Page 34 of Legal

If he were nothing more than a hard form with a harder cock, I’d be able to kick him out of my mind easier. Maybe. But only after duking it out with the rest of me from the head down. He was able to make me feel in a way I’d never experienced before, and that wasn’t easily forgotten.

I reveled in the memory. Yes, my body had been begging for some attention, and yes, it’d been teetering on the brink of desperation. But there’s desperate, and then there’sdesperate. I wasn’t senile yet. I wouldn’t drink a can of cheap malt liquor and mistake it for a Spotted Cow.

So despite the physical and sexual perfection that was Chase, the real danger was in what lay beneath. I actually liked the guy. I enjoyed his company even though nothing good could come of it. I loved that he taught music; learning that was more of a turn-on to me than seeing him perform on stage. I wanted him to be young and stupid and an asshole and a complete fuck-up instead of just plain… young.

I liked him, and it was killing me.

“Nachos are done,” I yelled over the whirl of the blender, pulling the tray from the oven. Before I’d even set it on the stove, Stephen was there piling up his plate. “Take some out for Tony and Val too.”

Perry popped behind me, munching on a cookie and holding out a drink. “Here, try this one. It’s hardly sweet at all.”

I took a sip and gave a thumbs-up. Heavy on the tequila, light on the syrup. Perry had been whipping up margaritas, and all the ones she’d made so far nearly sent me into a coma. I was in the mood for something other than beer, so this was perfect. I cut a wedge of lime, squeezing and dropping it into my glass.

“About time,” she said, finishing off the cookie and grabbing a loaded tortilla chip. “Damn, woman. You’re hard to please.”

I smiled, going back to the counter to chop up tomatoes for the next round. I paused for a second. Hacking up veggies brought forth a memory, but I pushed it aside easily. Nearly a week and I was doing great. Chase was fading away quite nicely.

“Did you hear from Chase yet?”

I sighed. “No, Perry. I told you that the other day.”

“Just thought I’d ask again.” She hopped up on the counter and stuck her hand in the black olive can. “We haven’t had the chance to talk much since I crashed your party of two.”

“You texted or called me every day.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t have anything good to tell me.”

“And I still don’t.”

I shook tortilla chips onto the pan and doused them with cheese. I planned to make only one more batch since there were only the five of us here and I didn’t want to go overboard. Stephen already had corn and burgers on the grill.

“At least it’s a sunny day, and they didn’t have to postpone the festival again,” I said.

“Stop changing the subject.”

Perry started swinging her legs back and forth, and I stilled them with my hand. She reminded me of Daniel when he was small and hopped up on sugared cereal.

“You guys coming out or what?” Stephen called from the back door.

“As soon as I’m done in here. I’m making one more batch.” I sprinkled tomatoes and olives over the top, leaving the green onions off this time since Perry claimed to gag on them.

“And we’re finishing up our girl time,” Perry shouted.

“Hey,” I said, pulling aside the hair from my forehead. “What do you think?”

She waved her hand. “Don’t listen to that bratty kid. He had snot running out of his nose. Your forehead is not that big.”

“What? No.” I wasn’t talking about that little boy on my mother’s block who called me fivehead during our walk last week. “I’m talking about this.” I poked my finger between my brows.

Perry peered closer. “Um, what am I looking at?”

“That monster line I had. It’s smaller, don’t you think?”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

I slid the pan into the oven and then went to the fridge to pull out the watermelon I’d sliced up earlier. “Michelle told me about this little trick to smooth out brow lines. I’ve been sticking on tape every night before bed to prevent me from crunching up my brows while I sleep.”

“Who’s Michelle?”

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