Page 41 of Beneath the Scars
We continue to gossip about everyone in town. I missed so much while I was away for college, and I’ve thoroughly enjoyed catching up on the goings on.
“Who are we talking about?” my aunt Sara asks when she walks into the break room. Her brown hair is piled on top of her head, and she’s wearing the cutest puppy scrubs. She always wears hilarious patterns on Fridays. Apparently, it drove Uncle Ben crazy when he first took over the clinic. I wish I could’ve seen the two of them before they got together. Susan has told us that sparks as well as tempers flared on the first day.
“A girl I went to high school with. She’s the assistant to a movie star now, and we were imagining what that would be like,” I tell her.
“Stressful.” Aunt Sara plops down next to me at the table.
“No kidding. But can you imagine the connections she has now?”
“I wonder if she’s met Leo,” Penny muses.
Sara and I give each other a look before busting out laughing. The rest of the afternoon goes by in a flash. Titus is adorably flustered with his crate of puppies, but Izzy is as healthy as can be.
Penny and I are working together to clean up the clinic when my phone buzzes in my pocket.
Michael
I have more homework for you.
Me
Uh-oh. I can’t decide if I’m eager or dreading it. The last time you gave me homework, I had to get very honest with the man I’ve had feelings for since I was a kid.
But it ended with you coming around my fingers so…
I shiver at the memory. I’d never experienced anything so powerful before that night. It was incredible.
True. Okay. I’m in. What’s my homework?
I want you to put together a list of your top five fantasies.
What kind of fantasies?
Anything you want. The more detailed, the better. Anything goes, as long as it doesn’t involve one of my hard limits. If it’s on a soft limit list, we can discuss it.
When do I need to get this back to you?
Let’s discuss it in a week.
How the hell am I supposed to narrow down my fantasies to five? I’ve had too many to count at this point. And how detailed does he want me to be?
I’m staringat the list of fantasies I’ve written when my phone rings. My body is overheated just thinking about doing these things with Michael, and I haven’t even decided if these are the ones I want to share with him.
I pounce on my phone, hoping it’s Michael, and am only vaguely disappointed when it’s not. “Hey, Zane! How are you?”
“I’m missing you, that’s how I am.”
I laugh. “I miss you too! I hate not getting to see you for our weekly coffee dates.”
“Same. I wish we still lived near eachother.”
“It’s not even an hour to Sonoma. We could hang out more often,” I point out.
“I suppose. You have the life you’ve dreamed of since I first met you. I don’t want to get in the way of that.”
“You could never be in the way. I wish there were a way for you to move here. Maybe I can ask around for jobs you could do.”
“Nah, you don’t have to do that. I’m just in pity mode tonight. I shouldn’t have dumped that on you.”
