Page 15 of Cascade

“There’s something different,” my brother says, standing in my office. Once again, he has come uninvited and once again, he complained about my music and turned it off so he could yell at me.

“Cleaned up the papers,” I tell him, nodding toward the tables around my desk. I spent some serious time with the shredder this spring after Opal turned up for a few more late night romps. I grin, remembering the receipts stuck to her bare ass after I worked her into a sweat.

The next time she showed up, she beamed when she saw all the bare surfaces, all that wood I could bend her over without risk of paper cuts.

“Hm,” Hunter says, tapping his fingers on the shelf. “I guess that’s it. Is Fletcher coming to the party? Have you heard from him?”

I shake my head. “Talked to him this morning. He’s filming some motorcycle race in Dubai and has to get all his visas in order, ship his equipment and such. He said we should video chat him for the good parts of the party.”

I can tell he’s disappointed our brother won’t be here. I know Hunter is all kinds of anxious about this whole thing and needs a whole lot of pep talks, from anyone who will put up with his nonsense.

“Hey,” I say, leaning back away from my monitor. “What if you talk to Asa about this stuff? It’s the end of the second quarter and I’ve got a lot of work, man…”

“Hm,” Hunter keeps staring at me. He drives me crazy when he sits there thinking. I can practically hear the gears turning in his robot brain. “Diana was quite clear that I was not meant to give Asa ideas about childbearing…”

“Diana doesn’t know her ass from a hole in the ground,” I tell him. Which is only partly true. “What can I do for you today, Hunter?”

He crosses his arms over his chest. “You said you’d go out and play poker with me and you never did.”

My brows lift. I was not expecting that—but he’s absolutely right. I was supposed to drag him and Moorely out to lose all our money to the Acorns—a group of old, retired college professors who have taken root in Oak Creek, using their newly found free time to meddle in everyone’s business and try to change centuries-old town regulations. And many of them, math and statistics professors in their prime, are sharks at cards.

Seems like my brother needs to call in on my promises to take his mind off things. I nod and squint, thinking.

“You’re right, Hunter. Hang on.” I fire off a group text and, within an instant, find out that I can drum up a card tournament tonight. “Shit.” I really do have to get this tax paperwork submitted for my clients. I rake a hand through my stubble and squint at the clock.

“Listen,” I tell him. “Meet me at the club house at 8 tonight. Can you bring Asa? I have to get this shit done or I’m going to get sued.”

The office door beeps open a few hours later—I installed one of those beep alarms that flashes on my monitor when the door opens after Opal finally said she didn’t feel like she could concentrate on blow jobs with the door unlocked. I assume it’s Hunter come to collect me, and I grumble. “I’m not quite done yet, dude.”

“No time for a quick distraction?” And there she is. I look up, startled to see her during daylight hours. But as I soak up my surroundings I see that the sky is pale orange. Must be getting late.

Usually, she shows up at my house or my office at odd hours and I drop whatever I’m doing to service her needs…and mine. It’s a system that works well for both of us.

She doesn’t let me talk to her, so I express all my thoughts via my hips. Sometimes my tongue on her clit. We’ve made no promises, had no discussions about monogamy. But I’m not interested in anything other than whatever the hell we’ve got going on.

Which is why it’s so surprising for me to find myself saying, “any other time, Precious, but I truly cannot right now.”

Her face falls. She bites her lip and looks embarrassed. “Ok, then. I’ll just head out.”

“Opal, hang on.” I click save on the file and hop up from my chair. I follow her to the door and rub her shoulder. “I’m so deep in the weeds with these files. And I promised my brother I’d take him out to distract him from the party this weekend. What do you say I swing by your place after?”

She arches one brow at me, studying. Normally it’s Opal who dictates the when and the where of our trysts. She likes to call the shots, be the one to walk in and walk out whenever she feels like it. This is the first time I’ve turned her down. She winces. “It feels too much like a date that way. I don’t want to have to expect you.” She makes like she’s walking out again.

“Well, what will you do if I just show the hell up anyway?”

I hear her scoff. “I’ll just sic my cat on you again.” I shake my head as she walks off into the sunset. She hasn’t told me anything about her past, but my brief encounter with her father offers some insight as to why she doesn’t want to have to depend on anyone for any small thing.

I sigh, knowing my clients are depending on me for some very big things and I try to burn through my work before Hunter shows up precisely at 8-colon-zero-zero. When I send off the final set of documents for signature, I glance at the clock. 7:58. Two minutes to spare. I stand up and do a little victory dance to the music I cranked back up and when my brother arrives in the doorway frowning, I bump my shoulder into his.

“Not gonna crack, are you, bro?” He shakes his head as I turn off the music and lights and lock up. My brother-in-law, Asa, is already out in Hunter’s fancy electric car when I get outside.

“You ready to lose all your loot,” I ask him. Usually, when we go to these things, the old dudes spend an equal amount of time grilling Asa about the questionable legality of his medical marijuana business as they do asking his advice on which strains they should ingest for their various ailments.

Tonight, I feel pretty confident Hunter will soak up most of the negative attention. It seems unlikely the girls were able to order food and prepare a party in this small town without the elders catching wind of the reason. In fact, I’m so prepared for Hunter’s powerful sperm to be the topic of card conversation that it throws me absolutely sideways to hear Old Man Edgar ask me, “So what’s with you screwing that new gal?”

Asa kicks me under the folding table as I reel at Edgar’s question. “Come again?”

Moorely, my brother’s computer nerd colleague from the college, waves a hand in the air. “Ah, knock it off, Arch. Everyone knows you’ve been knocking boots with Opal.”

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