Page 75 of Tempt Her

“Hell, no. Your tricks are genius. What did you do to his golf bag again?”

Trick #I’veLostCount:“I hid a paper towel saturated in milk in the bottom of it.”

Cade starts laughing. “Yeah, well,” I tell her, “the joke’s on me too. Our whole damn mudroom smells rancid now.”

She smacks my ass. “Fuck, you’re brilliant.”

She tempts me so much, either to fuck and fight with no shame or just to smile and have fun.

But I stare at the horizon, where the sparkling ocean kisses the clear sky. “I don’t feel so damn brilliant. You’d think by now I’d figure out a way to get control over my dad’s care. I’m almost there, but I need more time. Time I don’t have because when I visited him this morning, he’s taken a turn for the worse. He didn’t greet me like usual, and he barely ate. And I feel like it’s my fault. Like he’s suffering the consequences of my actions last night.” Then I remember Mateo and the condo. “And yesterday afternoon.”

“I’m sorry about your dad.” She hooks her arm in mine. “My mom’s not well either. It’s rough. It’s like your head knows what will happen one day, but your heart is never prepared for it.”

We’re quiet for a while, stepping around kids racing into the surf with their boogie boards and couples walking their dogs. Even silence with Cade fills empty crevices I didn’t know I had. That only a true friend can.

“But you’re not being punished for love,” Cade finally speaks. “I don’t think God or whatever works that way.”

“But I’m breaking my marriage vows.”

“Yeah, you are. But you know the saying? All’s fair in love and war.”

“Euphues by John Lyly.”

“Damn, bitch. Is that where it comes from?”

I shrug. “I read the book.”

She shakes her head. “Every time someone mistakes you for a dumb blonde, they’re the dumbass, I swear.” She pauses. “But seriously, the love and war part? You’re in it. This is a silent war with Gentry, so nothing is fair. I can’t tell you the details, but the day will come soon, and when you finally know everything about him, guilt will be the last thing you feel. Trust me.”

“I do.”

“You better.” She nudges me again. “Now, tell me about last night.Andyesterday afternoon, so I can build a sex shrine to you.”

“Sex shrine?” I laugh. “No, I want a sexstore!”

I toss it out as a smartass joke, but then… it’s not.

“That’s it,” I tell her. “That’s what I want to do after I’m free of that asshole. I want to open a sex store. Imagine how appalled my former mother-in-law will be.”

“I’ll be your first customer.”

“Girl, with those two men you’re fucking? Redix and Silas? You’ll be mybestcustomer.”

And I know, from here on, she’ll be my best friend too.

* * *

By the timeI get home, Luke and Mateo are outside, up on ladders spraying the house’s exterior, while I find Ford in the kitchen, pulling the refrigerator from the wall.

“What are you doing?”

Ford won’t look at me. “Tracing your old electrical in here before we kill it.”

I get quiet, knowing he’s a professional. Knowing he’s on the edge of something with me and we could go either way. For Luke and Mateo’s sake, I don’t push him.

As I open the mail, I don’t let my eyes linger over him either.

But that tight T-shirt clinging to his muscular frame has me thinking about my new idea; opening a sex shop. It’s the last thing a woman like me is supposed to do, so of course… I’ll do it with bells on.

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