“There’s nothing for you to feel bad about at all,” Dean reassures her. “I’m just sorry my plans didn’t change until the last minute. Don’t even worry about the hotel. I got in last night, and LaVon at the front desk found a cancellation. Got myself a nice king-sized bed with a little jacuzzi tub in the bathroom.”
Palmer laughs, patting the man on the back.
“Now that’s something I can’t even imagine. Your big body fitting into a tub for a bubble bath.”
Don’t worry; I’m imagining it just fine for everyone.
Relaxed halfway down in the water, reclined back with his eyes closed, droplets of water dripping off every muscled, tattooed inch of his chest and arms. One wet hand lifting off the edge of the tub to push his hair back, the other hand sliding down his chest, over his abs, and disappearing under the water until he roughly grips his—
“Dick!” Birdie shouts happily, my eyes widening in complete mortification that my dirty internal thoughts somehow became external, until she quickly continues, “I’ll call Dick Franklin at the golf cart rental place now and leave him a message about putting one on hold for you.”
“No need,” Dean says. “I brought my bike over on the ferry. It’ll get me around the island just fine.”
Oh, God, no….
“You own a bike?” I ask him, coughing to hide the stupid squeak in my voice.
My hands are suddenly sweaty and I rub them together in front of me, while Wren’s comment last night about him driving into town on a Harley and wanting to give me a ride suddenly pops into my head.
Please let it be a ten-speed… or a mountain bike. Even a BMX would work. Do people still ride those?
“Yep.” Dean nods. “A Harley, why?”
God. Dammit.
“Those things are dangerous. You better wear a helmet at all times,” I immediately warn him, wincing as soon as the stupid words come out of my mouth.
Nice one, Mommy.
“You worried about my safety, sugar?” He smirks.
“Stop calling me that.” I narrow my eyes at him, making his shoulders shake with laughter, and my annoyance skyrockets.
“All right, now that this is all settled, I have the perfect idea!” Birdie announces.
The look on her face as she smiles at me, the sheepish one I am quite familiar with that says she’s about to do something that is going to piss me off, makes me frantically search around the room for a waiter and a much-needed glass of wine.
“Since Mom still can’t decide who she’s bringing as a plus-one, and we weren’t expecting Uncle Dean, even though we’re so happy he was able to make it, he can be her plus-one! That fixes things with the caterer, and I won’t have to redo the seating chart!”
My head whips back around from searching for alcohol to glare at my daughter. Sadly, she’s immune to my angry-mom stare at this point, and she just continues to piss me right the hell off with her ideas that are anything but perfect.
“And now she’ll also have a partner for all the wedding activities, and I won’t have to worry about her doing everything alone. Yay for fixing everything!”
Twenty-seven hours of labor and this is how she repays me?
“Oh hell no,” I squawk at the same time Dean says, “Sounds good.”
My head slowly turns to the side to once again find him grinning at me. “You’re not going to be my plus-one at my daughter’s wedding. And I don’t need a partner to sightsee with around the island I already live on,” I inform him, while I see Birdie moving farther away out the corner of my eye, knowing I’m going to kick her ass as soon as I get my hands on her.
“Sounds to me like it fixes everything,” Dean reminds me. I want to kick him in the shin, even as my heart starts pounding again when he leans in close to me once more and lowers his voice. “Don’t worry. Even if we have meaningless sex, you’ll definitely remember my name the next morning.”
This motherfucker….
Of course he overheard everything I said to Wren last night. Why couldn’t he just pretend he didn’t, like a goddamn gentleman? I’ve never been so turned on and so pissed off in my entire life.
That’s it. Now Wren and Birdie are both out of the will and grounded for life.
Chapter 3