Reaching down, I scratched the top of Harper’s head. “Come on, girl. Let’s get the hell outta here. He ruined the moment.” I managed to stand and had almost picked up my trash before someone else slid into my seat. I turned to glare at the woman. “Wow. Nice.”
She blushed.
Any other day I wouldn’t have thought anything about it. Just part of being nameless in the tourist trap. Part of what I loved the most. The crowd didn’t care who you were, how much money your family had, or how big a piggy slutty bottom you actually were. They just wanted you to stay out of their way.
Within seconds Harper and I were walking down Pike Place toward the huge, neon-red Public Market Center sign. I glanced to Confectional, a little bakery that sold individual gourmet cheesecakes. It was tradition. Every time I ate at Beecher’s, I got a Mexican chocolate cheesecake. I kept moving. Damn it. Stewart had even ruined cheesecake. I wished there were a way to block him twice.
We’d not even made it to Pike Street when my phone vibrated again. I stopped moving abruptly, right in front of one of the vendors holding out a freshly cut slice of apple. He held it out to me, balanced between his thumb and the blade of his knife. “Here ya go, buddy. Best thing you’ll ever eat.”
“You know, I’ve had apples before. But thanks a lot.” With a scowl, I moved away from him, stepping into the street between two parked cars.
Dear God. I needed to get out of here before I punched some innocent kid who happened to look at me the wrong way. Or just happened to look at me.
Turning so I wouldn’t have to look at the vendor, I retrieved my phone once more. I swiped across the screen. How the hell had Stewart managed to get a text through when I blocked him?
Hey. Thought about you all night. How does Friday night work for you?
I nearly wrote back an all-caps FUCK YOU, then noticed the name at the top of the screen. My blood pressure rose for an entirely different reason, and all thoughts of Stewart were forgotten.
Noah Carroll.
Noah had thought of me all night. I felt a grin crack my face. We’d both lain in bed thinking about each other. I would normally have found the sweetness in such a thought to be gag inducing. If it didn’t make me giddy with pleasure.
Me too. Friday night is perfect.
It took less than thirty seconds to get a reply.
Great! We’ll figure out details later. Looking forward to Friday.
Despite a sense of wonder that any of it was real, I felt the slightest bit dirty. Like I was getting something I didn’t deserve. Like I should text Noah back and warn him. That he’d made a date with a man who was a bitch to a fruit vendor and a cheese-craving tourist for no good reason. A man who had to block one of his fuck buddies’ numbers. One of his fuck buddies who paid him. Not for sex. But kinda.
I hadn’t felt guilty about that in years. Not since the first couple of times I crossed that massage boundary. By the time I did it with a couple of erotic photography clients, it wasn’t a blip on the guilt radar.
But now? After Noah’s kiss under the stars? With him planning a date for us?
HARPER ANDI spent the next couple of hours in the Pike Place Market and Pioneer Square areas, going to a few of the gift stores that carried cards from my kid fantasy series, then went back to Capitol Hill to replenish my other line of cards in the kitschy gay shops.
By the time we made it back home, I had less than an hour to grab something to eat before I needed to leave to make it to a sunset photo shoot with a set of twin girls.
Before heading out, I checked my e-mail and discovered Noah Carroll wasn’t the only dream coming true. There was an e-mail from my agent with the subject line ofGreat News.
Barely able to breathe, I opened it. I had to read it four times before I started to believe.
Randall,
Great news! Sourcebooks Publishing House likes your work, and they are preparing a contract. They will send it to me within the next week. As you and I have talked about, they are open to the possibility of a series, depending on how the first one sells. But I think our chances are high. I didn’t mention anything about the possibility of another book of your erotic photographs. Like I’ve said before, I think that will be a more challenging sell, and I don’t want them to associate that brand with you at the same time we submit your children’s series. Either way it gets our foot in the door.
Congratulations, Randall. I’m thrilled that we get the chance to make this a reality. I love your work, and I believe it’s going to be a windfall for you. I’ll be in touch as soon as I receive the contract and look it over.
Soon,
Cherie Mortzen
Chapter Seven
NOAH’S DOGScoaxed Harper into playing at the dog park. Despite her timid nature, she seemed to be having a decent time. I was fairly certain she even twirled in happiness, but she might have been chasing a fly. Ron, who looked to be some sort of bulldog-dachshund mix and had teeth nearly as bad as Harper’s, was the clear leader of the three. Harper and Andy, a small hairy thing of indeterminable breeding, followed Ron around like baby ducks. About every three or four minutes or so, Harper would leave the boys, rush back to me, a terrified gleam in her eyes, and demand exorbitant amounts of praise and petting before she’d bound after her two new playmates again.
We watched her scamper off once more before I turned back to Noah. “I think we are the parents with the weird children. Have you noticed how the other dogs are afraid to go near our little freak show?”
