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ANDY: Seriously? OMG, gross. Barf. Well, have fun. I’m going to go back to sleeping now, like a normal person. Text you tomorrow! Love you!
LEXI: Sorry for waking you up. Love you too, sis.
SAM: Are you there? Boxers! Yummy male V thing. Washboard abs. Muscly goodness. Tell me you’re not awake because you’re drowning in your own drool. I know you. I know you’ve always been busy putting out fires when it comes to TFB. He’s SO FREAKING HOT! You have eyes too. Tell me you don’t.
LEXI: I have eyes. I see it. He might be built like a statue humped another perfect statue and made a baby statue, but frick. Everything else about him pretty much ruins the hotness. It’s like he shits all over himself.
SAM: I’d still do him, shit smeared or not. I’m kidding. That’s not my kink. Sorry, not sorry. I’m kind of not kidding.
LEXI: FREAKING GROSS! NO, NO, NO, THAT IS JUST FREAKING WRONG
SAM: Sorry. I mean, kind of. Also, still not really. He’s hot. I can’t help it. My ovaries hurt just thinking about him.
LEXI: There’s a man passed out on your floor. Think about him.
SAM: Didn’t realize it was a pissing contest. #youfreakingcare
LEXI: I don’t freaking care. I can’t stand the guy. Honestly. He’s not a very complete package. Just because he’s pretty doesn’t mean he isn’t festering on the inside. He’s a #rottenapple.
SAM: MMMM festering. MMMMM complete package.
LEXI: Goodnight!
SAM: You texted me.
LEXI: Still goodnight. Good luck with the passed-out dude.
SAM: You’re the worst. Love you, biotch.
LEXI: Love you too.
SAM: Goodnight.
LEXI: Goodnight.
SAM: Goodnight for reals.
LEXI: I’m turning my phone off now.
SAM: Don’t sneak into TFB’s bedroom. Resist the siren’s call. Steer clear of the witch’s curse. Jump in the bath to put out all the fires. If you’re tempted to touch, remember… don’t take candy from strangers.
LEXI: GOOD FREAKING NIGHT!
She shut off her phone with a sigh. Great. Now the burn was a thousand times worse. She was hoping Andy and Sam would have something else going on. Something to take her mind off the pain. No. Such. Luck.
Lexi threw her phone across the bed and flipped onto her back again. She stared up at the ceiling. What do you know. It had no answers. She still couldn’t sleep, and she couldn’t shut off her mind, the racing thoughts, or the surging hormones. They were irrational. It was all irrational. She just had to make it through a couple of days, and then, she could go back to hating the TFB from a distance. A safe distance. This was just a fluke. Just a stupid, idiotic fluke because she was way too close. She was just warm because she was standing at the fire’s edge.
She wasn’t going to throw herself into the damn flames for goodness sakes. She had more common sense and control than that. She was oil and he was water. She was dirt and he was the fire. She was Lexi and he was the TFB and they didn’t mix. Ever. Ever, ever, freaking ever.
CHAPTER 6
Curtis
Little Miss Perfect didn’t look so chipper the next morning. She looked bleary-eyed, with bags under her light baby blues. He liked that. She looked frazzled and flustered, even with the kids flanking her at the breakfast table. Good. Maybe she’d lain awake thinking about him sleeping in the room next to her. He had a few other places he could have put her, but there wasn’t any fun in that.
Besides. It seemed like she enjoyed a challenge. She certainly rose to it often enough. Not just in their little sparring match the day before, but in everything. Every single task he’d ever given her, no matter how large and impossible or how mundane and small, she’d risen to the occasion.
“Uncle!” Noel squawked from the table. She was currently stabbing her spoon into a bowl full of cereal, getting milk and the mushy cereal all over the place. It was probably going to stick to the table like glue.
“What?” Curtis nearly jumped out of his skin. He wasn’t eating anything. He stood at the island, surveying the three little beasts. Okay, two little beasts and the big beast who did nothing at all to stop the little ones from making a huge mess. “What?” He moderated his tone. He even took a sip of coffee, as a gesture of goodwill.
“Daddy says I’m not supposed to ask about great grandpa. That I can ask you anything at all, except that. I’m not even supposed to say the word.”
Curtis nearly rolled his eyes. He blew out a sigh into his coffee cup that made the black java ripple. “Looks like you just did the exact opposite,” he said, voice loaded up with sarcasm. He forgot, kids didn’t get that, and Noel forged ahead.
“Oops. Sorry.” She slapped a hand over her mouth, but she clearly wasn’t sorry at all. Lexi actually touched her shoulder in warning, but of course, being four, Noel didn’t get it. “Why can’t I ask you about him?” She spooned a messy amount of cereal into her mouth, dropping half of it on the table and probably on the chair too. Curtis shuddered. He’ll probably have to replace all the furniture in the house once the little demons were gone.
