He’s younger than Manny and King by maybe five to ten years. His black hair is closely cropped to his head like he’s in the military, and he has the most beautiful violet eyes that would be girly on anyone but him.
“Yes?”
“You live out here all alone and don’t even have a dog?”
“I’m not home much.” I shrugged.
“Yeah,” Manny agreed, picking up their torch. “But when you are, you’re all alone.”
“Behind a big gate,” I blurted.
“With entry access in your car,” King added.
“Whoops,” I whispered.
“Yeah, babe, whoops,” he muttered.
Eric and Manny just smiled at their boots.
“I think maybe we should go tour the property,” Manny suggested.
“I’m just going to go fix some dinner,” I said while not meeting anyone’s eyes. I was embarrassed.
It’s silly really, but in that moment yesterday, King made me feel young, and stupid, and… small, and I didn’t want to feel like that another minute, so I was strategizing my exit plan. “Are you guys… umm… staying?”
“Yeah,” Manny replied, and I could hear the smile in his voice.
“Are you a good cook?” Eric asked.
“Uhh… maybe?”
“No maybe about it,” Manny replied to Eric. “With an ass like that, she’s a good cook.”
“Uhh…”
“Don’t worry. It’s a good ass,” he explained.
“Manny,” King bit out. “She’s a client.”
“As you say,hermano.”
“I’m just… I’m just gonna go,” I stammered, and then I bolted into the house to make dinner before any of them could tell me otherwise.
I ran upstairs and changed into a pair of jogging shorts and a tank top. I planned to shower after dinner when they were all out of my house and I could relax. I padded back downstairs on bare feet and pulled open the refrigerator door. I had chicken and broccoli. There was probably a carb in the pantry, although I didn’t indulge in them too often.
I pulled both out and set them down on the island countertop. I kept the door open, reached back in for a bottle of wine, and set that on the countertop too. I seasoned the chicken and put it in a pan to grill while I washed and chopped the broccoli, filling the bottom of the double boiler to steam the vegetables.
When both were set for a minute, I walked over to the pantry and found a couple of packages of instant cheesy rice. I don’t know how they got there. I didn’t buy them, but Bobby or Dad could have brought them over one night. I followed the directions and set them to cook.
The guys still weren’t back from “getting the lay of the land” as they called it, and I was growing more and more nervous by the second. I was eyeing the bottle of wine like it was the three-headed dog fromHarry Potter.
Finally, I sighed and gave in, and I grabbed the corkscrew from the drawer, only the bottle wasn’t ready to give up the goods. I twisted the screw into the cork, but when I went to push the little arms down, they stuck. They wouldn’t budge.What the hell?
I wedged the base between my thighs for leverage and tried to force the little arms down, but still… nothing. And then I lost my grip on the bottle, and it slipped from between my legs and flew up and over my head. I knew it was going to break a window, which I knew would really impress the stick in the mud security experts, but it happened so fast I couldn’t do anything to stop it.
But when I didn’t hear a crash, I turned around.
King was standing just inside the door to the garage, holding my bottle of wine. Manny and Eric were standing behind him, smiling outright at this point. I decided the best way to save face was to turn back to my chicken and flip it in the pan.
