Stripped - By Brenda Rothert Page 0,26
lacy thigh-high ones?”
“We should avoid talking about them, too. Just try to wear long, baggy pants if possible.”
“Okay. And no baseball hats for you. It would also help if you could avoid wearing that cologne you always have on.”
“You like that?” he grinned.
“Stay focused. Ground rules.”
“I am. Let’s just keep an honest dialogue open about the things the other does that create…unwanted arousal.”
“Yes, good. Let’s do that.”
“So we’re okay? Still friends?” Chris asked.
“We’re okay. You still want to go bowling with me and the girls this weekend?”
“Of course.”
Abby smiled as she watched Audrey and Sara playing pinball in the back of the pizza parlor. Audrey had a look of deep concentration, and Sara was smiling jubilantly.
“We may have to bring Justin next time so I have some bowling competition,” Chris said, grinning. He and Abby sat at a table, talking as the girls played.
“He’s worse than I am,” she said, laughing. “Are you in some doctor bowling league I don’t know about?”
“We did do that one year,” Chris admitted. “And can I ask, now that the girls are out of earshot, if you wore those jeans to distract me?”
“These old jeans?”
“Those old jeans,” he said with a knowing look. “Your ass looks incredible when you’re throwing the ball in those.”
“Well, thanks. I’ve had these jeans for a couple years.”
“I’ll need to add them to the list of things you can’t wear when we’re together.”
“Noted.”
“You’re really doing well with Audrey and Sara, Abby. They’re great kids.”
“That’s nice of you. I do my best, but they still don’t have what kids should.”
“You love them and take care of them. It doesn’t matter if you’re their Mom or not.”
Abby smiled, embarrassed by the tears welling in her eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she said, wiping her face self-consciously. “No one’s ever said anything like that to me. It just got me.”
“Let’s go get ice cream,” Chris said as they got up from the table.
“I already ate a piece of pizza, I can’t have ice cream, too.”
“We’ll share one.”
Abby marveled at the sense of contentment she felt with Chris. She’d never felt lonely before, but being with him gave her a sense of happiness she’d never had. Was this what she had been missing by never having close friends? They had only known each other a short time, but it was getting harder and harder to imagine life without him.
Sara had finished her ice cream in the car, but Audrey nursed hers slowly, taking it down to the basement as she followed Sara.
Abby passed the waffle cone she and Chris were sharing back to him.
“Don’t give me any more,” she said.
“Abby, you could stand to put on a few pounds.”
“The only place Mickey wants me to put on weight is my boobs,” she said, walking into the living room to pick up a blanket from the floor.
“What do you mean, implants?” he asked, incredulous.
“Yes. I’m straddling a B and a C, and he wants me to be a D. He harasses me about it all the time.”
“Don’t do it,” Chris said, looking serious. “You’re perfect just the way you are.”
“No, I won’t…” Abby’s thought drifted away as she saw Tim, her former stepfather, walking down the hallway toward her, buttoning the fly of his jeans.
“Abby,” he said when he got to the living room. “This the new sugar daddy?”
“What are you doing here?” she asked, the color draining from her face.
“I came to pick up my girls for a visit. I was killing time with Kathy while I waited. Audrey, Sara!”
Abby’s eyes widened in horror as her younger sisters pounded up the stairs.
“Dad!” Sara called happily, running toward him. Audrey stood back cautiously.
“Girls, get back downstairs,” Abby said briskly. “Right now.”
“Nah, how ‘bout coming home with me for the night?” Tim asked Sara.
“Get downstairs!” Abby said, a note of panic in her tone. “I mean it, you guys.”
Audrey grabbed Sara’s arm and pulled her toward the stairs as Sara looked back forlornly at Tim.
“But we haven’t seen him in so long,” Sara said sadly. Abby listened to the thud of their feet on the stairs, waiting until they were gone to turn back to Tim.
“Get out of this house,” she hissed.
“My family lives here,” he said congenially.
“They’re not your family anymore,” Abby said.
“Kathy and I will always have a connection.”
“Yeah, as long as she’s desperate enough to screw you for drugs,” Abby said icily. “This is my house. I own it. I pay the bills. And I will not have your dysfunction here.”
She felt Chris standing behind