Kenna,

I can be as slow as a herd of snails travelling through peanut butter.  See you said slow, and I didn’t even make a sexual innuendo because that would have been going fast.

Poppy, I don’t know what went on in your past, but if you need slow, and I get to spend some time laughing at my computer screen because of your attitude, I’m all for it.  If there ever comes a time where you want to tell me about your past, I’m all ears.  (Like a slow-moving elephant going up a hill.)

I lived with Grandma Helen and Grandpa Martin during the summers so it might not be a totally glowing letter of recommendation.  She might have thrown in a few zingers about what a handful I was.  Hearing that my words soothed your soul made me soar. 

I believe in this.  Let’s keep talking.  We’re doing the right thing here, Kenna.

Kenna threw up her hands.

This shit needed to stop, and it needed to stop now.  She bit her lip as she re-read Dex’s e-mail.  She couldn’t even think of him as SailorBoy anymore.  He was Dex.  She toggled over to the picture that had come with the original e-mail.  He was so damned handsome.  She stood up and moved across the room then picked up the wedding picture of her parents.  Her father had been wearing his dress whites.  He had short hair like Dex. 

A Navy man.

Honorable.

That was the reason she had responded to him, and she hadn’t responded to any other man who had ever e-mailed SNMP.

Admit it, he’s hot as hell.

“Down girl!” she said to the empty room.

Kenna only had one lover in her entire life, and she’d had the bad judgement to get knocked up and marry him.  All because she had thought he was the most handsome boy in school.  She swore to herself years and years ago that if she ever broke up with her vibrator, it was going to be for a homely man.  What was she thinking?

He’s funny.

He’s nice.

He says the nicest things!

“Three good reasons to question whether he’s for real, or if you’ve gone insane!”

Time to nip this in the bud.

She sat down at her computer.

––––––––

Dex,

I am so sorry I ever responded to you.  Thanks for being such a good guy, but this just isn’t going to work.  You need to find someone else, someone else who will make you laugh.  Trust me, you’d get sick of my attitude and neurosis.  You need someone with less baggage.  Think of it this way, you got away before you had a chance to be burned by the crazy chick.  Who needs crazy, right? 

Thank you so much for brightening up the last few weeks for me.  It meant a lot.  I’m shutting down my account now. 

Good luck finding someone sane.  You deserve it.

Kenna spent the next thirty minutes deleting her profile from the dating website.  It should have been faster, but she went to google to make sure that she was doing everything correctly so that every trace would be gone.  She’d set up the profile a year and a half ago when she’d been feeling pretty good about herself.  Austin had just turned fourteen, and her mom and Rosalie had pushed her to think about dating.  So, she had put herself out there.  They’d been right, men had been sending her responses ever since she had uploaded. 

She got up and took down a wine glass and poured herself a half glass of a nice red.  She looked at her fingers, then her hands.  For just a moment, she imagined her hands running through Dex’s hair.  Then she gave a sad laugh. 

“Look at them, you don’t even have the nails painted,” she said to herself. 

She took a sip of wine and then, carrying the glass, went to look in the hall mirror.  It wasn’t a good night to be looking at herself.  Her hair was in a messy ponytail, no make-up, and she was tired.  Yesterday had been a Rosalie day, so she hadn’t gotten much sleep. 

Her cell phone vibrated.  She always turned off the ringer when Austin was asleep.  She saw that it was Rosalie.  That was odd.  She rarely called her on her days off, and never this late in the evening.

“What’s wrong?” Rosalie demanded before Kenna could even say hello.

“What do you mean?  Nothing’s wrong.  Why are you calling?”

“I just got the notification that you took down your profile on CaliSingles.  What are you thinking?  You were in the top ninety percentile for hits in your age bracket.”

“Rosalie, what are you talking about?”

“I had Buddy checking your stats.  You actually responded to someone.  It was fabulous.  What are you doing stopping now?”

“My stats?” Kenna looked at the wine sloshing in her glass and set it on the kitchen counter.  “Rosalie, come clean immediately,” she demanded of her boss.  “What do you mean stats?  How did you know I sent someone an e-mail on the site?  What did you have your grandson do?”

“I had Buddy purchase the company so we could check up on you.  It turned out to be a wonderful investment.”

“Let me get this right, you bought a company so you could invade my privacy?” Kenna asked incredulously.

