Page 6 of The Proximity Factor

Thankfully, I came to the end of this week’s questionnaire. I had much better things to do. “Question eight: How would you rate your experience so far?” I maliciously chuckled. “Do you even have to ask? On a scale from one to ten, one being the lowest, I’m going with a negative fifteen. See you next week.”

I PARKED MY TRUCK IN the cottage’s driveway on Tuesday evening, exhausted from cheer practice. Summers were all about conditioning. And I wasn’t the kind of coach to stand by and tell my girls what to do. I believed in being in the trenches with them, which meant I did just as much running, weight training, and calisthenics as my squad did. More exhausting was trying to avoid Mama, who was still under the impression my roommate was a woman. A grumpy, reclusive woman. I hadn’t outright lied to Mama. I just left out some minor details, like Parker having a Y chromosome. Not like Mama had anything to worry about—Parker’s life mission was to ignore me. That only made me more determined to get him to talk to me.

When I got out of the truck, I noticed a few cars in front of the place. A minivan, an SUV, and a shiny, new blue truck. Huh. Did Parker invite people over? Maybe I was about to meet Daphne. I was going to tell her to run away as fast as she could.

I slung my bag over my shoulder and pranced across the lawn, something impish stirring inside of me. Normally, I was a real nice girl, but the man had gotten my dander up. I knew he was judging me and my southern ways. All his tsking and lip curling spoke to exactly how he thought of me. I didn’t know where he was from, since the dang man wouldn’t talk to me, but I knew he wasn’t from around these parts. Well, he was going to see how southern I could be.

I marched up the porch steps in my off-the-shoulder asymmetrical tank and athletic shorts. My hair was up in a messy bun. I was the southern version of a hot mess, which meant my pink lip stain and mascara were on point. I threw open the door, ready to do Dolly Parton—our queen—proud, but the chaos inside took me aback. The cozy living room now looked like someone was going to launch the space shuttle from it. Two long tables had taken the place of the couch and chairs, which had been pushed to the side. Monitors, gaming consoles, and keyboards, along with several cords and wires, sat atop the tables.

Four men, including Parker, all whipped their heads in my direction. They were all around Parker’s age, whatever age that might be. My guess was late thirties. It looked like a convention full of suburban dads. They were all nice looking and well groomed—even Parker was dressed nicely in dress shorts and a polo. I really wished he weren’t so handsome. My stomach did a few flips, which irked me. He didn’t deserve the physiological response.

While they all gaped at me with dropped jaws, I remembered it was showtime. “Well, hello, gentlemen.”

“Hi,” everyone but Parker stuttered. It was almost as if they had never seen a girl before.

Parker grimaced and shook his head. That only added fuel to the fire burning in me. He probably thought I wouldn’t be back so soon, and he could come out of his hiding place.

“Honey, you didn’t tell me we were having guests tonight.” I batted my eyes at my roommate, whose face was as red as my Ruby Woo shade of lipstick. Each time I wore it, I would bless MAC Cosmetics. “I would have made a spread for y’all if I had known,” I said in my best southern hostess accent.

His friends, or so I assumed, laughed.

That gave me just the incentive I needed. I sashayed right over to introduce myself. “Hello, I’m Lanie Davenport. It’s a pleasure to meet y’all.”

Each man stood and held out his hand. I noticed wedding rings on two of them. My guess is that they were the owners of the minivan and the SUV.

“I’m Javon. It’s nice to meet you.” The first man with a wedding ring shook my hand. He looked like he could be Shemar Moore’s brother. His wife was a lucky woman.

The other man with a ring was next. He had more of a dad bod but was quite respectable looking in dress pants and a button-up. My guess was he was a lawyer or an accountant. I had a sixth sense about these things. “I’m Pete,” he nervously said, barely gripping my hand. “I’m married. Very married. Three beautiful kids and a gorgeous wife,” he rattled off. “Javon’s married with kids too,” he said like he thought I should know.

I giggled. They had no need to fear—married men were a big no go for me. “I think that’s wonderful. Congratulations to both of you. How many kids do you have, Javon?”

“Two, and one on the way,” he said proudly.

“Happy times,” I replied.

The last man stepped up to the plate. He approached, running a hand through his dark, wavy hair with just the right amount of curl. He reminded me a lot of Parker. Very much a Clark Kent, except he didn’t wear glasses, and he had deep-brown eyes instead of broody gray ones like his friend. He was dressed like he’d hit the golf course earlier, and he smelled nice, like the clean scent of rain mixed with spice. You could tell he was intelligent just by looking at him. Which meant he would want nothing to do with me.

“I’m Ethan.” He held out his masculine, but well-manicured, hand. I liked a man who took care of his nails. “I’m not married, and I don’t have kids.” He grinned.

“That’s nice too.” I smiled while taking his hand and giving it a firm shake before letting go. I had to make my daddy proud. He always said you could tell a lot by someone’s handshake, so always make it a good one. I wasn’t sure what to think of Ethan, but I liked his handshake.

“Now that everyone knows each other, you can leave.” Parker glared at me, obviously upset he had to speak to me. Heaven forbid.

Oh, that was the wrong move on his part. I pretended like I didn’t hear him.

“What are you boys doing tonight?” I pointed at all the technology in the room.

“We’re testing out Parker’s new release,” Ethan informed me.

“New release?” I questioned.

“Of his MMORPG,” Ethan answered.

“Uh ... I’m sorry. I don’t speak that language.”

Ethan laughed a braying sort of laugh, which caught me off guard. It wasn’t all that attractive.

“It means massively multiplayer online role-playing game.”

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