Swing and a Mishap (Summersweet Island 2)

“Don’t worry. I’ll make it up to you later after they’re gone and Owen is asleep.”

“Didn’t I tell you they’re spending the night? Must have slipped my mind! Don’t worry; they practically begged to sleep on your big, comfy sectional. Literally, it’s all my mom would talk about and how they didn’t want to cut their visit short and have to rush and get the last ferry off the island, and how they’re just dying to stay up all night and have a slumber party with Owen and get to know him, and you know what? You just sit down at the table, and I’ll go out on the deck really quick and remind them about that just in case they forgot, and then I’ll be back in a jiffy to get dinner out of the oven!”“I didn’t lie down on the couch and put my feet on your lap so you’d rub them.”

“I made you walk all over the island. You deserve a foot rub.”

“You seemed very adamant that we go everywhere today. We had breakfast at The Barge, we got your taffy fix at Chew on This, we played a few games at the arcade, and we had lunch at SIG and said hi to Tess, Birdie, and Murphy. Then we picked up groceries, grabbed pizza and ate it at the picnic tables of the Dip and Twist, rode bikes through the park, and we had dinner on the deck of Dockside Eddy’s. Any reason why we went on a Summersweet Island tour today?”

“First things first. What’s the one thing we did at each of those places?”

“Besides make out like a couple of teenagers?”

“Nope. Exactly that. We went on a tour of Summersweet Island today, because I wanted to make out with Wren Bennett in all the places I fantasized about making out with her when I really was a teenager.”

“That’s a lot for a girl to live up to. I hope it met all your expectations.”

“Sweetheart, you exceed my expectations just by being in the same room with me. You were worth the wait. You will always be worth it.”

“You’re really good at this.”

“Being all mushy and disgusting, or the foot rub?”

“Both. I’m kind of getting used to all this spoiling.”

“Good. Because I never plan on stopping.”“If you’ll excuse me, ma’am, I just need to reach around you and grab that empty plate. Have I told you how beautiful you look this evening?”

“You know I’m in charge of the spaghetti dinner, and I’m the one who’s supposed to be doing all this, right? But you do look quite fabulous in that frilly pink apron.”

“When was the last time you actually got to sit down with your family and friends at one of these things and just eat, enter to win raffle baskets, and have fun?”

“Um, never?”

“Exactly. Here’s my wallet. I need to finish clearing all the tables. Go buy a shit-ton of tickets for that basket on the end with all the fall décor in it. I want that goddamn lantern shaped like a pumpkin, and did you smell that apple pumpkin pie candle? Need it.”

“When you’re done clearing the tables, don’t forget to clean the cafeteria kitchen.”

“That was hot. Order me around again.”

“People are staring.”

“Let them stare. I’m kissing my woman at a spaghetti dinner in the Summersweet High School gymnasium. If you close your eyes, you can almost hear the romantic melody of ‘Hero’ by Enrique Iglesias playing, and we can pretend like we’re slow-dancing at homecoming.”

“You’re crazy. I’m going to go buy some tickets now.”

“If I don’t take that pumpkin lantern home with me tonight, there will be hell to pay. You can be my hero, baby!”

“Please don’t sing that song. So you don’t want me to put tickets on the date night basket? There’s chocolate sauce, a bottle of wine, some dirty books with shirtless men on them, this thing called a flogger I saw in a movie and sounds like it could be fun, and a few toys that require batteries. Although I already have the little silver bullet and that butterfly one, but I guess you can never have too many vibrating toys.”

“I…. What the…? Holy shit…”CHAPTER 15Wren

“Looks like a backdoor slider to me.”“So that makes twelve dates in two weeks, and… nothing? Maybe his dick is broken.”

I roll my eyes at Emily, holding my phone up in front of me with one hand and resting my chin in my other hand with my elbow on the purple picnic table at the Dip and Twist. For the first time in recent history, Tess and Birdie couldn’t make it to a Sip and Bitch. I probably could have just stayed in the comfort of my own home for this one, since I could Sip and Bitch with Emily anywhere, but I needed to get out of the house.