Page 28 of Cherry's Jubilee

My mom holds her hand out for my dad. “That’s why I call him Dan the man,” she jokes.

“DJ’s always been weak,” my younger brother, Bryce, jokes.

“Yeah, okay,” I say as I walk to Cherry and take her hand in mine.

“Cherry’s much cuter than your last girlfriend,” Bryce says, and my three sisters snicker at once.

“Tell me more,” Cherry says to my brother.

He opens his mouth to speak, but I whack him hard upside his head.

“She’s not important, Cherry,” my mom says. “We’d rather talk about you. DJ says you baked this amazing strawberry cake.” Cherry’s eyes light up and she spends the next few minutes talking about the cake and how I kept eating the frosting. “I swear, I raised him to have good manners,” Mom says.

“Can you make us one?” Dad asks.

“Oh, yes,” my mom agrees. “Come into the kitchen, and if we’re missing any ingredients, I’ll send DJ to the store.”

Chapter 18

Cherry

“I can’t believe you were nervous about me meeting your family,” I say with a loud yawn. When the elevator opens to his penthouse, I peel off my t-shirt and walk to his room. “I was the life of the party,” I announce. “And my cake was a hit.”

My fears went away the instant his mother dragged me into the house. Things went better than I could have imagined. Everyone in the family was not only welcoming and warm but funny. They all make fun of each other.

“You were,” he says.

He unzips my shorts and pulls them down. I kick them to the corner and go to his bathroom. In desperate need of a shower, I strip naked, and he does the same. We spent the day eating, laughing, and talking. His mom and sisters kicked the guys out of the gourmet kitchen while I baked, and my strawberry tiramisu was a huge hit. Daniel Senior had grabbed and shoved the last slice in his mouth and the rest of the family got so mad they pushed him into the pool. We finally left thirty minutes ago, after I promised to bake two cakes for their next gathering.

Once the shower gets hot, I put on my shower cap and step in. Water from eight showerheads hit my skin. Daniel follows me in, and we take turns washing each other.

After drying me, he carries me to the bedroom. We both slide between the sheets without any clothes on, and I move close to intertwine our legs.

“So, would you be willing to meet my family in two weeks? It’s my dad’s birthday, and he’s barbequing.”

“Count me in,” he says. “Now, how about you climb on top of me and rub that pussy on me.”

“I’m gonna do more than just rub it on you,” I say. I climb on his body and take him in a possessive kiss. We don’t come back up for air until we both scream out in ecstasy.

“For someone who is so smug about being so smart, you sure spend a lot of time away from your job,” Ashley hisses the following Friday afternoon. It’s closer to five-thirty, so I’m surprised to see her still here.

I arrived this late because she normally would have left by now. I wonder if she knew I’d be here and waited. Daniel is meeting with a client and won’t be back for another thirty minutes.

“Don’t you have a lunch to order or a hotel room to book?” I wave my hand and sit down on the couch.

“I can’t wait until he dumps you and knocks you down a peg or two.”

“While you wait for that, I’ll wait for Rob to stop cheating on you,” I snort.

She tenses at that, and I can practically see steam coming out of her ears. “And you think Daniel Jubilee will what? Pledge his undying fidelity to you? Men aren’t built that way. You’re only here because our grandfather couldn’t stop slumming.” She gestures at me, and I laugh in her face.

My grandmother was a Julliard educated dancer, and before she died, she told me that my grandfather was willing to leave his wife for her. She said no and decided she deserved better than a man willing to abandon his family. She said he was a liar who claimed to be a widower. She found out he was married when his wife knocked on her door. She realized she was pregnant a month later.

She never married and only had my mother. My grandfather saw Mother occasionally but cared for her financially. My maternal grandma was gone a lot for work, and my mother was mostly raised by her grandparents. Grandma confessed to me on her deathbed that she regrets being gone so much and blamed herself for my mom’s self-esteem issues.

“Slumming? You mean the woman who decided she deserved better than a lying cheater? Look in the mirror, girl. You’re just like your grandma, aren’t you? Willing to put up with a man like Rob for what? At least women in your grandmother’s generation had fewer options. What’s your excuse? And don’t worry about me and Daniel. That’s none of your damn business. Don’t you have a wedding to plan?”

I pull out my laptop to review receipts a client sent me earlier, but Ashley still won’t leave.

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