Page 95 of Thunder with a Chance of Lovestruck

After eighteen years, I was no closer to an answer than I’d been the night he handed me the pendant, asking me to be its guardian.

He groaned, all while grinning like a fool. “We’ve been over this. I didn’t get sentenced so much as cursed. No trial. No review board. No defending myself in front of my peers. Just a guy with a lot of say, deciding I needed to learn to behave.”

I kept my eyes on the road, knowing he could see my agitation with him.

“Rachael, don’t worry about it. I don’t mind being your bitch.”

That earned him a sideways glance from me. “You are so not my bitch, and you know it.”

“Yeah, but that’s not what I tell everyone we meet,” he said, giving a coquettish smirk as he blinked rapidly. “I also tell everyone I can that you like spanking me when I’m a bad boy.”

The man was insufferable and one of my best friends. We’d forged a bond that was unbreakable and stronger than it had been when we were dating. “Don’t make me makeyougo to your room.” I lifted the pendant some and let it fall against my chest.

He barked with laughter. “Scold me. Hot.”

I shook my head.

A ding came from my phone. Robin, as the passenger, handled checking it for me. He lifted my phone. “You have another email from that Marcy lady.”

“Really?” I didn’t know anyone named Marcy yet had been getting random emails from her for nearly three months now. She acted like we’d been friends for years. At first, I thought she was spam. Now I just assumed she was missing a few screws. Seemed harmless enough though and perpetually cheery. A lot like LeAnne. “What does this one say?”

“She’s inviting us to dinner next week,” he said, something off in his voice. “And by us, I do mean us. She has my name listed too.”

I jerked the wheel without meaning to and righted the Jeep quickly. “I swear that I don’t know her.”

“We’ve met a lot of people over the last eighteen years, doing what we do,” he said. “Maybe we met her, but don’t remember. It’s possible.”

“That could be it,” I returned and chuckled. “Did she say where we were invited? We should show up and see who she is.”

He took a long, deep breath. “Uh, yeah. About that. She mentions meeting at a restaurant in Grimm Cove.”

I nearly slammed on the brakes. “What?”

“Yes, that’s disconcerting,” he said. “Should I respond?”

“You’re all-knowing, you tell me,” I shot back.

A laugh came from him. “Formerly all-knowing. Now I’m just intelligent and super good-looking. Not to mention killer in bed. That’s from before too, so we’re clear.”

I groaned.

My cell rang and I glanced at him. “Tell me that isn’t someone named Marcy.”

He shook his head. “Nope.”

Relief moved through me.

Robin answered the phone and hit the speakerphone option. “It’s Ms. Anger Issues.”

“What’s up, Sherri?” I asked.

“How do you not take a hammer to that asshat’s crystal necklace thing?” she asked. “If the idea doesn’t appeal to you, I’m totally willing to do it for you.”

Robin laughed more as he lowered the volume on the stereo. “We were just discussing how I like women to be forceful and punish me.”

“Drop dead,” she said.

“Can’t. I’m way, way immortal,” he returned, having outed himself to her and LeAnne when he’d demanded I reach out and make contact with them around fifteen years ago. He didn’t like how isolated from life that I’d become and took it upon himself to be sure I had a support system.

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