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“His… his father,” I clarified.
Her blue eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Then she snapped it shut and tugged me further back into the stacks, almost giving me whiplash.
“Mal!” I power-whispered, a skill of being a librarian.
“Your ex’s father? You little slut,” she said with a smile on her face. Then she hugged me.
“Oof,” I replied, the only sound I could make based on how tight she held me.
When she finally let me go, she asked, “How did you meet him?”
“I left messages for Daniel, the son, because I needed him to know about the puppies coming and to help pay for Fred’s vet visits. He’s responsible and all that.”
“Of course he is.”
“His dad got the messages instead of him and showed up at the vet’s office.” I intentionally left out the fact that he thought I accused him of getting me pregnant.
“How old is he?”
I pictured him in my head. Again. Handsome, virile, rugged, muscly. “Maybe forty.”
“Wow, um, he must’ve had his son really young.” Then she swiped her hand through the air as if using an eraser to clear the thought. “Doesn’t matter. Does he look like his son but older?”
I shrugged. “A little. But he’s definitelynota golden retriever. More like… a… bear. A big, growly, bear.”
“He’s hairy?” She tried not to scrunch her nose up but failed. “Sorry. Sorry, you might like a big snuggly bear. No judgment.”
“No, not hairy. Well, he does have a beard.”
“Mmm, a beard,” she said in a way she’d also saymmm, chocolate cake.“Daniel Pearson of Pearson Landscaping?” She tapped her lip. “Yeah, I bet he’s not hairy. He probably man scapes the hell out of that hot bod.”
“Mal!” I said on a laugh, a little too loudly because a few of the kids turned their heads to look our way. So much for me being placid. More like flustered and horny. It was so unfair. The first guy I got zings in the things for and he was every single thing I avoided.
“I mean, he’s big. He growls a lot. At least at me. He’s intense and looks at me like he wants to eat me.”
That confused me most because he was angry enough to storm into a vet’s office yet eye me in a way that screamed,I want to fuck you.
Mallory covered her mouth with her hand, but I could still see her smile peeking around the sides and she pretty much whisper-squealed. She leaned close and murmured, “A guy eating you is the best part.”
My inner muscles clenched at the inadvertent picture of Daniel’s head between my thighs.
“He’s old, Mal,” I admitted. “Why would he be into me? Isn’t that… creepy?”
Creepy Carl, the Idaho insurance salesman, had been into me. My mother had told me I was legal, eighteen, and told me I was missing out and should have some fun. With her boyfriend. She didn’t care that the guy we’d moved to Idaho to live with wanted to fuck her daughter. Her hippie free spirited personality didn’t think anything of it.
I had. I still thought of it six years later. How freaked out I’d been. The guy had been a walking red flag and my mother hadn’t seen it. Although, her idea of red flag and mine were completely different because she’d nurtured the idea and encouraged the “open and free exchange of pleasure.” That was why I bought a one-way ticket back to Hunter Valley and moved in with my grandmother. She was amazingly enough, a famous–at least in the art world–art historian of medieval art and traveled all over Europe giving talks, working on sites, and teaching with the university. She was rarely home, but I never minded. Her home was familiar, enduring and safe.Andwithout my mother.
So I’d settled in and never left. Hunkered down in small town life and became… safe. Careful. All the adjectives everyone in town used about me. Because whenever my mother returned, which was often enough to keep her fresh in everyone’s minds, I wanted it to be blatantly obvious we were dissimilar.
“Because you’re gorgeous with that curly red hair and sex appeal,” Mallory added.
“Sex appeal?” I countered, looking down at my work outfit.
She swirled her finger in the air. “Making everyone wonder. You can’t hide that hot bod behind a cardigan. Ask Eve Hunter.”
I thought of the Steaming Hotties coffee shop owner and had never seen her in a cardigan. But she did have a gorgeous new boyfriend.
“If he’s all growly and intense over you, then he’s smart. You’re a catch and deserve someone who acts that way.”
