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Hi, guys. I finally decided to dip my toe into the pond and post my first story. I like to build characters, hope you like them as much as I do. Feel free to leave a comment, the good and the bad. I'd appreciate it if you'd rate my submission and tell your friends if you like it. Thanks.
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Danielle Marie Carter was big on the oldies and right now she was playing an old Sam Cooke song, Another Saturday Night, in her head. She'd been a fan of the oldies since she was a kid, mostly due to the influence of her parents. She didn't know how the refrain got stuck in her head today, but it had gone viral.
It was Saturday afternoon, but instead of getting ready for a date like most young women her age, Dani was hanging out at a building supply store happy as a lark and playing a song in her head that was older than she was. Her sister Crystal would be dismayed.
Crystal thought Dani was some type of anomaly. She had on a number of occasions suggested that her baby sister had a severely stunted sexual gene. Dani never took offense, she just didn't understand why every female in her circle thought she needed a man, especially her mother.
If men were the best thing since sliced bread, surely someone had forgotten to give her the memo. So far, they'd been a lot of work for little return. Of course Crystal disagreed about almost everything Dani said on the subject of men. Without a doubt, her big sister had a lot more experience, but Dani wasn't convinced that Crystal had all the answers.
True, Dani wasn't as sexed up as most of the women she knew, but she'd felt sparks from time to time. Contrary to what her sister seemed to believe, she had more than her fair share of dates. However, she wasn't convinced that sexual attraction was all it was claimed to be and she wasn't looking for a hook up.
Still a virgin, Dani didn't think those few stirrings of passion was enough to justify taking the plunge and letting some guy inside her panties. She felt there ought to be more. It wasn't that she thought herself too good for them, she just didn't want to settle. If there was a guy out there who could set her on fire, she wanted to wait for him. She owed that to herself and to him.
At twenty four, Dani acknowledged that she'd never had what you could call a real boyfriend, someone she wanted to date exclusively. Nor had she dated the same guy beyond a few weeks. She found out quickly that guys her age were pretty impatient. They always wanted to put the horse before the cart and when she drew the line, they hadn't taken it all that well. As a matter of fact, she'd been called a tease on more than one occasion.
Although Dani was young, she wasn't stupid. She knew that calling a woman a tease was a ploy guys used to get what they wanted. But, once a guy threw that word at her, she showed him the door and didn't look back, not even when they offered an apology. She didn't play games and she didn't like being played.
It wasn't like she hadn't dated nice guys, it's just that there weren't any sparks. She, at one point, thought that there might be something wrong with her. She'd kept that assessment to herself, putting up a front, especially with Crystal. But, after a few days of analyzing her feelings, she decided there wasn't anything to fix, she just hadn't found the right guy.
So, here she was in Lowes, happy and at peace with herself. She loved not only Lowes, but all the big box stores. It wasn't that she was some kind of home improvement diva, but there was definitely something about the place that just enthralled her, something else she'd never tell her sister.
The big box stores provide a lot of inspiration for decorating her home and she'd learned how to refurnish and repurpose items to make her place something that made her proud. It didn't hurt that she loved decorating, but that's not what brought her to Lowes this day, it was her love of art.
After looking around a bit and not finding what she was looking for, Dani asked a store employee for help. She was directed to the building supply department where she located an acrylic panel to suit her needs. It was very large, but since this store had a cutting machine, that wouldn't be a problem. She was already an avid painter in the mediums of acrylic and oil, but she wanted to branch out into watercolor and needed a non-porous lightweight surface on which to mount the paper.
Looking around, she realized that there was no one in the department to help her, but, she noticed a red call button on the frame of the cutting stall. Just as she was about to buzz for assistance, she had the odd feeling that she was being watched.
Dani turned her head to the right and caught sight of him. Her first thought was, "He can't be looking at me." Quickly looking to her left, she saw an elderly couple about five feet away with their backs to her, but no one else.
Looking back, trying not to be obvious, Dani saw the guy walking in her direction. He was carrying two cans of paint, his stride was confident and purposeful. Something about him reminded her of a big jungle cat. For one crazy second she thought of beating a hasty retreat and coming back for the panel another day. Then she realized how ridiculous she was being. It was just a man, what could he do in a crowded store; throw her down on the floor and have his way with her? She almost uttered an embarrassing giggle with that thought.
The last thing she wanted was to be caught staring at him like a deer caught in the headlights, everyone knew what happened to them. Although, if this sexy hunk of man was going to slam into her body, Dani didn't think she'd try that hard to dodge him.
Trying to gain control of her runaway imagination, Dani turned back to her acrylic panel. However, removing it from it's stall was proving to be harder than she'd considered. It wasn't that heavy, she was just too short to get it out of the stall. She was yanking on it and cursing in her head when she heard, "Let me help you with that." She didn't need to turn around to know who it was, she just couldn't stop herself.
When she looked his way, her heart practically jumped into her throat. He'd put the paint cans down and was heaving the panel out of it's storage sleeve and onto the floor before she could blink. Then, he did the most amazing thing, he leaned against the cutting stall and smile at her.
"Oh, shit," Dani thought.
Close up he was massive; tall, ruggedly handsome, with smoldering green eyes. He wore camo pants, a tight olive drab tee shirt that accentuated his rippling muscles, a pair of tan construction boots, with a pair of aviator glasses tucked into the neck of the tee. His blond hair was cut in a close military style. He had a dimple in his right cheek that winked when he smiled and the most gorgeous green eyes. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she wondered if women still swooned in this day and age. Caught by the absurdity of that thought, she almost groaned out loud.
--
Ryan came to Lowes to do his sister a favor. Haley was pregnant with her first child and was anxious to get the baby's room completed. Her husband, Matt, was out of town on business and she wanted to surprise him with the completed room. She knew Matt would be pissed if she took on the job herself, so she'd called him.
Ryan was happy to do the job for her and after getting the paint sample, headed out to Lowes. He had just gotten the paint mixed and was about to head to check out when he saw her.
His first thought was, "Damn!" Followed closely by, "I hope like hell she isn't married."
