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“I’ll run you a bubble bath, massage your back, and feed you chocolate, but I’m not getting naked.”
London arched a brow. “Who’s being stubborn now?”
“I have my moments,” he said. “Only when warranted.” Drew leaned down and planted the sweetest kiss against her lips. “What’s your answer? Am I running you a bath, or should I get back to work?”
She pointed toward the hallway. “Second door on the right. There’s peony-scented bubble bath underneath the sink.”
He winked and kissed her again, this time on the tip of her nose. “Give me ten minutes.” He picked up the fat pillar candle she kept on her coffee table. “We can use this to create a soothing atmosphere. I hear that helps with cramps too.”
“Drew?” London called. He turned. “I like my water extra hot. Scalding.”
“I expected nothing less from you, she-devil.”
London burst out laughing. Once alone in the living room, she dropped her head back against the couch and sighed up at the ceiling. She would continue to deny it until she turned blue in the face, but one thing was becoming clearer by the second. She was totally falling for her hookup partner.
22
London, are you even listening to me?”
London sat up in her chair and looked over at her phone, which she’d propped against a stained coffee mug on her desk. Her mother glowered at her on the screen, that telltale V creasing the center of her forehead.
“Remember when you used to tell me to stop scowling, or my face would stay that way?” London asked her. “Now I understand what you were talking about.”
“Dammit.” Janette started massaging her forehead. “I’ve been meaning to schedule a Botox treatment. A regular facial isn’t doing shit for me anymore.”
“You look fine, Mom. Now, what were you saying? Because, you’re right, I wasn’t listening. I have a complicated surgery on my schedule today and I’ve got a list of important things I need to take care of before it starts,” she said as she scrolled through pages of locally dyed yarn from a shop just east of Austin.
Her idea of what was important probably differed from her mom’s, but whatever.
Besides, this wasn’t just yarn shopping, it was technically research for the outing her mom and April had insisted she have with Nina.
London had been at a loss trying to figure out where she and her sister should go for that conversation she was already dreading more than just about anything she’d dreaded in her life. She’d stalked Nina’s Instagram page, which was a shitty way to have to get to know your own sister, but that’s where she found herself.
London had learned that Nina wasn’t just into wearing jewelry; she liked making it, specifically charm bangles. She’d even sold a few pieces.
She’d decided she would take Nina shopping for jewelry-making supplies, and in the process of seeking out stores, had discovered an entire craft village in a small town about a half hour away. Now her biggest issue was limiting the amount of money she spent on hand-dyed yarn from one of the village’s cute yarn shops. Even though her nightly rendezvous with Drew these past few weeks had stolen much of her crocheting time, she was still buying up yarn like sheep were about to go on strike.
She put several skeins of dyed wool in her cart—only to remind herself to check them out once she could look at them in person—then minimized the page and turned her attention to the phone.
“I’m sorry,” London said again. “Now, what were you saying? Something about Renaldo? And nothing that will make me want to find mind bleach, please! I’m still your daughter, and I don’t need to hear about your sex life.”
Lord knows her mother had no problem sharing.
Granted, it had been much harder to listen to Janette go on and on about the younger man she was dating—he was forty-eight to her sixty—before London started hooking up with Drew. Still, she didn’t need to know the details.
“I was trying to tell you that we broke up,” her mother said. “Renaldo was too much of a homebody for me. He thought a drive down to San Antonio counted as a vacation.”
London would think the same.
“I tried to convince April to come with me to Vegas for the weekend,” her mother continued. “But with Nina going on her little trip to Houston and Kenneth having some conference or something, she’s stuck at home with Miles and Koko.”
“Excuse me?” London picked up the phone and brought it closer to her face. “Where is Nina going this weekend?”
“To Houston,” her mother said. Her eyes grew wide. “April didn’t tell you? Their band made the finals of some competition.”
“She’s letting her go on a trip with the marching band? The same marching band with the drummer Nina tried to send nudes to? What the fuck!”
Janette held her hands up. “I thought the same thing, but she’s not my child. Now, if that had beenyou, your butt would have been banished to your room for a month. But they don’t raise kids that way anymore.”
