She ran forward and grabbed Phoebe by the scruff of her neck, lifting her up and out of my arms. Jenna gave her the smallest shake, and she opened her mouth, finally releasing the creature. I wrapped my other hand around the toad and felt a warm trickle of liquid on my hands.
Disgusting.
I side-stepped Jenna and walked out of the bedroom and across the living room to release the toad on the porch, shaking my head at how this evening turned out. I was trying to figure out how to turn the doorknob on the back door when I stopped and looked at my closed hands.
A toad.A toad crossed my path.
My superstitious mind went into overdrive, remembering the old fairy tale,The Frog Prince. If a toad crossed your path, it was a sign to be mindful of travelers because you’d meet your future spouse sometime soon.
So what the fuck did it mean that a black cat crossed my path with a toad in its mouth?
Nothing good.
This had to be the Universe giving me a clear, superstitious signal that I was making the right call with Jenna. She was clearly not who I was supposed to be with forever. I was meant to be alone.
“Marcus-I-don’t-know-what-your-middle-name-is-Hansen, don’t you dare throw that toad outside,”her shrill voice cried from the bedroom before a fireball of chestnut hair with soft caramel highlights darted through the living room, waving her hands with eyes as big as saucers.
I would have noticed her hands and her eyes if it hadn’t been for her tits bouncing up and down as she ran to me. It was like I was staring at the television in slow-motionBaywatchstyle. The only thing missing wasI’m Always Here,blaring in the background and a warm summer breeze on my face.
I leapt back with a start, keeping my hands wrapped around the peeing toad and looking at her like she had three heads.
“What? What’s the matter?”
She stopped short, and her eyes darted toward the toad clamped between my palms.
“Thank goodness. My heart went to my throat, thinking you’d already released the toad. Some are poisonous, and I need to examine our friend before you let him go.”
Poisonous?A poisonous toad in the mouth of a black cat crossed my path?I need a beer.
She stood and held up her pointer finger, taking a few more deep breaths before putting her hand over her heart. I focused on where her hand rested. Seeing her hand on her heart made my heart ache with all the longing and loneliness I pretended I didn’t understand and didn’t need.
“Take the toad to the kitchen. I’ll get gloves, and you,” she said, pointing to the kitten that had trotted up to us like she hadn’t caused this mess by picking up the damn thing. “You are a naughty little girl scaring your daddy and me like that.”
She turned, carrying Phoebe, and dropped her on the living room couch before disappearing into the bedroom for gloves. The toad continued to squirm as I went to the kitchen, and I kind of wanted to squish it for all the trouble it caused.
Jenna snapped her gloves on and came up beside me. I opened my hands enough for her to peer at the toad. It was only an inch or so long with brown speckles… ugly camouflage.
“How can you tell if it’s poisonous?”
“If it were, it would have nodes above the ear holes that secrete the toxin. This dude is a common toad. You can release him.”
“Thank fuck. How did it get in here?”
“Probably through the garage,” Jenna said, taking off the gloves and tossing them into the trash. She opened the fridge and took out two beers while I took our new friend to be released back to the wild, or at least the bushes in Jenna’s backyard.
“Quick reflexes, Officer Handsome,” she said, handing me a beer and clinking the bottle to mine after I came back from the porch and washed my hands.
“Right back atcha, Dr. Cutie, and my middle name is Remus, by the way.”
I took a long pull of the beer and gazed at Jenna. Her eyes were sparkling bright as I stared at her, and she dragged her lower lip between her teeth.
“Come with me,” she said, tugging my hand and pulling me along.
I usually liked to be the one that gave direction, but something about Jenna made me want to follow everything she said. She led me to the bedroom, and with one swift motion, she pulled her dress off and stood there like a goddess—all curvy hips, soft skin, and dark pink nipples.
I took a moment to appreciate the view that was Jenna. Her chestnut hair sat right above her collarbone, and my eyes fell to the curve of her hips and her supple tits. Her feet were bare and small, with bright red nail polish against the cream carpet. I had a strange desire to run my hands down her thighs to her feet and rub them, running my knuckles over the arch of her foot to see how she responded. Would she moan for me real sweet or jerk her foot away with a ticklish giggle?
It felt like it had been too long since I’d touched her—since we had some sort of skin-on-skin contact, and I ached to reach out and pull her to me. I licked my lips and stared, wondering how I got so fucking lucky that a woman that beautiful was here with me. When I stared into her eyes, I saw something that made me want to share all my secrets, to have something genuinely meaningful and profound. It was like she had inserted herself into a part of my soul I’d kept hidden away.
