thing after another. It took several shots to get through.” He said it like he was tired of giving me his grocery list.
“What did you tell them?” I meant the love question, but he took it slightly differently.
“Why would I tell them about your penis when I haven’t seen it yet?” He sounded offended.
It was delightful.
“Do they know you haven’t seen it yet?” I’d been hoping that absence would make the heart grow fonder, but it didn’t seem to work that way with dicks.
“Of course not.” Yep, he thought I was an idiot. “Then I’d have to answer a thousand more questions.”
“That makes sense.” I was trying to be serious, but he huffed again.
“You think I’m stupid too.” He made a sad sound. “Austin said I was stupid when I told him the floor wasn’t moving and that he was just drunk.”
Was I supposed to apologize for that?
“I know how smart you are. Remember I work for you?” He hadn’t forgotten that, had he?
His voice immediately perked up. “Oh, that’s right.”
Yep, that hadn’t occurred to him at all.
“I think—” Whatever he was going to say was lost as he gave a squeal and something crashed.
I was pretty sure it was Dakota that had crashed.
Standing up, I froze. “Dakota? Are you okay?”
There were several seconds of quiet that felt like an eternity. “I don’t know.”
Well, at least he was breathing and conscious. “What happened?”
“I seem to be stuck.” Then he started rambling again. “There has to be a better word. One that doesn’t sound like I’m a kid who got their head stuck in the railing.”
I had a feeling there was a story behind that strange answer.
“Are you stuck with your head in the railing?” That seemed like the best way to start.
“No.” He was clearly offended again. “I’m stuck beside the toilet. Oh, and I still don’t like that word. Is there a better one?”
Yep, I was going to retell this story for years.
“Wedged?”
“Yes, that’s much better. My ass happens to be wedged next to the toilet.” He said it so precisely, I was picturing him enunciating each word carefully in his head before they came out.
I still wasn’t sure what to do.
“Can you get out?” It occurred to me that it was very quiet on his end of the phone. “Can someone there help you?”
He snorted. “Of course not.”
Dakota clearly wasn’t too worried, so I prodded again. “Why not?”
“Jonah said you liked taking care of me.” He seemed to think that was enough of an answer because he stopped.
Smiling, I shook my head and headed for the front door where I’d left my shoes and keys. “You’re right. I do like taking care of you. But if you need help before I get there you need to call out to Wade or Bradley.”
Or whoever was the most sober.
“Fine.” He might have been stuck, but I could almost hear him rolling his eyes.
As I headed out of my apartment, I was starting to see why Simon had made sure I had Wade’s address. The drive over passed quickly. Mostly because Dakota continued to ramble about words he’d forgotten and what they’d been up to.
When I finally knocked on Wade’s door, I was surprised to see Silas open it. “Hello.”
He frowned. “Why are you here?”
That was not the greeting I expected. “Dakota is stuck.”
That didn’t help his frown, but he did turn and call out. “Austin, you said Dakota was gone.”
He had?
Austin wandered over on extremely high heels that I was surprised were keeping him upright. “No, I said he disappeared and you said he wasn’t magic.”
Laughing probably wasn’t the right answer to the situation, but it was difficult to hold back. Holding up the phone, I smiled. “He’s in the bathroom.”
Focusing on the phone, I spoke to Dakota who was still rambling, this time about characters. “Which bathroom are you in, Dakota? Is there more than one?”
“Yes.”
I should have known better than to ask him more than one question at a time. “Where are you in the apartment?”
Silas was rolling his eyes at Austin. “Next time tell me you don’t know where he went.”
Austin snorted and nearly toppled over before Silas managed to right him. “I did. You told me he wasn’t magic.”
I was starting to realize just how much of his own real life Dakota had put in the romance novels he’d written.
“If you could just point me toward one of the bathrooms, that would be great.” I smiled, still enjoying the whole thing. “He’s been stuck for about