calm. “Thanks for coming, Luce, you truly are the best friend a girl could ask for.”
“I learned from the best.” She smiled at me and I grinned as I turned the radio on loudly. Top 40 music pumped out of the stereo and I Hope by Gabby Barrett started playing.
“I love this song.” Lucy sang along to the radio and soon both of our voices were screeching into the wind. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw that Jolene had her out the window and was looking around eagerly. I realized this was the first time she’d ever been out of the city.
“Welcome to the country, Jolene.” I laughed to myself at the irony. If anyone should have known the country, it was Jolene. Well, at least Dolly Parton’s Jolene. “She’s hypnotized by the trees.”
“She’s trying to think of all the different ways she can pee on them.” Lucy rolled her eyes. “She’d climb them if she could.”
“Haha, I bet she would.”
“So tell me everything there is to know about Wade Hart.” She peered at me as if trying to see into my soul. “You don’t look any different.”
“Should I?”
“In books, they always say that once a woman has lost her virginity, she has a glow and everyone around her seems to know. Frankly, you look just the same to me. I see no glow.”
“Wait until tonight.” I laughed. “I’ll put on some fake tan and bronzer.”
“You are a goof, Savannah.” Lucy turned to look back out the window. “I know you said it was country out here, but man, there are no skyscrapers in sight. It’s all trees and farmland.”
“Do you hate it?”
“I don’t hate it.” She shook her head. “It’s just different. I’ve been in New York too long. It’s strange not staring out of the window and watching a homeless man cuss someone out or a taxi almost get in an accident.”
“Oh, you make me miss the city far too much.” I laughed and then as we pulled into the long driveway, I turned to her. “This is Wade Hart Manor.”
“Is that really the name?”
“No,” I laughed. “But it should be. The way he goes on, you’d think he was some sort of nobility.”
“You don’t think he is, do you?”
“What?” I stopped the car and got out.
“Do you think he could be a prince or something?” Lucy walked up to the house, her eyes wide in awe. “Holy shit, he is really rich, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he’s rich, and no, I do not think he’s a prince.” I grabbed Jolene from the back seat.
“What about a duke or a lord?” She turned back to look at me. “Or maybe he was part of the Russian dynasty that had to flee after Stalin took over.”
“I don’t think so.” I shook my head. “Though that would be kinda cool.”
“You might have slept with one of the descendants of Louis XIV!”
“Hmm…” I cocked my head. “Louis XIV?”
“Off with their heads and let them eat cake.” Lucy giggled. “I think those two quotes were from that time period, right?”
“You mean during the French Revolution? I think it was Marie Antoinette that said, ‘let them eat cake,’ and that was why she was beheaded. Well, that and many other reasons. Also, she was French, not Russian.”
“Listen to you, Ms. Francophile.”
“Hardly.” I walked up to the front door and unlocked it. “Come on, let me show you inside.”
“I can’t wait.” Lucy followed behind me into the foyer, and I let Jolene down onto the cool marble. She immediately started darting back and forth in excitement and I watched in horror as she slid along the marble into the wall and bumped her nose. She let out a small yelp and then went running down the hallway.
“Looks like Jolene already feels at home in her palace,” Lucy observed.
“Oh God, Jolene, don’t start feeling too at home!” I cried out, visions of poop and pee all over the place. I could just imagine Wade coming home to that hot mess. There was no way I could talk my way out of that.
“Oh, guess what, Savannah?” Lucy turned to me with a huge smile as we walked into the kitchen.
“What’s that?” I asked her, my eyes sweeping the room and noticing the open French doors. Hadn’t I locked them before I left? I briefly remembered walking back into the house after I’d been looking for Wade and closing the doors, but maybe I hadn’t locked them properly. Or maybe Gordon had gone outside?
“I’m going to try