Page 49 of Fireworks & Forehead Kisses

“If you don’t leave, I’m going to call the police.”

““For what?!”

“For public intoxication. Drunk and disorderly. Disturbing the peace. You just assaulted an employee upstairs. He might want to press charges.”

“Assaulted, I barely touched him.”

“You have two choices. You can go to rehab now, and I won’t cut you off. Or if you walk out that door and don’t, I’m done, Derek. You’re on your own.”

“Fuck you, Declan!”

He turned to walk out but tripped over his feet and fell to the ground, hitting his head on the marble tile. When he tried to stand up, he fell again, and blood began to drip from the stitches on the head wound he’d sustained in the car accident. When he tried to get up again, he passed out cold.

Jack radioed for an ambulance, and I called my grandmother to let her know what had transpired and that Derek was going to be transported back to the hospital and from there hopefully to rehab. If not, I was done, and I hoped that she would be, too.

17

ASHLEY

“Okay,so wait, let me get this straight. You said you met him at the bar.” Nadia’s voice was on speaker.

“Yes.”

I was almost back in Firefly. The six-hour drive from Atlanta had flown by. I had to admit most of the time had been spent thinking about my hot hookup, but I had also come up with some ideas for the clothing line. Nadia called me when I only had about fifteen minutes left before I was back in town. I was going to head straight to Stella’s to thank her for the hotel room and makeover and also go over my new ideas.

“And he told you his name is Xavier, but you don’t think it is, so you nicknamed him Big and told him your name was Carrie.”

“Yes.”

“Yes.”

“That’s so hot!”

“I know, right?”

“But your friend knows him and vouched for him.”

“Yes. She assured me I would not end up on Dateline or 20/20.”

“Amazing. So you met him at the bar and actually asked him if he was going to ask you to go to his room?”

“Yep.”

“I’m so proud of you. I feel like my little girl is growing up.”

I laughed.

“Okay, so you went upstairs with him.”

“Yes. He was in the presidential suite. It was the entire top floor.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah.”

“And then you had hot, hot sex all night.”

“Not all night, but yes.”

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