn him down without  being rude or hurting his feelings.

Regardless of whether she and Ty ever shared more than a few steamy  nights together, this was definitely a lesson worth learning. Tabby had  spent twenty-plus years happy with her husband because from day one  there had be an indisputable attraction between them, and it was  starting to occur to Imogen that, dating guide or not, that was not a  feeling you could force, either in yourself or in the other person.

Tabby said into her phone, "I love you, too, you handsome man." Then she  tucked her phone back into her purse and said, "Where were we?"

Good question. If Imogen only knew where she was and what she was doing,  she would feel much better, but for the first time in her life, logic  seemed to be failing her.





TY was keyed up with excitement and a fair amount of nerves when he  pulled into Imogen's apartment complex to pick her up Monday morning.  He'd had a lousy race the day before, finishing eighth, which earlier in  the year would have pleased him, but with only four races left in the  season, left him dissatisfied.

He was still in contention for the overall championship, and every point  counted. To that purpose, he really shouldn't be taking today and  tomorrow off. He should be sitting down with the team and assessing





what had happened on Sunday and going over the car for Atlanta.

But he had already made plans with Imogen and he didn't want to cancel  them. One, because it would look rude. Two, because he wanted to spend  time with her. Lots of quality time naked. That was good for his  physical and mental health and surely that was good for racing  performance. He would just have to haul his butt back on Tuesday and  head straight to the garage. In the meantime, he needed to make sure  Imogen was having a great time camping and he needed to display a  working knowledge of Much Ado About Nothing .

He'd struggled with the play all weekend, listening to it on his iPod whenever he had a spare few minutes.

He'd gone jogging and listened to it, eaten breakfast at the Waffle  House solo and listened to it, and sat in his lawn chair outside his  coach, trying desperately to make sense of what the voice actors were  saying. He tried really damn hard but, in the end, had only had a basic  outline of the story. Calling that good enough, he'd called Toni and had  her confirm he was at least in the right ballpark. Then he'd asked her  for the most romantic quote of the play. Toni had indicated that Much  Ado About Nothing wasn't exactly Shakespeare's most swoon-worthy play,  but she managed to find a passage that Ty thought sounded pretty darn  hot. He had made her repeat it to him four times so he could commit it  to memory.

That was one thing Ty could say about his brain-he had a good memory, probably because he couldn't really write anything down.

Going over the quote in his head, he was confident he had it right, so  Ty turned off the car and got out, sniffing the air. It was warm  already, and they were looking at temperatures in the eighties, the last  gasp of summer before fall really kicked in. Perfect weather for  camping.