Page 127 of Rent Free

“Yeah,” I said. “But only after we’re finished here.”

And I made love to her one more time.

Walkin’ around my house like who the fuck closed last night?

—Pepper’s secret thoughts

PEPPER

I was fighting for my life.

For one, I had no bra on.

For two, I was doing a whole lot of jumping, lunging, swinging my arms, and dodging.

Three, there was a horse fly in my office, and I couldn’t kill it with the long-sleeved t-shirt of Atlas’s that I’d worn out of the house this morning.

Today was just supposed to be a quick run up to my office, where I would submit the payroll that I’d forgotten to last night.

Except the apartment at the bakery that we’d turned into a huge office space for both Maven and me had an outside entrance that I liked to use over having to run into the bakery, behind the counter, through the kitchen, and upstairs to the office.

The only problem with the back entrance was that when you used it, you had to go up the enclosed stairwell.

And last night, I’d forgotten to turn the light off as I was leaving, and every fucking bug on the planet was in that stairwell.

With nothing to do for it, I’d had to enter into my office, and I’d accidentally let three mosquito hawks and a horse fly into the room with me.

The mosquito hawks didn’t bother me.

It was the horse fly, that hurt really bad when it bit, that bothered me.

Another buzz had me spinning around, terror sliding through me.

I reared back and swung with the shirt.

I felt my left boob go one way, and my right boob go the other.

The short top I was wearing was precariously close to not holding the girls in.

They’d been that way since we’d had our first child four years ago.

When I was finally done with breastfeeding—I’d breastfed my first for nearly a year and a half—there I was delivering another one.

That was also why we’d turned the top apartment into an office. Off the main room where our computers and workspaces were was another enclosed room that we’d set up as a playroom for the kids.

Between Maven’s and my own, we had six kids—Maven with three and me with three.

If we were both working at the same time, we’d either get Garnett, one of our sisters-in-law, or even a very few trusted babysitters, to watch them for us.

That way, if there were any issues with them, we would be close in case they needed us.

And just sayin’, but having half Carter genes, there was always an issue.

Another buzz right past my face and I whirled, eyes scanning the space.

I jumped, dodged, and did everything but roll across the ground.

I knew I was making a lot of noise, but I couldn’t help it.

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