“I’m not going to sleep with Jason tonight. It’s only our second date. And the first one lasted all of ten minutes.” Lori found a satiny deep blue dress and held it up in front of the mirror. It looked expensive, so she checked the tag. If Jason asked her who designed it, she’d have an answer this time. She read the label and gasped. “Holy crap! This must’ve cost a fortune.”
Rachel chuckled. “I used to make a fortune, remember. But back to your nun-like tendencies. If Jason is as good-looking as you say, why not let him be the one to get you back in the saddle again?”
“I’m a mother. I can’t just sleep with someone because I’m only getting lucky with something that’s battery operated these days.”
“Stop. Don’t make me laugh. It makes me nauseous.” Rachel laid a hand over her mouth as she struggled to hold back her grin.
“I’m glad you think that’s so funny. Because, honestly, if I didn’t have Emily to think of, I might just be desperate enough to bring Jason home and let him have the honor of reacquainting me to the game.”
Lori hung up the gorgeous blue dress and then dug through Rachel’s impressive shoe collection. A pair with red soles practically called her name, so she slipped off her tennis shoes and slid her feet into the prettiest black stilettos she’d ever seen. “You think I’m kidding, but Deek kissed me, and I nearly went off like a rocket.”
Rachel sat straight up. “You kissed Deek? When?”
Crap! I shouldn’t have let that slip.
She could fib, but her sister would know. They had a sixth sense about each other. “Friday night. After my mini date. He said he’d done sex research to please his ex, and could he show me what he’d learned. As friends. I’ve never been kissed by a friend like that before.”
“Sex research?” Rachel’s eyes went wide. “If you aren’t going to go after a guy who cares what gets a woman’s rocks off, then get out of my way. I want Deek.”
“Don’t even think about it!” Lori whipped around so fast that she nearly tottered off her high heels. “Seriously.”
“Look at you.” Rachel’s right brow popped. “All green around the gills. You’re in love with him.”
Lori closed her eyes and sighed. “Deek and I have always gravitated toward each other at school events because we just get along so well. But now it feels different. I care for him. A lot. So much that I’ll never tell him how I really feel and possibly hurt his relationship with Asher’s mother. Deek wants Asher to have a whole family again and is going to great lengths to make that happen.”
Her sister flopped back onto the pillows. “So he’s hot, knows his way around the female anatomy, is nice, and he’s noble too? Why couldn’t I have found someone like Deek to lose my senses with instead of Marcello—”
“The twins’ father?” Lori sat beside her sister on the bed. “Tell me, Rachel. I can’t help unless I know the whole story.” Lori’s mind raced to think of someone famous named Marcello. Then a possibility dawned on her. “Marcello Romano? The actor? And the sexiest man in the entire world according to most polls? That Marcello?”
“Yes.” Rachel moaned. “I need to tell him, but I don’t want to. Can you imagine what the kids’ life would be like having someone that famous as their father?”
Lori blinked. “Maybe pretty wonderful? I mean the guy is loaded, has houses everywhere, right? They could go to top schools and universities. They’d get to travel the world. How is that so bad?”
“You don’t understand.” Rachel squeezed her eyes shut again. “It’s a nightmare to go anywhere with him. People literally pushed me aside to get to him. And his schedule is insane. He’s never in one place for more than a few days at a time. We had to use scheduler apps to squeeze out what little time we could together. We dated for over two years, and I probably only spent the whole night with him twenty times.”
“I can’t believe you never told me about him.” That hurt. They had always told each other everything.
“I didn’t think it would last. But then one of us would call because we missed the other, and we’d take up right where we’d left off. I kept thinking every time I slept with him it’d be the last. Never anything serious enough to tell you that I had a boyfriend.”
“Did you date other guys while you were with Marcello, then?”
“No.” Rachel’s wet eyes cut to hers. “I didn’t have any desire to be with anyone else.”