“No.  Not at all.  Buddy bought it.  He had to really fight for it, but he got it.  I had him immediately look you up so we could send some matches your way.  We wanted to build your confidence.  But there was no need.  When you first signed up, you were getting plenty of hits on your own.  The problem was, you didn’t respond to anyone.  Kenna, I despaired.  For over a year, you did nothing until SailorBoy69.  Now you’re rejecting him?  Seriously, what are you thinking?  He’s a dreamboat.”

“Dreamboat?”

“That’s what we would call them in my day, Honey.  In my cougar days, I would call him all sorts of other things.  Mostly I would just call him up and have my way with him.  But now that I hit ninety, I decided to go back to how we talked in the forties.  It seems more ladylike.”

“Rosalie, I can’t keep up,” Kenna moaned.  She sank back against the kitchen counter and looked at the ceiling.  “I can’t believe you had Buddy buy a company just so you could see my profile.”

“I can’t believe you deleted it.  You need to re-post it immediately.  You also need to continue corresponding with SailorBoy69.”  Then there was a pause. “Unless he was untoward.  Was he unseemly?”

“You mean you didn’t read our e-mails?”

“No, Buddy didn’t feel comfortable reading the e-mails, he just told me that you two were communicating with one another. Was he a cad?”

“No Rosalie, he was a perfect gentleman.”

“Well, in that case, you need to re-post your profile and get back in touch with him.  Tonight.”  Despite the woman’s age, her voice was firm.

“Rosalie, I’m going to bed.”  Kenna’s tone was equally firm.  “I need to get Austin ready for school early in the morning.”

“Kenna, you need to come into the land of the living.  Trust me, I had seven husbands.  Men are wonderful.”

“How can you say that?  You had seven husbands.  Obviously, things went wrong.”

“Nonsense, I only divorced three of them, four died.  And they died happy.  You’re too young to have given up on men.  Don’t make me take matters into my own hands.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Put your profile back up,” Rosalie said ominously.

“No.”

“Okay, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.”

Fuck nugget!

***

Dex was damn glad that he had set up his computer to ding if an e-mail from “SNMP” should come in.  If he hadn’t, he might not have been able to download her profile information in time before she deleted it.  It was a near thing.

He sat in his dark living room, staring at the glowing screen of his laptop, and started the methodical process of finding out everything there was to know about So Not Mary Poppins aka Kenna.  She was Kenna Wright, divorced for nine years.  Graduated three years ago with a nursing degree, and was now an oncology nurse.  Lots of legal filings showing that her deadbeat of an ex-husband had to have his wages garnished in order to pay child support.  But even so, most of the time the great state of California couldn’t even find his happy ass to collect the money.

He also found out what her second job was.  She was the personal secretary to Rosalie Randall.  Hell, he remembered watching that woman’s movies.  She’d been stunning back in the fifties and sixties.  She lived in La Jolla and had an amazing on-line presence, and was in the process of writing her seventh memoir. 

Dex didn’t do a deep dive on Kenna, he just found out the basics, where she worked and lived.  Okay, maybe he stepped over the line a little to find out about the bastard of an ex-husband, but he didn’t pull credit reports or DMV records.  He was a good boy.  But now that he knew where Kenna worked, he had to figure out how to make it seem like an accidental meeting.

He needed to think about this.

When he woke up the next morning to find an e-mail from Rosalie Randall in his in-box, he burst out laughing.  Apparently, this was going to be a hell of a lot easier than he had anticipated.

***

“You can understand how important this new foundation is going to be.  It’s imperative it is done right.  When Buddy told me that Chief Petty Officer Evans had worked on a program for disadvantaged youth, I thought he would be a perfect candidate to help with this new foundation I’m starting.”

Kenna looked at Rosalie as she sat on her verandah, smiling so sweetly butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth.  Then there was Dex.  He was smiling just as broadly.  She was ready to blast both of them.  But, how could she?  Rosalie had brought in five different representatives of missions in San Diego, County and they were all sitting around the table sipping iced tea. Nope, she couldn’t have a shit-fit in front of them.

Kenna gritted her teeth then got herself together.  Maybe she needed to come from this at a different angle.

“Mr. Evans, are you here representing the Navy?” Kenna asked.

