Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 64887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64887 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
She chuckles. “Sorry.”
“That’s okay. I’ve got a back-up plan. The new good news is that we’ve got all the time in the world.”
Selena’s dark eyes sparkle. “We sure do, my love.”
I take a deep breath and speak on my exhale. “Stay put, goddess. I’ll get your door for you.”
“Such a gentleman.”
My heart thundering with excitement, I jog around the back of my car and open the passenger door, and Selena leads me toward her porch. As we walk, she tells me about some flower boxes along the walkway she planted last weekend.
“And after all that hard work, Daisy promptly destroyed half of them,” she says. “Fucking dog.”
I laugh. “I can’t wait to see Daisy on her home turf.”
By now, I’ve interacted with Selena’s beloved pooch lots of times during hikes and at various dog parks. But the idea of me getting to hang out with Selena and her dog like normal couples do—while watching a movie or having a barbeque in her backyard—her extremely large backyard, as it turns out—is for some reason ridiculously thrilling to me.
“I’m sure Daisy will be ecstatic to show you each and every one of her toys,” Selena says. “I’m guessing she’ll go to her toy box and pull each one out to bring to you.”
“I can’t wait.”
We reach the porch and stop in front of the door. “Okay, when we first walk in, ignore Daisy completely if she jumps on you. I’m sure she’ll go apeshit when she sees you, and if you ignore her until she’s a good girl, she’ll calm down quicker.”
“Got it.”
We enter the foyer of the house, and precisely as warned, Selena’s huge dog excitedly tackles me, rising onto her back legs to give me an almost-human hug.
“Down, Daisy,” Selena says.
“Hi, baby,” I say, embracing and petting Daisy enthusiastically. “It’s great to see you, too, baby.”
“Ignore her, Grayson.”
“Sorry. I forgot.”
I drop my arms to my sides, while Selena chastises the dog and commands her to sit. Finally, Daisy plants her ass onto the hardwood floor at my feet, like the bestest girl she is—although she’s wagging her tail so damned hard, I’m worried it’s going to detach from her quaking body and hurtle against a wall any second now—and Selena tells me I’m now permitted to give the trembling dog affection as her reward for obedience.
After we give Daisy lots of scratches and pets in the foyer, Selena leads me into the next room—a formal living room that’s straight out of a magazine.
“Whoa, Selena, this is beautiful.”
“Thank you.”
“You decorated it yourself?”
“Absolutely. Everything you see is exactly the way I wanted it.”
“I can tell. It’s so you.”
She’s beaming. “Would you like a cocktail for the full tour?”
“I’d love one.”
Selena waggles her eyebrows. “Or maybe we could skip the full tour for now and take our cocktails out back to the hot tub?”
“Sounds great.”
She squeals. “I’m so happy you’re here.” With a little shimmy, Selena takes my hand and leads me through the living room and into the next—a family room, apparently—which I presume is the route toward the kitchen. But when we enter the expansive room, we’re surprised to discover we’re not alone in the house. Four teenagers—two boys and two girls—are spread out on a large, L-shaped leather couch.
When we appear in the entryway to the room, one of the boys—I’m surmising he’s Drew—leaps up, his mouth the shape of an “O,” and shouts “Mom! What are you doing home?”
“Drew!” Selena says. “What are you doing home? You’re supposed to be at Eddie’s!”
“Hi, Mrs. De La Torre,” the other boy says, as he leaps up to standing alongside Drew.
“Hello, Eddie,” Selena says, her voice tinged with skepticism. “Drew told me he’d be staying the night at your house tonight.”
The boys look at each other, both faces telegraphing they’ve been caught in a lie.
“There was a change of plans at the last minute,” Drew says quickly, his face the color of a beet. “You said you’d be gone all night, so we figured we’d watch a movie here.”
“Yes, with these two lovely girls, I see,” Selena fires back, her tone making it clear Drew’s ass is firmly in a sling.
The two girls have been fidgeting awkwardly on the couch throughout the entire exchange, but at Selena’s mention of them, they both grimace like they’ve stuck their fingers into a light socket. I catch the wide gaze of one of them and flash her a reassuring smile, letting her know she’s perfectly safe here, not in trouble in any way, and she returns my smile before looking down at her painted toenails.
“I don’t mind you having friends over, Drew,” Selena continues. She adds pointedly, “When you’ve cleared it with me.” She looks at the girls, and her tone shifts to something a bit less stern. “Don’t worry, girls. You’ve done nothing wrong but accept an invitation my son knew he wasn’t authorized to extend.” She returns to her son. “Drew, you know full-well you can’t have friends over when I don’t know about it, and you especially can’t have a party here after you’ve lied to me about where you’d be.”