I grin. Positively smirk as I picture our shared shaved-ice past. “God, I love this place.”
The driver grabs our luggage and we start rolling our wheelie suitcases down the uneven sidewalk towards Zach’s cottage. I thought for sure Emma would forget about Kraken Karen and that staying with Zach was just a heat-of-the-moment overreaction, but nope. My bossy girl is on it. We lug all the suitcases up the front porch steps of Zach’s cottage and bang on the screen door.
He opens it shirtless and a little out of breath. “Uh… Jesse!” His confusion turns to a smile and he rallies, opening the door to bring it in for a hug. “Dude! Merry Christmas!” Then he looks around, spots our luggage, and once again becomes confused. “What’s up?”
“We’re staying with you,” Emma says.
“You… are?”
“Yeah,” I say. “Fucking Kraken Karen is back and our house overlooks her backyard or some shit. So… you don’t mind, right?” But that’s when I notice a naked girl walking into the kitchen behind him. “Oh.” I glance over my shoulder at Emma.
She’s wincing. “You have… a guest.”
Zach looks over his shoulder too, then slips outside and closes the main door behind him. “Yeah. You guys, I didn’t know. I invited this girl to hang with us.”
“Us?” Emma and I both say at the same time.
“Luke, me, her…” Zach grins.
“Ohhhhhhh,” I say.
“Oh, oh, oh,” Emma echoes. “Gotcha.” She looks at me. “OK. Well, that was TMI for me. Let’s go. I’m sure one of the cottages is empty.”
“No, they’re full,” Zach says, then shrugs. “Holidays.”
“Well… obviously Luke’s cottage isn’t occupied, right? We can just stay there.”
“Actually…”
“Actually what?” Emma is about to lose it.
“He lives here now. We… we all live here now. So his cottage is rented too.”
Emma sucks in a big breath.
I take over and clap Zach on the shoulder. “It’s cool. I got this.” Then I open the door, push him back inside, and take Emma’s hand. “It’s gonna be fine. I promise. Karen who, right? We don’t even have to see her. We’ll never look out that window again. I’m sure it will be super easy to avoid Kraken—”
“Yooooo-hoooooo! Neighbor girl!”
Emma’s whole body goes stiff and she grips both my scrumptious muscly arms so hard, I think her fingernails are leaving marks. “No,” she whispers.
“Yooooo-hooooo! Emma! It’s me, Karen! Oh, my God! You’re heeeeereeee! Yay! Your mom told me—”
“No,” Emma insists again.
But… Oh, yeah. Kraken Karen is walking up Zach, Luke, and naked girl’s front-porch steps beaming her sea-monster smile at me. “You must be Jesse Boston. I’ve heard a lot about you, mister, but”—she’s purring out her words—“none of the descriptions did you justice.”
And then I swear to God, she grips my scrumptious, muscly arm right above where Emma is already making her claim and leans in to kiss me on the cheek.Chapter Six“What the fuck, Karen? What the hell do you think you’re doing? Who comes up to a complete stranger and… and… and acts like a goddamned sex siren right in front of his fucking fiancée?”
Kraken Karen has the nerve to look shocked at my outburst. I’m talking mouth in the shape of an o, and hand over heart, and the whole chin-jutting-backward thing. But my mom was right. She looks exactly the same. Short, blonde, bobby haircut. Pursed lips. And low-cut shirt to show off her goods. And for a moment I’m distracted by that instead of the fact that she just kissed my man and I freaked out about it.
“Oh. Emma. I’m so sorry. I was just excited to see you again. And with this”—she ogles Jesse—“American treasure. The one and only Jesse Boston. Well done, Emma. Well done.”
I glance at Jesse and find him beaming back at her. What the fuck?
“Excuse me. Eyes over here, buddy.” I do the little finger point thing. Him, me, him.
Which only makes Jesse chuckle as he wraps his arms around mine and pulls me into his chest. And for a moment I soften. I go a little squishy at his possessive embrace.
But then… is this just his preemptive move to make sure I don’t haul off and hit Kraken Karen in the eye?
“Um… sooo?” We all turn to look at Zach Boston on the other side of the screen door. “Are we good here?” He does one of those backward nods of his head to indicate something behind him. “I’ve gotta… you know. Finish up in here and then get out there to help Luke with the party tonight.”
Jesse waves him off. “Yeah, go. See ya in a few, Zach.”
And with that Zach Boston excuses himself from this now very awkward situation on his porch, so now it’s just the three of us.
Me. My gorgeous man. And my worst enemy.
I decide the best offense right now is a retreat. “Well, Karen. It was… whatever. We have to go.”