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He holds up his hand to stop me. “Whoa. You have a snake? Is he here?” He whispers as though the snake might hear him.
“Mm-hmm. He’s a milk snake and is really nice.”
Jokingly, he goes to stand up. “Well, I’ll see you around.”
Grabbing him by the arm, I yank him back, making the water slosh everywhere. “Oh, sit down. He’s in his tank. He’s not going anywhere. Are you really that scared of a little snake?” I start making chicken noises at him.
“Snakes eat people, Erin,” he says with all the conviction in the world.
“Tanner, there’s no way this snake could eat you. Heck, the snake in your pants is probably bigger than him. You don’t have to worry about Tater Tot.”
“You named him Tater Tot?”
“My kids named him. Are you really going to be scared of something with a name like that?”
He nods. “Absolutely. Why would you buy a man-eating creature like a snake?”
“I’m not the one who bought it,” I tell him. “My children’s father thought it would be a great gift. Since Chris lives here, it made more sense to keep the snake here. Truth be told, I think he bought it because he thought it would freak me out. Out of all the battles I fight, having a snake wasn’t the hill I was willing to die on.”
He lets out an involuntary shiver as if just thinking about the snake gives him the heebie-jeebies. “I’ll stick with Charlie here. He’s much cuter than any ol’ snake.”
I take a handful of bubbles and put them on the side of the tub as the dog playfully starts biting at them.
I watch Tanner mimic my actions and play with the dog. How is it that twenty-four hours ago, I was at work, dreading going out with my friends because it meant I had to leave my romance novels and my sweatpants. Now, I’m sitting with a hot, tatted, and pierced man with a big dick in my bathtub. A man who tells me andshowsme how sexy he thinks I am.
It’s almost as though I’m living my own little romance novel.
The shock of it all is still overwhelming. After being with the same man for so long and being so unhappy, I never thought I’d open up so easily to another man. Yet somehow, Tanner makes me feel at ease enough to relax and just enjoy the moment. Sitting here with him makes me forget about all the baggage I carry around with me.
I figure it’s because I know that this whole thing is temporary. After tomorrow, I’ll go back to being a busy mom, and Tanner will go find another woman to give countless orgasms to.
I’m about to learn that my baggage can’t be so easily forgotten about, though.
Tanner says, “Can I ask you something?”
“Sure. But I don’t guarantee I’ll answer,” I reply with a small smile.
“Understood.” He takes a deep breath before continuing. “Alright, I may not have known you all that long, but in the time that I’ve gotten to know you, I can see how awesome you are. You are funny, sexy as hell, and clearly a great mom. What kind of idiot of a man would give you up?”
I sit quietly for a moment, trying to figure out if I want to open up this can of worms.
It’s a pretty big can.
I rarely ever talk to anyone about my divorce. Although the people close to me know the details, quite frankly, it’s no one else’s business. Not to mention the fact that I try not to shed any negative light on the father of my children. I encourage others to do the same as not to influence my kids to feel one way or another about their daddy.
Sometimes, that can be a hard cross to bear. It’s difficult keeping everything inside. I figure that maybe Tanner wouldn’t be a terrible person to tell since this whole thing is short-lived. I assume anything I tell him will stay within our own little bubble that we’ve created for this weekend.
When I’ve been quiet a little too long, Tanner says, “I’m sorry. You don’t have to talk about if you don’t want to.”
“It’s alright. I’m just not really used to talking about it, but I don’t mind.”
Tanner takes one of my feet in his hands and starts rubbing it as I try to figure out where to start.
“Judd and I have known each other forever. We both dated a couple other people before we got together in high school. He was the quarterback of the football team, and I was homecoming queen. It just made sense. And back then, he was sweeter than molasses. We had so much fun together. After we started having sex, he got a little more jealous than I would have liked, but I chalked it up to us both just being so young. We were going to go to college together, but I got in, and Judd didn’t. He convinced me to put college on hold, so we could both work and save up money so that way he could move with me the next year. Looking back, it was so stupid. I never should have let a boy talk me into that because a year turned into three. Just when I was about to actually go back, I got pregnant.”
I pause for a moment to take a breath. “I wasn’t exactly thrilled about the idea of having a kid. It sounds terrible, but I had big plans, and I wasn’t sure a baby would fit into any of them. Regardless, Judd and I ended up having a shotgun wedding in his parents’ backyard. Judd became a cop and thought it would be better for me to be a stay-at-home mom, so after he got done with training, that’s what happened.”
“Did you like being a stay-at-home mom?” Tanner asks.
