“Hmm, well, I’d love to do dinner but I’ll skip the whole my-mother-doesn’t-understand-me story.”

“How about a movie afterwards?”

“Okay.” Okay? Yeah, soooo casual. She snickered mentally.

“I’ll pick you up at say, seven? Do you like Italian? We could go to Vincent’s and then, um, I’ve seen the action flick at the Orpheum but there’s a double feature at the drive-in, would that be all right?”

“Are you trying to get me to make out with you at the drive in, Shane Chase?” Apparently, aliens had taken over her body. Flirty aliens with nerves of steel. She hoped they’d stay until he left or she’d die on the spot.

He turned pink and laughed. “You’ve caught me!” He gave her a grin, white teeth making him look a bit wolfish. “But of course you know I’m a total gentleman now that I took that civility class you recommended.”

She threw back her head and laughed at that. “Okay. I live on the corner of Fourth and Magnolia.” She stood up. “I need to finish my errands. It was nice sharing a cup of coffee and this nine thousand calorie cinnamon roll with you. I’ll see you tonight.” He walked with her to the sidewalk and they each headed opposite ways. She hoped the smile he had on was half as big as hers.

Still, she continued to grin like a fool back at home and mixing the bread. She was pretty impressed with the way she’d held it together and stopped herself from jumping up and down squealing with delight.

Her good mood held on until she noticed that she had some messages. Playing them back, a sick feeling replaced her happiness. There were six from Alex. And he’d already called twice before she left the house to start with. Each message she listened to got more intense. The way his voice had started off calm and friendly but turned into something like a sharp snarl on the last message sent a cold chill down her spine. Especially the part where he ordered her to call him immediately and chided her for being gone without letting him know her whereabouts.

It had to end. She’d decided that the night before but she wanted to do it face to face. Freaked as she was, she didn’t want to stop seeing him via voicemail, that seemed cruel. Picking up the phone with trembling hands, Maggie called him back but ended up leaving a message that she wanted to talk to him.

She ran the loaves of bread over to the retirement home. She sucked it up and stopped by her parents’ house and Janie’s as well. Best to just get that out of the way. As it happened, she had enough of an emotional high from her afternoon and upcoming date that the visits weren’t too bad and she escaped as quickly as she could.

Back at home, she called Liv and begged for her help to get ready for her big date.

Liv showed up breathless and eager less than five minutes later. “I can’t believe you didn’t call me immediately! Let’s go and get you an outfit while you tell me every last detail.”

Liv pushed Maggie upstairs and made all the right noises as Maggie told her about the afternoon coffee with Shane as she got dressed.

With her usually curly hair blown out straight and captured in a headband, the pleated skirt and sweater made Maggie feel vibrant and sexy too.

“Very collegiate and sassy. Damn I’m good.” Liv looked her work over with a critical eye.

“I know, without this I wouldn’t be going out with a man like Shane Chase at all.”

“Maggie, you need to stop this. You’re still you. I told you before, it’s not like I turned you into something you weren’t. So I added a bit of sparkle. Shane Chase has been mooning after you since that night at The Pumphouse. A night you were covered in chili cheese fries and had your hair in a bun.”

Ducking her head, Maggie hid her blush. She knew it was true but it was hard to overcome what she’d been told all her life. But she was too old to let her mother still make her feel inadequate. Taking a deep breath she stood up straight and held her head up. “You’re right. Thank you. He’s going to be here any minute. I’d better go downstairs. You going out with Shaun tonight?”

“No, I’m going out with Tom Maddox, he’s picking me up in an hour. I should get home now. Speaking of Shaun, what’s up with Alex? What crawled up his ass last night?”

“Oh my god! I forgot that I hadn’t told you about this yet.” Maggie related the whole story of how Alex had acted the evening before as they went downstairs.

“Major red flags are waving with this guy, Liv. He’s seriously creeping me out. He called me eight times today! This guy is seriously not right.”

“No shit. Why didn’t you tell me? You shouldn’t have even let him bring you home last night. You could have slept at my place.”

“I know. It just kept getting worse and worse and it wasn’t until I was sitting here in the dark, wondering if all my locks were working that I realized how truly freaked out I was. Anyway, the little voice said get away and so I am.”

“Well, that’s a good idea, Maggie.” Liv frowned. “Never ignore the little voice. Be extra careful around him, okay? You call 911 and then me if he comes around. You know you can come over any time if you’re feeling scared, too. You have a key for a reason.” Liv kissed Maggie’s cheek. “But for now, have a good time and I’ll see you at brunch tomorrow. I expect a full report!”

Grinning as she watched Liv jog down the block that separated their two houses, Maggie saw Shane’s truck pull onto her street. She ducked back into the house to check her hair and lipstick and grab her coat.