Seventeen Days (24 page)

Shit, I never told him not to bring it up to her if they were in contact. Figures he’d email her so soon after my trip—he’s probably checking up on me. All I did was send him a quick text after we landed to let him know we made it back safely.
Hurry up, Harrison.

“I may have made plans with him for Christmas and New Year’s. We haven’t had time to fill you in on everything yet. I’ve made a few plans over the last three days that I want to tell you all about. How about we wait for Harrison to get back before I tell you everything? He doesn’t know about a few of the choices I’ve made.” 

Please, wait.
This is not a conversation I’m ready to have alone. I need my rock. 

“Okay, we can wait. Why don’t you tell me what you thought of Julian?”

Over the next twenty minutes, I tell her everything we did once we landed in Paris. Telling her that this was the first time I truly took in the city for its beauty. Not only for its shopping and nightlife

“Have you ever been to Paris?” If she says no, maybe we can take a day or two and do a few things together only us girls when we visit in December. I’ve always wanted an aunt to go shopping with. 

“No, I haven’t. Sadly, I’ve done a minuscule amount of traveling and no international travel. I’ve never had the need to have a passport. Most of my traveling has been done by driving, not flying.” 

Turns out Julian telling her about my plans is a good thing; she’ll need time to get a passport. I’m getting ready to burst out all of my plans to her when Harrison pulls into the driveway.
The fishing cowboy saves me again.

Last night, she didn’t ask why I was spending the night with Harrison. Last she knew, we were friends, whatever that meant. Obviously, it’s changed, but I don’t think we were ever strictly friends. We were only fighting the inevitable. 

“Hope you worked up an appetite while we were making love this morning, Red. Because I got enough food for an army, I know how you like to eat.” Glancing up, he sees my aunt sitting in the chair—the look that crosses his face is priceless. “Oh … hey, Savannah.” How could he have not seen her truck in the driveway? The idiot. If she had any questions left about us, he’s now answered them. Getting me off in a club next to my father is one thing, but stating out loud that we’re having sex is a whole other ballgame. 

Feeling the heat crawl up my skin, I stand to grab a bag of food from Harrison and dash off toward the kitchen. This is so embarrassing. My cheeks are probably a permanent shade of tomato. 

“There’s nothing to be embarrassed about, Morgan,” Aunt Savannah yells from the living room. Hearing them laugh together makes this whole situation slightly worse. 

“Stop laughing,
assholes
.”
Did I call my aunt, an asshole?
Yup, you bet your sweet ass I did. 

Their laughter dies off but doesn’t do anything to fix my embarrassment. Seeing the humor in it, I laugh to myself while dumping the contents of the bag on the table. Harrison joins me and does the same with the bag he was still holding. “Come on, Savannah. Breakfast is served,” he yells. 

It’s not like she didn’t think we were sleeping together, anyway. She had to have known it was bound to happen. She witnessed us together in the same room. She’d have to be blind to not see the way we look at each other. 

Once we’re all sitting around the table, I bring up the subject of my holiday plans.

“About those plans Julian was referring to … they include all of us. Not only me. Julian is opening up his home for us all to stay and paying for our flight there and back.” There, straight and to the point. It’s pretty clear by the expression on her face, she isn’t pleased. Julian has no issue with her coming and staying. I actually think he’s fairly excited to see her. 

“Excuse me, I must’ve misheard you. He wants me to travel to Paris and spend the holidays with him? Me? His ex-wife? That he cheated on? I need this to be clear, you mean to include me? And you made these plans without consulting me first?” 

I’m not sure if she’s more pissed or shocked. 

Harrison is the first to speak. “You didn’t mishear her. We’re all going to Paris for the holidays.”

After he spoke up, no one speaks again for a good five minutes. Not being able to take it much longer, I break the silence. “Julian is actually looking forward to you coming as well. He’s offered to book a hotel for us, if it makes you more comfortable. I don’t care either way. We can stay in a hotel, that’s totally cool. I was shocked when you said he emailed you asking about the plans, and I hadn’t had a chance to say anything yet. I was planning on making a big dinner on my next night off, which so happens to be Monday.”

