“Why? Was it the efficient use of space, the systematic layers dependent on purpose and potential urgency of use, or the straight lines?” I study her face. “It’s all of the above, isn’t it? I know. I just like knowing where everything is. Like Bates. Where’sheat? He wasn’t on my list, Martha. He wasn’t even on thelist. Do you know how inconvenient that is? I have been studying staff dossiers, methods, and layouts for weeks — but nothis, Martha. Not his. Now there’s a big fucking spanner in the works. A big, tattooed, delicious-looking spanner.”
Martha snorts and throws my loofah at me. “You likeBates Kelly?”
I cover my mouth, knowing I probably should have kept that information to myself. “Is that bad?”
She laughs harder. “I don’t know. You like big dicks, and his is probably massive.” She tilts her head and becomes thoughtful. “He’s okay, but he’s kind of become Dad’s bestie since Dave died, so there’s that. And I think he’s in a relationship already, but mainly the Dad thing. Wait. Are you trying to piss Dad off?”
“What? No. I just think Bates is really pretty and nice.”
Martha cracks up again. “Pretty?Okay. You’re definitely drunk, bitch. Rinse off and get out, so I can put you to bed and not worry about you crawling into Kelly’s place to slither all over him in a drunken soapy mess.”
“I wouldn’t,” I cry defensively. “I don’t even know which trailer is his.”
That sets Martha off laughing again as she’s hunting for my pajamas. “Man, I hope I remember this tomorrow. I am going to tease you so fucking hard. Arethesewhat you brought for sleepwear?” She holds up my slinky, lace-trimmed cami and shorts.
“Yes. I think they’re pretty.”
“Like Bates Kelly?” she teases with a grin.
“Yes.”
She snorts again, shakes her head, and goes back to digging through my bag. “You can’t wear these,” she informs me with the kind of authority a big sister knows how to wield. “You’ll die of hypothermia. Here… yes. This is more like it.”
She returns with sweats and a thermal long-sleeve made of merino wool and puts them on the cabinet by the bathroom sink. “Wear these.” She shuts the shower off and thrusts my towel at me.
“But I want the sexy ones,” I whine. “They’re cute.”
Martha sets the slinky set back on top. “Fine. But you have to settle for wearing them underneath wool until it’s actually summer. So basically, you can only wear sexy and cute things for the last week in July.”
“What? No.”
“Yup. Fraid so. Else you’ll freeze your glorious tits right off.Damnyour mother’s ample-bosomed DNA. I’ve been trying not to stare at your chest all night,” she says, laughing at her candor. “That dress Harper talked you into is fucking dynamite, and I’m jealous as hell at how you fill it out. I’m not surprised a man would dress you in something that displays those puppies so damn well. What the fuckarethose things? Double Ds?”
“Triple,” I mumble as I pull on the clothes and wrap my hair in the towel. “That’s an F — and you don’t want them. They’re heavy, and when I talk, guys get so distracted by them that they forget basically everything I say. Well, the straight ones, anyway,” I clarify.
“I’ll bet,” Martha says with a chuckle as she’s making up my bed for me. “You’re going to have fun trying to teach the guys out here, then.”
“It’ll be okay. I have other ways of being memorable. Thanks for helping me get settled.” I tackle her onto the bed with a hugand then yawn like someone who stayed up all night losing her virginity. “I miss you between Christmases.”
“Yeah, well, you’re all grown up and done with school now. You’re a free agent, so there’s nothing to stop us from seeing each other more. You got everything you need? Want a bucket in case you hurl?”
“Mm. Maybe. Luck favors the prepared, and it’ll save me cleanup time if I have one. Yes. Good idea.” I yawn again, and Martha soon returns with a big bowl from under the sink.
“It’s right next to the bed,” she says before kissing my forehead and tucking me in. “Don’t miss it.”
“Roger that.”
“Sleep tight, bedbug.”
“You too.”
The door clicks shut, and I can feel myself drifting off, but I wake straight back up when the door opens again.
I push myself into a sitting position and rub at my gritty-feeling eyes. “What’s up? You leave behind something important?”
“You could say that,” Bates replies in a low rumble that sets my body on high alert.
15
