A Baby In The House. Pamela Bauer

Dena’s territory.”

      “I’ll take the hot redhead who lived downstairs from you,” one of the hockey players offered with a huge grin.

      “You mean Krystal.”

      Upon hearing her name Garret’s blood stirred. It had always been that way, even before he’d spent the night with her. Someone would mention her name and he’d be aroused. He blamed it on the fact that the first time he’d seen her she’d been half-naked. He could still remember the look of surprise that had been on her face when he’d pushed open the laundry room door at 14 Valentine Place and found her sorting her dirty clothes clad only in a lacy bra and pants.

      Ever since that day he had fantasized about what it would be like to see all of that delectable body un-clothed. Never had he expected it to happen, and certainly not on the night of the hospital ball. Only it had happened and now he was having trouble forgetting how she had looked lying naked in his bed.

      “Is she seeing someone?” the hockey player asked.

      “Are girls that hot ever not seeing someone?” Dave wanted to know. “She probably has guys lining up halfway around the block to take her out.”

      “I bet I could get to the front of the line,” boasted the hockey player.

      Garret didn’t doubt that he could. He looked like the kind of guy Krystal would find attractive. She liked men who looked as if they spent more time at the gym than they did at a job and dressed as if they were on their way to a GQ photo shoot.

      He wondered what everyone would say if he announced that he had been to the front of the line. That he’d spent the night with her and she was everything a fantasy should be and then some.

      He chuckled to himself. They probably wouldn’t believe him. Not that he could blame them. He and Krystal were as different as night and day. No one would expect that someone as fun loving and outgoing as Krystal would be attracted to a man who spent most of his free time reading medical journals.

      “Knowing Krystal, I bet she already has a date lined up for the wedding,” Quinn commented.

      Garret suspected he was probably right. There was no shortage of men in her life. He only hoped that the man she did bring wouldn’t be Roy Stanton. After the way Roy had betrayed her, Garret didn’t want to think she would ever let the creep back into her life. Yet he knew the possibility existed. History had proved that she’d forgive him for almost anything.

      “Will you be bringing this Samantha as your date to the wedding?” Quinn interrupted his thoughts.

      “Ah…I’m not sure,” he said evasively. Until now he hadn’t considered taking anyone, but if he needed a date, Samantha would be a sensible choice. She was, after all, more his type than someone like Krystal.

      Again his thoughts returned to the beautiful, impulsive hairdresser. He wondered if she ever thought about their night together, or had she simply written it off as a night she wanted to forget. Judging by the way she’d avoided him whenever he’d stopped in at 14 Valentine Place lately, he guessed it was the latter. He knew he should do the same. Forget about her, forget about that night.

      Only he couldn’t. He’d messed with a fantasy and his life would never be the same.

      “I’M SO GLAD YOU WERE OFF today and you could help me move,” Samantha told Garret as she filled a shelf with books.

      Because she’d hired professional movers, there was little to do except help her unpack boxes. To someone as organized and as efficient as Samantha, it was a task that didn’t take long to accomplish.

      “I believe that’s the last of it and just in time,” she told him as she dusted her hands off on her blue jeans. “I’m ready for lunch. Where do you recommend, since this is familiar territory to you?”

      “Dixie’s is good and it’s close.”

      “Great, I’ll just make a couple of phone calls and we’ll go.” She leaned over to grab her phone from her desk.

      “I’ll wait for you downstairs. It’ll give me a few minutes to talk to my mom,” he told her, then headed down to the first floor.

      He found his mother in the kitchen seated at the large round oak table. She wasn’t alone. Krystal sat across from her, a pair of scissors in her hands. Her expression was one of concentration as she cut clippings from a magazine.

      Dressed in a T-shirt and jeans with her hair pulled back from her face and held in place by a barrette, she looked like an innocent and very different from the woman who’d seduced him the night of the hospital ball. She’d been all glitter and glamour and his body tightened as he remembered what had happened after they left the party.

      “All finished?” his mother asked when she noticed him.

      “Yes.” He didn’t miss the way Krystal kept her eyes lowered and focused on her task. Usually she greeted him with a grin and started a conversation, but not today. He’d expected that after the way they’d parted the next morning, things would be awkward between them, but not this awkward.

      As he moved closer to her he saw what had her attention. Spread out on the table were what looked to be paper dolls, only they were all men wearing swimsuits and none of them had heads.

      “What’s up with that?” he asked, gesturing to the clippings. “Are you venting your frustration with the opposite sex?”

      “We’re working on a game for Dena’s wedding shower,” his mother answered.

      “What kind of game has headless male swimsuit models?” he asked.

      “A fun one,” Krystal answered, cutting around a pair of men’s legs.

      His mother used her scissors to point to a small stack of paper heads. “The object is to match the celebrity’s head with the body. Each match is worth a point. The person with the most points wins. It’s as simple as that.”

      “But Quinn is five points,” Krystal corrected.

      “Quinn? You have his body in here?”

      “Of course. He is a celebrity,” his mother reminded him. “Although it wasn’t easy finding him in a swimsuit. He’s usually photographed in his hockey gear.”

      Garret peered more closely at the headless paper men on the table. “Which one is he?”

      “You can’t tell?” his mother asked.

      He chuckled. “No, Quinn has clothes on when I’m with him.” That comment caused Krystal to smile, but she didn’t look up at him. “Won’t this give Dena an unfair advantage? She’s probably the only one who’s seen that much of Quinn’s skin.”

      “That’s part of the fun…seeing if she can identify her own fiancé without his clothes,” Krystal answered.

      She glanced up at him then and, from the look in her eyes, he knew she was remembering what he looked like without his clothes. If his swimsuit-clad body was in the game, he wondered if she would be able to identify it.

      She looked away and he knew that what had happened the night of the hospital party had definitely changed how she felt toward him. The old Krystal would have flirted with him and made a comment regarding the two of them sharing a secret. The new Krystal looked as if she wished he wasn’t in the same room with her.

      Just then Samantha appeared in the doorway to the kitchen. In her usual take-charge manner, she strode in and greeted his mother.

      “I’m glad you’re all settled,” Leonie said. “Have you met Krystal?”

      “Yes, at the hospital ball,” Samantha extended a hand, but Garret could see her smile was forced. “It’s nice to see you again.”

      Krystal stiffened and for a moment Garret thought she might bolt right out of her chair, but to his surprise, she smiled brightly, shook Samantha’s hand and said, “You’re right.