Free The Substitute by Lindsay Delagair Page B

the hell out of someone for their birthday or bachelor’s party. You know what kind of stripper I’m talking about; she doesn’t work like at Club Risqué or anything.” He was laughing harder. “She’s a—a—clean stripper.”
    Jen was grumbling about not believing there was such a thing as a ‘clean stripper’ when they took off for highway 441, taking them from Gainesville to Fort White.
    Her fears about Gabe’s ‘clean stripper’ were immediately realized when they pulled up and this bouncy, bubbly, curly headed, platinum blonde in a bikini that was barely bigger than a pair of pasties with sewing thread for strings stood glued to Superman’s arm. Superman had been Gabe’s nickname when he got into the marines. If it was dangerous, physically challenging, or just plain crazy, Gabe did it.
    “Oh, yeah,” Jen stated sarcastically before the couple reached their car. “She looks freaking clean—and I know those boobs aren’t real. My god she isn’t going to need an inner tube to float down the river with those balloons!”
    Andy only laughed and told her to ‘be nice.’
    Jen went to open the hatch as Andy greeted their tubing buddies.
    The blonde untangled herself from Gabe and bounced over with a huge chemically whitened smile. “Hi, you must be Jen,” she said putting out her slender hand with excessively long nails. “I’m Candy.”
    Jen tried not to laugh as she accepted her hand. “Of course you are,” she said with a little too much sarcasm behind the words. “I mean, Andy told me that Gabe had a new girlfriend.”
    “Girlfriend?” She stated with a roll of her eyes. “Don’t I wish. We’re just good friends; Gabe said he doesn’t like to get serious. You’re lucky to have someone like Andy,” she added, looking to where the guys were getting the gear ready. “Gabe’s told me all about you two.” The bubbly simmered to simple kindness. “I hope you don’t mind me asking, but Gabe said Andy has cancer. I lost my dad a year ago to lung cancer. I was just wondering how are Andy’s treatments working?”
    “No, I don’t mind. He’s wonderful. The doctor just told us yesterday he’s in complete remission.”
    “Wow,” she stated, her brown eyes growing larger. “That is fabulous! Does Gabe know yet? I don’t want to blow this if it’s going to be a surprise to him.”
    Unconsciously, she found herself warming to Candy. She smiled. “Actually, I don’t think he’s told him the latest report, so if you don’t mind….”
    “No, absolutely not. I’ll keep my big mouth shut,” she giggled, giving a little bounce on her heels that caused her boobs to jiggle.
    “So, Candy,” Jen braced herself for being bold enough to ask. “You’re a—a stripper or something?”
    Her face blushed red. “Yeah, unfortunately with my build I didn’t get many offers to use my English degree.”
    Jen couldn’t stop the unintentional raise of her eyebrows. “English degree?”
    Candy nodded. “When my dad found out he had cancer it was advanced. The treatments were expensive. Starting teacher pay in Florida sucks. I got an offer to work as a stripper that paid three times what I could have made teaching. So, after I cried my eyes out about it and picked up my courage, I did it.”
    Now Jen felt like a total ass for judging this young woman in front of her. Had Andy’s insurance been unable to cover so much, she knew that she too would have done just about anything to pay for his treatments. “Well, you’re beautiful,” she stated to help repair her damaged conscience. “Gabe would have to be an idiot not to get serious with you. Oh god, who am I kidding? Gabe is an idiot!”
    Both women burst into laughter.
    The sizzling 92 degree afternoon was spent in comfort as they floated down the river, stopping to picnic on a grassy bank near the end of their journey. Candy proved herself to be an intelligent conversationalist, but she caused Andy to blush more than a few times when her