Birthday Wishes - The List: Book 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

could have been a one -time deal and I was okay with that. There were a lot of things left on my list, but I wasn't going to start complaining about how hard Luca made me come any time soon. That man had mad skills. Okay, so I wasn't totally fine with not seeing him again, but I was going to continue to work on being fine with it.
    "What does that mean? You are going to see him again, aren't you?" She looked on the verge of heartbreak. She really was a sappy romantic deep down.
    "I don't know. It's not like I woke him up to talk about it when I left in the middle of the night."
    She squealed and kicked her legs like a thirteen-year-old girl. "What did you do? Tell me."
    "Jesus, Rachel, calm down, okay? Do we really have to have this conversation? We have work to do, business to run. Sound familiar?"
    "We can take five minutes and talk about your previously non-existent sex life."
    I gave up. She wasn't going to let me get anything done until I answered. I closed my laptop, faced her fully, and folded my hands together on my desk. I looked at her with my  Fine! You win! face. "What do you want to know?"
    "Where did you go when you left the party?"
    "The Heathman."
    "Straight to the hotel? You didn't go for drinks first? Nothing?" She looked appropriately scandalized, but it didn't quite override her apparent fascination and jealousy.
    "No. Why would we? He wasn't supposed to be at the party in the first place." I totally sounded like a slut just then. The defense that I'd been celibate since the divorce did not help.
    "That's where you were headed when I intercepted you? The Heathman?"
    "Yes, God, Rachel, it's not like we're going steady. We met up specifically to fuck. Jesus." Her refusal to acknowledge what I knew she already understood was starting to piss me off. She just wanted to hear me say all the dirty little details. It appeared her strategy was to embarrass me rather than crucify me as I had originally suspected.
    "It's just so . . .not you." She stopped acting like a school girl with that statement and started acting like my friend. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"
    I asked myself that very question more times than I can count, starting with my very first posting on the adult hookup site, and then each and every time I contacted Luca directly. I forced myself to stop asking it long enough to get through last night, but truth be told, I still didn't know the answer.
    "I was certainly okay with it last night." Deflection seemed like the safest course, even if it sent Rachel back on a track I'd rather she not explore.
    She smiled patiently, a clear message that she wasn't going to chase the bait. "If you really want to dish, we can do that later. Right now I want to know how you are."
    Before I had to answer, my phone chimed that I had a text message. Normally, I'm not one of those rude bitches who thinks that whatever is happening on my phone is more important than the person in front of me. In this instance, however, I was grateful for the distraction. I glanced at the display. "It's Ricky."
    She relaxed into the sofa. "I'll wait." She spread her arms over the cushions like she had all the time in the world, which I knew wasn’t true because she and I have the same work demands.
    I opened the message from my brother.
     
    Mama wants to know when you are bringing Luca for dinner ;)
     
    I typed out a response since it was cheaper than pitching my phone across the room.
     
    Never
     
    Once again, he’d created a mess that I was going to have to clean up. Forget that I was the one who initiated the illicit affair. In my plan, Luca never set foot in the same building as my family. And it was foolproof, too, until Ricky inserted himself like a jackass.  I typed out another quick message and hit send before he could respond.
     
    Ass
     
    His response came almost immediately.
     
    She's not going to like that. I'm going to let you explain why.
     
    I sent the Ass message again for good measure, then put my phone