“Covered or uncovered?” I asked.
“What?”
“Covered,” I said as I pointed at my booty. “… or uncovered?”
I pulled my underwear up to mimic a thong so my best asset showed. Going to my tippy-toes like I was wearing high heels made Cassidy laugh. I had to pick my underwear out of my butt to get it back to normal.
“Or should I go with the old standby: silk boxers?”
“Show me again?” Cassidy asked.
“Covered … or … HEY! No pictures,” I complained.
Cassidy shrieked when I lunged for her phone. She quickly rolled off the bed, rocketed through the living room, and darted down the stairs. My little ninja screamed when she saw I wasn’t going to stop just because I was only wearing my underwear. She only made it in the back door of the house because I almost killed myself on the ice on the driveway.
Cassidy tried to lock me out, but I pushed the door open. She darted into the kitchen with me in hot pursuit. Cassidy ran behind my dad, and I came to a stuttering stop when I found my whole family in the kitchen, talking to Joey.
“This is new,” Mom announced to the amusement of everyone.
“You need to get in here and see this!” Angie called out.
Suddenly I found Peggy, Ashley, and Scarlet all at the door separating the living room and kitchen, gawking at my state of undress.
“Why do I never have my phone when I need it?” Melanie, our cook, complained.
I scrambled to make a quick retreat when everyone started digging for their phones. Yep, my butt was still hanging out as I sprinted out the back door.
◊◊◊
I debated what to wear and decided I would go with the Jersey Shore look. I put on camo pants; a black, instead of white, wife-beater shirt—the black option to give it a touch of class; and my Lincoln High baseball cap, put on backward, of course. Joey needed to see the guns to help erase the memory of my butt hanging out.
When I walked in the back door, my brother was waiting for me. He took one look at me and burst out laughing.
“Should I go change?” I asked.
“Oh, hell no,” he said as he pushed me into the kitchen.
When I stumbled into the kitchen, all conversation stopped as they turned to see my outfit. Angie got up and put me in a bear hug.
“I’ve missed you,” she said, and let me go.
Duke growled at me. I’d forgotten that my hats freaked him out. I took it off so he could see I wasn’t there to steal his toys.
Coach Hope picked that moment to walk in our back door. He gave me the once-over and stopped.
“What are you supposed to be?”
“Is dinner about ready?” I asked to change the subject.
Frick! Joey was going to peg me as a total freak. I had no idea why she made me act like a love-sick puppy. Then I glanced over at her, and it all came flooding back. I was such an idiot.
◊◊◊
The reason my family had all gathered here was that Allen and Dawson, my twins, were birthday boys. They had no idea what was going on. My mom had made cupcakes to minimize the damage the kids would do to a cake. The boys did like the singing and cupcake mashing. Greg’s little ones, being older, were more excited than the younger crowd. Mac was sure there had to be a pony since it was a birthday party. I stayed out of it this time.
Inviting Joey over to eat tonight wasn’t my brightest idea. Angie, Peggy, Ashley, and Scarlet dominated her time as they became friends since they were all about the same age. Greg pulled me aside to talk.
“You realize you have zero chance with her?”
“What? I have no idea what you’re implying.”
“I could tell by the way you were looking at her.”
“How was I looking at her?” I asked.
“The way every guy in the room was looking at her—like you wished you had a few minutes alone with her, pants optional,” Greg said.
My eyes widened in mock horror.
“I was not.”
“Okay, sure. Whatever.”
We both laughed.
“I wasn’t obvious, was I?” I asked.
“Dude! First you bust in the back door with your butt hanging out, and next you come back dressed like a muscle-bound douche. Yeah, obvious is probably an understatement. My only problem is now my wife will be on me to go to the gym more,” Greg complained.
“You are getting a little puffy,” I teased.
“Angie tells me that there’s just more of me to love.”
“Dude, not in a good way,” I assured him.
“If I had Joey training me …” he trailed off.
“You don’t want that. Joey’s an evil bitch when it comes to training. She is seriously kicking my ass to get me ready for baseball.”
“I’d die happy.”
My brother and I were too much alike as far as our taste in women was concerned. I’d dated several of his exes.
He then filled me in on his kids. Kyle was done riding ponies. One of them had nipped him. Mac was still crazy about them and getting good at riding alone. Nate was happy spending time with grandma when his siblings went for riding lessons. Greg said they had several of Nate’s masterpieces on the refrigerator.
I caught him up on what had happened with Brook and what Uncle John had told me. He perked up when I said I planned to talk to everyone about their goals and see if there might be anything I could help with.
