Page 60 of Dining for Love

I open my mouth, then reconsider.

“Willllllllaaaaaa,” Goldie wheedles, folding her hands together. “Pleeeeeaaaase?”

Oh, who am I kidding? Of course I’m spilling. With the biggest grin of my life on my face, I gush, “Yes I did, andoh my God, Goldie, it was the best sex of my life!” I try to keep my voice down on that last part.

Goldie whoops, drawing both Mom and Dad’s attention. I wave them off, but know it’ll only hold them for a few minutes. “Tell me everything!” she demands again. “Is he as hot under those clothes as it looks?”

I nod like a bobblehead. “He’s a freaking fantasy, Goldie. I don’t even know how it’s my life right now.”

“How many times?” Her eyes sparkle.

I blinkat her. “Seriously?”

She slams the silverware onto the counter. “Uh,yeah, seriously. How else am I supposed to survive the desert that is my own sex life?”

I cringe. “I’m not sure I ever want to think about your sex life, Goldie.”

“Fair enough, but also, irrelevant, because I have none.” She waves the silverware around once more. “Back to you. How many times did you come?”

…Aaand there’s the blush, crawling up my neck to bloom on my cheeks like twin spotlights.

Goldie cackles. “Okay, fine. I truly don’t understand why you’re such a prude, but I’ll leave you alone.”

Mom swings over. “What’s all the commotion about?”

Goldie snorts a laugh and grabs another set of silverware to roll.

“I hate you,” I mutter. To Mom, I do my best to give her a breezy answer. “Oh, nothing big. Just some happy news I was sharing.”

“And what am I, chopped liver?” she demands, reaching for the rolled silverware to stash it at the end of the counter. “Don’t I deserve to hear the happiness?”

I groan. “Mom, it’s not?—”

“Tell your mother,” Dad demands, pointing a very sharp, very large chef’s knife at me. “I don’t want to listen to her complain about it later.”

I cover my face. “Oh my God,” I groan. “How am I related to all of you?”

“Tell me already,” Mom prods.

Dad waves a packet of sausages at me. “Just tell her.”

Goldie sees the look of combined horror/hilarity on my face and turns to Dad, then back to me.

We howl in unison. “He’s waving—” Goldie gasps. “SAUSAGES!”

I slide off the stool, gripping it so that I don’t fall to the floorin laughter. “It’s…Reid,” I manage to say, the giggles coming fast and strong.

“What does Reid have to do with my sausage?” Dad asks. He’s dead serious about it, too.

“Sausage,” Goldie wheezes, pointing at Dad with one arm and holding her stomach with the other. “What does Reid have to do withmy sausage, he asks. Oh,shit.” She meets my eyes, and we fall into laughter once more.

Mom looks at both of us blankly, but I see the minute it dawns on her. “Oh dear,” she says, then starts to chuckle. “Dean, sweetie.” She turns to Dad, who’s got the sausage links unpacked and is literally holding one up to the light to look at it, peering to see if it holds the answer to this mystery. Mom snorts out a laugh. “Dean! Put the sausage down.”

“Please,” I say, wiping the tears away. “Please, Dad, for the love of all that is holy, put the sausage down.”

Dad harrumphs and turns away from all of us, muttering, while we collapse again into a fit of giggles.

After a moment, we manage to gather our composure. Mom exhales. “Well. Wow. Okay.” She giggles again, and it nearly sends us off once more, but I manage to hold it in. “You and Reid.”

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