to her. Kyla couldn’t concentrate on the salad spinner demonstration with all the whispering and giggling from Stone and his new friend. Kyla took a long swig of her wine. After the disaster at the bar, she hadn’t expected him to regroup so quickly. Maybe the mermaid really had made him nervous.
Maria giggled one more time then got up from the couch and headed for the bathroom. Kyla dashed to the hallway to get the scoop. “What do you think of Stone?” she asked.
Maria sighed. “He’s great. You are so lucky to have a gay friend. I’ve always wanted one to go shopping with, and teach me how to arrange flowers and gossip with. Every girl needs a gay friend. That’s what I read in a magazine the other day. Can we share him?” She shrugged and wrinkled her nose. “I gotta pee. Be right back.” She hurried off to the bathroom.
Kyla caught Stone’s eye and crooked her finger, beckoning him over. “What’s going on?” she asked him.
Stone shrugged and planted his hands on his hips. “I think she likes me.”
Kyla rolled her eyes. “She thinks you’re gay.”
He jerked back. “What? Why? Do I seem gay?” He looked down at his shoes. “Is it the argyle socks? Was I wrong about those?”
Her eyes swept over his chiseled cheekbones and cool, gray eyes. The way her heart was beating just looking at him had her shaking your head. “Nope. Not gay. At all.” She swallowed hard. “Not to me. So what were you talking about with her? You must’ve said something to make her think that.”
He looked up at the ceiling, thinking. “I waited for her to ask about me, but she didn’t. So then I asked her about her shoes, because I’ve heard girls like shoes. In fact, I had originally thought about staking out the shoe department at the mall, but I thought that might shout ‘foot fetish.’”
“Right. Now, back to Maria. What did you say to her about the shoes?” Kyla asked, trying her best to be patient.
“Well, after that, she started talking about her favorite store and the new scarf she bought and I asked if it’s silk, because I used to love dressing up in my mom’s silk nightgown when I was a little boy and then I told her how I found a silky dress at the mall the other day that felt exactly the same. I just love silk.”
Kyla remembered trying on her mother’s silky nightgowns, too. The two of them had been really close. Until Kyla had screwed everything up. And the thought of screwing up brought her right back to the present. “So, you told her this? About the nightgown?”
He shrugged. “Yeah, why not? I told Mom I’d tried it on cause I liked how it felt. She let me sleep in it. My mom was cool. She didn’t want to limit her children’s experiences by stereotypical world views and expectations.”
Kyla pinched the bridge of her nose. “I meant, you told Maria that you used to dress up in your mother’s nightgown? And that you were in the dress department the other day?”
“Yes.” He bit his lip. “Oh, I see now how that might be confusing.”
Kyla set her hands on his shoulders. “Just out of curiosity, what’s your IQ?”
“One-fifty.”
She whistled. “Wow. You could be in Mensa or something.”
He shook his head. “Too busy to make the meetings.”
She nodded, understanding things now; the smart part of his brain had gobbled up all his common sense. “Okay, let’s try again. There are a few more single women in there, go give it another shot and do not talk about fabrics or clothing or footwear. And remember, no lines, no jokes. If they don’t ask about you first, tell them something about yourself and let it go from there. Got it?”
He nodded. “Got it.”
Somehow, she doubted it.
Stone found a chair next to Mo’s neighbor, Gayle. Kyla nodded in approval. Gayle was pretty, single, and had a good job.
She watched them chat during the who’s-got-the-most-crap-in-their-purse-game. Stone got a special prize for having nothing but his wallet in his pockets—since he didn’t have a purse. Or a European man bag, thank God. By the time the party was over, he was walking toward Kyla with a slip of paper in his hand. “I got Gayle’s number!”
“Shh,” Kyla said, slipping her new grater into her purse. “Be cool. Let’s meet at the pub, and you can tell me everything.”
When Stone left, Aubrey scooted over to Kyla. “Stone’s cute,”