Page 53 of When to Call a Blitz

Until I’m exhausted with my own thoughts.

Until I’m ready to give up.

But it’s not. Because there’s a chink in my armor. I just don’t want to acknowledge it.

I spend a lot of my nights laying in bed, staring up at the ceiling thinking about the view from above Heidi, watching as she fell onto the hood of my car, her red hair splayed out on the black paint, her green eyes staring up at me.

I would be lying if I said that I didn’t wish she was in my bed.

Or that she didn’t wrap her legs around my waist.

Or that she didn’t act sooner or close the distance completely.

Work has been fine. We’ve been winning games, coach has laid off us… some, and the guys are great.

Juniper, on the other hand, has been a terror.

The latest has been a call for her school letting me know that she just got in trouble for attempting to bring a snake inside.

I don’t know what to do. I feel completely unprepared for teaching these kinds of lessons and clearly, I’m not good at it.

It’s been a long Wednesday, and when I get home I immediately sink into the couch, throwing my arms over the cushions.

Which happens to also be the precise moment Heidi makes an appearance.

The first thing I should have seen the second she walks through my front door should be the creature in her arms, butinstead, my gaze is firmly on the way the Thing’s gross little claws pull her shirt down just enough to reveal the top of the lacy maroon bra under her v-neck, his body held tight to her chest just enough for the curve of her breast to be pronounced.

My mouth runs dry. I can’t seem to shake the thoughts from my head, and I hate myself for it.

Heidi pauses upon seeing me, her eyes giant as she slowly looks down at the thing in her arms.

And I’m shaken from my haze.

“What the fuck is that?” I yell, leaping up.

She shoots me an abashed smile.

“This is Theodore,” she informs me, holding him out in front of her.

His little feet dangle in the air as his black, beady eyes look into my soul. His rat tail curls upward.

“That isnotTheodore,” I correct her, backing up.

She looks at him and, to my horror, kisses his head. “That’s his name!”

“How do you even know it’s a man?”

“Doesn’t he look like a little man?”

“Heidi,” I deadpan.

“Okay well I haven’t actually checked,” she admits with an eye roll. “He justlookslike a little man.”

“A little man?” my voice comes out a pitch too high. “That’s a rodent, Heidi.”

“Theodore is amarsupial, Emmett. It’s basically like me holding a kangaroo.”

I feel like I’m going insane. “Heidi that’s possibly thelastanimal you want tohold. How is that supposed to make me feel any better?”

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