Romance Away!

Brooklyn’s T-Bird Man, Linda White-Francis 

Brooklyn encounters a middle-aged classic car buff at the supermarket magazine racks. She and Tanner discover love, laughter and a few bumps on the road to romance.

Vacation For Desire, Linda White-Francis
Teri accepts a date for dinner with David. She worries - will romance with a younger man be 'rocking the cradle' - or rocking the boat?

Cruise for Desire, Linda White-Francis
On a cruise to Cancun, a younger man puts the wind back in spinster Teri Blanchester's sails. Can they find love on a turbulent sea?
 

Brooklyn’s T-Bird Man

By

Linda White-Francis

Brooklyn Marshall, thirty-five, knelt, patted her husband’s grave and imagined his warm, stubbly beard tickling her cheek. In retrospect, her self-seeking decision to have him buried right there in McAlester, Missouri instead of so far away in Arlington National Cemetery, is something she still has misgivings over. Shattered by her loss, she hasn’t reckoned with his death very well, consequently when she decided, much to his parents’ chagrin, that the best place for his remains would be as close to her as possible, she hasn’t heard from them since. “I miss you so much honey,” she whimpered sorrowfully, hot tears spattering all over Sergeant Major Franklin Binkley Marshall’s marker below. Brooklyn bent down awkwardly and nestled her weary head against the cold metal plate. Strangely, the frigid bronze lettering beneath her tear-stained face felt more like Frank’s generous, warm shoulder. “I love you darling. I want you back so badly,” she persisted, pummeling the spring grass with one balled-up fist. Brooklyn has done this every Sunday for over three years. She didn’t think she would ever get over her husband’s tragic death.

* * * *

Brooklyn faked a smile because he smiled first and pulled her grocery cart out of the way, so the tall, decidedly younger Steve Martin look-alike could get to the magazine racks in front of her. “Sorry,” she apologized, mildly irritated, because she didn’t have much time, the kids would be home from school soon and Frankie, Jr. had a trumpet lesson. All I want to do is steal a few selfish moments to myself and browse these country magazines without any interruptions. Brooklyn blinked, tugging a wayward strand of chestnut hair stuck to the corner of her right eyelid.

“That’s okay, you don’t have to move your cart,” the attractive man smiled for a second time then squeezed into the classic car section- accidentally brushing up against her arm. She smiled again too, coughed into a cuffed hand and wheeled the cart around next to the greeting card shelves. Country decorating was her passion even though she didn’t have the money to do it the way she wanted. So the magazines filled a desire left void of funds, thus giving her a myriad of ideas to hold on to until the real thing was possible. Brooklyn was a believer of all things being possible in due time, even if she and her kids were living a bit closer to the bone since Frank’s passing. Luckily, she was strong, and had a good head on her shoulders. Frank once told her what he loved the most about her was her good old-fashion horse sense. Taking it as a compliment, she kissed him for it, although she thought a more fitting tribute might have been her unfathomable, violet-blue eyes, and supple, Irish skin. Now that would have made her swoon with desire, but she loved him anyway. Horse sense. What a funny thing to say, but that was Frank. Never very complimentary. Shy really, but the greatest guy in the world to have for a husband. Mostly he was kind and considerate and so humorous she could never stay mad at him more than hour. He was a bighearted, handsome man, and she was madly in love with him still. He had loved her unconditionally, and she loved him the same way. Her mother once remarked she thought their devotion was more a religion than a marriage because they worshipped each other.

* * * *

Brooklyn checked her watch anxiously—no time she thought, and tossed the quarterly into the empty buggy and began to push. I could buy a thick, juicy steak for what that darn magazine costs. I should be ashamed. Oh well. She thought pursing her lips angrily, but her self-effacing reprimand faded quickly when the pleasant car buff, standing a few feet away, stepped closer- gently touching her shoulder. “Miss look at this. I own this car,” he tapped the page enthusiastically. She looked up annoyed, way up because he must have been six foot five.

“Yes,” she sighed unenthusiastically, wishing she’d been more charitable. He had the most fascinating dark chocolate brown eyes she’d ever seen. Those eyes were a sexy standout with his pure white hair. This guy was easy on the eyes too. “Look at this,” he pointed a sun kissed index finger to a snazzy red convertible. “This is my car alright. Isn’t she a beauty? It’s a 1959 T-Bird.” Wow what a neat old car. I love the Brandywine red. It would be fun to take that for a joy ride.

******

Vacation For Desire
By
    Linda White-Francis      

Chapter One    

   Never satisfied by any of her lovers, Teri Blanchester wallowed in her sexy irrelevancies as if they were true. There were times the dreams disturbed her, but for the most part, they kept her alive, because repeatedly she found a good man was hard to find.

