A friendship with someone like River was exactly what I needed. If I had somewhere to go and someone to talk to who wasn’t Casey or Blake, I wouldn’t feel so twisted up and desperate around them, and maybe I’d be able to act like a functional adult human for more than five minutes at a time.
A bus sped by on the street, and right as I approached the house, a massive wave of muddy water slammed into me. I jumped to the side, but I was too late. For a second, I just stood there, dripping and freezing in shock.
God damn it. I was soaked.
I rushed around to the alley to use the back entrance, but when I got there, I realized I didn’t have my keys with me. The house was dark, so no one was home, and the rain was turning closer to ice. Shivering and jumping to stay warm, I hurried back to the front, then found the spare key under a loose brick and let myself in that way.
“Damn it,” I cursed as I stepped in. I was dripping with mud, which actually was enough to spoil my good mood from earlier.
“Is anyone home?” I hollered. “Anyone here?”
I waited a minute for an answer, then quickly went to shucking off my clothes. Casey and Blake kept their house clean, and there were a couple large rugs on the hardwood floor that looked expensive, and I was not about to destroy their nice things on my first week as a houseguest.
I hesitated for just a minute at my jeans. This was going to require a mad dash through the house in my panties, but I scolded myself to chill out. There was no one home, and I could literally see the door to the basement from where I was.
I kicked the pants off, then threw them in the pile with my jacket, sweater, and socks. Mud-splattered and naked except for the tight red bikini briefs, I took off in a run across the house, my heart pounding.
Halfway there, the worst happened, because of course it did. The back door swung open, and Blake stepped through.
Panic gripped me, squeezing my heart, and I slipped on the hardwood floor. With a pathetic yelp, I went flying, ass over head, then crashed down with a painful and humiliating thump.
