Eyes to Remember
Chapter 10
Evening Out
Stephanie looked at herself in the mirror, she couldn't believe what she had on. The bateau neckline showed off her long neck. That was good Her breasts weren't large but enough to show some curve from their perkiness. The short sleeves were tight to hold it in place. Turning around, all she saw was skin, there was nothing covering her back until the tight jersey fabric scooped above her butt. It was covered, not by much by the mid-thigh length of the dress. The bronze color complimented her pale skin and matched the highlights in her hair which she straightened for the night with her iron. Smoky eyes, lots of mascara, and some lip gloss. Simple gold hoop earrings and 3 inch bronze colored strappy sandals. She threw some money in her purse, cell phone, and lip gloss. She was ready.
She opened the door to face her fan club.
"Steph, you look like a model!" Katie let out breathlessly. "Let's see the back."
"Pumpkin."
Stephanie was hoping she could get out of the loft without her parents, particularly her mother, seeing the back.
Her mother gasped, "Stephanie Michelle Plum, that dress doesn't cover much."
"Mom, I'm thirty."
Her father chuckled when Allie mentioned her Mommy was going to get a boyfriend. Katie told him Stephanie already had an admirer in her boss. Frank had picked that up the night of the Citizen of the Year banquet. Whether Stephanie was ready or interested was something else.
"You look beautiful, Pumpkin," her father kissed her as she was heading down to the garage.
Kissing Katie and Allie 'good-night', she told them, "I'll see you in the morning. And, be good."
"Bye, Mommy. Get a boyfriend," Allie waved to her.
She had washed and gassed up the Ferrari earlier in the day. The engine rumbled as she pulled out of her garage and down Haywood, heading for Mary Lou's past Rangeman. A figure was watching the street from his 7th floor apartment.
Pulling up in front of Mary Lou's modest three bedroom split level with toys littered over the lawn, Lenny walked his wife out.
Balding slightly, Lenny and Mary Lou were high school sweethearts, he kissed her before closing the passenger door.
"Stephanie, don't let any guys try and steal my beautiful wife. I'll be up, waiting for you, Sweetheart," winking.
Mary Lou started to giggle as Stephanie drove away. She was slightly shorter than Stephanie with shorter, darker wavy hair and a more voluptuous chest. "I'm shocked Lenny let me out in this dress."
Mary Lou had on one of Stephanie's designer short cocktail dresses that just hung in her closet.They had spent some time after the mall playing Barbie dolls with Stephanie's collection from her magazine days. Most had never been worn. She was wearing a coral color scoop neck mini tank dress and taupe colored high heeled sandals.
"You look amazing."
"I can't wait to see the reaction to that dress when we walk in. Steph, you're dance card will be full all evening. We need some fun."
"Bobby, Lester, and Tank will be popping in."
"More like your bodyguards. What about this hunky boss of yours you've told me about. Do I get to meet him?"
"Don't start, Mare."
"Listen, Bobby and Lester are gorgeous. And you said he's better, so I want to see for myself."
She and Stephanie had been best friends since birth and for her to even mention a guy, that said something.
The Ferrari rumbled through downtown and stopped in front of 'Breeze'. There were large neon palm trees out front of the nightclub.
"Oh my God," Mary Lou said noticing all heads were turned towards the red sports car as Valets came over and opened the doors.
"Is this what I think it is?" a young man in his mid-twenties asked.
"A Ferrari, yes."
"Where did you get a car like this?" he said. "A guy must really love you."
"No, I won it," taking the parking ticket from the ga-ga eyed man.
The bouncer at the door had watched the red sports car pull up, and who ever the two women were he waved them through the line.
"That car is magic," Mary Lou said. "No waiting."
Stephanie giggled, "It's good for a few things."
As they walked into the nightclub, they heard a few whistles and a "she drove up in a Ferrari." Stephanie felt a pleasurable tingle. Carlos must be here.
"I feel like a movie star. Guys are looking at us. Ok, they're looking at you."
"I don't think so, Mare. They're curious. Fast cars go to their heads."
"In their pants."
Giggling at the comment, "Let's get a drink."
The bartender got Mary Lou a white wine and Stephanie a Sea Breeze. Stephanie felt a hand on her back. Turning her head, it was Lester grinning at her. Bobby was standing by Mary Lou.
"Bodyguards at your service. Beautiful, that dress will give a man a stroke, but I'd be in a happy coma."
"We have a table up there," Bobby pointed to table on a balcony over the dance floor. Sitting there were Tommy and Carlos.
Mary Lou looked up and then at Stephanie mouthing "Wow."
"Nights on me, Mare," Stephanie told her best friend paying for their drinks. "I've missed you and you've always been there."
After Robert died besides Grandma, Mary Lou was the only other person who knew she was pregnant. She came out to Denver for the memorial service Stephanie had since Robert's body was never found and stayed at the cabin with her when she left Denver for awhile to try to get her life in order.
A man in a business suit came over, "May I have a dance?" asking Stephanie ignoring the tall man standing beside her.
"Later, maybe," looking at a smirking Lester.
Tank had been watching Ranger since Stephanie walked in, never taking his eyes off her. Her dress clung to all the right places. When she turned around at the bar showing her bare back, he saw Ranger swallow. His jaw set when Lester touched her, and a fist when the man in the suit came over.
