“Young thing like you? Didn’t you spend most of your teenage years texting?”
“You have to have someone to text,” she said jokingly. But his silence told her that he heard the truth in her words.
“You didn’t have friends, Mari-girl?”
Christ. There went those tears again. She blinked rapidly.
“We moved around a lot. There wasn’t much point in making friends.”
“Must have been hard.”
“It was. And then I mostly attended schools in wealthy areas, and well, I wasn’t rich. I just went there because my aunt has a thing for rich men and we lived in those neighborhoods. Most of the other kids just saw me as a poor relative.”
“Oh, Mari, I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay. Being a teenager is never easy, right?”
“Nope. Try being a teenage boy being raised by your grandmother. I was fifteen before she sat me down to have the birds and the bees talk. I didn’t have the heart to tell her I’d already taken sex ed at school and that there was a reason I went through so many socks.”
She choked on her laughter.
“Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” he said, a laugh leaking through. “She caught me going for it once. I had just come home from a date with Carly-Sue Anderson. She was the prettiest girl in our class. We spent half the night making out in the back of my car. When I get home, I thought my balls were gonna explode. High-tailed it up to my room without even checking in with Nana. I was in my room, pounding away when in she walks to ask how my date went.”
She burst into gales of laughter, holding her stomach as tears streamed down her face. “That did not happen.”
“Oh, it did. We had an unspoken agreement to never speak of it.” He started laughing. “Being a teenager was definitely hard.”
She giggled. “I can’t believe you told me that.”
“Hey, friends share their embarrassing teenage moments with friends. Haven’t you got any to tell me?”
Well, she could tell him that right now she was lying with her snuggly and hugging her doll. But nope.
“That’s okay,” he said quietly, letting her off the hook.
They talked for ages, him telling her about growing up with his nana. She told him stories about some of her previous clients. About an hour passed before she started yawning.
“I’m so sorry,” she apologized. “It’s not the company.”
“You must be exhausted from working late last night then getting up this morning to open. And you’ve got work tomorrow.”
“And you have a wedding to go to. Did you get a gift?”
“Sure did. Charlie really likes photography and Clint likes fishing. So I got them this fish photo frame. It’s like in the shape of a fish and you set the photos into the body. What do you think?”
“You didn’t.”
He was joking, right?
“Uh, I did. Is it no good? I can take it back.”
“No, no, I’m sure it’s fine,” she said, managing to sound somewhat convincing. She hoped. “I’m sure they’ll love it.”
Oh shoot. Did that count as a lie? Well, it’s not like she knew them. Maybe they would like it.
“Are you free Sunday?”
“Oh. Yes, I suppose so.”
“You suppose so?”
“Sorry. I just . . . sometimes my aunt springs things on me.”
“Ah, right. I was hoping you might come on a picnic with me. But if you think you’ll be busy . . .”
“I’ll make it work,” she blurted out.
She should say no. It would be better for both of them. But how could she say no when she knew she would regret it? She’d spend all of Sunday sitting around, wishing she’d said yes. As long as she got up early and cleaned the house then left before her aunt got out of bed, which was never usually before midday, she should be fine.
“Good. I’ll pick you up around eleven?”
“Actually, could we meet in town? Maybe outside the diner or something?”
There was a beat of silence.
“Of course, Mari-girl.”
She let out a silent sigh of relief. She’d been worried he’d want to know why she didn’t want picked up at the house. But she wasn’t going to take the risk of her aunt seeing her with him again.
There was silence.
“I don’t want to hang up,” she confessed, feeling herself blush. She hoped that didn’t sound too clingy.
“Me either,” he confessed. “All right, how about this? I’m going to put you to bed.”
Put her to bed? What did that mean?
“That all right?” he asked.
“Yes, that’s all right,” she agreed.
“Why don’t you put the phone down and go brush your teeth, pee, and then when you’re ready, climb back into bed and pick up the phone again.”
“Okay,” she said kind of breathily.
She threw the phone and it slid off the bedside table and fell to the floor.
“Mierda! God damn freaking crap!” She grabbed the phone picking it up to check that she hadn’t accidentally ended the call. “Are you still there?”
“Yes. Interesting language you have there, Mari-girl.”
Whoops.
“Sorry, the phone fell off the table and I thought I’d lost you.”
“I’m right here, teeny,” he said in a low croon that sent a shiver through her blood. “And if you’d lost me you know how to find me again, huh?”
Right. She sure did. She just panicked.
“Right. Sorry.” And teeny? Where had that come from?
“It’s okay. Go to the bathroom. I promise, I’m not going anywhere.”
Wow. He knew just what to say to make her knees go weak.
You met him yesterday. You’ve known him twenty-four hours. Sure, it felt like it had been longer. They’d just talked for over an hour and it had seemed like five minutes. It felt natural and right. But she had to remember that this was a temporary thing. She had to leave.
She brushed her teeth, washed her face and used the toilet. She took her blood sugar level again.
It definitely seemed like being around him was a good thing for her body and her emotions.
After climbing back into bed, she reached for the phone. “I’m in bed.”
“Good girl. Teeth brushed?”
“Yes.” She blushed a bit at the question. It was something a Daddy might ask.
Don’t think about that right now. Last thing she wanted to do was blurt something out inadvertently.
Wouldn’t that be embarrassing?
“The light’s off? You got everything you need for bed?”
Her snuggly? Check. Princess Nana? Check. Nightlight? Check. She turned off the bedside lamp.
“Yes. I’ve got everything I need. And the light is off.”
“Good girl. Is there anything else you usually do before bed?”
“I read.”
“Hmm, well, I don’t have any stories here to read to you. I might have to make one up, that okay?”
“Yes.” Daddy.
Christ, that was close. She bit her lip. She really had to watch herself.
“What’s your favorite animal?”