Page 10 of Small Town Swoo
What was hedoinghere?
Fuck, he looked good.
That face. Those shoulders. The abs. The long, thick, dangling?—
No. Don’t think about the dangle.
Turning on the engine, I reversed out of the driveway and peeled down the street, tires squealing. Then I called Mabel.
“Hello?”
“No one told me Dash was going to be home!” I shouted.
“What?”
“I just went over to take the dog out for your dad, and Dash was there!”
“He couldn’t be. He’s in L.A.”
“I’m telling you.He is home.”I thumped the steering wheel three times. “I just saw him naked in the kitchen.”
“What?” she squealed.
“I let myself in, same as always, and he came strolling around the corner in hisbirthday suit!”
“Why on earth was he naked in the kitchen?”
“I don’t know, Mabel! I didn’t stick around to ask him!” Beneath my work clothes—black pants and a fitted Buckley’s Pub T-shirt—a sweat had broken out.
“Are you sure it was Dash?”
“Mabel. Please.”
She started to laugh. “He probably didn’t care. He was practically naked onMalibu Splashall the time.”
“Well,Icared.” My eyes were on the road, but I wasn’t seeing stoplights and yellow lines. Just skin. Muscles. And the dangle.
I’d have turned on the A/C if it worked. Instead, I rolled down the window.
“Are you still mad at him?”
Eventually, I’d confessed my foiled attempt at seducing her brother to Mabel. I was no good at keeping secrets from her. “Yes. No. I don’t know. I can’t think right now.”
“I’m Team Ari forever, of course, but I do hate that my best friend and my brother can’t be in the same room together.”
“We can be in the same room, Mabel. But not while he’s naked!”
“That’s fair.”
“He didn’t even have the decency to leave the room! Hejust stood there covering himself with a small kitchen towel like it was a fucking fig leaf.”
“Gross. I’m sorry you had to see that.”
“I suppose I’ll live.” My pulse was starting to decelerate. “Your dad must not have known he was coming home either.”
“Maybe he wanted it to be a surprise.”
“Then he got what he wanted.” My car made a whining noise as I turned onto Main Street. “He shocked the bejesus out of me.”