“No Kenna.  I’m here in an unofficial capacity.  When Rosalie called and introduced herself I was immediately intrigued, I remembered seeing her in movies, in fact, I had quite the crush on her.” Dex smiled at Rosalie who was lapping up his compliments like a cat with a bowl of cream.

But no matter how hard Kenna stared at the man, she could see nothing but sincerity radiating from him. It didn’t hurt that he had come to the house wearing slacks and a polo shirt that fit his body and accentuated his broad shoulders and strong biceps.  Kenna didn’t blame Rosalie for her admiration.  Hell, she was having a hard time not staring.  Then there was the fact that he didn’t seem to be bothered by the eight hundred and fifty yippee dogs that ran around the table.  Right now, he even had Smooches in his lap!

“I was blown away at the idea of who I would be working with on this team,” Dex said looking around the table.  Everybody sat up straighter.  “All of you have made an impact here in San Diego.  Anything I can do to help would be an honor.”  Then Dex turned to Kenna.  “But the cherry on top is Ms. Wright.”

Did he just say cherry on top?!

He grinned at her.  What a flirt!  “Rosalie couldn’t sing your praises high enough.  She said that I would be working very closely with you to administer the funds.  She said that you are her right hand and work as a nurse at Sharp Memorial in the oncology department.  Not to mention raising your son all on your own.  As soon as you walked out onto the patio, I was looking for angel wings.”

Somehow the man had known that she was Poppy because he hadn’t been surprised at all when she had walked out.  Granted she wasn’t all made up and looking like her glamorous picture, but still, her name was Kenna, and she looked close enough that he had to have put it together, and he hadn’t acted surprised.

Rosalie must have told him.  Shit!  She needed to nip this in the bud.  Like she thought she had three nights ago.

“Rosalie, we still have to coordinate your re-writes with your editor, this project is going to require more time than I have to give.  I can only work my normal Wednesdays and Saturdays.  I don’t think I can co-chair this with Mr. Evans.  I’m so sorry.”

She shot Rosalie a meaningful glance.

“Buddy has agreed to help me on my memoir and pick-up some of your other duties while you’re working on this project,” Rosalie piped up.

Buddy grabbed his Monster Energy drink and gulped down a huge swallow, trying to avoid Kenna’s glare.

“Buddy, I would have thought with your running such a large online business, you couldn’t spare the time,” Kenna bit out.

He took a huge bite of his quiche, then pointed to his full mouth and shook his head, indicating he couldn’t answer.  Coward.

“Then it’s settled, you’ll have time to work on this.  I’m looking forward to it, Ms. Wright,” Dex said smoothly.

“Call her Kenna,” Rosalie inserted.  “She never stands on ceremony.”  Rosalie turned to the others at the table.  “Now let’s get down to brass tacks.  How does two million sound to start?”

Kenna rolled her eyes.

Dex smothered a laugh.

***

Dex had never been in an office with a white shag rug and a pink couch before.  Even the desk chair was upholstered in pink.  At least the chair he was sitting in was white.  He expected to see a white Persian cat slink around his feet at any moment.  Well, what else could you expect from someone who had once been a James Bond girl?  Rosalie was a character, and she was willing to spend two million dollars to matchmake for her girl.  Kenna had to be pretty special, but then he’d already guessed that.

His Poppy was pissed.  It looked good on her.  She shot daggers at him and Buddy all through the meeting.  The looks she had given Rosalie were more gentle.  Dex liked that.  She’d shown piss and vinegar as well as kindness and compassion.  Then there was the way she treated the three women and two men who headed up the San Diego homeless shelters.  She’d been terrific with them.  She’d ticked off her questions, and figured out immediately which ones were already well-funded, which ones had their shit together, and which ones needed the most help.  The woman could probably organize a war zone if need be.

She scheduled walk throughs of the missions next Saturday.  Now he was in here cooling his heels while she was taking a break to go to the powder room.  He would bet dollars to donuts that she was busting Rosalie and Buddy’s chops.  Buddy was getting a full-on knock down, whereas Rosalie was getting guilt.

The door of the pink office flew open.  A cat sprinted in before Kenna, it was a Siamese, chased by the five teacup poodles who barked madly.

“Out!”  The poodles screeched to a halt, butts hitting the rug.  They looked at Kenna.  She shoved them out the door.  The Siamese cat watched with a smug look of superiority.  After she shut the door, Kenna turned to Dex and crossed her arms over her chest.

