“I stayed at Max’s place last night,” she said casually as she added just enough milk to keep the coffee from melting the inside of the mug. She never used to drink much coffee. The caffeine didn’t do a damn thing for her, but the act of holding a steaming cup of coffee always relaxed her. Plus, she simply liked the flavor, so she’d gotten into the habit.
She turned to see Brandy sitting at the kitchen table, a big smile on her face. “Were you two getting to know each other in the friendly manner or the biblical one?”
Lana handed Brandy one of the mugs, then sat across from her friend. She was having a hard time keeping the smile off her face as she remembered everything she’d done with Max last night. “Oh, definitely the biblical one.”
“And?” Brandy asked, leaning forward eagerly. “How was it on a scale of one to oh-my-God-stop-melting-my-panties?”
“Well, I’m not sure where it places on your scale, but I’ll probably just stop wearing panties altogether when I’m in Max’s presence. They’ll just end up in tatters anyway.”
“That good, huh?”
“Better,” Lana said. “It was simply incredible, and I don’t just mean the sex. This is going to sound positively insane, but I’m falling for this guy so fast it’s scary. It’s thrilling, too. It’s the most alive I’ve ever felt.”
“Well, all righty then. Sounds like you hit the romantic lottery with this guy.” Brandy sipped her coffee. “In which case, why are you sitting in my kitchen looking somewhat less than thrilled?”
“Because my dad was waiting for me when I went back to my parents’ house early this morning. To say he was pissed is an understatement.”
Brandy blinked. “You’re kidding, right? Your gun-toting daddy does realize his daughter isn’t a teenager anymore, right?”
“I’m not so sure of that.”
As she sipped her coffee, Lana explained how her father had ambushed her the moment she’d walked in the door.
“He’s never yelled at me in my life,” Lana added. “And it’s all because he thinks Max is wrong for me.”
Brandy lifted a brow. “What did you say to that?”
Lana shrugged. “I told him that who I see is none of his business. As you can imagine, the argument went downhill from there.”
The situation probably wouldn’t have been quite so bad this morning if she hadn’t been so tense to begin with. But for some stupid reason, the moment she’d walked into her parents’ house, her teeth and fingertips had started tingling again. She couldn’t explain what was causing the sensations, but they’d gotten so bad the hair on the back of her neck had actually stood on end, which really put her in a weird mood. When her father confronted her, she naturally counterattacked. Not that her dad didn’t deserve it. He was being a butthead. Still, Lana was sorry things had gotten out of hand.
“When I said I wasn’t going to stop seeing Max simply because he said so, he told me to get out,” Lana said.
Brandy looked about as shocked as Lana had felt hearing those words. “What? You’re not serious, are you?”
Lana could only nod, remembering how stunned she’d been. She’d never seen her father so angry. You’d think she was dating a drug dealer, not one of her dad’s best SWAT officers.
“Your mom isn’t going along with any of this, is she?” Brandy asked.
Lana shrugged. “Mom was already at the restaurant, but when she finds out, I imagine she’s going to be pissed at Dad. But what’s done is done. I told him that if he’s going to try to play that silly game of my house my rules, then I’m out of there.”
“What are you going to do?” Brandy asked.
“I guess that depends on you,” Lana said. “If it’s okay with you and Miriam, I’d like to crash on your couch for a while. If not, my backup plan is to get a room at an extended-stay hotel.”
Brandy’s brow furrowed. “What about staying at Max’s place? You just admitted you’re already head over heels for the guy.”
Lana had thought about it—a lot.
“I’m sure Max would say yes,” she told Brandy. “But even though there’s something serious going on between us, I don’t want to take the risk of screwing things up by moving too fast. I mean, we’ve only known each other for a few days. The things I’m feeling for him are insane, but moving in would be even crazier.”
Brandy looked at her over the rim of her mug. “You just told me you spent last night at his place. Something tells me that even if you have a space on our couch, you’ll still be over there most of the time anyway.”
Lana smiled. “Yeah, probably. But sleeping over and moving in are two completely different things.”
Her friend sighed. “You really spend too much time reading Cosmo, you know that? But it doesn’t matter. If you need a place to crash, then of course you can stay here. Miriam and I are hardly ever here anyway. We both work too much. But if we come in some night and find you and Max going at it, don’t get mad if I start taking pics.”
Lana laughed. At least she had a plan for the short term. Now she had to figure out what to do next.
