“Of course, he is.” Babushka stood to examine the handiwork of her minions. “You are vorking. He pays you for vork.”
“Are you going to help?” Marlee asked Eli, grabbing another set of dildos from the box at the end of the white folding table. She set them out, giving him a pointed glance.
Well, he couldn’t let her get arrested on her own, could he? And really, Scotty deserved to have to figure out how to get dildo nunchucks out of his tree.
“Show me how it’s done, Mar.” He pulled a chair beside her, ready to go full dildo on Scotty’s trees.
* * *
There was probablysomething in the guidelines of the homeowner’s association about tossing fake penises on the trees at her house. Marlee didn’t care. Scotty’s face when he woke up would make any HOA issues minute.
She punched in her after-hours security code for the gate, pulled her SUV through, and waited for Eli to follow in his Jeep. Right on cue, the night security guard stepped out of the gatehouse.
“Ms. Medford,” he said. “Welcome home.”
The security guards said the same thing every time she entered the gate. This time, she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from correcting him. This was most definitely not her home.
Her home was now her temporary digs at Eli’s.
The temporary part made her throat go thick. So she did what she always did—ignored it and rolled with the life that was handed to her. This was the latest step in her if-life-would-just-go-back-to-normal-that-would-be-fab plan. Who knew which step she was on at this point? She’d stopped counting.
“The Jeep is with me.” She glanced into her rearview mirror. Eli was still there. Not that he could’ve gone anywhere in the short amount of time she’d spoken with the guard. Lately, she found that she checked to ensure he was there more and more. Like he would,poof, disappear and she’d be all alone.
Heather sat in the passenger seat of Marlee’s SUV with two of Babushka’s friends in the backseat. Eli had Babushka and two more with him.
Eli also had the dildo contraband in a box under a black tarp in the backseat.
Marlee pulled down the private tree-lined street toward her old house. She waited for the sadness she’d expected when she’d decided to come back tonight.
There was no heavy feeling tonight, though. She felt light. Happy. Ready to do this thing.
“Are we doing the front or the back?” Heather asked, staring out the window. She’d tried to convince Jase to tag along. Insisted that he had a special skillset that would be helpful. What that skillset was, Marlee wasn’t entirely certain.
He declined with colorful language about hard limits and his grandmother whacking him with sex toys.
“We’re doing the backyard,” Marlee replied. If they did the front, they’d definitely get caught by the night guards. Which meant they were stuck decorating the two aspen trees and the oak tree in the back.
Scotty slept hard. By this time of night, he’d probably downed two Unisom, passed out on the sofa, and wouldn’t move until around seven a.m.—if every evening they’d spent together over the past two years was any indication. They only had to cover the security cameras in the back—Babushka had plans for those—and avoid the motion sensors for the light on the back door.
Marlee turned on to the street where she’d lived. The driveway at her house was full, and the street was lined with cars as well.
All the lights were on.
She took a sharp breath.
Either Scotty didn’t take his Unisom or he was sleeping through quite the party. Her stomach twisted, bile starting to rise up in her throat. She was pretty sure he hadn’t taken the Unisom.
The french fries with dinner were suddenly a horrible idea.
“This isn’t possible,” she whispered.
Scotty never liked it when she entertained. Hated it when she had too many friends over. Threw a fit when things got too loud or went too late.
“Looks like Scotty isn’t asleep,” Heather murmured.
No, it didn’t look that way. Scotty was having a party.
Marlee’s heart fell. She loved parties. Loved having friends over. She itched all over to pop inside, make herself, well…at home…and enjoy the company.
