Kristen Blooming (6 page)

His more forward friend was there next to him, greeting the ladies with a smile that assured Kristen he was more than familiar with them. That just went to prove what she’d already suspected. The man was a flirt. He’d just been amusing himself with her.

That was humiliating enough, but he’d done it simply because she was a virgin, a fact that seemed to be apparent to more men than Kristen had ever realized. That was a depressing thought, one Kristen lost herself in as the conversation swirled around her.

It was broken up by the sudden hushed whispers that drew Kristen’s attention from her own dark thoughts to the group that was leaning in close as they all tracked the movement of the woman walking in on the arm of a very large, very hard looking man. He was the kind of man who got painted onto a romance cover, and the woman was even better looking.

Kristen couldn’t help but gape, feeling small and completely mousy as the tall, auburn-haired beauty swept past their table in a light fragrance of flowers and sunshine. She not only looked good. She smelled even better.

“…can you believe it?”

“
Three men
?”

Kristen didn’t know what the ladies were whispering about, but that comment caught her attention. She glanced over to find them all smiling at each other and shooting looks back at the hunk the woman had just walked in with.

“Oh, please, like you’d turn down a single one of the Davises.”

“Like any woman would.”

That received a round of snickers and agreements that had Kristen glancing over at Cybil with a silent question. She caught Kristen’s glance and returned her smile as she bowed in slightly to give her the low down.

“That’s Patton and
one
of her boyfriends.”

“She dating all three brothers,” Cindy, a sweetly round-faced blonde chipped in with a smile that lead to no good thought.

“At the same time.” Janice tacked that on, causing the whole table to erupt in giggles and leaving no doubt that what they meant by dating was really sleeping…sleeping with three men at the same time.

Kristen’s eyes damn near bugged out of her head as that realization hit, and her face went up in flames a second later. That unleashed a round of laughter across the table as Kristen looked back over at the woman, not certain if she should loathe her or admire her. She was sort of torn between both.

Three men!

Three men that looked like that!

“It isn’t fair,” Cybil sighed, echoing Kristen’s silent thoughts. “I can’t even find one man to treat me right, much less one whose back I don’t have to shave, and she’s got three of the hottest, most devoted men.”

“And she looks like that for Christ’s sake,” Janice chipped in again.

“I hate her.” Cybil sighed, revealing that confession without any real emotion behind it, other than a slight tinge of amusement.

Not that she really should complain. Cybil was quite attractive as far as Kristen was concerned. She had a sophisticated kind of air that matched the cut of her dark hair and the seriousness of her green eyes. She could have been an artist’s muse.

“Don’t we all?” Cindy asked with an outright smile.

“Oh, look at that,” Janice whispered. “Patton’s headed back into the kitchen with Heather…when did she start hanging out with the A crowd?”

“The A crowd?” Kristen repeated, certain she knew what that meant but shocked to hear that adult women still thought in terms of high school rankings.

“The popular people,” Cybil said, helping her as if she needed it before turning to argue with Janice. “And Patton was never in the A crowd. She was too weird.”

“And how would you know?” Janice shot back. “You’d already graduated by the time she got to high school.”

“Because I know Chase.” That had every eye widening on Cybil, who quickly corrected herself. “I mean I knew him.”

“
Knew
him knew him?” Cindy pressed as Janice giggled.

“Like bow-chiki-bow-wow knew him?”

“No, you pervert,” Cybil shot back. “I tutored him in math.”

“Oh.” Cindy sighed, her gaze drifting back to the hunk who’d joined the sheriff for what appeared to be an intense conversation. “I would have loved to teach him a thing or two.”

“Speaking of a thing,” Janice muttered, her tone darkening as her gaze darted over to the deputy strutting across the dinner. “Here comes Deputy
Thing
.”

“Oh, please.” Cindy snorted. “I wouldn’t let him get anywhere near me with his thing. You know he’s one of them.”

