Page 12 of His Tenth Dance

“White shorts?” Lennie asked as she came into the living room, wiping her hands on a towel. “Do you know what you’re doing on the date?”

Kristie looked up at her, her mind going blank. “Uh, dinner, I think.”

“Dinner takes an hour or two,” Lennie said as she perched on the arm of the couch. “It won’t even be dark when you finish up.” She watched Kristie. “Surely Mission will have something else planned.”

Kristie leaned back into the recliner. “He didn’t say anything but dinner.” And besides, she owned bleach. “I’m sure it’ll be fine.”

“Does he think you’re outdoorsy?” Jocelyn asked.

“I am outdoorsy,” Kristie said.

“So maybe it’s not a white-shorts and Crocs date,” Lennie said. Behind her, the ice cream maker started to chug along, the sound changing to a lower pitch. She jumped to her feet and hurried over to it, pulled the plug, and took the whole thing out into the garage.

Kristie looked at Jocelyn. “No white shorts and Crocs?”

“I think you should text him and find out if there’s more to this date than dinner.”

“Yeah,” Kristie agreed, but she didn’t want to do that. Thankfully, the front door opened, and Harper yelled for help.

Kristie jumped to her feet and went to greet the last part of their quartet. “Let me take that.” She took the heavy earthen-ware dish from Harper, who still wore her pencil skirt and blouse combo. She really had come straight from work.

“I just need to change,” she said, panting slightly. “I’m so sorry I’m late.”

“It’s fine,” Kristie said, gazing down into the pan. “Are these cowboy brownies?”

“Yes, ma’am.” Harper grinned at her and leaned in to press her cheek to Kristie’s. “I can’t wait to hear about your date. I hope you haven’t talked about it without me.”

“I haven’t been on the date yet,” Kristie said.

“Fashion show,” Lennie called as she returned from the garage, where she’d stowed the ice cream.

“I’m not doing a fashion show,” Kristie said. She gave Lennie a brief glare as she slid Harper’s cowboy brownies on the counter. She loved the chocolatey, coconutty, butterscotchy treats, and Kristie’s whole heart filled with love for her friends.

They’d met a few years ago in a community baking class they’d each signed up for. Kristie could admit she’d taken the class to learn how to bake something for her boyfriend at the time. Turned out, sugar and cream couldn’t change a toxic personality, and the relationship had ended only a month later.

But her friendships with Harper, Jocelyn, and Lennie had just begun. When the class had ended, they’d started getting together for lunches, and eventually their dessert night on the first Friday of the month had been born.

It helped that they were all single, though they’d all had a man in their life at one point or another in the past. Sometimes they brought dinner and ate before they feasted on desserts, but tonight, Kristie had eaten before her friends had come over.

“Let’s dessert up,” she said as Harper returned to the room. She too sported dark hair, and she scrubbed her fingers through her locks now that she’d released them from her tight ponytail.

“I am so tired.” She sank into the recliner where Kristie had been sitting. “I can’t even get my own desserts tonight.”

“Let’s do floats first,” Lennie said. “I’ll serve everyone.” She smiled at Kristie. “Go sit, Kris. Tell Harper about your first-date outfit, and then I have a story to tell over our float trio.”

“A story?” Jocelyn asked. “About what?”

Lennie grinned as she pulled tall, skinny glasses out of the bin she’d brought in at some point. “About this potbellied piglet I saw online.”

“No,” Kristie said. “Lennie, just no.”

“I have that pasture.”

Kristie shook her head, because Lennie had tried to raise animals before—and it had not gone well. Kristie had ended up taking the calf out to a farmer she knew, and he’d raised it to maturity. “No, Lennie. Sorry, but no. I’m not coming over every day to teach you how to feed a pig.”

“It’s summer. I could?—”

“But it won’t be summer forever,” Jocelyn said. “Once the school year starts, you won’t even remember to feed yourself.” She usually sided with Kristie on things, thankfully. She worked as a pediatric nurse and had only dated doctors in the past decade.

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