Inexperienced

It was a thirty-minute ride to his house.

As we pulled up to his driveway, I saw a smiling Abby and Maddy Sharp standing in the doorway, waving at Patrick.

Sharpie waited until I got out of my car and then we walked over to Abby and Maddy.

“Hi honey,” Sharpie greeted his wife and kissed her. “How’s my favorite little girl?” He held Maddy in his arms and threw her up in the air a couple of times making her giggle.

Watching them made me realize how bad I’ve always wanted something like this.

A family.

My own happily ever after.

“Abby, I’d like you to meet Karen. Karen, this is my wife Abby and this is Maddy,” Sharpie said. Maddy waved hi to me and leaned towards me, holding her arms out for me to hold her.

“Hi beautiful!” I cooed at Maddy. She giggled and started playing with my hair.

“Hi Karen, it’s so nice to finally meet you! I’ve been bugging Patrick to bring you over for a while now.” Abby exclaimed, walking over to me and giving me a hug.

“Same here Abby! I’ve been dying to meet you too,” I say hugging her back.

“Well, it seems like Maddy likes you,” Sharpie said while he pinched the little girl’s cheek.

“Well I like her too.” I bounced her around in my arms as she giggled and buried her face in my hair. “She’s beautiful you guys.”

Seriously, I can see this kid being a model when she grows up. With parents like hers, she’s bound to be incredibly beautiful.

“Thank you Kare, she gets it from her beautiful mother.”

Sharpie leaned over and kissed his wife with so much passion, I had to look away. I felt as if I were invading a private moment.

They stared at each other for about a minute until Maddy started reaching for her father, which caused them to break their little intimate moment.

“Come here baby girl,” Patrick said, taking Maddy from my arms. “Let’s give your mommy and aunt Karen some girl time.”

Abby squealed in excitement and led me into their house.

Oh dear.

As we entered their house I barely had a chance to get a proper look before Abby led me towards the stairs, but holy mother of cheese it was a nice house.

“Damn, Sharpie. Nice place!” I yelled over my shoulder as I was hurried up the stairs.

I heard him chuckle before Abby led me into their bedroom and into her closet.

Hold on, let me rephrase that.

Closet is an insult. It was the size of my old apartment!

“Patrick told me you had nothing to wear for the thing the other guys have tomorrow night and I’m pretty sure I have some old things I don’t wear anymore that will definitely fit you,” she said looking though a rack filled with all kinds of dresses.

“Are you guys not going then?”

She chuckled, shook her head and said, “No, the guys are going to stay up pretty late and Patrick and I have to go to a family thing the following day. I don’t want Patrick showing up hung-over.”

She brought out four dresses and handed them over to me.

“Go try them on,” she said excitedly, leading me to their bathroom.

Closing the door, I picked out the first dress.

It was a one-strapped deep blue color with silver rhinestones across the shoulder strapped and reached halfway up my thighs. I actually had the perfect heels for this dress. Heels that I’ve never worn since my mom bought them for me… Oops?

I walked out and Abby squealed.

“Oh! I love it! I knew you’d look great in that one! Your skin tone is perfect for this one! Try on the rest!” She shoved me back into the bathroom.

I tried on the next two and got the same reaction for all of them.

I’ve never really been a big fan of dresses, really. Whenever I would go out, I would usually borrow dresses from my friends since most of my closet consisted of hockey jerseys and shirts, jeans, sweats, and sweaters. There were exactly three dresses in my closet and none were “club appropriate” according to Natalie.

The last one really caught my eye.

It was black, tight enough to show and accentuate my curves, curves I never saw until now, and made them look amazing and also accentuated my small chest. It also reached mid-thigh and had some designs in silver starting from the left side of my chest down to my right thigh.

It was stunning.

As I walked out, I heard Abby and another person gasp.

Looking up, I saw Abby and Sharpie gaping at me.

“So…what do you think?”

Abby covered her mouth and furiously nodded her head up and down.

“Yes. Definitely. That’s the one.” She said looking up and down at me. “What do you say Patrick?”

