Page 10 of Best Kept Secret

While Kelsey was happy that Stacy had found Nick, she also felt a twinge of jealousy. She hadn’t had a reason to buy new lingerie in a long time. Too long.

“Weren’t you just here a few weeks ago?”

“Yes, but you can never have too much underwear,” Stacy said as she pushed open the door of the shop.

Kelsey nodded and followed her inside. While Stacy drifted off to a table containing every style of women’s panties imaginable, she perused the activewear. Not that she was that active, but she wanted to be. If Stacy thought she couldn’t have too much underwear, Kelsey felt the same about yoga pants!

Soon a clerk approached her and asked, “Can I help you?”

Why? Do I look like I need help? In the meantime, Stacy was blissfully shopping the panty table alone.

“Just looking at yoga pants,” she said.

“Oh. Did you recently have a baby?”

Kelsey’s eyes bulged, and she frowned at the clerk. “No. Why?”

“Sorry. I saw the Gap Kids bag and assumed…”

“It’s a gift for a friend.” Not that it’s any of your business.

“I apologize. We get a lot of young moms in here buying yoga pants after they have a baby. Let me know if you need anything.”

After the clerk slunk away, Kelsey lost interest in yoga pants, or as she liked to call them, loungewear, and went to rejoin Stacy.

“These are seven for thirty dollars,” Stacy exclaimed, holding up her stack of panties.

“But do you get a free teddy bear?”

Stacy laughed. “Did you find anything?”

“I was looking at yoga pants until the clerk asked if I’d just had a baby.”

“What? Why did she think that?”

Kelsey pointed at the Gap bag. “Maybe I will buy some underwear, after all.”

“That’s the spirit!”

She collected seven pairs of panties in a variety of colors and styles and then followed Stacy to the registers. As she paid for the pretty lingerie, she felt a glimmer of hope. Maybe Hudson would be the next guy to see her in them. After all, a girl could dream…

Four

Hudson pulled into the parking lot of The Gathering Place, thinking, I shouldn’t be here. Earlier, when Nick had invited him, he’d eagerly said yes, knowing there was a good chance that Kelsey would be there too. He’d gleaned that Kelsey often went out with her coworkers on Friday nights, and Nick was one of them. He hadn’t specifically asked if Kelsey would be there, but he assumed that she would be.

I’ll just have one beer and leave, he decided as he opened the car door and stepped out.

Jared wouldn’t be too keen about him hanging out with Kelsey tonight, but since Nick had initiated it and they’d be part of a crowd, he’d probably be able to get away with it.

He strolled into the bar/restaurant and was greeted by a hostess. “Table for one?” she asked, sounding hopeful.

He shook his head. “I’m meeting some people.”

“Are you Hudson?”

“That’s me.”

“Your friends are seated at the long table all the way at the back.”