Page 51 of Let It Breathe
“No problem. Come whenever you’re ready.”
She hung up the phone and carried two asparagus spears outside to where Leon stood beside her house sniffing a patch of grass.
“How are you feeling, buddy?” she asked, offering him a piece of asparagus.
While Leon munched, she scratched his ears. As soon as he stopped chewing, he burrowed his face in her cleavage and nuzzled hard.
“Slut,” she muttered, massaging his long, fuzzy neck.
“First you get him stoned, then you call him a slut?”
Reese looked up to see Clay approaching from the side of the house. Her stomach did a loopy somersault and her skin began to tingle. She glanced at her watch, then back up at him. “You’re early.”
He stopped just a few inches from her, so close she could feel the heat radiating from his bare forearms. Her skin prickled with desire, and she resisted the urge to take a step back.
Clay cleared his throat. “I wanted a chance to talk to you for a sec before everyone showed up. I just didn’t want this to be weird.”
“Weird? What could possibly be weird about having dinner with a stoned alpaca, my ex-husband, my over-amorous parents, my nymphomaniac cousin, and a recovering alcoholic?”
“Larissa’s coming?”
“How many nymphomaniac cousins do you think I have?”
“Right.” Clay dragged a hand through his hair. “Look, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay with everything. I know this is a little weird for you and all, and then there was that kiss the other night?—”
“It’s fine,” Reese interrupted, not wanting to dwell on it. Spotting a paper bag under his arm, she nodded at it. “You brought your own drink?”
“It’s seltzer.”
“There’s going to be wine at dinner. I’m sure you’ve been around that before, but I figured I should warn you.”
“I’m okay. That’s why I brought my own drink.”
She bit her lip. “Clay, if this is too hard on you at this stage?—”
“If what’s too hard on me?”
Reese watched his eyes, waiting for the hard-on joke. There wasn’t one, except in her mind. She bit her lip. “Look, I’ve been wanting to ask you about something.”
“Yes?”
She closed her eyes for a second. She took one deep breath, then another. Sooner or later, they had to talk about this. It had been fifteen years. Might as well get it out in the open now. “Clay, do you remember?—”
“Hey, kids—what’s shakin’?”
Reese opened her eyes to see Larissa shimmying up the walkway with a board game under one arm, a bag of salad clasped in one hand, and a bottle of white wine in the other. “It’s a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc,” she said, lifting the bottle. “You said shrimp, right?”
“Right,” Reese said, casting a look at Clay before reaching out to take the bottle from Larissa. “Thank you for thinking of it. Eric’s got a Pinot Gris, so we’re all set.”
“My pleasure,” she said, pausing to kiss Leon on the lips before sashaying through the front door.
Reese looked at Clay. “We’ll talk later.”
“Sure,” Clay agreed, giving her a wary look. “Everything okay?”
“Absolutely,” Reese said. “Never better.”
Clay was surprised to discover six people could fit comfortably in Reese’s tiny dining room.
