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She was outside, admiring his patio and garden, when Rex returned. He wore his usual T-shirt and jeans. His feet were bare. Tiffani had never seen a sexier sight. She had to get beyond this fascination with him.
“Would you like to eat out here?” he asked, joining her.
She fingered a plant. “That sounds wonderful.”
“Then you enjoy the sunshine and I’ll get us something to eat.” He went inside.
Tiffani followed him.
“I thought you were going to stay outside.” Rex looked up from where he was getting a frying pan out from underneath a cabinet.
“I’d rather watch you.”
Rex grinned. “In that case, I’ll try to put on a show.”
He started by squirting oil into the pan with a couple of quick flicks of his wrist. Next he broke eggs with one hand while whipping them into a froth with the other. Tiffani wasn’t only entertained but impressed. Was there nothing the man wasn’t good at?
“This might be the best omelet I’ve ever eaten,” she said a short while later as they sat across from each other at a café table tucked in a corner of the patio.
“That’s the fresh herbs. Makes everything better. Eat up. We’ve got to go.”
“You sure are excited about today.” Tiffani forked into her eggs again.
“I rarely get a day that I just get to play. And to do it with a beautiful lady makes it extra-special.”
That warm glow left over from the shower intensified again.
Half an hour later they were going to her car, again parked in his garage.
“Would you like to drive? It might give you more leg room,” Tiffani suggested, offering him her keys.
“Sure. It’s worth a try.” He took them.
Soon they were on the interstate. Rex was whipping her car in and out of lanes as they sped down the road.
She held the handle of the door. “You do know this isn’t a motorcycle?”
He grinned. “It’s almost as good. Drives like a go-kart.”
Tiffani put a hand on the edge of the seat. “Great. Now I’m riding with a daredevil.”
“Just sit back and enjoy the ride,” Rex said. “I’ve got this.”
“I hope those won’t be famous last words.” She chuckled.
Rex pulled off onto a city street and his pace slowed.
“Are you a big Elvis fan?” Tiffani asked.
“Who isn’t? But I’ll have to admit I came to it later in life.” Rex pulled into the parking lot across the road from Elvis’s home, next to the large one-level museum. “How about you?”
“Yeah, I used to watch all his movies. Even sang along.” She hadn’t thought of that in a long time. She and her father had watched a number of them together.
As they were getting out of the car Rex asked, “You want to see everything? Museum, house and plane?”
Tiffani shrugged. “If we’re here, we might as well.”
He took her hand and gave it a squeeze. “That’s the spirit. You’re learning. After all, we’re in no hurry.”
“I do have to see my father this evening.” The idea didn’t hold much appeal.
“We can leave from here,” Rex said, as they headed toward the ticket building.
* * *
That wasn’t a good idea. She couldn’t take Rex with her when she visited her father. “You don’t have to do that. I’ll have time to run you home.”
“I’d like to meet your father.”
She couldn’t let that happen. “Didn’t you hear me when I said he doesn’t like doctors?”
Rex pulled her into his arms and gave her a quick kiss. “I believe you told me you didn’t like doctors either. This morning in the shower you liked me pretty well, though, I thought.”
She had. But just because she had changed her mind about one particular doctor it didn’t mean it would make any difference to how her father felt about them. For certain he wouldn’t like Rex even “pretty well” if he somehow found out Rex had spent the night with her.
“Come on, we can discuss that later. Elvis is waiting.”
“Don’t forget you agreed to pictures today.” At Rex’s snarl, she grinned.
He paid for their tickets and they entered the museum. They walked from one exhibit to another, watching videos of Elvis in concert, studying his cars, before they moved on to where one of his many costumes was on display behind glass.
“He dressed with flair,” Tiffani commented.
Rex said as they looked at one display, “I remember my mom telling me about going to one of his concerts when she was a kid. She loved his music, still does. He would wipe sweat off with the bright colored scarf and throw it to the crowd. She got so excited when he came on stage, she made her way to within two rows of him, even though her seat wasn’t anywhere near the front. A security guard finally told her to go back to her seat. She used to tell us that story all the time.”
Done in the museum, they boarded a shuttle that took them across the road to Elvis’s mansion. There they joined a small group of people waiting for a tour of the bottom floor of the house. Tiffani looked up at the tall columns of the brick antebellum-style house. “This had to be some place in its day.”
When they were in the living room and the guide was telling them about the extra-long white sofa, Rex whispered in her ear, “I wish I had one like that. We’d have plenty of room.”
Tiffani burned hot with memories and hissed, “Shh.”
Rex grinned and hugged her close for a second. “By today’s standards, this isn’t all that large a place but at the time it must have been very impressive. Sitting up here on a hill with the white fence around it.”
They strolled through the garden. Tiffani couldn’t remember the last time she’d just walked hand in hand with a man with no real destination in mind. She really did need to let go more. Plan less, enjoy more. They worked their way to the area where Elvis and his parents were buried and stood there for a few moments.
“He really made his mark on the world, didn’t he?” Tiffani said in a low voice.
“Yeah, he did.” Rex kissed her cheek. “Not unlike what you have done in mine.”
She looked at him in wonder. “Have I?”
“I’m riding around in a car, aren’t I?”
“I guess I have.” For some reason, that really mattered to her.
His smiling eyes met hers. “You’ve done more than that. It’s been a long time since someone has been there for me like you were last night. Thank you.”
“You are welcome.” She couldn’t resist kissing him.
They caught the shuttle back and went to visit Elvis’s private plane. The day had been a perfect one so far and she couldn’t think of anyone she’d rather be with than Rex. She was having fun. Something she had little of in her life.
The plane was decorated in the same style as the house, late nineteen-sixties and early seventies.
Taking a seat, Tiffani asked Rex, as if she were conducting an interview and he was Elvis, “So, what was your favorite movie part?”
“I liked Girls, Girls, Girls. Mostly because of the girls.” Rex gave her a wolfish grin.
Tiffani laughed. “And your favorite song?”
“Oh, there were so many.” Rex did a poor imitation of Elvis’s voice. “‘Blue Suede Shoes.’”
“Your favorite place in the world?”
“Graceland, of course.”
They both giggled like kids.
Rex took her hand and helped her down the steps. “I heard that they have a café here that serves Elvis’s favorite sandwich. Want to try it?”
“What is it?”
Rex rubbed his stomach. “A grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich.”
Tiffani turned up her nose.
“Come on, Tiff, where’s your sense of adventure?”
Put that way, she wasn’t going to say no. “Okay, I’ll give it a try.”
