Most Eligible Wolf, Julie Steimle [important of reading books .TXT] 📗

The group nodded like a gang of hillbillies.

“He was our friend,” one of the others said. “He was going to spend that summer with us when his dad flipped out and dragged Rick away. It was weird, you know.”

“I don’t have his phone number,” Audry replied, feeling a mite dazed. Her mind was trying to go over what they were saying with an attempt to piece the events over when Rick knew these people. “I hardly know him.”

Four years ago, Audry’s mind calculated. Rick had to have been barely out of high school. If that were that case, his father wasn’t totally acting nuts. Rick would have been eighteen—too early to get engaged. Though he was a legal adult, they would have been a pretty young couple, and it could not have been that serious.

Daisy sighed. She then looked around the convention center, thinking. “He comes to these things, I hear. I really need to talk to him.”

Audry inwardly groaned. She really had hoped to avoid bumping into Rick again. So she said, “I hear he is going to have a question/answer session. You can get a conference schedule and go to one of them. It would be a guarantee that he will be there.”

That got a chuckle and a smirk from Daisy. “I suppose so. Do you have one of those? A schedule?”

Jandra handed hers over. “We’re going too.”

“I’m not,” Audry interjected. “I’m staying at the booth.”

“Are you kidding me?” Jandra said with a crooked eye. “You know ‘im.”

“I don’t care,” Audry retorted with a moan. “I didn’t come here to meet up with Rick Deacon. Honestly, I was hoping to avoid him. Trouble follows him everywhere.”

Those in Daisy’s group raised eyebrows. They shared whispers. In a way, they were agreeing.

“I want to go to that,” one of the guys said, taking the pamphlet from Daisy’s fingers.

Jandra smirked at him, pointing to the position on the schedule.

Others surrounded him with the intent to leave just then. They waved to Daisy and marched off with those of the NYU booth. Audry could tell they were counting on Rick’s hick friends to introduce them to the guy. He was famous after all.

But Daisy did not leave. She leaned against the booth table and sighed a bit, almost melodramatically—in a way one would expect her to spout some kind of Shakespearean soliloquy real soon, starting with the words, ‘Ah me.’  

“You’re not going?” Audry asked, wishing she would. She got the feeling that blonde was staking out that area as her territory.

Daisy shook her head and smiled at Audry. “Nah. I don’t wanna meet him like that. I really just want to talk to him.”

In that moment, Audry could tell that a lot more had gone on between Daisy and Rick than just dating. When Daisy had called him a boyfriend, she had deeply meant it. But somehow the word did not seem right.

“Can I confide in you?” Daisy asked, almost reading Audry’s unease.

Audry shrugged. Everyone seemed to do that. Maybe she just had that aura about her—one that screamed “Confess to me!” Jessica confided a lot in her. Silvia, a ton. In fact, every one of her former roommates seemed to use her for psychotherapy. It was burden, like people were drawn to her just so they could spill their guts.

“Rick and I…” Daisy sighed heavily, a memory clearly going through her mind. “We had something special. I felt like we were fated….”

Audry inwardly cringed. She didn’t believe in fate. And though she liked romance, this was stupid.

“…I mean, when we made love, it was like, so powerful,” Daisy’s soft sighing voice woefully explained. “Like… like reachin’ the stars. And I have never felt love like that since.”

A coldness swept over Audry. Daisy’s words resonated in her ears, bouncing off in her skull. ‘When we made love.’  Dammit. They had sex. He might have been a horny eighteen-year-old back then, but honestly, Audry never would have believed it. Rick, despite being a handsome rich jerk, he had never come across as a player… even with that stupid Duran Duran song on his cell phone which played “Hungry Like the Wolf”. She had believed him when he had said a friend had set it as his ringtone as a prank because she knew Rick’s family was way into wolves. But had Rick lied to her? Had he played her? Was he just as bad as Harlin had been?

“Did you ever sleep with him?” Daisy casually asked.

“What?” Audry jerked back into reality. “Are you crazy?”

Daisy laughed, hands raised, amused. “Ok. I see you didn’t. Sorry I asked.”

Audry shook her head, now really wishing that Daisy would go away. She shuddered. She didn’t like the way this woman was making her feel… like wading through swamp water.

“It is just that he is super sexy,” Daisy explained with a less soft voice. “I mean, have you ever seen him with his shirt off?”

Shaking her head in exasperation, Audry drew in a breath to protest. “No!”

Laughing now, Daisy straightened up, getting bolder with personal confidence. “Yeah. That’s right. He’s really not that kind of guy, is he? I mean, he is more of a one gal wolf. When I last talked with him on the phone, he told me he couldn’t get his mind off me, it was driving him to distraction.” She shook her head. “But that was four years ago before his father cut us off altogether.”

Four years ago.

Audry thought back to four years ago, that second time she had met Rick. It was also at a conference—his first one. He had seemed frazzled. What was going on with him back then? What were the rumors? That he was going to rehab? Or was it that he had escaped a cult? She remembered that one. Looking to Daisy, Audry wondered. Who was this Daisy? Who were these people?

“So, you’re just friends,” Daisy asked, not losing a beat.

“Hardly that,” Audry replied, more annoyed. She went back to sorting things out and replacing some display items.

Daisy then pointed to the bullet on the chain Audry wore. “What about that thing?”

