AllFreeNovel
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Before I moved in, the guest house was in a state of flux. Lana had plans to turn it into a home gym or a craft room. Maybe even a playroom for the twins. But when I said I was heading to the area and looking for a place to stay, she and Mitchell hired a contractor to turn it into habitable living quarters, bathroom included.
The generosity was surprising, but the beautifully finished guest house I found when I arrived was even more so.
As much as I may complain about Mitchell, I can happily say that his money paid for one hell of a bathroom. It’s small but has heated tile floors and a rainfall showerhead with adjustable pressure. Not bad.
The bathroom fills with steam, and I lose myself to the warm water and my regrets.
I should have kissed Kirill in the car. Hell, I should have kissed him in the parking lot at the hotel. The man saved my life! Instead, I berated him the entire way home.
Sure, he made condescending comments about me to his friend. But they were sort of flattering… in a way. Sort of. If you squint. The point is, he was interested in me. And it’s not as if he was the one who tried to abduct me off the sidewalk.
But if his plans for me were anything like what was starting to happen in my dream, maybe being abducted by him wouldn’t be so bad.
Heat swirls between my legs, and I eye the removable showerhead. Maybe I’d relax a bit if I could release some of this pressure. I could close my eyes, imagine Kirill on his knees in front of me…
I’ve almost convinced myself to give in when the same shrill ringing from the night before cuts through the air.
“You’ve got to be kidding me!” I shut the water off and stomp across the house, naked and dripping wet. I snatch the landline off the wall. “Just text me like a normal person, Lana! No one uses landlines anymore!”
“Auntie Rayne?” a trembling little voice says.
I wince. “Lily Pad. I’m so sorry, sweetheart. I thought I was talking to your mama.”
“Mama said I could call you on the big phone. Can I?”
“Of course you can! Anytime you want to.” I slap a wet hand to my forehead. “What do you need, darling?”
“I had pancakes for breakfast. Shaped like mouses. And chocolate milk. Not hot chocolate milk like we have for movies. But cold chocolate milk.”
“Yum! Did you save me any?”
There’s a pause. “No. But Mama can make more. Mama!” she yells into the background. “Auntie Rayne wants some cold chocolate milk!”
“Tell her to get it herself,” Lana says in the background. “Actually, I’ll tell her. Can I talk to Auntie?”
Lily grumbles and then pouts into the phone. “Mama wants the phone.”
“I love you,” I say, trying to make up for the mean way I answered. “Have a good day!”
“I love you.”
There’s a shuffling sound and then Lana picks up, not bothering with hellos. “You start your job today, right?”
I can picture her standing over the massive island in her kitchen, the phone wedged under her ear as she packs lunches into kid-sized metal tins. It’s the one chore she doesn’t delegate to the nanny, and she never shuts up about it. She’s a real martyr.
“Yeah. In about an hour, actually. I just got out of the shower.”
“And you have your bike?” she asks.
I start to say yes, but then I remember that I actually don’t have it. I left it at the hotel. Under a violent man with a broken tibia.
“Shit. No, I don’t.” I cycle through my options at hyper speed before settling on what is clearly the best one. “Can I take Mitchell’s car, maybe?”
“It’s in the shop today.”
“It is? But you offered it to me last night.”
“Yeah, and Mitchell realized it needed an oil change,” she says. “He had it picked up this morning.”
