Page 83 of Time Served in New York
“Kitty had a good suggestion earlier and . . .”
“Was that before or after your dance party?” Jenn teased.
“I only dance with you.”
Jenn smiled and then put her hand behind my neck and pulled me down for a kiss. “I’m okay. Boo’s okay. My friends are okay. I need you to be okay too.”
“I can’t let you out of my sight. Someday, you and those girls are going to get up to something and give us all fucking heart attacks worrying about you.”
“We worry about all of you too.”
“We need a moat. Full of alligators with snipers on every corner. We’ll keep our families inside so we know you’re safe.”
“That makes absolutely no sense.”
“The more I think about it, the more it sounds like a reasonable idea.”
“One of us would get eaten by a gator trying to escape, and knowing me, I’d probably fall off the wall like Humpty Dumpty. Then what would you do?”
“You make me crazy, woman.”
“I love you, Boss. I’ll try really hard not to worry you in the future.”
“You say that, but then . . .”
“Circumstances outside my control tend to happen, and knowing our family, that’s not going to change anytime soon. Maybe I should go ahead and find a cardiologist for you.”
“You think you’re funny, but I’m not fucking laughing.”
“I’m laughing because if I don’t, I will melt down right here. It’s been a rough day, but we made a pact to keep our shit together until this is over. If you keep growling and reminding me of what happened today, I’m gonna lose it, and I don’t want to do that.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“I need you to hold me now and then again later when I get the chance to fall apart.”
“I can do that. I’ll do anything to make you happy.”
“I’ll make a deal with you that’s guaranteed to make you happy.”
“What’s that?”
“I’ll never jump from one terrace to another again, even if it’s on the ground floor. I promise.” I stared down at her trying to resist putting her over my shoulder and carrying her back to the room to spank her ass for scaring the shit out of me, and she pushed me even closer to doing it by laughing. “You just growled again, caveman.”
“You know what?”
“What?”
“Fuck appearances. I’m done.”
“Huh?”
I pushed Jenn away from me and spun her around twice to throw her off. By the time she was facing me again, I was bent over in front of her, poised to do what I’d been thinking about for the last few hours.
I stood up and started walking toward the exit with Jenn over my shoulder. When she started squirming, I slapped her on the ass and she squealed loudly.
“Put me down!”
“No,” I said with another slap to her backside.
