Dream On (Stories of Serendipity #2) (9 page)

“What’s your first name?”

He smiled again.
 “Cody.”

“Okay.
 Goodnight, Cody.”

The next morning, as she sat at her desk, trying to organize her day before school started, a gaggle of teenage girls walked into her classroom.  Most of them were from her Honors class.

“Ms. Fuller?”

“Yes Jackie?”

“I have a huge favor to ask.”
 Her eyes were wide with urgency, and she was breathless, probably from trying to accomplish too many things at once.  Jackie was the classic under-organized over-achiever.  Her backpack was bulging at the seams, and the binder in her hand was haphazardly stuffed with papers, which were perilously close to falling out.

Alyssa sighed.
 “Does it involve helping you re-organize your notebook?  You know if you had a separate one for each class or activity, you life would be easier.  Also, you do have a locker somewhere on campus you can use instead of breaking your back trying to carry it all at once.”

Jackie rolled her eyes.
 “No, Ms. Fuller, that’s not it.  We are supposed to do a service project for National Honor Society, and this year, I want to have a booth at the Hot Pepper Festival to take donations for the Crisis Center.  I’ve spoken with the Chamber of Commerce, and they said they would let people into the festival free if they bring me a donation.  The only thing is, I need an adult to help me supervise the booth.  It’s one of the stipulations of the service project contract.  Can you help me?”

“I was going to take my kids to the festival, Jackie.
 I’m not sure I can do it.”

One of the girls with her, Jennifer, spoke up.
 “Diana and I can help you watch them.  We love your kids!”

Alyssa knew that was true.
 Jennifer had actually babysat them once a few months before, and she trusted her with them.  

“Okay.
 When do I have to be there?”

Jackie let out a relieved sigh.
 “After the parade will be fine.  I’ll let you know as soon as they assign me a booth space.  Thank you so much, Ms. Fuller.  I really appreciate it.”

Alyssa didn’t have problems helping her students out with this kind of thing.
 She knew Jackie was a hard worker and did everything she could to improve things around her.  She was a well-liked young lady, without even trying.  The kids liked her genuineness, and she was a good kid.  

The rest of Alyssa’s day went much better than the previous one, until fifth period, when she told a boy he needed to shave off his mustache, as facial hair was a dress-code no-no.
 He ignored her completely.

“Colton?
 Did you hear me?  You need to go to the office and shave.  You know you can’t wear facial hair.”

He un
folded his body out of the desk and kicked it hard enough to send it skidding into the wall next to him.  The class gasped and tittered awkwardly.

“And now you need to go into the hallway to wait for me.”

“Fine,” he gritted out of clenched teeth.

When he left the room, she partially filled out a discipline slip, made sure the class was working on something, and followed him out into the hallway.

“What’s going on?”  She asked him quietly.

“Nothing.
 I just don’t see why we have to shave.  It’s stupid.”

“Well, stupid or not, it’s a rule the school board instigated, and it is my job to make sure you follow the rules.
 There is absolutely no need to destroy my desks.  I barely have enough as it is, and your buddy Dustin has destroyed three this year, just from sitting in them.”  Dustin was a huge kid, all muscle, who managed to break stuff just by being in the same room with it.  “Take this slip to the office, and don’t come back to class with that hair on your face.”

Once she had gotten through that hiccup, the rest of her school day was a breeze.
 She spent her conference period grading papers and answering emails before finally going home.

Alyssa wanted to have a quiet evening at home.
 They  were so rare for her, and she decided to enjoy this one.  She turned off her cell phone, closed the door to the laundry room, and turned on the TV.  The movie
Nine 1/2 Weeks
was on and she decided to watch that.  She hadn’t seen it in a while, and remembered it was pretty steamy the first time she had watched it.  

She knew where this sudden desire to watch smut had come from.
 She was still dreaming of him.  Even though she hadn’t been having the sexy dreams for the last few days, just knowing it was him was enough to make it sexy. And in these dreams, she was getting some backstory on the hunky devil.

She knew he had a sister, and a niece who adored him.
 He hadn’t seen the niece clearly in the dream, but she seemed familiar, like somebody she might know.  Alyssa assumed her subconscious was getting lazy, trying to come up with new characters for her make-believe movie life as a man.  She also knew Dalton’s dad was sick and had been in the hospital, and ran a ranch.  She had seen how frail and worried his mother looked, and could feel how worried about her Dalton had been.  Then Dalton had gone back to Dallas.

Nine
1/2 Weeks
had become background noise for her own daydreams.  She lay back on the couch and imagined she and Dalton were a couple. He would take her home to meet his family, and she and his sister would get along swimmingly.  Alyssa had hated Steven’s sister, and the feeling was mutual.  She could help his mom cook dinner for everybody, while Dalton and his dad were out doing cowboy stuff.  Her children would be able to romp and play in the pastures, getting all the fresh air they could stand.

Alyssa fell asleep on the couch, and didn’t wake up until sunlight streamed in on her face in the morning.

“He’s here.”  She said to herself.  This last dream had very clearly shown him picking up one of her students, Kelly, from right in front of her school.  He had been at the Palestine Regional hospital.  She recognized everything.  Still foggy from the dream, she went into the kitchen to make coffee, and ruminate.  

She felt for her imaginary friend, who seemed to be hurting so badly about his father’s illness.
 He had thought his dad was getting better, but now he was worse, and things didn’t look good for him.  Dalton had been looking around the barn, reliving old memories of time spent with his dad, and an overwhelming sense of nostalgia filled Alyssa.

Remembering her lunch date, Alyssa looked at the clock.
 She still had two and a half hours before Cody would be here.  She didn’t need much time to get ready, but she did want to look good.  So she got into the shower.

