“I’m very glad that I agreed to come with you.” He pressed his lips to my neck and moved them up to my ear—which made my whole body tingle.
“Me too.” I leaned against him, and his lips started to kiss the other side of my neck—they lingered there until my phone buzzed in front of me.
“Another text…” Everette narrowed his eyes. “I think it’s from your friend.”
“She’s probably complaining about the crappy motel she has to sleep in tonight.” I chuckled and reached for my phone—my heart sank into my stomach the instant I saw what was the on the screen—especially when I realized Everette was reading it over my shoulder.
Amelia: Got my motel room. I think I’m going to go to bed early. Maybe I’ll dream about what we saw when we were spying on your hot new neighbor. :)
“Spying?” Everette pulled back. “What does that mean?”
“Um…” My throat started to close up, and I felt my stomach twisting into a knot.
“When did you spy on me?” His mouth fell open as he continued to process it.
I just have to tell him—I’m already busted now.
I confessed the truth to Everette. I told him what Amelia and I did—how we got high and decided to spy on him. It made me blush when I had to tell him that we caught him fresh out of the shower and stuck around long enough for him to drop his towel. There wasn’t much amusement on Everette’s face as he listened to my confession—not that I really thought there would be. I had kind of hoped that would be a secret that we could take to the grave. Amelia said it was going in the vault of secrets we shared, but apparently that didn’t apply to text messages—she might as well have written my confession for me.
“I’m sorry.” I looked down at the floor.
“I need to buy curtains…” Everette stared straight ahead, blinked a couple of times, and then walked over to pick up his beer. “I avoided all the windows in the front of the house, but I didn’t even think about the ones in the backyard.”
“To be fair, we wouldn’t have been able to see anything if we weren’t spying on you from the tree house. It has a clear view into the house,” I sighed.
“In order for you to know that…” He sipped his beer and narrowed his eyes.
It was apparently my day to confess everything that I had done wrong. I told him about the Henderson brothers, how Amelia and I used to hang out in the tree house with them—and the one time we saw Mr. and Mrs. Henderson through a crack in the curtains when Amelia and I were in the tree house by ourselves. Amelia opened our vault of secrets, and I was just letting Everette rummage around in it
“It sounds like you and Amelia have been bad influences on each other for years.” Everette took a sip of his beer—he wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t seem to be that upset.
“Yeah, I guess that’s fair.” I suppressed a smile as I tried to read his expression. “Are you mad? Am I going to be making the rest of my drive to Arizona alone?”
I don’t know what I would do if the roles were reversed here…
“Nah.” Everette walked over to one of the beds and sat down.
“I’m just trying to decide what your punishment is going to be.”
“My—punishment?” I blinked in surprise.
“You don’t think you deserve to be punished for what you did?” He tilted his head to the side.
Is he serious? I can’t tell if this is just dry humor or if he’s actually upset—he’s got a really good poker face.
“I mean…” I looked down for a moment. “It’s not like anyone got hurt.”
“That’s true.” He nodded. “It’s a fair point.”
“So, maybe—no punishment?” I raised an eyebrow apprehensively. “It’s not like you’re my father…”
“No, I’m not.” He shook his head back and forth. “But tonight, I’m going to be your Daddy—and you are going to get punished.”
I think that confirms he’s not upset—and wow, calling him Daddy? That’s kind of hot...
“Okay, Daddy…” I took a step forward. “What is my punishment going to be?”
“I think the punishment should fit the crime.” He lifted his beer and took a sip. “You got to see me fresh out of the shower wearing nothing but a towel—and then the towel hit the floor.”