“You sure you’re okay?” Lizzy asked me for maybe the thousandth time that day.
“I’m fine,” I insisted.
“I’m sensing an underlying annoyance coming from this general area,” she said with a wave her hands in my direction.
“Well, good, because I’m laying it on pretty damn thick,” I deadpanned.
“All right, all right. I’ll stop asking. Just let me say this one last thing,” she rushed, not giving me a chance to interrupt. “You look like you haven’t been getting much sleep—”
“So, in other words, I look like shit.”
She didn’t deny it, simply shrugged noncommittally. “You said it, not me.”
“You suck as a person,” I grumbled as I went about setting up my station for my next appointment.
“I’m just sayin’. How about this? Why don’t I come crash at your place tonight? I’ll watch the destructive duo while you go out to movie or quiet dinner or something. I don’t care what you do, just take some damn time for yourself.”
I looked at her, more than a little leery. “I don’t know. I’d hate to come home and find Cameron tied up in a closet because you and Callie ganged up on him for being the weaker sex.”
“Nah,” she waved a hand casually, “that little dude can hold his own. You can trust me! I’ll only let them eat a pound of chocolate and watch one scary movie. I was thinking Friday the 13th or Nightmare on Elm Street. That’ll be up to them.”
“You know you’re the world’s worst babysitter, right?”
She smirked and gave me a wink. “Nick Jr. for an hour, max. They’ll eat all their veggies. Then it’s two readings of Goodnight Moon and lights out. I know the drill, babe. Go out tonight and do something for yourself. Pleeeeeeease?” she begged, hopping up and down just like Callie does when she wants something.
It took me a few seconds, but I finally relented. “Fine. But I’m only going out for a few hours.”
“Yay! Stay out as long as you want. I’ll tell Trevor we’re having a little slumber party.”
“Great, just what I need. Your husband skulking around my apartment trying to peep through the windows in the hopes of seeing a naked pillow fight.”
She chuckled deviously and said, “I might tell him we’ll be modeling new lingerie and practicing kissing just to see if I can make his head explode.”
We laughed and finalized plans for her to show up at my place around seven. By the time I finished my workday and headed home, I was actually looking forward to the night ahead.
The movie was only an hour and a half long. Lizzy had informed me that under no circumstances whatsoever was I allowed back into my house any less than five hours from the time I left. The evil bitch even had my own kids on her side. I still had three and a half hours to kill before my babysitter from hell would let me through the door of my own damn apartment.
As I drove through downtown—well, as downtown as the small town of Cloverleaf could get—I spotted the neon light that lit up the parking lot of Colt 45’s.
Since there was no going home, my best bet was to stop in for a drink and a bite to eat. Movie theater popcorn wasn’t as filling as a person would think, and at that very moment, I was craving a double bacon cheeseburger like nobody’s business.
Ooh, and bottle of Saint Arnold’s to wash it down with.
That was just one of the many things I’d discovered about myself since I left Lance. I’d spent years sipping martinis, gin and tonics, and expensive red wines at my exes insistence. Turned out, I was a beer girl through and through. I’d gladly take a cold IPA over any of that fancy stuff every day of the week.
Another thing I discovered about myself in the eight months I’d been in Cloverleaf—especially since Brett walked into my life—was that I missed sex. Like really, really missed the hell out of sex. Yes, Lance was the only man I had ever been with, and long before that relationship ended, I’d come to despise his touch, but it hadn’t always been bad, and my body never forgot what it felt like to be pleasured to the point of exhaustion.
While the idea of another relationship made me cringe, that didn’t mean I didn’t have fantasies about a certain brown-haired, brown-eyed man shoving me up against the wall and turning my body inside out. Honestly, a woman could only go through so many batteries before she started to feel desperate. Since meeting Brett, my rabbit had gotten so much use I was pretty sure I’d chipped a tooth. But those self-induced orgasms were lacking…hollow. I missed the touch of a man’s skin against mine as I went over that fine edge. I missed the feel of lips against my bare flesh, the mingled sounds of passion as we both chased after our release. I wanted someone to nip and bite and lick. I wanted to feel a man’s fingers squeeze my hips to the point of almost bruising.