Tame An Older Man

she'd been hoping for, right? Maybe now that they'd cleared the air, they could be more comfortable around each other. Maybe by making love one time, they'd dissipated the tension that had plagued them since day one.

And maybe California was going to drop into the ocean, making Mesa Blue beachfront property.

She heard the door to the wet area open. She tensed, thinking for one illogical moment that it might be Wyatt, that he'd changed his mind about joining her in the hot tub. She'd have died if he'd joined her. She would have had to sit on her hands.

Thankfully, it was Frannie who flapped into the wet area in her cat swimsuit. She smiled when she spotted Phoebe.

'Oh, I'm glad someone's in here,' Frannie said, kicking off her thongs. 'Every joint in my body is sore, and I know I need to soak, but I hate sitting in here alone.'

'Me, too,' Phoebe said, pleased to see anybody other than Wyatt. 'Slide on in. Why are you so sore? You don't have arthritis, do you?'

'No, no, I'm just out of shape.' Frannie eased herself into the steamy water, wincing at first, then smiling as she settled onto the seat and closed her eyes. 'I went bowling with Bill last night. I haven't bowled in years, and I think I overdid it.'

'Sounds like things are going okay for you and Bill.'

Frannie grinned. 'Great, as a matter of fact. That Jane Jasmine is so smart. Now, I'm a great bowler. I used to bowl three times a week. The old Frannie probably would have hidden that fact from Bill. I would have pretended not to know how to bowl so he could play the big strong man and show me how to do it, and then I would have let him win.'

'But you didn't do that?'

'Heck, no. I told Bill I was going to give him a run for his money, pulled out my custom-made, monogrammed pink bowling ball, and beat the pants off him.'

Phoebe gasped. 'You're kidding!'

'Jane's book says to never hide or underplay your talents. So I didn't. And you know what?'

'What?' Inwardly, Phoebe cringed. Wasn't that exactly what she was doing with Wyatt, with practically the whole world? She was smart, she was on the dean's list, making almost straight A's in a tough field at a good university-and she was afraid to tell anybody.

'Bill loved it. He was so excited when I got two strikes in a row, he was crowing like a rooster. And when the last game was over and I'd won, he gave me a big hug and a kiss-and we went to dinner afterwards with some friends of his, and he bragged on me all through dinner.'

'Well, of course. Men these days want to be with competent, capable, smart women.' Unless the woman is Phoebe Lane, in which case they don't care.

'I know that's what 2001 Ways to Wed says, but I didn't really believe it until I saw it for myself. From now on, I'm going to get out there and strut my stuff. No more false modesty. And you know what? I look great in a bathing suit.'

Phoebe laughed. She was truly happy for Frannie and Bill, two of the nicest people she'd ever met. She only wished she could capture a fraction of Frannie's current self-confidence.

What would happen if she marched up to Wyatt and said, I'll tell you why I spend so much time at the university, and it's not so I can chase premed students. I'm more than halfway to a degree in biochemistry, I'm planning to graduate summa cum laude, and then I'm going to get a loan and start my own all-natural cosmetics company.

He would laugh. The whole thing still sounded ridiculous, even though she'd carried this dream around for years. She wished she didn't care what he thought, but she did.

Damn it, she did.

Chapter 9

Elise laid out three photos of wedding dresses on the table. She sat with Phoebe and Daisy at The Prickly Pear for one of their semi-regular dinners, and she was in the throes of decision-making.

'I'm counting on you all to steer me right,' Elise said. 'Phoebe, you're the fashion expert here, and Daisy, you know all about color and texture. So which dress is right?'

Phoebe studied the three dresses. They were all beautiful. One was a fussy Victorian style with lots of flounces and ruffles, a real princess dress. One was a modern dress with a dramatic, off-the-shoulder cut, made out of a slick fabric without a hint of lace. The third was somewhere in between, traditional but not old-fashioned, satin trimmed in lace with a short train and a sort of retro-sixties empire waist.

Seeing the dresses put an odd ache into Phoebe's heart. Apart from her teenage fantasies of wanting to marry a movie star, Phoebe had never thought much about getting married. She'd always just assumed she wouldn't, because she'd never found a man she could relate to on anything but a physical level.

Except Wyatt, her devious brain reminded her. True, she and Wyatt were friends of sorts. They'd gotten along fairly well this week, not quite as tense around one another, though their mutual awareness was never far from the surface. But they'd talked, and laughed, and Wyatt had even taken to asking Phoebe's opinion about ideas he had for the show. She supposed he considered her young and 'plugged-in' enough that she could recognize cutting-edge when she saw it.

George came by to deliver their drink orders. He stopped to peer over Phoebe's shoulder at the dress pictures, then pointed at the modern one. 'That's my favorite.'

Phoebe rolled her eyes. 'That's the model with the biggest breasts, George. She could be wearing a burlap sack and you'd pick her, as long as the sack had a plunging neckline.'

'I still like that one best,' George insisted, setting an iced tea in front of Phoebe and diet colas for the other two women.

As soon as he'd left, Elise plucked the picture of the modern dress off the table and wrinkled it up. 'That takes care of that choice. What about the other two?'

'The Victorian is pretty,' Daisy said, 'but I'm afraid you'd just be lost in all those ruffles.'

Phoebe nodded her agreement.

'What about the other?'

Phoebe studied the third dress. 'I like it. But you have such a cute, slender waist, and this dress would hide it.'

Glumly, Elise picked up the two photos and wrinkled them up, also. 'This is all Jane Jasmine's fault. If I hadn't read her darn book, I never would have found James, and I wouldn't have to be planning a froufrou wedding.'

Phoebe knew better than to believe Elise. She was having the time of her life, planning a big party where for once she got to be the center of attention, instead of one of a herd of sisters.

'My heart's breaking,' Daisy said dryly.

'Oh, speaking of Jane Jasmine,' Phoebe said, 'guess who's going to be a guest next week on 'Heads Up.'' Phoebe took a sip of her drink and enjoyed the looks of surprise on her friends' faces.

'Jane Jasmine?' they said together.

'In the flesh. Apparently Wyatt's director read 2001 Ways to Wed and was really impressed. She made Wyatt read it, and even he was impressed. He said she shows 'remarkable insight into the male psyche.'' Phoebe didn't add that Wyatt had also found the book on her bookshelf. She hadn't even revealed to her friends that Wyatt had been in her apartment, except to fix the burst hose. Normally the three women told each other everything, but Phoebe couldn't bear to share her and Wyatt's more intimate moments with anybody. It was still too painful.

'Yeah, well, Jane hasn't done much for me,' Daisy groused. She'd been unusually glum ever since Elise's engagement party, Phoebe had noticed, and she was not as open to meeting new men as she'd been. Of course, given how some of her blind dates and fix-ups had turned out, Phoebe couldn't blame Daisy.

'Hey, I've got an idea,' Phoebe said. 'We're bringing some other people onto the show with Jane-women who have actually found husbands using her book, and women who want to get married but haven't found Mr. Right. Daisy, I bet I could get you on-'