Chapter 17

Lorelei had been getting ready for bed that night, figuring on taking a little extra time for herself since Joey appeared to have gone to a slumber party with her friends and Brian had stepped out for awhile to have drinks with Paul.

She had watched TV for awhile and then played a random song on the piano until she realized it was getting late, and she didn't want to disturb the neighbors. From there, Lorelei had gone into the bathroom to shower and put her clothes into the hamper before going back to her bedroom to finish up her nighttime preparations.

Still at her vanity dresser, Lorelei had a strange feeling come over her, and she looked in the vanity mirror, finding a blurry shadow standing there.

She was about to scream; being she didn't have her glasses on, she hadn't recognized who it was at first. What was worse, if someone had broken in, why didn't the alarm go off? Had Brian or Joey forgotten to set it when they left?

But then Lorelei recognized the short, blond figure standing in the doorway. "My God, Brian, why don't you just scare the hell out of me? I didn't even hear you come in!"

"I'm sorry," he said. "I took my shoes off when I came in because I thought you were in bed and didn't want to make any noise. Then I saw the door open and light on in here."

"Oh….well, all right." She went back to what she was doing, but saw he remained in the doorway, not taking his eyes off of her.

"What?" Lorelei asked

Brian cleared his throat. "Uh….nothing."

"Nothing, my ass. Spit it, Detective." She then smiled.

"You ever think of not pulling your hair back anymore?"

"Not really…I only wear it like this for bed."

"You should leave it down all the time. You know what I've noticed? Curvier girls always have much healthier hair. I don't know why, but it's always shinier and silkier. It may be the feminine side of me, but I'm always looking at the hair."

"I didn't know you had that in you," Lorelei replied, beaming.

"Well, it's not something I make common knowledge for obvious reasons. I wasn't exactly a ladies' man, to say the least. I also have some resounding fear of women of high class, I can't even ask one what TIME it is."

"Really?" Lorelei was at a loss for words.

"Actually, before I met you, I would go find the nearest curvy chick, because I knew I could slide right up to her, put an arm around her, and, say, ask what time it is and I was good to go without being bitched at or 'ewwwwww'-ed."

"Who on earth would want to say 'eww' to someone like you?" She put her glasses back on and turned around. "You're the sweetest man I've ever known. Someone would have to be out of their mind."

"Yeah. Oh the things those high class skinny bitches miss out on. They go for the tall Adonis types, obviously. We short, funny looking dudes are left out of the equation, but lucky for us, there's a few smarter women left in the world."

"Their damn loss," she nodded Mr. Big Time Detective, checking out hair and worrying about being 'ewww'-ed if he approached women. Who would have thought it?

"I'm still wide awake," he announced. "You want to watch a movie or something?"

"May as well. I'm pretty awake now after you nearly scared me half to death."

"Sorry," Brian replied sheepishly. "Next time I can be like Paul and sound like a team of horses coming into the room."

She laughed as they went to the living room and sat side by side on the couch. "I think I'll take the lesser of the two evils. Pick a movie."

Brian flicked through the On Demand menu before stopping at something. "Ooh! Lord of the Rings."

"Works for me," Lorelei nodded.

"Look at us," he grinned. "A couple of geeks sitting home on a snowy Friday night in our night wear watching movies while my daughter is probably having the time of her life at a slumber party."

"Yes, imagine that," she agreed.

"But I will say one thing, it beat the hell out of sitting at the bar with Paul watching him being fawned over by a bunch of bimbos. I took my leave by making the excuse that I wanted to be home before the roads got too bad."

Lorelei nodded. She knew where he was coming from; neither of them were the touchy feely type. The idea of public displays of affection had made both of them cringe, let alone anything else.

About halfway through it Lorelei began to yawn and then doze off, her head involuntarily landing on Brian's shoulder. He didn't mind; instead, he put an around her, which made Lorelei's eyes shoot open and catch him staring down at her.

"Now what?" she asked.

"Did anyone ever tell you that you have beautiful eyes?" He pulled off her glasses. "You definitely need to lose these."

Before Lorelei had a chance to protest, Brian touched her face and kissed her, exploring her mouth with his tongue. She tangled her hands in his beautiful hair and kissed him back, not sure what else to do.

"Oh baby, you are so beautiful, " he said when the kiss broke, then went in for the kill again before Lorelei could recover from the first kiss.

Neither had heard Joey come out of her bedroom, who stopped dead in her tracks at the scene unfolding in front of her.

"Whoa, Dad, I didn't think you were so suave! Come up for air already!"

The kiss broke hastily, Lorelei blushing and sitting face forward as Brian jumped like a scalded cat.

"Jesus! Joey, I thought you were going to Lisa's tonight. Why the hell are you still here?"

"You honestly didn't think I was going out in that shit, did you? Besides, Lisa called and canceled it till next weekend, so you two will have to wait to neck until then. But gee, Dad, couldn't you find a better movie to make out to? Lord of the Rings? Good God." She made a face.

"Just go make some popcorn and quit being so obnoxious," Brian shook his head.

He then looked over at Lorelei, who giggled a little. "Talk about a mood killer," he said.

She nodded. "But better your daughter than your best friend. Knowing Paul, he'd never let you live this down."

"Yeah, and for some reason, I have a gut feeling Joey out there isn't going to either."