While she was shaving her legs and her armpits, she remembered something her friends had said about shaving other stuff.
 She wouldn’t be sleeping with Cody today, by any means, but she still wondered what it would feel like, to be sexy.  Even if nobody saw it but herself, she would know what she had done down there.  Would it affect her attitude?  Would it make her feel more attractive?  One way to find out...

After showering and shaving everything, she went back into her bedroom to examine herself in the full-length mirror.
 She had to admit, the thought of her va jay jay looking like an eight-year-old’s initially repulsed her, but looking at it in the mirror, it didn’t seem so bad.  In fact, she did feel a little sexier.  Not much to be done about the rest of her, but maybe she should join the YMCA, and start working out.  That couldn’t hurt anything, could it?

She rummaged in her panty drawer, until she found an ancient pair of panties that were actually ma
de of lace and slipped them on.  She put on a sundress and fixed her hair, blowing it dry and using the curling iron on it, until she tamed the frizzies, so it fell in soft curls around her shoulders.  After swiping on some mascara, and daubing lipstick on, she spritzed her wrists with perfume, and went into the living room.  She still had an hour to wait.  Crap.

She went back into the kitchen
and did some dishes, then picked up dirty clothes from the floor in her bedroom and started a load of laundry.  Now she had forty-five minutes.  

Going around the house, and straightening up, she resisted the urge to change into sweats and start heavy cleaning.
 By the time the doorbell rang, she was a sweaty mess.

“Hang on, Cody!
 I’ll be out in a minute!”  She raced back into her bathroom to freshen up her makeup and drag a brush through her hair, slipped on some sandals, and opened the door.

Cody was sta
nding there, snug fitting jeans and a plaid, long-sleeved cotton shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows.  He grinned at her.  “Wow, Alyssa.  You clean up nice.”

She blushed at the compliment.
 “Thanks.  You ready?”

“Yeah.”
 He walked her to his pickup truck and opened the door for her.  She caught him eyeballing her legs as she swung them into the truck.  For some reasons\, his attentions made her uncomfortable, but she told herself to enjoy the experience.

“Thanks.”
 She hadn’t had somebody open the door for her in a while.  In fact, she couldn’t remember when anybody had ever done it.

He hopped into the driver’s seat and looked over at her.
 “I have a surprise for you.  I made a picnic for us.  If you don’t want a picnic, we can go out somewhere, but I thought you might like some place a little more private than Applebee’s.  You know how rumors get started.  We’re liable to be seen, and the next thing you know, we’ll be getting married.”

Alyssa had mixed emotions about this.
 She was pleased about his discretion, but she didn’t really know him that well, and wasn’t sure how comfortable she would be in private with him.  She would have to be careful.  “I guess that sounds okay.”

“Good.”
 He smiled that dimply smile at her, and she grinned back.  They sat in nervous silence as he turned his truck away from town and headed for the state park. As he drove through the twisty hills to get to the pavilion deep in the park, butterflies took flight in her stomach.  She had never been here when there were other people around.  This was definitely a place to come when you wanted privacy.  Maybe too private.

“I haven’t been out here in ages.”
 She said to break the tense silence.

“It’s one of the most beautiful places around here, I think.”
 There was a moment of intensely awkward silence, where he cleared his throat twice, and she just looked out the window, biting her lip.

“Here we are.”
 He got out of the truck, and opened the door for her, helping her out.  She tried in vain to keep her dress from sliding up her thighs when she climbed out of the enormous pick up truck, and she caught him noticing her legs again.  He grabbed a small cooler out of the bed of the truck, and they walked to a picnic table in the trees.

“Um...I wasn’t sure what you would like, so there’s a lot of random stuff in here.
 I bought the sandwiches.  There’s ham and cheese, tuna, meatball, steak and cheese, and a salad.  I also have beer and soda.  I wasn’t sure what you wanted.”  She could tell he was nervous, he was repeating himself.  Maybe he wasn’t so smooth after all.

“It’s okay.
 I like everything.  Relax.  You’re acting like this is a date, and it’s not, remember?”  She tried to be reassuring, but he didn’t seem to relax much.

Cody laid the sandwiches out on the table, while she grabbed a beer, hoping it would relax her a little.
 One of them needed to chill out.

They ate mostly in silence.
 Alyssa could not think of a single thing to say to him.  The awkward minutes dragged by.  When they were finished eating, Alyssa said, “That was really good.  Thank you Cody.  This was nice.”  

He looked at her, and panic filled his face
momentarily.  Then it was gone and replaced with a look of determination.  They were standing face-to-face, and he reached out and touched her shoulder.

“Alyssa...”

Uh oh...

“Yes, Cody?”
 Please don’t do it...

His face came closer to hers, and he whispered, “You’re so pretty.
 Can I kiss you?”

She didn’t know what to say.
 Who asked to kiss a girl?  “Um...sure,” she replied awkwardly.

His mouth came down on hers with such force, it took her breath away.
 His tongue was in her mouth in an instant, making shoveling movements across her teeth, and he was breathing through his mouth, like it was some sort of resuscitation.  His hands grabbed at her dress, sliding up to her rear, pulling the dress up with them.  She pushed him away.

“You can’t kiss me like that!”
 She said it without thinking.  She didn’t mean to hurt his feelings, but sheesh, she wasn’t a chocolate cake.

“I’m sorry.
 I thought you said yes.”  He looked at her beseechingly.

“I did, but that’s not an appropriate first kiss, Cody.
 You don’t just maul a girl.”  She was furious at him, for taking advantage of the situation, of the privacy.