Audry picked it up and then moaned. She had forgotten to tuck it back into her shirt. A year back, Silvia had told her to hide that silver bullet—the one she had dug out of the wolf’s leg. Silvia had told her it would draw in the dangerous kooks. Audry wondered if Daisy was one of those.

“It’s nothing.”

“Ah, come on,” Daisy said, rising. “It’s a bullet. Why do you wear a bullet? You hate animals getting hurt, right?”

Someone came up to buy a tee-shirt and a poster. Audry gave that person a nod and exchanged both politely.

“So what are you wearing one for?”

Moaning, Audry held it up for her to see. “I dug this bullet out of the leg of that wolf, ok? I keep it to remind me of the brutality of hunting.”

She then tucked it in to hide it.

Daisy grinned brightly at her. “Alright. Good reason.”

“It also reminds me what superstitious idiots are out there,” Audry muttered to herself.

To this, Daisy raised her eyebrows.

“It’s silver,” Audry explained, seeing her looks.

Daisy’s eyes widened more. “No kiddin’.”

Nodding tiredly, Audry sighed.  

“Whatever for?” Daisy asked, hand on hip.

Shrugging, Audry moaned, getting another tee-shirt for another customer, and selling a pack of post cards—thanking them with a quick smile. “For the stupid reason that some people believe that the Deacon family are werewolves.”

“I heard that rumor,” the one patron said. He was smirking in agreement that it was dumb.

Audry nodded to him. “I know. Nuts.”

Daisy was really grinning at her now. Her periwinkle blue eyes were shining. She seemed entirely pleased with herself. She settled back down on the edge of the booth, clearly waiting to just bump into Rick.

“So… you don’t think Rick is cute then?” Daisy finally asked, still curious.

Coloring, Audry was not able to reply for a full minute.

“You see,” Daisy drawled out, “I get jealous when, you know, he mentions other girls.”

“I doubt—” Audry flustered, thinking there was no way Rick would have talked about her after their brief bump at the Eiffel Tower. He had called her the Cynic for pity’s sake. And she had not bumped into him again until after he would have known Daisy.

“I know. He didn’t know you then,” Daisy replied with a confident smirk. “But lordy, he talked about two gals he liked, you know before we got serious. And I knew about his previous girlfriend—Selena Davenport.”

So did everyone else. His dating life with Selena was in all the gossip columns. Currently Selena was dating in the wealthy young aristocratic circuit again. Apparently she was no longer with that guy, Tom Brown. In way, Audry was sad about that. Tom was a weird, yet decent guy.

“He claimed this gal Jessica was his best friend’s girlfriend, but, you know, the way he talked about her I could tell her liked her,” Daisy said, mostly musing to herself.

Audry listened a little more. She actually knew all about that—but she got it from Jessica’s point of view. She also knew that Rick had lately pushed Andrew into being a better boyfriend to Jessica—because Jessica had told her all about it…. Including Rick’s scheme to get her boyfriend jealous, which didn’t exactly work right. It took a trip to China to work on her boyfriend, Jessica had said.

“Jessica is engaged to be married,” Audry revealed, unable to hold it in. She didn’t want the likes of this Daisy to target her friend.

Daisy perked up, listening intently. She also looked surprised Audry knew about Jessica.

“To Rick’s best friend, like he said,” Audry added. She then shook her head. “She invited me to the wedding.”

Pulling back slowly, Daisy eyed her intently. “So you know this Jessica?”

 Audry rolled her eyes. “Jessica Mason is a friend of another friend of mine. And she’s a cop.”

She added that last part, almost knee-jerk. It felt necessary. In fact, Jessica’s emergency ‘card’ was still in her wallet, just in case she needed help on hand. Audry was finding Daisy’s presence completely unnerving. But those others who had stayed in the booth with her hardly seemed to notice Daisy’s presence. It was like all of Daisy’s energy was directed exclusively at her.

“Oh,” Daisy blinked a bit, thought about it, then sighed. “Ok. That didn’t really bother me anyway. The one that bugged me the most was Eve. He was always sayin’ things like ‘Eve is going to kill me’, ya know?”

Rick had never told Audry about Eve, though she had heard Eve’s name from others. Eve McAllister. Back then they had described her as the surfer chick from California. They also said Eve was now dating some other guy and had friend-zoned Rick. Rick had liked her. A lot.

“Why would he say that?” Audry murmured, wondering more who this Eve was. She must have been really cool if Rick liked her. Jessica was.

Gazing blankly at Audry, Daisy said, “Because we were makin’ love in the grass, and she would not have approved.”

Audry wanted to walk away right then.

Daisy laughed in astonishment. “Oh my heavens! Are you a virgin? Did I just shock your virgin ears?”

Audry’s face grew hot. For second Audry felt like she was staring at her ex—Harlin. Daisy’s laugh was like his mocking laugh when she had told him she had no intention of having sex with him until after she was married.

“Honey,” Daisy said, patting Audry on the shoulder. “You are missin’ out.”

Her booth-mates chuckled. And they nodded in agreement. Many of them thought she was too culturally conservative on some issues.

“Oh my gosh,” Audry huffed, wishing she wasn’t the only person who understood how dangerous sexual promiscuity was. “Mind your own business.”

Hands raised, a giggle in her voluminous chest, Daisy smiled. “Sorry. I had no idea this was tender for you.”

Turning away, pretending to sort out tee-shirts, Audry now was really wishing this Daisy would leave. She wasn’t quite ready to out and out tell that gal to go away. Not yet. But she was getting