Total pages in book: 108
Estimated words: 106538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 106538 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 533(@200wpm)___ 426(@250wpm)___ 355(@300wpm)
As I start to fall back to my feet, he palms my face and kisses me again, but this time with an open mouth. If we were alone, we’d already be half-naked.
“Remind me when you’re closing on your sex house,” he murmurs over my lips, brushing his nose against mine.
I laugh. “Soon.” I take his hand and lead him to the house. “Did you sneak or lie to come here tonight?”
He chuckles. “Let’s call it a sneaky lie.”
“I hate this.” Before opening the front door, I turn toward him. “Being your dirty little secret isn’t as much fun as I thought it would be.”
“I didn’t know you were planning on being dirty tonight.” He waggles his eyebrows.
“I wasn’t. Then I invited you, so there’s no telling what could happen.”
He holds his grin for a few seconds before it deflates. “If I tell Tia and Amos, I’ll be fully accountable. And if they’re fine with us by some chance, then life is great. But if they are not, I could feel forced to make a choice I don’t want to make.” He shrugs.
“And you need them to live with you.”
He nods slowly. “It’s not that I can’t find someone to watch Lola after school. My aunt Ruth, who lives with my mom, would pick her up from school and watch her, but Lola won’t get into a car. I don’t know who would ride their bike or walk to Lola’s school every day to escort her home, even in the winter, except Tia and Amos. They do it.”
I search for a solution like a fly trying to escape from the inside of a car, but I don’t have one. “Let’s eat and drink.” Taking Ozzy’s hand again, I lead him into the house and toward the bar, where Evette’s mixing drinks.
“Wine for you, Maren?” she asks, but she widens her eyes when she notices Ozzy. “Sexy mechanic!” she exclaims, quickly cupping a hand over her mouth. “Shit. I said that. I have to stop drinking.”
Ozzy shifts his wide-eyed gaze between me and Evette.
“I take it Jamie told you about my friend Ozzy?”
Evette pours my wine, cheeks flushed while she shakes her head. “I’m, uh, Lola’s math and science teacher.” She risks another peek at Ozzy.
He points a finger at her. “I thought you looked familiar.”
She hands me the wine. “I’m so embarrassed. But you have a reputation at the school. People talk. They shouldn’t, but they do. And I can’t believe I yelled that aloud. I need to mix more and drink less. What can I get you?”
Ozzy glances at me. “I’m used to kegs and red SOLO cups. This is impressive.”
“Evette’s a mixologist when she’s not dementing—I mean teaching the next generation. The parties here are top notch.”
Ozzy laughs. “Well, I’m easy to please. Any beer works.”
“This is a local IPA. Gary’s favorite.” Evette twists off the top and hands him the beer. “And fair warning, some other teachers here will recognize you, stare, drool, and possibly embarrass themselves even worse than I have, so please don’t judge us. When we’re on the clock, we’re all business.”
I try to hide my grin, but I can’t.
Ozzy eyes me with a lifted brow. “Did you know about this?”
I shake my head as we step away from the bar to let other people get drinks. “No. But I’m not disappointed, unless you start flirting with Evette’s hungry-eyed friends.”
He swigs his beer before smiling and glancing around the room. I follow his gaze, and sure enough, a group of Evette’s teacher friends are huddled in a circle, gawking at Ozzy.
“Stiff competition for me tonight,” I say.
“You should be worried. If you think they’re hot for me now, wait until they see my sexy ride chained to the tree outside.”
I snort, pressing my fist to my mouth. “I fear that only makes you sexier in their eyes. Single dad who escorts his daughter to school every day on a bike because she suffered an unimaginable trauma. You are their Everest of men.”
“Who cares? The question is, am I your Everest?”
“If I’m your dirty little secret, you can be my Everest.”
“We meet again,” Jamie says to Ozzy while wrapping an arm around me.
“Hi. Yeah. This is quite the party. And a very cool house.”
“Right?” Jamie draws out the word while releasing me.
The two-story Queen Anne–style house has small rooms and tall ceilings. It’s filled with embellishments like elaborate dark woodwork, embossed botanical wallpaper in muted green-and-gold tones, and colorful stained glass windows. My favorite thing is the burgundy velvet drapes that Gary hates.
“Did you hear Fitz and I gave Maren the house with the tree house for her cat?” Jamie asks.
Ozzy nods with a slow hum. “Bandit is pretty spoiled, and so is my daughter for having her stray cat saved.”
Jamie bats her eyelashes at me with an exaggerated smile. “I’d say Maren is pretty smitten with you and your daughter, but that might embarrass her, so I won’t say it.”