“Jeez,” Jack groaned, wiping his face, but he did it smiling from ear to ear.
I couldn’t help but chuckle.
At the sound, Lex’s gaze bounced to mine, a gorgeous white smile stretching her mouth. “Be careful on the way home. Love you.”
I jerked my chin. “You too, Kid.”
She swung her door open and did a strange combination of a roll and a tumble that I was absolutely certain could never be replicated. But she landed on her feet without dropping a shoe or spilling her shake, so I chalked it up as a win.
“Love you, Jackie Boy,” she chirped.
My son had finally gotten his smile under control and was almost convincing as he grumbled back, “Yeah, yeah, yeah. Love you too.”
We watched as she zigzagged up the sidewalk and then punched her code into the smart lock I’d installed after the second time she’d locked herself out. She pushed the door open and stepped inside, stopping only to give us one last wave before shutting the door.
“Man, Aunt Lex is—”
Oh, there were so many adjectives he could have used to finish that sentence. And at one point in time, she had probably resembled each and every one of them.
Though, on that night in particular…
“A mess,” I finished for him. “She’s a total mess.”
There was this recurring dream I had sometimes. It was nothing wild or scandalous, but it was odd. Basically, I was naked and jumping on a trampoline. All night long. That’s it.
And that’s exactly what I was doing when a loud noise coming from outside my bedroom window startled me awake. Noticing the mess my full face of glamour had left on my pillowcase, I craned my neck to look outside.
My head pounded.
Like a baby fawn on new legs, I wobbled to the window with only a tank top and my underwear on. Scratching my hairspray-encrusted rat’s nest, I squinted to see what was going on, but it took a few seconds for it to make sense.
Parked in front of my little fixer-upper were two Hud Construction trucks. I always thought it was cool how he hadn’t given his company his family’s name, but part of his first name instead. Hudson had built the company with his bare hands and he deserved all the glory.
Blinking away the sleep that was still making my vision blurry, I scanned the yard for him. I recognized a few of the guys and the one woman he’d sent over, but I didn’t catch sight of his mug anywhere. Hobbling to my closet, I nearly stumbled over Beep, the most fabulous orange tabby cat to have ever been found under a dumpster. I bent to give her a scratch on the head and she purred against my hand and then stood up on her hind legs to ask for more lovin’. Beep was the sweet one. Boop, on the other hand, was somewhere in my house, hiding under the sofa or a bed, waging a war plan that would no doubt scare the absolute shit out of me. Mostly black with white socks and a thumb shape on her face and forehead, she was a nighttime snuggler and a daytime ankle beast.
After finally breaking free of Beep’s impromptu morning lovefest, I threw on a bra and a pair of shorts, all the while keeping an eye out for Boop’s first attack of the day. Then I went to the bathroom for a little damage control. If there were going to be people helping at my place, I didn’t want to scare them away by looking like a creature from the depths of hooker hell.
And, yeah, it was that bad.
But after a good hot water scrub, pulling a brush through my tangles, and returning my forbidden-from-the-wedding nose ring—thankfully, the tiny stud went in without trouble—I was good enough to do some work outside.
I found my wristlet on the small kitchen table and fished my phone out. As the line rang, I shook out two Tylenol and carried them to the sink for a glass of water. It was going to be a loud day for a hangover.
“Yo,” Hudson barked through the line.
I tossed the painkillers back and swallowed. “You’re a dick boss.”
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s Sunday, Hudson. You have a crew at my house.”
“I know. You’re welcome. But how am I a dick though?”
“Shouldn’t they be off? I can’t believe you’d call people in to clean up my yard on a Sunday morning.”
He chuckled, almost sounding evil. Or maybe powerful. Sometimes