Page 28 of Finally Home

My giggles break through the silence. I reach back, grabbing the pillow, and tug with all my strength and smack him in the face, careful to avoid the cum on my stomach. His laughter fills the room, merging beautifully with mine.

We eventually get up, taking turns in the bathroom to clean up before slipping back under the covers. The great wall of pillows, as well as our clothes, are off on the floor still, where they all will remain.

My head rises and falls with the same rhythm as Oliver’s heartbeat. The sound could easily lull me to sleep, but I’m not ready for that just yet. I want more time with him. I prop my fist on his chest and rest my chin on top of it, only to find Ollie already looking at me. The corners of his lips turn upward in a smile. The party downstairs is long forgotten.

“Tell me something no one knows.”

He purses his lips. “Hmm, something no one knows,” he repeats.

The longer the silence stretches out, the more I think he’s not going to share anything with me. Who knows, maybe he’s really just an open book and doesn’t have secrets.

“Promise not to laugh?” His voice brings my gaze back to his. The smile has fallen from his face, and his expression is now slightly serious.

“Well, with an introduction like that, I don’t know if I can truly make that promise. That feels a little like someone telling someone not to look down when they’re super high up.”

He shakes his head. “Never mind, I can’t.”

“No, no.” I push up off his chest, and the sheet slips down, revealing my bare breasts. Like a magnet, his eyes instantly focus on them, and I swear flames flare around his irises. I give him a moment of ogling before I wrap myself back up. I mean, it was the least I could do since he’s planning to open up about something. Plus, I can’t help but love the way he looks at me. It sets my skin on fire.

“I promise not to laugh.” I hold my pinky out between us, ready to pinky promise. He laughs as he wraps his finger around mine.

Ollie straightens up against the headboard and squares his shoulders back. I follow suit and scoot up beside him. I reach over and lace my fingers with him. Whatever this is that he’s about to tell me, he clearly needs guidance. A few different scenarios fly through my head when he speaks.

“I’m the Elmhurst Wiener Bandit.”

My mouth gapes open, and I blink rapidly, trying to process what he just said.What the hell is a wiener bandit?

“The Elmhurst Wiener Bandit.” I slowly repeat each word, trying them out on my tongue. I need to press my lips together to suppress my laughter in order to keep my pinky promise. However, to be honest, I think I’m so confused that I don’t know exactly how I should react to his confession.

Do I laugh? Should I be concerned? Does a wiener bandit need to register on some list because he flashed people his…?

“Should I know what that is?Wait, are you on some sort of list somewhere?”

“Oh God no—well, at least I don’t think so.”Yeah, that’s not totally reassuring.“Rhyland basically grew up at my house because his dad worked two jobs. One night, after hours of playing video games, we were both bored. I should also probably add that growing up, I was always pulling pranks in our house—cling wrap on the toilet seats, putting googly eyes on everything in the fridge, hiding whoopee cushions, and the list goes on and on. So anyway, like I was saying, we were bored. So we snuck out and ended up at the twenty-four-hour convenience store over on Rosewood. We had only planned to get snacks, but standing in front of the small meat section, an idea hit my brain.”

“Hot dogs,” I assume the idea was about.

“Yes, hot dogs. I see you’re catching on.”

I wince, because that’s about all I’m catching on to.

“The clerk at the register was too busy watching something on the screen behind the counter to really acknowledge us, let alonewhy the hell we were purchasing five packs of hot dogs at one in the morning. It started out simple, just putting a raw hot dog in our friends’ mailboxes. Thankfully, we didn’t have doorbell cameras and all that jazz back then, or it would be a different story. But word started buzzing around town, and I don’t know, there was a rush of almost getting caught but not actually breaking any laws. So, we sort of continued it.”

“So you kept buying hot dogs and putting them in people’s mailboxes?”

“Yep,” he says, popping thepat the end, and his face is now full of pride. “I even had to prank my house so no one suspected anything. At one point, I think every mailbox had been wienerized in Elmhurst. It even made the front page of theDaily Timestwice.”

I can’t help but smile at the pride that comes off him in waves as he says “twice.”

“I tried to switch it up a little. Around Christmastime, I put red bows on them. On the Fourth of July weekend, little American flags.”

I can’t hold back my laughter anymore. Tears are literally running down my face. Eventually, I calm down and lean my head on his shoulder and sigh. “Wow, I don’t even know what to say.”

He kisses the top of my head. “I bet you didn’t realize that you were in such proximity to a small-town celebrity, did you?”

My eyes narrow to slits. “Well, if it’s all still a secret, am I really? I’m just thankful that they didn’t catch you. Otherwise, they may have charged you with a misdewiener. “

Ollie barks out a laugh that I feel deep in my bones. “Oh, you’ve got jokes, huh? And think you’re so funny?”

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