Page 18 of Somebody To Love

I stared at the phone wondering what in the world I was supposed to prepare in a matter of hours that wouldn’t include nuts, dairy or gluten.

I changed clothes, headed to the grocery store and wandered the aisles looking for something, anything. I wasn’t coming up with any ideas, but the clock was ticking. I briefly wondered if I could just buy the kids a bunch of chicken nuggets from a fast food restaurant, but figured greasy little children wouldn’t sit too well with their parents.

With a sigh, I grabbed a cooler, a bag of ice and all the fruit popsicles I could find. Unconventional, yes. But hey, the kids would love it.

“Having a party?” the checkout lady asked.

“Yep.”

“An ice cream party?”

“Uhhh… yeah…” I frowned wondering if I was making the right decision. It was too late now, I said to myself as I paid the cashier and wished her a hearty goodbye.

I placed everything in my car and arrived thirty minutes early to Meredith’s school. I was feeling pretty proud of myself until I remembered that the popsicles could easily melt. I needed to find a fridge and fast.

I grabbed the cooler, filled it with ice, placed the popsicles on top and wobbled unsteadily in my heels towards the entrance to the school. I felt moisture pooling on one side of the cooler and realized that there was a hole in it. Great. Just great.

I approached the school doors with a scowl on my face. I had the worst luck. A guard saw me coming and stopped me.

“Can I help you?” he asked.

“I’m here for the recital after party,” I said forgetting the real name of the event. I wasn’t sure Carter had described it as an after party.

The guard held back a laugh, but couldn’t conceal his grin. “After party? I didn’t know we were running a club.”

I laughed. “I’m old. Cut me some slack.”

He smiled back. “I get it. I feel the same way. The party’s in Great Room B. Go straight down the hall and then to you left. You can’t miss it.”

“Straight down the hall and then to the left. Got it.”

I walked down the hall mindful of the trail of water, I was probably leaving behind. I reached into my purse and tried to find some napkins. Of course, I didn’t find anything. I started muttering to myself.

“This sucks so much. So, so much,” I said, digging deeper and getting frustrated because the stupid cooler was leaking a puddle near my ankles now. I couldn’t let the kids slip and fall in this mess. I looked towards the security guard but he was gone. He seemed to be arguing with a mom up front about moving her car.

I looked for a janitor, but no one was around. The school was spotless, clearly someone worked there. I didn’t want to risk a kid falling in the puddle I made, so I reached for my phone, determined to call Carter and have him rescue me from the situation I had caused by being cheap and buying a crappy Styrofoam cooler.

Just as I managed to pull my phone from my purse, I heard someone approaching.

“Looks like you’ve gotten yourself into a little trouble,” said a masculine voice.

I looked up with a grateful smile and my eyes connected with a guy who I could only describe as GQ handsome. He wore just plain jeans and a t-shirt, but somehow it still made him look well put together and classy at the same time. He had dark hair that was cut extremely short. If it weren’t for the clothes, I would have assumed that he was military.

He smiled as he approached me and said, “Need some help?”

His eyes were a not quite blue, but not green either. They seemed kind of mysterious. I couldn’t stop staring at him.

I stuttered, flustered, “I have—ice—-”

He looked at me and then looked at the floor. “Looks like your ice is melting.”

I looked down at the puddle getting bigger around my ankles. “Yeah, this cooler sucks.”

He positioned his hand under it, feeling around for a hole. His hand brushed mine and my pulse quickened. I pulled away from him, startled and took a step backwards.

Apparently, that’s all I needed to throw myself off balance and the next thing I knew, I was on my butt in the puddle with my skirt around my waist. And the worse part was that I had apparently taken Mr. Handsome down with me. In fact, my knee was positioned across his thigh near his crotch and as he picked himself up, I might have brushed against it.

I immediately started having dirty thoughts. He seemed um… well-endowed. What was wrong with me? I was at a school for goodness sake. The last thing I needed to be thinking about was Mr. Handsome’s crotch.