* * *
Desiree’s doorbell rang at six that evening. She had been home only about thirty minutes and was preparing to take a long soak in the tub. She walked through her Mediterranean-style home, attired in a bathrobe, and looked through the peephole.
Her sisters stood on the portico, waving enthusiastically. She swung the door open, one hand on her hip. “What are you two doing here?”
Shaking her head in mock consternation as she strode inside, Lauren said to Meghan, “She hasn’t had a date since God created the world, and she’s asking what we’re doing here.”
“We’re here to help you prepare for your date,” Meghan said, holding up a bottle of champagne. “And to get you slightly drunk, so you’ll relax and have a good time with Decker tonight.”
Lauren closed and locked the door, and she and Meghan followed Desiree upstairs to her master bedroom, where she immediately began pulling clothes from Desiree’s closet and placing them on the bed while Meghan popped the cork on the champagne. Meghan ran to the sink in the adjacent bathroom and let the residual foam spill from the bottle’s mouth into the sink. Then she drank some of the delicious bubbly directly from the bottle.
“What, are you uncivilized?” Desiree cried. “Go downstairs and get some glasses, baby sister!”
Meghan laughed. “No, tonight you’re going to drink from the bottle, choose something sexy to wear, something that’ll make Decker’s eyes pop out of his head, and you’re going to stay out late and scandalize nosy Mrs. Brown next door when you drag yourself home just before sunrise.” She shoved the bottle at Desiree. “Here, drink!”
Desiree took the champagne and drank a little. It was cold and dry, just the way she liked it. But the last thing she wanted to do was get a little intoxicated before going out with Decker.
Drinking made her lose her inhibitions. She needed her inhibitions with Decker because they were the only things that would help her maintain a sense of decorum around him tonight. All week she’d found herself daydreaming about him. She hadn’t seen him in a while, not since the last family get-together at Colton and Lauren’s house about three months ago. And she had no photographs with him in them. So she had to rely on memory to recall how devastatingly handsome he was. Because of this, each time she found herself face-to-face with him, she was stunned by how bad her memory was. He was always much more appealing in the flesh than in her imagination. The man was endowed with a powerful presence. She couldn’t deny that. So staying sober seemed like a good idea right now. She dutifully handed the bottle back to Meghan and announced, “I’m going to take a bath.”
“You do that,” said Meghan, turning toward the walk-in closet where Lauren was riffling through Desiree’s clothes.
Desiree got into the tub of warm, fragrant water, relaxed with her head against an inflated pillow and closed her eyes. She hoped her sisters would give her a few minutes of alone time, but that hope was instantly dashed when Lauren called from the closet, “Didn’t Decker say tonight was casual? Do you own any jeans at all?”
Desiree sighed. “Not the jeans talk again. You know I don’t wear jeans. I’m not a jeans girl. I wear slacks sometimes, but I don’t like jeans.”
“Are you human?” Meghan joked. “Who doesn’t like jeans?”
“Have you ever tried to kick someone while wearing tight jeans?” Desiree asked. “You can’t do it.”
Lauren laughed. “So you don’t wear jeans just in case you’re attacked and you have to defend yourself? That’s ridiculous. In that case, you don’t wear long, tight skirts, either.”
“I don’t,” Desiree confirmed.
“You still wear your Louboutin shoes,” Lauren said realistically. “Those aren’t exactly made for fighting.”
“You can kick those off,” Desiree said languidly. “Now, would you please let me pretend I’m alone at an exclusive spa with no one around except the towel boy waiting with a warm towel for me when I get out of the tub?”
“Who does the towel boy look like in your fantasy?” Meghan asked, laughing. “In mine he looks like Idris Elba.”
Before Desiree could reply, Lauren said, “Why not Leo?”
Meghan took a swig of champagne. “Honestly, that man is driving me to drink. I know he wants me. He looks at me like he could devour me. Yet he’s got it in that thick head of his that he’s too old for me, so he says we should just be friends. That’s why I’m replacing him in my fantasies with Idris.”
“You never know what’s going to happen,” Desiree said to Meghan. “I never dreamed I’d be going out with Decker, either, but here I am, preparing myself to be sniffed, possibly touched and generally, hopefully, adored by him.”
“Oh, you don’t have to hope too hard,” Lauren informed her with a laugh. “That boy already adores you. I’m just hoping the fire that ignites between you two tonight doesn’t burn down Raleigh.”
Desiree laughed at that. “I’ve admittedly gone through a very long drought, but there will be no fire tonight. There may be some smoldering embers ignited, but no fire.”
“Wait and see,” Lauren said as if she knew what she was talking about. “You’ve never been alone with a Riley man before. There’s something very sexy about those gray eyes of theirs, to say nothing of those tall, hard bodies. When God created them, he should have patted himself on the back for a job well done.”
“I’ve resisted him for nearly two years,” Desiree reminded her as she laid her head back on the pillow.
“No,” Meghan said. “You didn’t resist him, you avoided him. There’s a difference. You never let yourself be in an intimate setting with him. You never allowed yourself to be vulnerable around him. There’s a difference, as you’ll find out tonight.”
Lauren looked at Meghan with admiration. “For the youngest of the bunch, you’re pretty smart.”
“Thanks, sis,” Meghan said.
Desiree sighed. “Will you two hens let me bathe in peace?”
Instead they joined her in the bathroom, where Lauren sat down on the lowered toilet seat and Meghan perched her bottom on the dirty clothes hamper.
“Should we go over what to talk about tonight, and what not to talk about?” Lauren teased Desiree. “Let’s see...” She turned to Meghan, enlisting her help. “You can tell him about your childhood, and your education. No harm in that.”
Meghan nodded in agreement. “But don’t tell him you talk in your sleep. That can wait until the relationship progresses a little.”
“And please don’t tell him you sometimes wake up singing,” Lauren advised. “That’ll freak him out.”
Desiree splashed water on her for that. “You know I have no control over that! I sing when I’m happy.”
Lauren chuckled and got a towel from the shelf to wipe the bathwater from her face. “I’m just trying to be helpful.” Her eyes sparkled with good humor. “You know we love you, and we want you to be happy. I do get a little satisfaction from the fact that we’ve been telling you all along to give him a chance.”
“Yeah,” said Meghan. “First impressions aren’t always on the money.”
“I know,” Desiree said quietly. “Unfortunately it took being disillusioned by Noel to make me realize that if I could misjudge him, I could also have misjudged Decker. But the jury’s still out on that one, okay? This is the first date.”
“Okay, then,” said Lauren, rising. “Come on, Meghan, let’s go find something in that closet