Kristen didn’t know and didn’t have a chance to ask who they were before Deputy Hammel’s buddy reached their table. He cast a smile over them all as he nodded.

“Ladies.”

A chorus of murmurs responded without a single hint of welcome between any of them.

“Deputy Singer.”

“I wanted to stop by and invite all you lovely ladies to a pool party this weekend.”

“Uh-huh.” Cybil didn’t look impressed by either Deputy Singer’s invitation or his smile.

“By ladies, he means you, Kristen,” Janice tipped in, casting a dirty glance over at the deputy. “Because the rest of us certainly haven’t ever earned such a prestigious invitation.”

“I’m offended by that,” Deputy Singer shot back, but his double-dimpled grin made a lie out of his words. “I’m willing to ogle all of you in your bathing suits. Just because Miss Kristen is the youngest and prettiest of you all, I don’t discriminate.”

“You really think you’re funny, don’t you?” Cindy shot at him, not half as amused.

Neither was Kristen. In fact, she was flaming red and back to wishing this bakery had an escape hatch. The deputy felt no shame in what he’d said, though, and snapped back an answer to Cindy’s question in an instant.

“I know I am, gorgeous. So why don’t you stop by Duncan’s on Saturday afternoon, and I’m sure we’ll have ourselves a lot of laughs.” Something about the way the deputy spoke made it hard to know if he was being a jerk on purpose or just wasn’t aware he was one.

“I hope to see you there.”

He aimed a pointed look at Kristen and then strutted off before she could say anything, leaving Kristen the sole focus of the entire table and feeling worse for it. It wasn’t as if she’d asked to be the prettiest, or even thought she was, but somehow Kristen felt condemned by Deputy Singer’s summation.

“That man is just no good.” Kristen spoke that thought aloud and with enough emotion to cause the other women to break out in a round of laughter. She found herself offering up a hopeful smile to the group as Janice nodded.

“You got that right, Miss Kristen. Dylan Singer is a dog…one with fleas. You best stay away from him.”

That’s exactly what Kristen planned to do until Cybil spoke up, shocking them all with her pronouncement. “I’m going.”

“Going?” Cindy blinked as if she didn’t know the meaning of that word. “Going where?”

“To the party,” Cybil clarified, causing every woman there to blink and stare in utter amazement. “What?”

“You really want to go hang out with those fools?” Cindy pressed.

“I really want to go swimming and eat free food,” Cybil corrected her. “And if all of you come, I’ll have somebody to talk to.”

Janice and Cindy looked at each other and shrugged before Janice answered, speaking for the both of them. “Okay. We’re in.”

“But I don’t have a bathing suit,” Kristen spoke up, though not loud enough for any of the women to hear her other than Cybil, who shot her a comforting smile.

“Don’t worry, honey. We’ll get you one.”

“Uh-oh, check it out,” Cindy leaned in to whisper as she nodded to the portly waitress who had come storming back out of the kitchen. “Heather looks fit to be tied.”

That was an understatement. From where Kristen sat, she would have said the woman looked hurt. There was no denying who had caused her pain. A hush fell over the dining room as she stormed over to the sheriff and gave him a look that assured everybody knew she thought he was the dirt beneath her feet.

“Get out.”

A long, tense moment followed before the sheriff scooped up his hat and shoved out of his seat. Without a word, he stormed through the dining room and out the front door, leaving a trail of whispers growing in his wake. Those whispers swirled around the table as Kristen gathered that nobody thought that situation was going to end well.

Kristen rather thought that it was her situation that wasn’t going to end well. After all, she didn’t not only own a swimming suit. She didn’t know how to swim and was afraid there were going to be sharks in the water.

She fretted over the matter the rest of the day and couldn’t help but ask Gwen what she thought that night. That was mistake. Before she knew it, they were down at the mall in Dothan with Gwen picking out bikinis that covered less than Kristen’s underwear.