He glanced at Tank watching him, "Who would have thought a girl from the 'Burg' would tie you up all in knots, The Great Manoso. You don't wear jealousy well. Stick with black."
"I don't know what makes her so special. I saw her eight years ago in the Miami airport," Ranger looked at his friend over his beer bottle taking a drink, then down by the bar. "I find out her name after all this time and there she was in Trenton."
"Stephanie has been special since I met her in college. She made a six-figure income running the magazine and gave it all up to spend with her daughters. This isn't just Stephanie here, Ranger, she protects those girls. You have your rules on relationships and children. Stephanie is all or nothing."
"I know to all the above, but it may be time to rethink things," he stood up as Stephanie, Mary Lou, Bobby, and Lester approached the table.
Her legs showing under the body molding dress. Stephanie still had the body from when she modeled lingerie. The picture in the blue teddy in high heel flashing in his mind. Her hair was straight tonight, no wild curls that he liked.
"Tommy," Stephanie's friend hugged him.
"Hi, Mary Lou. You got a night out."
"Yeah, barely. I didn't think my husband would let out in this," running a polished finger under the strap of the tight coral tank dress. "It's good that my best friend has a closet of designer clothes."
"Mary Lou, this is my boss, Carlos Manoso," Stephanie introduced them.
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Mary Lou. I'm no boss tonight," flashing white teeth as he shook her hand.
"Thank you. It's nice to meet you," Mary Lou was taking in the man in charcoal grey dress pants and white silk shirt. Diamond studs in his ears. Slicked back black hair, and lots of muscles. She got the impression glancing at Stephanie, then at Carlos, they were each other's counter-part. Her friend was fighting it, trying to think of him only as her boss. Mary Lou hoped he could make her see beyond that fact.
Before Ranger could pull out a chair for Stephanie, Lester grabbed her hand, "Dance with me, Beautiful."
"I don't want to cramp your style, Lester. It looks," Stephanie glanced all around the night club and saw women in short dresses and sexy outfits, "like it's going to be a packed house."
"The evening is young," dragging her towards the steps.
Ranger's jaw clenched again. Tank saw as did Bobby and Mary Lou.
Tank questioned knowing the answer since Stephanie and Mary Lou were best friends, "Glad she's back?"
"So much, Tommy. I've missed her," her eyes moist watching Stephanie and Lester dancing to a fast song. "But, she needed to get away. Stephanie's not 'Burg' housewife material like her mother wanted. You know about the Dickie disaster."
"Yes. I want to know if something I heard about that is true," he leaned in a little. "Something about an axe."
Mary Lou started to laugh heartily, "Oh yeah. The other woman Dickie was screwing on the brand new dining room table he and Stephanie just bought was her nemesis, Joyce, from high school. Stephanie suspected something. How she took the pictures without them knowing I don't know. But, this is the same girl who snuck out at night by going out the bathroom window and down the drain pipe. To this day, we still don't know if her parents knew about that."
Ranger snickered at that. He could imagine Stephanie doing that if she had her mind set on something.
"She sent the pictures to the newspaper and TV station. Both Joyce and Dickie found all four tires slashed on their cars. She cleaned out her stuff out of the house they bought. Left a rubber penis," Mary Lou was giggling, tears on her checks remembering it, "on the dining room table, cut in half with an axe sticking out of the table. She never heard from his again and he never got to be district attorney."
"That's my girl," Tank was smiling.
"I'm staying on her good side around the office," Bobby said gulping down his beer and checking under the table at his pants after hearing about the axe.
"I wouldn't expect anything less of her," Ranger was watching Stephanie walk back to the table. Lester was dancing with another woman.
Ranger held out her chair for her and sent a shiver up Stephanie's spine when his hand brushed against her bare back.
A waitress came over to take any drink orders giving Ranger the once over which he paid no attention to because he was looking at Stephanie. She also raked her eyes up and down over Bobby and the massive Tank..
"Go ahead, Mare, you can drink. I'm driving," Stephanie said.
"White wine. Lenny will kill me if I come home drunk."
"No, that's not what he has planned for when you get home," Stephanie said causing her best friend to blush.
"Stephanie, do you want another?" Ranger indicated to her glass.
"No, this is tart," Stephanie twirled her swizzle stick in it, "so I'll nurse it."
"Three beers," Ranger instructed the waitress. "What is that?" looking at her pinkish drink with a raised eyebrow.
"Sea Breeze. It has vodka, cranberry and grapefruit juices in it," holding up her glass. "Want a taste?"
"It has healthy stuff in it. That's right up your alley," Tank nudged him.
Taking the glass from Stephanie, he took a sip, "That is sour, but good." He took money out of his wallet and laid in on the table.
The DJ announced he was playing a slow set. Ranger got up and held out an open hand to Stephanie, "Dance?"
Nodding to him, she placed her hand in his, feeling the usual tingle, and followed him down to the dance floor.
She slipped into his arms melting to him as they moved to the music. One of this hands resting on her warm bare back, the other was holding her hand in his near his heart. Her arm around his neck.
"Are you having a good time?"
She gave Ranger a sweet smile looking at him with her clear blue eyes, "Yeah. Mary Lou can't always get out with her three boys. Lenny, runs his father's heating and air conditioning business, so he's on call a lot of weekends. I've missed her."
"Where are you curls?"
"I went to straight tonight. They'll be back before the night's over."
Ranger just nodded contented dancing with the woman whose eyes he would always remember.