Page 207 of Smooth Sailing

After flapping the dish towel about a dozen more times, the alarm stopped sounding.

Thank God.

What a racket.

The kitchen reeked of burnt food.

I suddenly sensed we had attention, so I turned to the doorway of the kitchen, which was jammed with people.

And just then, Annie pushed through to the front.

She was still cradling the bottle of Champagne we gave her.

She looked at me, Hugger, the casserole, Hugger, me, and back to the casserole.

“Oh, did I make bread pudding?” she asked no one and everyone.

That was when it happened.

One of those golden moments of life.

And I got to watch.

This being the fact that Hugger didn’t only bust out laughing…

He was taken over with it so bad, still holding a singed oven mitt in each hand, he leaned his ass against Annie’s kitchen counter, bent double, and his whole big body shook with amusement so strong, he had to brace his hands (and the mitts) against his knees so he could continue laughing and not topple over.

In that moment, watching Harlan “Hugger” McCain laugh that hard, I knew I’d love Annie forever.

But I’d love my guy for eternity.

Hugger returned from the bathroom after disposing of condom number two of the afternoon.

I lay naked as a jaybird on my stomach at a diagonal on my bed, and barely had it in me to jump when he lightly slapped my ass and asked, “I finally do you in?”

As I knew well, and lived that knowledge, you learned something new every day.

What I learned that day was never wrestle a biker.

And definitely don’t do it in bed.

And further, absolutely don’t do it naked.

What got into me, I didn’t know. My man was take charge, and I liked it like that.

Though, if I tried to take charge, something else I’d just learned, he took it as a challenge.

It was an awesome challenge and one I oh-so-one-hundred-percent didn’t mind that I lost in a massive way.

But it was a challenge.

He got in bed properly and tugged me so I was draped down his side.

“Next time we wrestle, you have to have one arm tied behind your back,” I mumbled.

“I’ll still get you on yours and fuck you stupid.”

“Ulk,” I gagged, though I had no doubt this would be true, and it would be awesome, like what just happened was.

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