“SailorBoy, you knew it was me.  I call foul.  I told you this was a no-fly zone.”

Her hair was coming out of her ponytail, and her face was flushed.  She was adorable. 

“I’m here to help the homeless,” he said innocently.  He’d perfected that look with his grandma Helen.

Kenna scowled.  “I have a fifteen-and-a-half-year-old son.  Your innocent act doesn’t hold water.  I can’t get out of this because Rosalie signs my checks.  You have to bow out.”  Kenna plopped down on the pink couch, and the cat jumped on top of her.  She started petting it even as she glared at Dex.

“Poppy, I’m not going to bow out.  I’m going check out the homeless shelters with you next Saturday.”

“Why would you do that?  I told you I’m not interested.”

“You wanted a snail’s pace.  This is it.  We’re not going on a date.  We’re going to churches and missions.  I don’t know how much more benign things could get.  Or are you saying that’s too risky for you?  Are you afraid you’ll throw yourself at me?  Is that it?”

She pushed the cat off her lap and stood up.

“Why you arrogant...son of a sailor.”

Dex laughed.  “Grandson of a sailor, if you want to know the truth.  And yes, I’ll cop to the arrogant part.  Are you going to throw yourself at me?  If you are, shall we start now?  This rug looks comfortable.  I’m not sure I can handle making out on a pink sofa.”

She opened her mouth.  Then closed it.  Then opened it again.  “Fine, if you want to play this game, we’ll play.  But don’t say I didn’t warn you.  My life is more complicated than a Rubik’s cube.  Rosalie is just one small part.  I don’t think you can keep up.”

Bingo! 

The beautiful woman in front of him had just issued a challenge.  One he was dying to take up.

“My team’s motto is ‘the only easy day is yesterday.’  I accept your challenge.”

Her hazel eyes widened.  “Wait a minute, isn’t that the motto for the SEAL’s?”

“Yep.”

“You’re a SEAL?”

Dex nodded.

“Crap!  You’re a player.  I don’t do players.”  He thought she might stomp her foot. 

“What makes you think I’m a player?”

“I’ve heard stories.  Two of the nurses at Sharp Memorial have dated SEALs.  Total players.”

Dex sighed.  “I’m thirty-two.  How old were they?”

“I don’t know,” she said as she bit her lip.

“Age makes a difference, don’t you think?  I told you, I’m not interested in a hook-up.”

She planted her hands on her hips.  Her womanly hips.  Kenna had a hell of a figure.  “You’re in a dangerous profession.”

“I also am away on missions I can’t talk about.  Those are the two negatives about my job.  Other than that, I’m a homebody.  I pick up after myself.  I cook.  I take out the garbage.  I do the dishes.  I pay my bills.”  Her eyes lit up on that last one.  He’d said it on purpose.  “Are you going to use my job as an excuse not to try this?”

“There is no this.  And if there was, your job wouldn’t be an issue.  I would care about the man.”

“And if I cared about a woman, her complicated life wouldn’t be a problem for me.  Let’s get to know one another.”

She kept her hands on her hips and scowled at him.  “You’re a pain in the ass.”

The door opened, and Rosalie came in.  She looked at Kenna’s posture and smiled. 

“I see you two are getting along.  Kenna dear, the gardener has a question.  I didn’t understand everything he was saying.  You understand some Spanish.  If you could talk to him, that would be stupendous.  Also, Ms. Ford from the Tribune wants to do a feature, can you call her back?  I need to set up some time with Nancy for next week, be a dear and coordinate that would you?”

Kenna nodded. 

“Aren’t you going to write that down?” Dex asked.

Rosalie and Kenna both looked at him like he had lost his mind.

“Nonsense, Kenna always remembers everything.”  She turned back to Kenna.  “Also, I want to discuss next Saturday’s schedule.  I think you need to start at the Union Mission and meet with Reverend Langley.  You can give Dex your address so he can pick you up?”

“I’ll drive myself.”

“Nonsense.  The mission is in Encanto.  You shouldn’t drive in that area alone.  What’s more, it will save on gas.  Dex, I’ll reimburse you for your time,” she informed him imperiously.

“No, ma’am, you won’t.  This is my pleasure,” he stated steadily. 

Rosalie regarded him, taking his measure.  Finally, she responded warmly.  “I’m happy to hear that.”

“You’re nuts,” Kenna mouthed at him.

Dex laughed.