He listened as the women laughed and spoke a language only another female would understand. What he was getting out of the whole thing was each was jealous of the other’s outfit and yet happy that their teammate looked ravishing, darling. He grinned to himself. They were lookers, that was for sure. They were also nice, warm, compassionate, and, at the same time, competitive, as well as being know-it-alls. He continued to grin as he listened to whose socks were going to blow off. Then he heard the whispered name that was as shrill as a whistle—Pappy. They all knew Sam had a thing for Pappy even though she wouldn’t admit it. Hawkins thought Pappy had a thing for her, too, going back to that infamous episode at the wall, when Sam gave him her single-digit salute.

Perfume wafted out of the bedroom, delicious and intoxicating. Hawkins’s eyes glazed over as he studied his reflection in the front window. He thought he looked pretty decent in the Brooks Brothers suit that Slick had helped him pick out. She said he could have posed as a male model. He’d preened like a peacock at her flattering words. He even smelled good. Slick had helped him pick out a new aftershave that she said smelled like a woody glen and did wonderful things to her senses. He could feel his body heat ratchet up a notch. He’d probably have to take a cold shower later that night. Probably from there on in he’d be taking cold showers on a daily basis. Come July, if he wasn’t dead from being waterlogged, things would be different. The word marriage suddenly popped into his mind. If he didn’t cut it out, he was going to have a brain freeze that very minute.

“Yoo-hoo, Hawkins, what do you think?” Olivia trilled, as the five women whirled and twirled for his benefit.

He was speechless as well as thunderstruck at what he was seeing. Now, he really did feel proud as a peacock as he gazed at all of them, his eyes coming to rest, finally, on Slick, who wore a long, skintight sheath made out of some kind of clingy material. She wore a single strand of pearls and no other jewelry. Her hair was smoothed back, accentuating her sharply chiseled features. She looked like the model she was, and she smelled like a flower garden.