“I think you look stunning, Karen. Absolutely gorgeous.” He smiled and winked. “You’re definitely going to leave a certain Captain speechless when he sees you tonight.”

My eyes narrowed.

“What are you talking about Sharpie?”

He raised an eyebrow and smirked. “Come on Karen. Have you seriously not noticed how he acts when you’re around?”

I was still a little lost.

“Seriously?”

I thought about what had happened earlier today but I had just assumed he was just looking out for me, not that he actually felt something for me.

Sharpie continued, “Come on! He’s almost always staring at you. Whenever someone starts talking to you or starts flirting with you, he gets so quiet and looks so pissed, like he wants to punch whoever it is talking to you. What have you done to our Captain, Karen?” Sharpie shook his and laughed.

Really?

Does this actually happen?

No, it can’t be.

But… maybe that’s why he’s been acting so weird.

He looked pretty pissed when he found Brandon and me almost kissing.

Was Brandon really going to kiss me?

Well, now I’d never know, thanks to Jon.

Thinking about that was actually starting to get angry with Jon.

“Do you have any idea what effect you cause these kids?” Sharpie continued. “I swear, I think half of the team is in love with you. Especially Man-Child. Sometimes he’ll just stare at you like a lovesick puppy. Pretty pathetic, really,” he laughed.

Abby elbowed him and rolled her eyes. “I recall a certain someone acting the same way.”

Sharpie smiled at her and kissed her temple. “That’s because I am a pathetic lovesick puppy.”

I swear their marriage will be the death of me.

Where can I get one of these? Walmart? Kmart? Boyfriendmart? Relationships ‘R’ Us? IHaveNoLifeAndINeedABoyfriend.org?

I started spacing out and remembered how close Brandon and I were earlier today. If Jon really did like me, he wasn’t very sure about it and he hasn’t exactly expressed his interest. Honestly, I didn’t want to ruin the amazing friendship we had.

But Brandon…he was something else.

I started to realize the little things Brandon has done. He’s always so eager to talk to me. He calls me ‘beautiful’ almost all the time. He waits around after training and walks me to my car and then he’ll text or call me to make sure I got home safely.

But I spent almost 80% of my time with Jon or Kaner, and I have grown closer to both of them.

Brandon and I haven’t really had a chance to hang out alone. We knew each other, but we didn’t know each other that well.

But at least he’s expressing some interest in me. If what Sharpie said was true, Jon still hasn’t really shown any romantic interest in me as far as I can tell. Yea he’ll call me ‘babe’ at times but I call him that too. There’s nothing I can think of that can tell me is Jon is even interested in me.

Sharpie waved a hand in front of my face and I snapped out of my daze.

“What are you thinking about?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing. I just think that Man-Child is actually pretty cute. But I don’t even know if Jon is even interested in me. If he is, I haven’t seen it. Brandon on the other hand is usually really sweet,” I mumbled.

“Oh Karen!” Abby ran to me and hugged me tightly. “You’re going to stun those idiots tonight! I just wish I can see you when you do it.”

I laughed and hugged her back.

“Thank you so much Abby,” I let her go and held her hands. “You’re a life saver, really. I’m going to go change so I go and let you guys rest. Oh and apparently girls need hours to get ready?”

“Oh dear lord Karen, please don’t wait until last minute to get ready,” Abby said, staring wide-eyed at me. “If you need my help, I’m just a phone call away.”

“Alright I won’t. I think I’m going to stick to some basic smoky eye or something like that. If I need help, I’ll definitely call,” I say and walk back into the bathroom.

When I was back in my clothes, I handed Abby the other dresses. “I’ll give the black one back on Monday.”

“Oh no! You can keep all of them!” She said handing them back to me. “You’ll have better use for them than I will.”

Bless this woman. No shopping for me. *happy dance*

“Oh Abby!” I hugged her again and thanked her for the millionth time.

She walked me back downstairs and Sharpie met us by the door, holding Maddy in his arms.

I kissed them all goodbye and walked over to my car.

I put the dresses in the backseat and got into the drivers seat.

As I pulled out, I waved goodbye again and drove away.

The world needs more people like the Sharps.