The gold thing. Autumn chewed on her lower lip, wondering if that choice would be at all wise. She shot a suspicious look at Webb, who was grinning from ear to ear. She was just about to speak when the doorbell rang again.
“What is this tonight…the gathering place for all of Tampa?” she asked her bedroom wall, tossing up her hands at this new interruption. “I don’t even have my makeup on!”
“Autumn, I’m sorry to bother you, but do you have any milk? Can you believe I’ve run out?” Emily Hinson, Autumn’s neighbor, stood on the doorstep, her fifteen-month-old son, Ryan, on her hip holding his favorite stuffed dog. Divorced since shortly after Ryan’s birth, twenty-three-year-old Emily was Autumn’s opposite in almost every way. She was delicate in appearance, if not in actuality, petite and blond with enormous china-blue eyes. She enjoyed her work as a secretary, loved cooking and needlework and all other things domestic, and made it no secret that she would like to be married again despite the failure of her first marriage. And yet the two women had become friends from almost the moment they’d met outside their duplex when Emily had moved in.
“There’s milk in the refrigerator. Help yourself, I’m dressing for a date,” Autumn told her, patting Ryan’s chubby cheek as he grinned wetly at her.
Emily started in, then paused at the sight of Webb. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t know your date was already here.”
“Oh, that’s not my date. That’s just Webb.” Autumn was already halfway through the door to her bedroom. “Introduce yourself, Webb. I have to get ready!”
Thirty minutes later she took a deep breath and checked her appearance in the mirror. Even she could admit that she looked good. She wondered what Jeff would think.
Webb, Emily and Ryan looked up and blinked when Autumn came out of her bedroom to join them in the living room. Autumn hadn’t realized that Emily was still there. It appeared that Emily and Webb had been talking easily for the past half hour while Autumn had dressed, Ryan playing with his toy on the carpet at their feet. “Autumn, you look beautiful!” Emily breathed, staring at the metamorphosis.
Webb shook his sandy head and grinned. “I told you the gold thing would be the right choice,” he said smugly.
Autumn grimaced. “I hope it’s not too much.”
“It’s not too much. Believe me,” Webb answered solemnly, turning a smile to Emily. “What do you think, Emily?”
“I think it’s gorgeous. And I truly wish it were my size so I could borrow it for a date sometime,” Emily added with a light laugh. “Not that it would do for me what it does for Autumn.”
Webb looked startled. “A date? Oh, you mean with your husband.”
“Oh, I’m not married,” Emily corrected him, looking a bit surprised that he didn’t already know. “I’ve been divorced for a year.”
Webb swallowed, looked at her again, then all but leaped to his feet. “Well, I have to go,” he announced a bit too loudly. “Have a good time on your date, Autumn. Tell Bradford I said hello. Nice to meet you, Emily. Bye, Ryan.” And then he was gone.
Emily frowned at the door that had closed behind him, then turned her bewildered gaze to Autumn. “Was it something I said?”
Autumn only laughed.
JEFF SHRUGGED into the jacket of his charcoal-gray pinstriped suit, adjusted his yellow silk tie and glanced at the thin gold watch on his wrist. Five minutes until seven. Five minutes until he saw Autumn. He took a deep breath, trying to calm his nervous stomach. Lord, he hadn’t been so nervous before a date since…since…well, he’d never been this nervous before a date.
She was so skittish. All his instincts told him that one wrong move, one wrong word, on his part, would cause her to take flight, right out of his life. He wondered again who had hurt her, what she was afraid of and whether he would have a chance to explore his budding feelings for her without driving her away. He wasn’t interested in an affair, had never been interested in empty affairs. He wanted a future, a relationship, something meaningful and enriching and nurturing. He wanted what Pam and Bob had. He’d always suspected that when he met the right woman, he would know immediately. The moment Autumn Reed had taken off her sunglasses and looked at him with those bewitching green eyes, he’d known.
Now if only he could convince her to give them a chance.
He hoped he hadn’t overdressed. He’d wanted to look nice, but then Autumn seemed to be the casual type. Of course, he’d only seen her on the job so far. But then again, he thought with his one-sided smile, if she looked any more beautiful than she had the last three times he’d seen her, he might not be able to control himself.
His doorbell chimed. Jeff’s heart jerked convulsively, and he swallowed, rather stunned by his own reactions. He looked in wonder at his hands. His palms were damp! Shaking his head in astonishment, he went to answer his door.
He had to make a conscious effort to keep his jaw from dropping at the vision on his doorstep.
She was the most exquisite thing he’d ever seen. Soft auburn curls glowing red in the evening sun, tumbling around her shoulders and begging for his hands. Artfully applied makeup enhancing emerald eyes and glistening lips. And that dress.
He gulped. God, that dress. Shaped like an inverted triangle with padded shoulders and bat-wing sleeves, it clung lovingly to her full breasts, then hugged the feminine curves of her hips and thighs to fall to the middle of her knees. It was made of some slinky material that looked gold at one moment, black at the next. He blinked to clear his eyes, only then realizing that the fabric was black shot with thousands of glittering gold threads.
She was beautiful, sexy, tempting. And looking at him in a defiant manner that dared him to say a word, much less follow his immediate impulse to reach out and grab her. “Would you…” He had to stop to clear his throat. “Would you like to come in for a drink?”
Was that relief he saw cross her face? Had she been so anxious about his reaction to her transformation from work clothes to evening clothes? She had good reason to be. He shoved his hands into the pockets of
his suit pants, fighting all kinds of primitive urges that were as surprising to him as they would have been to her, had he followed through on them.
And then she walked past him, and he had to swallow a moan. The dress had no back. From the button at the top of her shoulders to the top of the skirt, there was nothing but silky bare skin and the delicate ridges of her spine. The skirt was split in the center to allow glimpses of the backs of her knees as she walked.
He turned his eyes heavenward as he closed the front door. “This is some kind of test, right?” he murmured beneath his breath. He remembered all his earlier resolutions about watching his step with her, being careful not to frighten her off, and he felt himself on the verge of hysterical laughter. How could he possibly have known that she would show up looking like…like this?