What's Life Without the Sprinkles - By Misty Simon Page 0,25

spine.

****

Nate hadn’t had anything else to do tonight. After making his steak on the grill and trying to get interested in a DVD, he gave up and left the house. He’d felt lonely knowing even Fred was out on a Friday night. He’d thought about calling up his brother or a buddy, but spending time with his favorite guy and friend trumped any other plans he could have come up with.

So here he was, figuring Justin had had enough time to talk to his mom if he’d needed to and hoping he wasn’t busting in on the poor little guy’s parade.

Claudia jumped from her previous slumped position to sitting rigid in a hurry. He walked up behind her and automatically started kneading her shoulders. “Long day?”

“Mmmm. You have no idea.” She purred and stretched.

He dropped his hands like she was a wire and they’d forgotten to turn off the electricity before stripping it bare.

“Is that all I get?” She looked up at him through lowered lashes, and he worried she might start in with the eyelash thing again.

“Yeah, well, I was just over this way and saw your car, so I thought I’d stop in and see how you were doing.” He smiled and took a seat next to her. She was sweaty and dirty and looked like the Claudia he used to chase around the playground in elementary school. This was the more comfortable Claudia. The one he could deal with on a daily basis. He’d been crazy to think she had been flirting with him the other night.

Justin started packing his batting bag in the cage in front of them. Claudia moved her body a little on the bench to make room for Justin to sit down when he came out. But instead of moving down away from Nate, she moved toward him and ended up nearly smooshing her very curvy body up against his.

He popped off the bench like a jack-in-the-box. She nearly fell on the ground, righting herself at the last second.

“Are you okay?” he asked, grabbing her arm and fighting embarrassment. What the hell was wrong with him? “God, I’m so sorry.”

“Not a problem, Nate.” She lowered her lashes and fluttered them.

On second thought, what the hell was wrong with her?

Cool fingers trailed up his arm and lightly pinched his bicep. “Why so nervous?”

Good question, but he didn’t feel he had a good answer. She was running him ragged. Time to take control back and get onto a different subject. He could still feel the imprint of her breast on his arm where she’d leaned against him. And as much as he’d like to say it hadn’t affected him in the least—come on, this was his friend Claudia—a boner was starting in his pants. A completely inappropriate response to the girl whose ponytails he used to pull and whose shoes he had put slugs in.

“I’m not nervous. I, um, just remembered I need to get to the grocery store before they close.”

“But it’s only six-thirty. You have hours. I was thinking maybe we could get some pizza and a movie and close ourselves in for the night.” She leaned back against the bench with her arms behind her, crossed her legs and seemed to thrust out her chest.

He almost swallowed his tongue. He found it tucked into the side of his mouth between his teeth and unstuck it so he could say, “Tonight’s not going to work for me, but I’ll definitely see you Sunday at the Peter lunch. Have a good night.” He scooted out of there so fast his pants might have been on fire. That description was not too far from the truth he realized as he sat in his car telling his libido to calm the hell down.

****

“Now when you go near him again, you might not want to revert to the blinking thing again.” Two hours later, the lesson had begun. While Claudia groaned at her sister’s words, Zoe was obviously relishing every single syllable coming out of her mouth. It wasn’t often she got to be the one telling her older sister what to do and how to do it. There was a reason for that.

Apparently Zoe’s date had not gone off well, and so she had come back to the apartment to corner Claudia, who was alone for the night. After Nate had left for his mysterious and ridiculous errand to the grocery store, one of the moms of Justin’s baseball teammates had found them at the batting