Page 119 of I Heart Mason Cartwright
God, I love this woman!
I hug her hard. She hugs back. My face buried in her neck and hers in mine. And I want to stay just like this forever.
She starts to pull back.
“Don’t move,” I say. “I want to hold you for just a minute.”
“Mmm,” she says and relaxes into me.
I nuzzle her neck, content I have everything I’ll ever need here in my arms. “Thank you,” I whisper in her ear.
“You’re welcome,” she whispers back. “Wait, for what?”
“For being perfect for me.” I kiss her on her forehead, the tip of her nose, her chin, and finally her lips.
“That part’s easy,” she says.
I smile. She returns the gesture.
“Let’s get you cleaned up,” I say. I pull my shorts up, grab hers from the floor, then carry her into the main guest bathroom and use the towel to wipe me from her thighs.
“I guess we’re using the disposable towels, huh?” She laughs.
“Guess so.”
A crash sounds from the kitchen. I head back to see what happened. P-Tink has pulled the entire platter of meat off the counter and has finished half of the tri-tip.
“Princess Tinkerbell! No!” I yell.
She looks up and slinks back. Willow runs in, still fastening her shorts. “Oh no, P-Tink! Bad dog!”
P-Tink, knowing she’s in trouble, promptly turns and throws up the first half of the tri-tip that she’s already eaten. I send her outside and Willow and I try to clean it up. I wash off the other meats and start to season them again.
“We can’t be mad at her,” I say. “It’s my fault. I left a platter full of meat there for her to drool over. That was dumb of me.”
“Maybe,” Willow says. “But she also knows it’s not okay to counter surf. And that her food is in her bowl.”
“I may have slipped her some stuff while I was trimming and seasoning,” I admit.
“Mason! You can’t do that. It will confuse her.”
“I know, I’m sorry. She was just looking at me with those eyes.” I look at Willow with my best,please forgive meface.
She laughs. “I hate those eyes. They get me every time,” she says.
“See?”
“I was talking about you, not her.” She laughs. “Okay, well what can we salvage?” She points to the meat.
“I think everything but the tri tip.”
“Do we have another one?”
“No, but I can ask someone to stop.”
“I’ll ask Zach, he’s due to be here soon anyway, maybe he can hit that little place down the street? The one with the olive bar?”
“Oh, good thinking,” I say. There’s a gourmet market that opened not far from us a month or so ago, and they have fresh and locally sourced everything.
She texts Zach what to get, he responds that he’s just getting an Uber and will be here soon.
Willow cleans the countertop where we just had sex with antibacterial wipes. Then moves to do the same in the bathroom. She’s nice like that. I probably wouldn’t have thought to do it.
“I have to go change my panties, you wrecked them,” she says.
I smile at her. “You could just go without.”
She smiles back. “I could. But then what would you pull off me with your teeth later?”
The woman has a great point.
