Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 99017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99017 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 495(@200wpm)___ 396(@250wpm)___ 330(@300wpm)
Hard times could lie ahead for me and my too-young girlfriend, who, as far as I know, still has no interest in being a stepmother, but…
I can’t bring myself to care.
Frederica’s death has taught me many things, but maybe the most important is that none of us know how much time we’ll be given. Tomorrow isn’t guaranteed. All we have is today and all the joy, love, and happiness we can eke out of it.
And I mean to squeeze out every drop.
Twenty
CLOVER
The trick to pretending you’re not sleeping with the sexiest guy at a party?
Never stop moving.
Stillness is the enemy. Stillness gives your eyes the chance to drift, and drifting eyes are inexorably drawn to your hot secret boyfriend’s broad shoulders and his ass in those jeans. That ass that seriously does not quit…
How did I ever manage to keep my eyes above his belt before we were lovers, I ask you? How?!
I don’t know.
But I do know that staring at your alleged friend and former boss’s ass is a good way to attract the wrong kind of attention.
So, I stay busy.
I eat an obscene number of chilled shrimp from the buffet, let Makena teach me a line dance to a country song that’s not completely awful, and do my best to dodge the supermodels in skimpy Mardi Gras costumes spritzing everyone with Let the Good Times Roll.
Capo’s new scent is a mix of vetiver and citrus, with a hint of jasmine, that’s very New Orleans, but also very strong. And masculine. Which is good, considering it’s a man’s cologne, but I’m not looking to smell like I’ve been out doing manly things while frolicking through the Spanish moss.
I want to keep smelling like my conditioner and perfume, a combo that Dean confessed after our shower, “Makes him hard just catching a whiff of it.”
We’ve already had sex twice in the past two hours, but I still want him hard again the second we get home for our first sleepover. I am a glutton for his body.
Even more than I’m a glutton for shrimp…
“If you eat one more of those, you’re going to turn pink like a flamingo,” Makena warns as she reaches past me for the tongs. “How many shrimp have you eaten, woman?”
I hum around my latest mouthful as I mull that over. Once I’ve swallowed, I confess, “At last fourteen. But they’re so good. And if I start turning pink, think of all the money I’ll save on blush.”
Parker’s bubbly blond fiancée laughs. “There are worse colors, for sure. But you should try the oysters, too. They’re phenomenal.”
I wrinkle my nose. “I’m scared of oysters.”
Her brows shoot up. “What? Why?”
I shrug, eyeing the glistening shellfish with my usual suspicion. “I don’t know. They’re so shiny and squishy-looking. They look like something that should still be inside something alive, but covered up by fat and skin and stuff, you know?”
“So…entrails?” she asks dryly. “That’s what you’re saying?”
I laugh. “Yeah. Sorry. I was trying to be delicate about it since you’re clearly about to eat one, but…”
She grins. “No worries. I’m not bothered. I’m a chef. Entrails don’t scare me.” She slurps up an oyster she’s squeezed full of lemon juice and moans happily as she chews. “Delicious. Like eating a summer day by the beach.”
I arch a brow, tempted by her description—I do like a summer day by the beach—but my phone starts to buzz.
I reach into my clutch to silence it, glance down at the screen, then excuse myself with a soft, “Sorry, I have to take this.”
I press the phone to my ear as I turn away, pretending to be on a call as I head for the back of The Orleans Regent’s event space.
When we arrived, Dean and I set alarms for ten-thirty to pop outside and check in to see if he felt he’d put in enough of a showing to make a graceful exit. He agreed to come to Capo’s cologne launch party before we agreed to fuck each other as often as humanly possible, and Dean is nothing if not an honorable man, who keeps his promises.
He really does keep his promises, even silly promises, like vowing never to buy the brand of bananas Bella randomly decided are poison or letting Ava put Nutasha P. Bettersquirrel on the bottom step to “keep night watch,” even though he’s tripped over her five times.
(I gave Nutasha to the girls as a present. She’s so happy, she can barely contain herself. Providing plushy support to an adult is all well and good, but any toy worth her stuffing knows the kid game is where it’s at. I love that the girls love Nutasha, and include her in all their stuffy games. It makes me happy to think of the squirrel I made always being with them, even if someday, I’m not.)