Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 68074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 68074 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 340(@200wpm)___ 272(@250wpm)___ 227(@300wpm)
“Did it work? Did you get your ex out of your system?” Macy wanted to know.
I paused to consider her question. Since my conversation with Mike in the truck, I hadn’t thought about my ex all day. “Yeah,” I said in disbelief. “I think it did.”
“And are you going to see him again?”
“No, it was just a one-night stand.”
Nicky turned around to face me. “What’s a one-night stand?”
I turned to Macy in horror.
“It’s where you put your lamp,” Macy said without missing a beat.
Nicky seemed satisfied with that answer and went back to not eating his carrots.
“Are you sure?” my cousin asked me when the danger had passed.
“About what?”
“About not wanting to see Mike again,” she said, offering Emily another bite. “He was cute and funny and apparently good in the sack.”
“What’s the sack?” Daisy chirped.
“It’s where you keep potatoes,” I said.
Macy smiled. “You’re catching on.”
“They’re going to have a really weird vocabulary if you’re not careful,” I whispered.
Macy stuck to her guns. “So, why not see Mike again?”
I shook my head. “I’m not interested in dating, and I didn’t get the idea he was either. It was just a fun night for both of us.”
“Okay,” she sighed, clearly not okay with it.
“Can I have a one-night stand near my bed?” Daisy asked.
Macy and I looked at each other and erupted into laughter. Just at that moment, Dillon walked in the door. He was carrying a stick that had been partially sanded into a cane. He looked at me and then at Macy.
“What’s so funny?” he asked.
“It was something Daisy said,” Macy explained.
“What did she say?” Dillon asked.
“She asked for a nightstand,” I said.
For the rest of the day, I kept my head down, trying not to excite the children with mention of my scandalous evening. I did the dishes, helped with the laundry, swept the floor, and took the kids on another nature walk. Living in the mountains allowed for nature walks, and they were quickly becoming my pastime of choice. Nicky and Daisy never tired of catching butterflies, throwing rocks into the stream, and climbing trees. It was a better childhood than I had, growing up in the suburbs of Austin. What wouldn’t I have done for the wide-open spaces and fresh air opposed to car pollution and bumpy, crowded roads?
Unfortunately, the tryst with Mike had worked too well. Not only had he consumed all thoughts of my ex, but he had overrun most of my thoughts in general. Everywhere I looked, I saw his face. The mountain stream was the same color as his eyes; the graceful movements of a deer called up images of bunched muscles.
I had come to this little town to get away, not to dive headfirst into another romance. Who knew if Mike was good boyfriend material? All I knew about him was how his body felt on top of mine and the width of his ship in my canal. It was hardly enough to base a relationship on. I spent the entire day fighting a war inside my head, only to realize, when I finally lay down to sleep, that I had lost. I was totally hooked, and there was nothing I could do about it.
7
MIKE
It had been three days since my rendezvous with Tammy. Three days of holding my shit together when all I wanted to do was fantasize about her. I couldn’t understand why she got under my skin. Was it the way she had been so bold and yet shy at the same time? Was it her insistence on the impersonal nature of our connection? If I had the opportunity to get to know her better, would that change anything? Maybe I was just obsessed because I couldn’t have her.
Either way, it was interfering with my work. I had to stop myself from daydreaming countless times. I had resolved not to irritate the manager anymore. The last thing I needed was for him to think I was back on the drugs I had never used in the first place. But every time I went into my little apartment, I thought about her.
She haunted the bedsheets, and I hadn’t had the heart to open the laptop that had supported her sweet little butt. At night, I sat on my desk chair, phone in one hand, beer in the other, remembering. During the day, I forced myself to focus on work, counting cords of wood in my head to keep my thoughts from drifting.
I’d had other one-night stands—why was this one so different? Tammy was so beautiful, she put most of my bed partners to shame. Not that all girls weren’t cute in their own way, but Tammy looked like a model. Not only that, but I could also tell she was a sweet girl who had been wronged one too many times in her life. I would have to be careful not to let the experience drag me down. The whole point of a one-night stand was not to get emotionally involved. I kept a tight rein on my feelings during the day, but after hours, in the dark, in the room where it had happened, my heart told a different story. I knew I was in for a rough couple of weeks before I could get the taste of her out of my mouth.