“I’m looking!” She closed the pretend book. “Okay, I can do it.”
“Good, because I was about ready to smack you.”
* * *
Saturday night turned out to be fabulous. The bands were much better than I’d anticipated, and with my shiny press pass around my neck, I got to chat with them before and after and rushed home to write my article in the wee hours of the morning while Dusty tried to distract me with his tongue.
It was also a good night for Hannah, who rocked the red dress from the frat party, and Brett definitely noticed. Poor guy. He got so nervous around her that he dropped the can of soda he’d been holding, narrowly missing the dress. I thought she was going to blow up, but she just laughed it off. No, more like she giggled it off. It was a giggle I hadn’t heard her emit before, and I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that she liked him, too.
“Congrats on your matchmaking success. Maybe you should write a column about that,” Dusty said while we were making breakfast at Yellowfield on Sunday morning so everyone else could sleep in.
“Yeah, since I’ve had so much relationship experience to draw from,” I said, dumping a panful of bacon onto a plate covered in paper towels.
“You can do anything you set your mind to, Red.” I looked at him suspiciously.
“You’re not buttering me up for more o**l s*x, are you?”
“I should hope we aren’t at the point in our relationship where I have to give you empty compliments to get something out of you.”
“Do you smell that?” I said, sniffing. “That is your pants burning, you liar.” I smacked him with the spatula and he dived at me and we slid to the floor and rolled until he was on top of me.
Someone cleared their throat and we both looked up to find Renee’s grumpy face staring down at us.
“No sex in the kitchen. I’m adding that to the rules.”
Dusty climbed off me and helped me up.
“Bacon?” He held the plate out to her like a peace offering. She snatched a few pieces and started munching them.
“I’m watching you,” she said, going to the coffeepot.
“So,” I said, grabbing a piece of bacon for myself, splitting it in half and giving one piece to Dusty, “I hear they have this thing now, where on the day you were born people have celebrations and they give you presents and stuff. I’ve also heard rumors of cake, but those are still unconfirmed as of this time.”
My birthday was the following Friday and I was getting antsy, because I knew they were planning things behind my back.
Renee looked at me with an almost-believable innocent face.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about.” I definitely didn’t miss the look she shared with Dusty, so I went for him next.
“What?” he said, his face a similar mask of innocence. “I, too, have no idea what you’re talking about.”
I glared at both of them and grabbed the plate of bacon and ran away with it, and they both chased me until Dusty caught me and got it away from me.
“No fair,” I said as Renee held the plate out to Darah and Mase as they came down the stairs.
“No bacon hoarding. That’s another rule,” Renee said.
“We should really write these down,” Darah said. “Yellowfield House Rules.”
We spent the next hour writing down the rules, some of which were good, like putting down the toilet seat, and some of which were ridiculous, like no bacon hoarding.
I looked around at all of them and I realized that, like it or not, this was my family now. I couldn’t even imagine living alone anymore. When I’d been with my parents, I’d been surrounded by siblings and noise and chaos, but I’d always felt completely alone.
But here, in this house, I’d found people who had taken me in, no questions asked. They liked me and wanted me around, and I wanted the same thing. And it was in those moments that I heard Nathan’s voice the loudest.
Chapter 25
Friday night I was kidnapped from Yellowfield House by Dusty. Big surprise. He’d tied a blindfold around my head and had made me use his iPod blind, which is harder than it sounds. He drove and drove, and I was wondering where the hell we were going, but he wasn’t giving me anything.
“Come on, Dusty.”
“I swear, if you take that thing off, you will receive zero birthday sex.” I sighed and left the damn thing on, and he laughed.
“Yeah, well, I’m going to remember this when it comes time for your birthday, so just keep that in mind.”
“And we’re here,” he said, slowing the car down and then parking it.
“Can I take this thing off yet?”
“Nope. Stay there.” He got out and opened the door for me, and I took his hand as he led me to whatever he was leading me to.
Someone opened a door for us, and we stepped inside some type of building. The smell was familiar, and the second Dusty’s hand was on the back of my head removing the blindfold, I knew where we were.
“Surprise!” Everyone yelled as the blindfold dropped, revealing that we were indeed at Bull Moose.
Even though I knew where we were, I was still shocked at the amount of people.
The Yellowfield contingent was here, as well as Megan, Jake, Hannah, Brett, a few of my new buddies from the paper and someone I hadn’t seen in months.
“Matt?” I said, and he smiled at me, and our entire relationship came flooding back.
“Hello, Jos,” he said, coming and giving me a hug.
“Oh, my God, I haven’t seen you in so long. You came all this way?”
“I’d never miss your birthday,” he said, giving me a better hug than he had when we’d been dating. “I miss you, too.”
“I miss you.” I couldn’t help but miss that part of my life, because even though I didn’t love him, I had, and you couldn’t let go of something like that, even months later.
“You look good. Different, but good. Thank you for inviting me.” He said the last part to Dusty, and I turned around.
“You invited him?”
“I thought you should have something of the old you. You know, something old, something new.”
“That’s for weddings, Dusty.”
“I know, but it couldn’t hurt, could it?” He wrapped his arms around my waist.
“Not at all.” I gave him a kiss and everyone else came over to say hello.
“Isn’t this against company policy?” I said as I stared at the table covered in presents and realized there were balloons tied everywhere, too.