And maybe she’d be able to save a little.Deal with the house, decide what she wanted to do, and finally leave Miami for college.
Drea pulled into the driveway and quietly let herself into the house.Her mom was asleep, and the house was quiet apart from the wheeze of the oxygen.
Wearily, she climbed the stairs.She sat on the bed, with every intention of pulling her shoes off.Instead, she leaned back on the pillow and fell fast asleep.
What felt like mere minutes later, her phone rang.Drea bolted upright in bed, and scrambled in the half light to find her purse.She was covered in sweat, her heart pounding.It was only a dream.
She pulled the phone out of her purse… Cujo.
“What?”she growled angrily.
“Hey, Shortcake, I had an idea for the party,” he said cheerily.
Who gave a shit about the party?Drea slumped back into bed and groaned.She’d had less than two hours’ sleep.“And it’s so good it couldn’t wait until a reasonable hour?”
“What?It’s not that—whoa.Itisearly.Sorry, Drea.I’m just on my way to the gym, wasn’t thinking about the time.”
His freedom to do what he wanted grated on her nerves.“Yeah, well, some of us don’t have that kind of luxury.”
“Sorry, Drea.Look, I’ll go.I can call you back later.”
“Never mind,” she said rubbing her eyes, “I’m awake now.What’s up?”
“I thought of an idea for the party that kind of reminded me of you.”
It was bait.She knew it.The only way to defend was a pre-emptive strike.“Let me guess.A chocolate fountain… because too much makes you sickly.”
“No.But good one.I was thinking fireworks.”
She could see where it was going.“Okay, I’ll bite.Because they’re noisy and unpredictable?”
Cujo laughed.“Funny, and true.I was thinking more along the lines of they’re colorful and vibrant… and beautiful when they explode.”
“Goddamnit.You can’t say things like that to me this early in the morning.”Even if the thought made her insides light up like the very pyrotechnics they were discussing.
“Think about it.How great they’d look from Mo’s garden.They’d reflect off the water.”
Drea sighed.They would look perfect.
“Look, you’re tired.I’ll call you back, later,” he said and ended the call.
It was impossible to stop thinking about his words.So she quickly sent him a text.
How do you know I’m beautiful when I explode?
“Drea,” her mom called from downstairs.There was no hope of getting back to sleep now, but the call with Cujo had actually energized her.She was such a sucker for his flirting.
Don’t you know all creative types have a VIVID imagination!Get some sleep, Shortcake.
***
On Thursday night, Cujo settled into one of the oversized Adirondack chairs on his back porch, studying the night sky.He reached absently into the cooler, moving his hand around until he found another beer for Connor who occupied the other chair.
They’d done an exhausting twenty-mile training paddle.Connor, who ran an adventure company in the Everglades and competed in endurance paddleboard racing, thought nothing of the distance.But Cujo could already feel the stiffness in his quads and glutes.
“That was one fucking crazy shock you laid down on us at dinner on Sunday.Dad nearly had a coronary when you told him about the hold-up.”
Despite Drea’s suggestion when he’d dropped her off after visiting Mo’s, he hadn’t called Heidi back.He’d gone over to his dad’s instead.The family tried to get together on a Sunday at their dad’s at least a couple of times a month.He couldn’t imagine not living close to them.He’d miss his twin nieces too much.No woman could match the precious moments when Amaya and Zephyr looked at him with giant brown eyes and said “Uncle Jo-Jo.”