Harrison stands when he notices Mac near the back door, and goes to let him in. Maybe he can install a doggy door for Mac like the one Dog has.

“I’m going to do what I did before and let you two ladies talk this out. I’m here as moral support for you
both
. But I do need to add in, I’m going to Paris; my mind was made up as soon as she sprung the idea on me. If you’d like to stay in a hotel, the one we stayed in this weekend was perfect and within walking distance to Julian’s apartment.” 

Gasping, I turn to him. “Well … that’s not completely true. You were a little upset. Not with my including you but
maybe
with my including Savannah in the plans. You were so upset you stopped in the middle of the street blocking the traffic! Don’t sugarcoat this and say you were onboard with the whole entire idea.” Turning so I can see my aunt again, I continue, “If you don’t want to stay at Julian’s, we’ll get a hotel. I’ll do separate things with him, and you don’t have to cross paths with him. We can celebrate with you in the morning and him in the evening. New Year’s Eve is the only time I would ask you to be in the same place at the same time.” 

Grabbing a humongous blueberry muffin, I start picking at it, waiting for anyone to talk. Mac could even bark, and I’d be happy.
Someone say something!
 

“Red, that’s for eating not demolishing.” Grinning, he lets me know my little outburst at him didn’t piss him off. Throwing him under the bus probably wasn’t the nicest thing I could’ve done. 

Taking a big ass bite of my muffin, he starts talking again, only it’s not about my muffin. 

“Okay, so I was a bit shocked when she mentioned the plans. Like she said, I wasn’t angry at her for making plans that included me but for making them for
you
. But now that I hear about the hotel offer and keeping y’all separate for the majority of the time, I think it could work. If it doesn’t, you’ll still get a free trip to Paris. Sounds like winning to me.” 

Turning so he can see me, I mouth the words, “Thank you.” 

“And when I’m spending time with Julian, for random things, Harrison could take you places. He hasn’t seen much of the city yet, and I’m sure he’d love to explore more. And I want a whole day devoted to only you and me, doing all sorts of girlie things. Makeovers, manicures, pedicures, massages, and shopping. You name it, we’ll do it that day.”

She takes a sip of her coffee before continuing, “Okay. I’ll go. But I have a few requests.” 

“Requests are good. We can do requests,” I say a bit too brightly. Overeager, even. 

My trip planning may not have been such a bad thing after all. 

“I won’t stay at his apartment, at least, not right away. I’d like a hotel room booked and waiting for me to stay there and see how things go. If things aren’t a big issue for me, I’ll start staying with everyone. That’s my first request.” 

“Sounds reasonable to me, Savannah. If you want, I could stay at the hotel too, so you’re not alone. Morgan could use that time to bond more with Julian.”

Um, excuse me? Nope, you’re staying with me.

“That won’t be necessary. My last two requests are pretty simple. I don’t want you to have to spend time with us separately for days such as Christmas. We’re both adults, and I’m sure we can be in the same space celebrating. The last one is, that we find a person we trust completely to watch over both Mac and Dog.”

 “Steve will take the dogs in, it’s no problem. So it shouldn’t be an issue. And it’s far enough in advance to rework any tours that may be booked then. Especially if I hire the new kid full time.”

What new kid? Is he contemplating hiring the guy he interviewed last week? Hmm, maybe I should ask him? Maybe I should continue on with the rest of my news. Or wait. Waiting sounds good to me. 

 “Now all we need to do is get you a passport, Aunt Savannah. We should start that soon; it can be a long process.” Sort of changing the subject may work in my favor, and the news bomb I dropped on her, may also make her forget I had other news to share with the both of them. I’m not ready to burst this happiness bubble. 

“I was already planning on getting one before I was made aware of your plans. I’ll get one fairly quick. I’m going to head back out to the office. Why don’t you wait till dinner to tell me the rest of your news?”
Fuck, she remembered.
“Harrison, come over for dinner. She said she has news you hadn’t heard yet. My pantry is pretty sad so you’ll have to run to the grocery and fill up. Use the card I gave you, Morgan. See you two later.” 

