Page 1 of Excitable Boy
Chapter One
Goddammit.
Shayla Daniels already wasn’t having a good Monday, and she hadn’t even crawled out of bed yet. Upon rolling over and glancing at the clock on her nightstand, she realized she’d once again forgotten to set her alarm and was now running ten minutes behind schedule.
I will be so glad when Tony’s home for good.
Her husband, Tony, was currently stuck working in Denver, where he was supervising the build-out of a data center for his employer, Asher Insurance.
At least she didn’t have to kill herself to get to work on time this morning. She had to cover a county meeting which started at ten, and she would be going straight there instead of to the office first.
Still, she’d planned on getting up at her normal time so she could catch up on e-mail.
When she sat up and put her feet on the floor, she immediately realized the second way in which this particular Monday suuuucked.
She felt the cold, gummy squish of cat yak under her foot.
Goddammit.
At least they had tile.
She hopped on one foot into the bathroom to clean her foot off before returning with paper towel and cleaner to wipe up the yak.
Only then could she use the bathroom, text Tony good morning, and get her coffee started.
Their two cats, Bagel and Cream, sat awaiting her in the kitchen. “Thanks, you two. Just what Mommy wants to wake up to.”
Bagel maowed at her while Cream rubbed against her legs.
“Love you, too. Jerks.” That she’d slept through one of them hacking up a present for her right next to the bed spoke to how exhausted she was.
She started the coffee and then handed them their morning treats. After thinking about it, she made a quick swing through the rest of the house, the parts that they had access to while she was asleep, and checked to see if there was any more yak.
None found, fortunately.
Her entire weekday routine normally revolved around Tony—and that was the way she preferred it. Part of what she’d agreed to by marrying him and asking him to make her his slave.
That was what she’dwanted. And without him home, it was messing with her morning routine, not to mention their love life,andtheir social life,and—
Sigh.
They’d had one play night six weeks ago, the weekend he’d come home to attend his ex-wife’s funeral after she killed herself, but that whole weekend had been nothing but one gigantic clusterfuck, for them and for their friends.
Now that Shayla was up and moving, and technically running a little late, she opted to leave earlier than she’d originally planned and stop to treat herself to a fancy coffee before she reached the county administration building, where the meeting would be held. Hell, she could check her e-mail in a coffeeshop just as good as she could there at home, right?
Right.
Besides, being home alone was starting to emotionally drain her. She knew Tony would be home within the next couple of weeks, but…
Sigh.
She didn’t want to tell him how she was feeling, because it would only makehimfeel bad when it wasn’t like he was doing this on purpose. He had enough to deal with in Denver to get out of there and back home to her. And it wasn’t like there was anything he could do to help her feel better.
She missed him. She knew he wasn’t doing much better than she was, either.
On the heels of that arrived the familiar backwash that she felt ashamed for mentally whining about their temporary separation when military families sometimes didn’t see their loved ones for a year or more, if they were lucky.
She headed to a coffeeshop in downtown Sarasota just a few blocks from the county administration building, where she’d be covering a meeting of an environmental commission that was studying the red tide problem.
