Where the fork is it?! It’s a bright blue ball with pink streaks, for Glob’s sake.
Surely, I should be able to?—
“I see it!” I shout, relief surging through me as I shift around a thick clutch of growth to see the ball floating in a puddle against the fence.
“Yay!” Bella calls out. “Good job, Clover. You’re being strong and brave.”
“Thank you, Bella,” I say, grinning as I make a shuffling beeline toward the ball.
These two…
They really are the sweetest little goofballs. Aside from getting soaked in cranberry juice when Ava made Bella laugh mid-drink, and the unexpected ball rescue mission, my first day has been a breeze. I’ve had so much fun with the girls and eaten healthy, regular meals for the first time in ages. I even had a full ninety minutes to myself during naptime to practice bass and read a book that I’ve been trying to finish for months.
If things continue to go this smoothly, I might ask Dean if it would be okay to set my sewing machine up by the desk in the living room. I could get half a pantsuit made during naptime, and still be right downstairs if the girls got up early or needed me for some reason.
Dean…
I’ve barely seen him today, just a quick “hello and goodbye” on his way out the door this morning to hit the gym before practice. But damn, he looked good. He was wearing one of those yummy, skintight, long-sleeved workout shirts and gray sweatpants that just…
Well, let’s just say that “catching print” was not difficult. At all. I mean, I would have had to try hard toavoidcatching it.
And I didn’t try. Not even a little bit.
My eyeballs zoomed right in on that delicious lump while my thoughts dove happily back into the deep end of the smut pool, from whence I had just pulled them not twenty minutes before. Because yes, I had another kinky sex dream about my boss. This time Dean was a soldier from another kingdom who’d captured me behind enemy lines and was “torturing” information out of me with orgasms.
Orgasms on his tongue.
On his fingers.
On that long, thick, oh-so-skilled?—
“Are you still alive?” Ava calls out. “You’ve been quiet for a long time, Clover.”
That’s because I was thinking about your dad’s penis, Ava,I think to myself, a thing Iobviouslydon’t say aloud.
“Yes, honey, I’m fine. Just…concentrating.” I reach out, trying—and failing—to get a hand around the slick orb. “The ball landed in a puddle, and it’s all wet. I’m having a hard time getting a hold of it.”
“Ew! Yucky!” Bella cries. “Is it a big muddy puddle?”
“Not that big,” I say. “But plenty muddy.” I reach for it again, cursing beneath my breath as it slips away, floating to the far side of the small pool of water. “I’m going to have to get closer and go in with two hands.”
“Be careful!” Bella cries. “Be very, very careful!”
Ava huffs again, and I can practically hear the eye roll in her voice as she says, “A muddy puddle isn’t going to hurt her, Bella. The worstest that can happen is her fingers get wet.”
She’s right.
That’s the worstest that can happen.
Shouldhave been the worstest that could have happened, anyway. But somehow, I come up onto my knees at the wrong angle, get thrown off-balance as I reach for the ball, and end up pitching forward with a grunt, scratching the bottom of my chinon a chunk of dead shrub before chest-flopping into the middle of the puddle.
“Ugh!” I cry out, full-body cringing as water soaks through my sweatshirt.
“Oh no!” Bella cries out. “She’s hurted! Clover’s hurted!”
“Clover, are you okay?” Ava calls, sounding worried now, too.
“I’m fine, guys. I’m fine,” I rush to assure them.