Disaster sort of averted. For now. 

“Grocery shopping works out perfectly. I need to go too. We’ll go fill up on lots of junk we don’t need but love anyway, and maybe grab a movie or two. Although, tonight it’s an early bedtime for us. I have to be in at six, you at eight. We so should tell our boss he’s a hardass. He could’ve given us another day off to be lazy. The nerve.” 

That made me laugh. He’s a big ass dork, but I love him. “He is a real dick. Or wait, is it he has a real nice dick? I’m confused and may need to be shown it again to know for certain.” 

Groceries can wait. It seems like I’ve been saying this with a lot of things lately. This love shit has me neglecting all my responsibilities.

Turns out my shower wasn't made for two. Who’d have guessed? Or let’s state it more clearly: it wasn’t built with enough room for two people to have sex in it. Because one of them is practically a giant.

After our attempt at shower sex, he hopped out to let me continue getting ready to clean up. While I got ready, Harrison ran home and grabbed Dog to bring him here to stay with Mac so they can keep other company while we run errands. 

“Did you make a list of what all you need from the store?” My list may or may not take up two sheets of notebook paper. Front and back. We’ll be buying groceries, all. Damn. Day.  

“Don’t need a list, I’ll grab what I like and hope it’s everything I need. It only needs to get me through till my next day off and I run and do the same thing again. Unless you want me to pick up a few things for you, to have at my house. If so, you can toss them in my cart.” 

“Want to know something sad? I’ve never been to a grocery store. That’s probably why I made such a huge list. I wasn’t sure exactly what all was needed. When I walked into the kitchen, I took a quick inventory of the empty fridge, almost bare pantry, and wrote like crazy.” 

He presses the tip of a finger on my nose and taps twice. “Boop. Boop.” Seriously, what the fuck was that? 

Laughing, he grabs my hand and proceeds to lead me out of the house. Not bothering to explain what the hell he did that for. Weirdo. 

“I’ll make this first grocery trip, ah-maze-ing. Wait and see, Red.” He opens my truck door for me and doesn’t wait for me to climb up in, he picks me up and places me in my seat. “Also, I’m kind of sad you didn’t get the show reference a minute ago.” 

Say what? 

“The ‘boop boop’ thing?”  

“Yeeeeees, it’s only from the best show ever, but if you don’t watch it don’t worry, you will soon enough.” 

Well, what fucking show is it already?

“You honestly don’t know?” 

“What gave you that idea, my silence?” the only logical way to reply is with sarcasm. “Can’t say I do. Haven’t watched much TV lately. Although, I do watch
The Vampire Diaries
. I’m a season behind, but that’s what my Netflix subscription is for.” 

Rolling down my window, I place my arm on the door and lay my head on it, watching out the window, letting the breeze move over me. My hair will be a rat’s nest, but I don’t give a shit. It’s worth it to have this feeling of completion. 

“
Supernatural
. I’m talking about the show
Supernatural
. I know you’ve heard of it since your vampire show plays on the same channel. Don’t worry, we’ll watch it together, and you’ll love it.” 

Turning my head to the side so he can hear my reply, I say, “What’s it about? Is it badass?” I have seen the commercials for it and the cast appears to be pretty sexy, you’d think I’d watch it for that reason alone.

“Yes, it’s badass. And it’s about, saving people — hunting things — the family business.” 

Forgetting my window, I turn around to fully face him. “How the hell does that describe the show? Tell me what it’s about, dammit! Like what do they hunt? What’s the whole point of the show? Give me something here, you jackass.” 

“It
is
about those things, babe. It’s too frickin’ complex to describe because it only gets better and better with each new season. But at its core, it’s a show about brothers who will do literally anything for the other. Toss in a few ghosts, demons, angels, werewolves, and vampires to make it interesting. Good versus evil. You’ll love it, I promise.”