“Finally!”
He blinked at his cocked knees. He was sitting in nothing but pajama bottoms, back to the headboard in his bed.
“Is everything okay?” she asked.
“That’s what I’ve been wanting to know from you for three days.”
“What?”
“Dusty, I’ve called nine times and left four voicemails.”
“Oh, honey, God. I’m sorry. I lost my cell phone. Didn’t Clarisse tell you?”
His neck got tight.
“Clarisse?” he asked quietly.
“Yeah. I lost my cell and didn’t have any of your numbers memorized. Hunter only has your cell. So I called it yesterday. Clarisse answered and I gave her a message. Told her to ask you to call me on the home phone or at the shed.”
“Reesee answered my cell?”
Dusty was silent.
“Dusty,” he called. “My daughter answered my cell?”
“If I say yes, are you gonna get pissed at your girl?”
“Uh…yeah.”
“Then I decline to answer.”
Fuck.
His eyes went from his knees to the closed door of his bedroom. Why would Clarisse take a call? And if she did, why wouldn’t she give him a message?
Fuck.
“Mike?”
“I use my cell for work. She knows she’s not supposed to touch it,” he explained.
“Maybe it was a mistake.”
“Right, then, if it was, why did she not give me your message?”
“Well,” she said slowly, “I don’t have an answer to that.”
“Fuck,” he muttered.
“So, you’re a super gorgeous hot guy. My guess, you didn’t practice celibacy since you divorced your ex. How was she with the other women in your life?”
“She wasn’t any way since I never connected with any of them in a way where I felt the kids would need to go through that shit,” Mike told her.
Her voice was vibrating with humor when she asked, “Any of them?”
Mike lost some of his anger and answered, “Yeah.”
“How many of them were there?”
He grinned and replied, “You don’t wanna know.”
“Oh yes, yes I do. I need a detailed list with addresses and phone numbers so I can personally thank each one of them for topping up your experience so I get the ultimate one every time.”
Mike burst out laughing.
Through his laughter he heard, “Though, not Debbie’s. I know her contact info and I’m not gonna go there. If she knew I left her off that list, I think she’d thank me.”
He kept laughing but this time Dusty stayed silent and let him sober.
Then he explained, “Hunter told me LeBrec came calling.”
“He did. Get this, he did this to inform me he was done with our separation. Separation!” she hooted the last word. “Told you he was clueless.”
Clueless. Definitely. Psycho was also a possibility.
“You have any more problems with him?” Mike asked.
“Not so far but seeing as I’m entertaining half of the local PD and the Sheriff’s police, handing out cups of my expensive, exclusive, only available on the internet and in some countries it’s so revered it’s used as currency coffee even Beau’s not stupid enough to go there.”
“Good,” Mike muttered thinking Rivera’s donut payback went from a dozen to about ten of them.
“Been crazy busy but since I’ve looked everywhere and can’t find it, I’m giving up the ghost and going to the mall tomorrow and getting a new cell. I’ll text you with the number.”
“Right.”
“This sucks,” she went on. “I need this like a hole in the head. Totally behind already and the closest mall is half an hour away in the city. Not to mention, my life was in that phone. I lost everything.”
“You got it backed up on computer?”
“Yeah, seeing as I’m so organized, I think the last time I did that was 1997. So it’s all good.”
Mike chuckled through his, “Sorry Angel.”
“Me too,” she muttered.
Mike moved the conversation into territory he needed to take her pulse on just to get it over with. He got confirmations on what he guessed was that Dusty had not yet called Debbie to broker their deal, Rhonda was still in a state and her parents had decided that the initial one week would be three.
“Good news is,” she finished, “my schedule I did keep on my computer and after the show, I’m pretty clear. So I hope to head back up.”
That was good news.
“Look forward to that, darlin’,” he said softly.
“Want a preview of things to come?” she asked softly back.
“And those would be?”
She told him. She did it in detail. He listened to her come while she did it and then she kept doing it until she gave him the same.
Her imagination was a f**kuva lot better than his was.
And her voice was sweet and breathy when she whispered, “That sounded nice.”
His voice was low and growly when he whispered back, “It was.”
“God, I’m getting excited again just thinking about doing those things to you.”
Jesus. Dusty. She let it all hang out.
He liked that.
“Next chance we get of bein’ together and naked, I call first go,” he declared.
“I’m not gonna argue with that,” she murmured.
He grinned.
“Mike?” she called.
“Yeah, Angel?”
“I missed you. I know you’re busy too and I don’t want to ask you to call around the houses to find me but, you know, you’re welcome to call any phone. That’s why I gave you all my numbers. So when you were thinking of me, you could let me know.”
Fuck, he liked that too.
“Got it,” he replied quietly.
“I know you understand, having been married and all. You can catch hints. But when I’m telling you I’m busy and things are nuts, that doesn’t mean I’m too busy to hear from you. I’m never too busy to hear from you. Okay?”
And f**k, he liked that too.
“Okay, sweetheart.”
“Don’t worry about Beau,” she told him.
Impossible.
“Right,” was all he said.
“And Clarisse is your girl. You’re a good guy and I’m sure a good Dad. She’ll sort her shit out.”
That he wasn’t certain of.
“Right. You done making me feel better?” Mike asked.