Page 203 of Smooth Sailing

It wasn’t a good time, but it’d never be a good time.

And I didn’t want Hugger to change his mind about Dad.

But he was ready to hear it, so I told him the whole story.

“As fucked up as that is, baby, he’s not the only one who thinks like that,” he said quietly after I finished my sorry tale. “Especially people of his generation. Even women think that stupid shit.”

“I know. I was too hard on him,” I muttered.

“Diana, get me, I didn’t say that,” he stated in a flinty voice. “I see, with extremely faulty logic, he thought he was doing right by you. But it’s not only that he wasn’t. Sounds to me he got a problem laid in his lap, and in the course of his busy life, he just moved to fix it without thinking about it or the fact that it happened to his girl and taking a second to talk to you about what you wanted done about it. That was seriously bad. Then, he let ten years go by before he found you and told you he fucked up royally. In the end, he didn’t even find you, you found him. That’s not okay. He’s twisting himself into knots to make it right now, but although I’m pleased as fuck he’s putting that effort in, it doesn’t change the fact that he screwed the fuckin’ pooch with you…and huge.”

Oh man.

I loved it that he thought that way.

“He’s like a different guy, Hug,” I told him, watching his eyes warm when I shortened his name like his brothers did, so I made a note he didn’t mind it coming from me, and a further note to do it often. “He openly says he’s proud of me. He’s open…about everything. We even talked about the shitty choices he was making with his relationships.”

“Babe, if I lost you for a decade because I acted like a twat, I got a shot at getting you back, I’d think real hard on everything and get my shit straight too.”

Oh my God!

“Can we bang before we watch the movie?” I asked.

He did a sexy half smile, but replied, “The butter on the corn will get congealed.”

“Do you care?”

“Not even a little bit.”

Hugger put the popcorn bowl on the coffee table.

I attacked him.

We had sex on my couch for the second time.

It lasted longer than the first, but it was a tossup of which was better.

The popcorn wasn’t gross when we returned to it, but it wasn’t as good as fresh.

Though, the sushi we got later at Sushiholic was a whole lot better.

So, in the end, even with a hella rocky start, it was a fun Saturday with my man.

22

ALL IN

Diana

Hugger stopped us the minute we stepped inside Annie’s house the next morning.

I knew why.

There was a vague smell of burnt food.

However vague it was, you couldn’t miss it.

This meant, when we made our way into Annie’s house, Hugger was chuckling, and I was pleased as punch because he was doing it.

---