Page 86 of Smooth Sailing

Hugger smiled.

Then he turned her, put a hand in the small of her back and shoved her toward the door.

He watched her walk in, so he caught her looking back at him like she wanted to make sure he was still there and he didn’t leap over the railing to escape.

He lifted his chin to her.

She grinned and disappeared.

He turned and looked down at the courtyard.

A couple more women with workout bags on their shoulders and skintight clothes were heading to another door on the first floor.

It wasn’t even seven o’clock on a Sunday.

Lunacy.

He nabbed his mug and took a sip.

It had to be ninety degrees out at least, and the coffee had gone cold.

So he walked into a great kitchen in a sweet crib to warm it up.

10

PRECIOUS WEIGHT

Diana

I sat in one corner of the couch, Big Petey sat in the other.

We’d had our donuts, and now Hugger was sleeping in my bed and Suzette was in her room doing who knew what.

I’d been riding the high of what had happened on the balcony with Hugger.

No, it wasn’t like I forgot that on paper—us being in the midst of a major drama that involved gangsters and the FBI, Hugger living eight-hundred and twenty-one miles away (yes, I looked it up)—taking our relationship there was the last thing we should be doing.

But man…

That kiss.

After that kiss, and, well…just about everything else about him, I didn’t care if Hugger lived on the moon, I wanted to know what more we could build together.

And I wanted that bad.

(We could also just say he had a body made for cuddling; best two movies I’d ever watched, bar none.)

Thus, as if enough world-rocking stuff hadn’t already happened that morning (though, all of that was the good kind, I could still feel Hugger’s lips on mine, and his scratchy soft beard…dayum), and it wasn’t even ten o’clock, I was staring at Armageddon on my phone.

The least catastrophic part of my technological apocalypse was my friend Bernie demanding my attendance for a night of cocktails on Friday.

I’d been pretty much blowing everyone off because of Suzette, then of course, the boys turned up and took all my attention (especially one of them…ahem). Since Nic knew everything, and because she did, Larry did too, they helped me move Suzette in, but I hadn’t been super forthcoming with my friends. Only telling them that I had an out-of-town guest staying for a while, and I needed their help putting together a guest room, getting it in the form of borrowing some of their stuff.

I wasn’t sure I could do Friday cocktails. I’d have to ask Hugger.

So my answer to that was easy, That sounds fun! I’ll get back to you. Soon!

The more catastrophic part was that I’d texted Dad to let him know I was okay to have dinner.

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