David Brewster’s chatty openness uplifted Teri’s spirits. Her body and mind felt mesmerized by the sweet nectar of his vibrant, sexy voice. The travel agent from Sunny Days Travel Inc. could have sold Teri a bareback trip to Alaska, yet his succulent personality had her going to exotic Cancun. She hoped when she met him, that her mind’s imaginary picture of him matched the sweetly sensual sensations she’d experienced when hearing his voice.

Ah, if only such a man could really exist, she thought, and heal the aches that reality brings. Keyed-up, and more excited than a schoolgirl going to her first dance, the complex redhead found she was more eager to meet David than going on the long-awaited journey.

“You’re worth it,” David promised. Teri winced, remembering how she told this perfect stranger she was an old-fashioned Ohio farm girl, and this was her first vacation. David thought it sweet. Teri giggled, embarrassed by her naiveté. “That just means you’re about to change your life around.” The kind gentleman schmoozed.

He had that right, Teri thought, steadying herself at the kitchen counter. I am aching for a change, glad for their faceless conversation.

“Well, let’s do it then!” Teri squealed audaciously, words piercing her ears worse than the sound of her palpitating heart. Lord knows I need a life change before the change of life takes the wind right out of my sails--why not a cruise? She would have said it if she wasn’t afraid to give away her age.

“It will be more fun than you’ve had in your entire life,” David said, a bit presumptuously. Teri doubted that, unless he’s going to be my cabin-mate she mused. “Wait until you see the moon in the midnight sky. You can almost touch the stars,” he taunted. Teri’s body trembled as visions of romantic interludes danced in her head. She could almost smell the salty breezes wafting across the swelling ocean froth, and see the two of them glued together under a sequined heaven, blissful as feral cats.

He has to be a fantastic kisser she thought. It goes with the voice. In a perfect world, he’d hold her hungrily, and she’d devour each of his kisses with the zest of a starving prisoner handed a raw steak. The rest of the night would be spent dancing in the emerald mist, long walks along the ship’s rails, and unabashedly petting under a crowded blanket on a convenient chaise lounge. Much, much later at dawn, spent, they would finally let go of each other, and then fall into bed, dog-tired.

Oh, he didn’t say it exactly that way, but I sure am praying it will happen with somebody someday. She also prayed she hadn’t read more into this brief encounter than there appeared, because the tempting images David's voice sizzled-up, whetted her appetite with more sweeping desire than she had now. Could I be misreading his sales pitch for a cheap thrill? No way. I am definitely getting some positive first-class vibes from this self-confident guy. Maybe there’s a chance here.

“I hope you’re right,” Teri answered David with reserve, wishing she could see Mr. Sexy Voice right that very minute instead of in a couple weeks when she would make the final payment on the cruise. He’ll probably forget all about me by then, and I will most likely be over my pubescent infatuation by then too

Life could be complicated for Teri, because of her own making; but she relished her prevailing world of fantasies, and dabbled in them as if she were immortal. Dom, her previous fiancé, called her frigid and impractical, but in her often-stuck-in-the-clouds head, she smoldered like charcoal in a pit, and was oh so ready for rich, fattening desserts.

Dom is cold, mean-spirited too, she stewed defiantly. I have no warm feelings left for him. He’s poison, and his practicality is smothering me, giving me a feeling of being sentenced to crackers and water for the rest of my life.

For a moment, later that evening Teri had the urge to call her friend Gina. It wasn’t at all like her to do anything as off the charts as book a cruise without consulting her work friend. On autopilot, Teri picked up the phone to call, but set it back down again. “Nope,” she reconsidered, “I’ll tell her tomorrow.” Floating on air, Teri wasn’t ready yet to tell Gina about David. The outrageous woman would go bananas.

What else is there to say? Teri concluded. Teri’s fervent wish was that the luscious gameness she felt within this strange hot-to-trot body she was trying out now would not fade by first light, leaving her feeling lame as an old horse. Teri wanted to savor the mood like a delicious crème de menthe. Eventually I will tell her, Teri sighed, but in good time, not now in the midst of the afterglow. Teri wouldn’t let Gina steal her erotic mood too soon; she was feeling too fine.

       Every sense in Teri’s body sought the readiness of the moment.

--------------------------------------------

Cruise For Desire
By
Linda White-Francis

Chapter One

Her head still in a marshmallow whirl, Teri got home half expecting to find herself waking up in her bed the next morning instead of galumphing through the door of her apartment at two in the morning. Deceptively the rousing evening’s objets d’art was surely meant to be lived by Cinderella or someone much younger than she because it all went so perfectly. Veracity intact and clued-up, she had no right to believe any of it was true, but it did happen, and it happened to her. David really was real. She’d thought she had been dreaming.