“I’m not wearing that.” Kristen shook her head, refusing to take the skimpy two-piece from Gwen’s hands. “It’s inappropriate.”

“It’s a bathing suit,” Gwen corrected, snatching up Kristen’s hand and slapping the hanger into it as she imparted even more of her sage wisdom. “It’s supposed to be inappropriate, and we’re not going to know if you’re wearing it until you try it on.”

“But…what about this one?” Kristen gestured to a black and white polka-dotted one-piece. “It has a nice little skirt.”

“And unless you’re forty, hairy, and have a few kids running around, it’s inappropriate,” Gwen snapped before jabbing a finger toward the changing room. “Now go try on the bikini.”

Conditioned to do as she was told, Kristen slowly began heading for the changing room. Once she got there, she moved even slower, feeling completely stupid as she shed her clothes and strapped on the stringy two piece that didn’t cover as much as her underwear. In fact, her underwear stuck way out, which Gwen took immediate notice of the second she stuck her head into the changing room.

“Oh God. Look at those granny panties,” Gwen groaned, both embarrassing and horrifying Kristen as she declared that new underwear was needed.

Before she could object, much less even stop her, Gwen had bought Kristen not only the bathing suit but also a whole set of lacy thongs that Kristen would never wear. Just the idea of having a string floss her there had her blushing. Her nightmare, though, hadn’t ended.

It had only just begun.

That became clear as, instead of heading for home, Gwen headed to an all-too-familiar strip mall and the small salon tucked into it. Kristen stared up at the door Gwen led her to but refused to budge as she read the sign.

“We’re getting tans?” She blinked, not certain she wanted to risk her delicate skin in some human glow tube.

“No. Don’t be ridiculous.” Gwen smirked. “We’ll work on those on Saturday at the party, but first…well, I hate to tell you this, cuz, but you are a little hairy.”

Gwen imparted that news in a hushed whisper as she pointedly glanced down. “You know, down
there
.”

Kristen felt her face go up in flames as the truth of what Gwen was implying hit her. As if that humiliation wasn’t enough, the truth of what Gwen intended hit her, and Kristen dug her heels in.

“No. No way. I’m not getting…”

“Waxed?” Gwen provided when she couldn’t seem to get the word out. “Don’t be embarrassed. Be thankful we caught this before any of the guys found out you’re bush. Now come on.”

With that blunt summation of the situation, Gwen latched onto her arm and began dragging Kristen toward the door.

Saturday, May 10
^th

Brandon woke up early Saturday to go for his ritual run. Dylan wasn’t anywhere around, but he hadn’t expected him to be. Alex had decided to punish the man for picking on the little Miss Kristen, assigning him the night shift all weekend and assuring his buddy wouldn’t be able to enjoy the party that afternoon for more than a few hours.

Brandon, though, was free and clear with the whole day to himself. He had a full day planned. Those plans started with jogging all the way down to Gwen’s street and then past her house in the chance he might catch Miss Kristen out and about.

That had been his hope for the past several days, but Miss Kristen had yet to show her pretty face or to admire Brandon’s sweaty physique, which was just why he’d taken to running without a shirt.

That was okay. He’d catch up with her later at Duncan’s party. Brandon had it on good authority from Gwen that she was bringing her cousin, and he couldn’t wait to see what kind of bathing suit the woman owned. Brandon was betting on something with a skirt.

That is if Gwen didn’t dress her. It had become clear over the past two days that Gwen had taken to dressing her cousin up like some deranged doll. It hadn’t helped that she was pulling from her own wardrobe, which was clear from the horrible fit of Kristen’s clothes. Gwen was built like a playmate, a surgically enhanced one, where Kristen was more petite and delicate, even fragile looking.

She was clearly way too shy to put up with the games that Dylan liked to play, but that was okay by Brandon. He wasn’t looking forward to introducing Kristen to the exotic world of erotic delights because he wanted to win some bet. He was just looking forward to the fun.