I stare at the gorgeous new rock on my ring finger but don’t dare tell her about the engagement yet.
“My, um, boyfriend.”
“Troy?”
“Mom.”
“The football player?”
“Yes, Ma.”
“Goodness, if I had known he was coming I would have made some extra dishes.”
“The normal Williams Christmas is fine.”
Williams is my mom’s maiden name and it will be her twin sister, their first cousins (all women), Cecily, plus a few husbands at dinner.
“Why wouldn’t you tell me before this, Adrienne?”
“It was a last-minute decision. Do you want to meet him or not?”
“Of course I do.”
“Then we’ll be there tonight for dinner. I’m just letting you know.”
“Maybe there’s time to make a shrimp cocktail.”
“Mom, listen to me, don’t do anything extra, just keep the troops in line.”
“Well, we’ve never had a celebrity over for Christmas dinner. There’s bound to be some excitement.”
“Okay, mom.” I give up. “I’ll see you at six-ish.”
I’m not sure that conversation went the way I hoped it would, but I’m just going to hope for the best and pray that my family doesn’t scare away the best thing that has ever happened to me.
“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?”
Jason startles me with the deep bass in his voice.
“She needed to know there’d be one more for dinner.”
He slides some of my hair out of my face.
“Let me give you a bath and settle you right down.”
He always knows what to say to put a smile on my face.
“Yeah?”
“Yeah.”
Jason draws a warm bath in his sunken jacuzzi and helps me in. He uses a sea sponge and pours a good amount of some fancy body wash on it and rubs it all over. He washes me by starting at my neck, to my arms, then my shoulders, my breasts, my stomach, and then finally uses additional pressure to slide the sponge between my legs. My head drops back against the base of the tub as he slowly and methodically cleans between my legs.
“Does this feel good, baby?”
“Oh, yes.”
“Shit, you’re already quivering.”