The willowy redhead had never felt so happy, so far, above the ground. Her feet had not made contact with the ground yet; her dreamboat had sailed in and docked in her heart, forever she prayed, and knocked on wood. He’s a lifeline for my battered spirits; thankfully, my muse has taken pity upon me tonight instead of casting me to the wind to drown in my own tears. Half drunk on passion, Teri smiled in the hall mirror before kicking off her spike heels. Running her champagne besotted tongue over her white teeth, she continued to savor David’s crepe Suzette kisses still clinging to her lips.

David seemed everything she had ever wanted. She learned that quickly, in one heavenly night of dining, dancing and talking. Well, kissing, petting and caressing too. She learned that she could be turned on more by this fantastic human being’s loving ways than a month of silly erotic dreams. And that was almost unbelievable. It was weird how rapidly their individual souls ignited and united under the quiet, black skies illuminated only by the obtrusive lighting of the restaurant’s parking lot. Will I wake up tomorrow feeling the same way I feel now, or will this be it? Guess only tomorrow will tell.

“I’ll call you tomorrow,” kept racing through her jumbled thoughts. It was the last thing David said before she blew him a kiss and drove off leaving him looking lost in thought. A touching sight and one that gave her heart a lustful flutter. What if he doesn’t though? I’ll get over it. That’s what! It has happened before. I lived. She answered her own question defiantly, but something made her believe David told her the truth.

Sincerity was evident in his large onyx eyes and on his tender, full lips as he took her in his muscular clenches, kissing her deeply goodnight against the cold metal door of her van, and again after he lifted her gently inside. In fact, calling her again was written all over his lofty, lean, build. “Maybe he will,” she yawned “At least I have tonight for the rest of my life,” she sighed a bit too dramatically considering how long she had known the young man, all of one date, not counting the couple days she’d babysat him when she was sixteen years old.

Suddenly exhausted she stripped to her undies and climbed into bed drifting off immediately, contented for now with such a romantic interlude with this man eight years her junior. A gift from the gods, her friend Gina called it.

Teri fumbled for the ringing phone at her bedside “Uh hello,” she croaked, bleary-eyed.

“Hi Teri, did I wake you, sleepy-head? You sound a little groggy yet. Want me to call you back?”

 “Oh. Hi David, what time is it?” She grabbed her watch off the nightstand. 7 AM, um that’s promising. And I was afraid he might change his mind about calling. “No Hun, it’s okay, I was just getting up anyway. She fibbed because Sunday mornings were usually reserved for sleeping in until at least ten o’clock.

“It’s early I know, but I just couldn’t wait any longer to call. I’ve got to tell you last night was incredible. I am still reliving it. I want you to know I am dying to see you again, as soon as possible.” David ran on excitedly.

Now I am dreaming. I need a cup of coffee quick. This guy isn’t kidding. I love it!

“I can’t wait either,” Teri said sweetly shaking herself awake, dispersing the imaginary cobwebs from her head to her toes. Tiptoeing quietly to the kitchen so as not to let David know he had jolted her from a dead sleep, she made a cup of instant coffee although she hated the taste. But under the circumstances, it wasn’t as noisy as brewing a full pot. The instant would give her a leg-up, enough time to make some sense of this unbelievable situation.

“Do you think I could pick you up around noon for a picnic in the park? I will bring everything,” David asked. “It will be deli, of course, and all in little white boxes. I don’t cook, but I guarantee it will be tasty. I know this great little neighborhood place around the corner.” He got quickly to the point as usual. “C’mon, it’s going to be a beautiful sunny day. What do you think? I want to see you before I have to shove off. I have a couple of business trips back to back”

“That would be wonderful. I haven’t been on a picnic in years,” recalling her last picnic with Dom, her former fiancé, several years back. It started to rain the minute they put out the fried chicken and potato salad she’d prepared from scratch.

The fiasco turned the uptight supposedly intelligent professor into a raging idiot, and he blamed her for insisting they go on a picnic in the first place especially when the forecast called for showers.

“How long you going to be at sea?” She had to know, holding her breath for his answer.

“Around two weeks give or take, but I promise I will back in time for our cruise to Cancun in August. I wouldn’t miss it for anything!”

“Good, I wouldn’t want to go without you. Remember you talked me into it, Mr. Sexy Voice!”

“I remember,” he snickered. “I will be there. Don’t forget you are my dream come true. I am going to show you the best time of your life.”

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