Page 67 of No More Secrets
“Yeah, something like that. So back to sex with Carter.”
“What’s my scale?”
“One being ‘I should have saved myself the self-loathing by staying home and watching Netflix’ and ten being ‘I heard angels sing.’”
“Oh angels. Definitely. A choir of them.”
“Nice.”
“With some fireworks, too.”
“Now you’re just showing off.”
––––––––
Joey dropped Summer off in front of Carter’s house after nine.
“Are you sure you don’t want to come in?” Summer offered, sliding out of the truck cab.
Joey’s eyes flicked to the house. “Nah. I’m good.”
“I had fun tonight,” Summer said.
“Me, too,” Joey nodded. “I’ll call you if we need to go burn Anthony’s house down or something.”
“I’m in.”
Summer climbed the porch steps and went inside. She followed the sound of male laughter through the kitchen — which looked like it had been destroyed in a tornado of testosterone — and into the great room.
Carter spotted her first and got to his feet.
“Lady in the house, gentlemen,” Beckett said, dealing cards. “Let’s clean up the language and tone down the farting and scratching.”
“Oh, I don’t want to interrupt any manly fun. I’m just going to grab my laptop and work upstairs.”
“First, come meet the guys,” Carter insisted. He pointed to the man with scraggly hair and Birkenstocks. “Summer, this is Bill Fitzsimmons. Fitz, this is Summer Lentz.”
Fitz peered over his glasses at her and waved. “Hello. The brownies are safe.”
“Thanks for tip,” Summer nodded.
“Fitz is the prime example of the evils of excessive pot smoking, but he’s a lucky bastard when it comes to cards. This,” Carter said slapping the shoulder of a large blond man wearing a backwards ball cap, “is Donovan Cardona. Don’t let the idiotic look on his face fool you. He’s sheriff here and a lousy card player.”
Donovan unfolded his six-foot-four-inch frame from the table and stood up to greet her. “Nice to meet you, Summer. I’ve heard a lot about you,” he said with a wink, shaking her hand.
“You must be on Facebook,” she sighed.
“The department’s been able to stop a few crimes before they happened thanks to that gossip group. I can see they weren’t exaggerating how pretty you are.”
Carter took Donovan’s hat off and smacked him with it. “Don’t even start,” he said.
“That’s assaulting an officer,” Donovan said.
“Carter already called dibs,” Jax said, breezing past on his way to the fridge.
“You called dibs?” Summer asked.
“You know, how about you just go on upstairs while I stay down here and kick everyone’s ass?” And since everyone already knew, he gave her a hard kiss on the mouth before handing over her laptop and pushing her down the hall.
