Charity Case - The Complete Series - Piper Rayne Page 0,121

in my silk pajamas, sitting on my couch with a bowl of popcorn in my lap.

“This is the life.” Again, I’m talking to myself since I’m alone.

I click through the movies. Nada, Zip. Screw this.

Since I refuse to get rid of my DVD player because contrary to popular opinion Netflix does not have every movie available, I open up the media cabinet under my television to dig for a movie.

As I go through them, nothing sounds interesting. A romantic comedy won’t work since my romantic life sucks right now. I pull out a few other cases, but nothing sparks my interest. When my hand clenches around the Rambo case, a shiver wracks my body.

It’s our DVD. The one Dean and I made. God, that man can convince me of almost anything.

I’d hidden our recording in the back of the cabinet so no one coming to my apartment would stumble upon it. I should’ve taken a lighter to it years ago. There’s no use in denying that my feelings for Dean haven’t exactly waned over the years. Do I hate him? Hell yes. Do I ever want to go down that road again? No way. That doesn’t mean he’s not hot as hell and seems to still have some magical pull on me.

I hold the DVD in my hand, the contents of what’s inside causing my desire to burn even more.

“Fuck this.” I shove the DVD back into the pile of movies underneath all the other ones, shut the glass doors to my entertainment center and head to the kitchen. “Ice cream solves all.”

I abandon my bowl of popcorn and instead dish myself up a bowl of strawberry ice cream.

Sitting back down on the couch, I channel surf for a good ten minutes.

“AHH.” I click the television off.

I grab the newest Cosmo magazine on my end table and scour through it to see if I missed any articles when I read through it last week. I toss it back on the end table once I see that I even did the quiz.

Replacing the magazine with my phone, I thumb through Instagram and Snapchat. Blah, blah, blah. Nothing new.

Since when did I become so boring?

I decide to text Zoe.

Me: Hey, game night still on for tomorrow night?

The phone rings immediately with her name on the screen.

“Hey,” I answer.

“You know I have two kids. That means one hand for each one, plus it’s bath time.” I hear splashing in the background. “To answer your question though, yes, our house. Are you bringing someone?” She laughs, and I roll my eyes.

“Shut up.” I rise from the couch and rinse out my bowl, placing it in the dishwasher.

“You ready to talk yet?” she asks. “CAIDEN!” she screams, and I pull my phone away from my ear for a second.

I hear his laughter a second later.

“Stop it. You’re scaring Mommy. Do you want me to have a heart attack?”

“What’s a heart attack?” he asks.

“What’s he doing?” I ask.

“The kid thinks it’s funny to see how long he can hold his breath.”

“A Houdini in the making.” I walk back over to my living room and sit down on the couch.

“No. He’s a doctor in the making. Isn’t that right?”

“I want to be like Daddy when I grow up,” Caiden says followed by more splashing.

“What about Mommy?” Zoe questions and I can’t believe the best entertainment for me on a Friday night is listening to my cousin and her young son.

“Mommies are boring. Daddy plays with tools.”

“His own tool,” Zoe mumbles.

I laugh.

“If you played with it I wouldn’t have to.” Vin’s voice comes through the line, obviously having joined their little party.

“Now you come up when he’s almost done,” Zoe says sounding annoyed and then taking me off speakerphone.

“You’re so much better at it than I am.”

I know without being there that Zoe is rolling her eyes at him.

Then again, like with Victoria and Reed, I’m forced to wait while they make-up or at least whisper to one another while kissing noises sound through the phone.

“Your son is in the room,” I say.

“Chelsea,” Zoe answers to Vin when he asks who she’s speaking to.

“Hey, Chels, game on tomorrow. Want me to fix you up tomorrow night?”

“Tell Vin, I’m good.”

“She’s good. Her ex is back in the picture.” Zoe’s tone is one of amusement. Like this is all a big joke, but she’s not sitting here trying to keep herself cooled down enough not to get herself off while watching a DVD of her and her ex.

“What? She isn’t