Mission For Love (Love By Design 6)

She seemed to sway before uncertainty clouded her eyes again.

“Honey, just go. He asked so nicely.” The elderly lady who had been in the back of the room with me showing me some of the more complicated with her touchy feely hands winked and nudged Kiara.

“Vouching for him Mrs. Easterly doesn’t mean I’m going to go out with him.” She pouted. Her attitude wasn’t surprising, but my visceral reaction to it was. I wanted Kiara still and I wanted to kiss that pout off her face.

‘Honey, I’m old. It’s not every day a fine young man like this is going to court you. Get your panties out of a bunch and go before you’re dead.” Mrs. Easterly was quite convincing.

I put on my best puppy eyes and got a laugh out of both of them.

“Mrs. Easterly!” She exclaimed.

“Besides Kiara honey, he’s got an ass you could bounce quarters off of.” Kiara’s cheeks darkened and she bit her lip.

“She has a point,” I said waiting for a slap or recrimination of some kind.

“Honey, go get yourself laid and turn that frown upside down. Sadness isn’t good for the heart you know, but a good boot knocking will serve you just fine.” Mrs. Easterly made her way to the women’s locker room and I made a mental note to send her flowers and a case of our best brew. She looked like a pale ale IPA kind of gal.

“Fine. I’ll go, but I don’t have to like it.”

“Kiara-bear, I thought you would be a better sport than that.” Teasing her didn’t go over well when she rolled her eyes.

“Don’t call me pet names, David. We’re not there yet. Not by a long shot.” She said.

I obviously wasn’t going to win any points today no matter how I approached this situation. Her jaw was set and the slash of her eyebrows suggested I was treading on thin ice despite our humorous banter.

Clearing my throat, I started again.

“Don’t leave me hanging for a week and I won’t have to hunt you down in a yoga studio. Do you see how ridiculous these pants are?” I pointed to my loose spandex pants which I actually borrowed from Andy. After my junk had been plastered inside them, I wasn’t giving these hammer style looking pants back either. I tugged on the spandex. In some ways they were freeing, and in others embarrassingly restrictive and I made a note to wear a pair of basketball shorts over top next time. Especially, when elderly ladies liked to help themselves to my nuts and berries.

She crossed her arms over her taught breasts distracting me. “I don’t know. They certainly accentuate some interesting parts of your anatomy.”

“Really, Kiara?” I rolled my eyes.

“Yeah, when you go into downward dog, it’s like your bat can’t decide which ball it wants to hit in those pants.”

“I’m not a fan of downward puppy or baseball euphemisms unless you’re doing it.” I scratched the back of my neck giving the room a glance to make sure no one heard her as heat crept up my face.

“Next time put your mat in the front of the room.” She patted my chest.

I chuffed. “I only need you looking at me, not an entire class or the gilded age bridge team.”

“Aww, chin up David, it builds character.” She moved from patting my chest to my cheek. I didn’t know if she realized how much she had been touching me in the past five minutes. I mean, I wasn’t going to tell her because I liked it and I wanted her to continue doing it. It was nice.

“So did the Army, and I didn’t have to look like this.” I held my arms out and I finally had her laughing and agreeing to meet me for a date-ish-dinner later tonight.

16

Kiara

David convinced me to drop off my car, a decision I wavered on for a solid five minutes, he take

s me to dinner. I’m shuffled into his SUV having thrown a clean wrap sweater on over my leggings. He swapped out a fresh long sleeve t-shirt on but kept his hot pants saying screw it. There was something admirable about a man who owned his spandex. I pointed out they weren’t far off from his football uniform days and he steals an unsuspecting kiss before whisking me off to an Italian place as the base of the mountain ridge.

We opted for ice water and red wine making pasta our alter to worship on. David sampled everything while I took my time savoring the buttery garlic flavors and his enthusiasm for well cooked food. We covered more of the basics, like how his parents were adjusting to Florida life as mine continued to raise my hellion siblings which consisted of the twins still living at home.

Appetizers and meals morphed into gelato and tiramisu.

“So tell me about the guy who broke your heart.” David asked taking a spoonful of my dessert in his mouth with an unholy moan. If I didn’t get to church next Sunday for some godliness my mother was going to drag me there. I wasn’t offended by his question, clearly I had some hang ups in this department and he’d been fair with me.