Take My Dress Off
Page 29
“Push in that chair, young man,” I called. “Were you raised in a barn?”
“Nope, Vista. Which is just as bad,” laughed Mason as he pushed in his chair. “I’m heading out. Can I have the keys to the Charger, Dad?”
“Sure,” smiled Dillon. “After I’m dead.”
“Can’t blame a guy for trying,” groaned Mason.
Ashley excused herself and leaned in to hug me. “You picked the right guy, Mom.” I stroked her long blonde hair, Dillon’s dark eyes shining back through her. She placed her fortune cookie into my hand.
“You don’t want it?”
“No, you take it. I have to get ready for the game. Alexa will be here in like five minutes.” She disappeared up the Plexiglass staircase.
Dillon watched silently as I tore open the cellophane wrapper and popped open the cookie. The tiny slip with my fortune fell onto the table and I grabbed it.
Time heals all wounds.
I smirked and tossed it back onto the table.
Dillon picked it up as I popped the hard cookie into my mouth. “Hey,” he called.
I raised my eyes up to lock with his. My pulse quickened as he flashed a dangerous smile, his dark eyes smoldering as he drank me in.
“We’ve got a quiet house tonight.”
Acknowledgements
Thank you for reading my book! I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. To my family, thank you for your support while I embarked on this arduous endeavor. Thank you, FM’s, for feeding my family on those nights where I lost track of time. I apologize for the frequent take-out dinners and the extra ten pounds we all put on this year. To HP, thank you for installing a gym in our home so we can lose the above mentioned ten pounds. To The Bros, thank you for keeping HP busy with manly activities so he didn’t realize how much time I was spending with my laptop and not him. To my Napa Girlfriends, Rhonda and Barb, and K and S, thank you for your support and encouragement. A big thanks to my editor T for tirelessly listening to my 80’s stories. To the real Danielle, (you know who you are) who is like a sister to me, thanks for being my other half in the horrific yet hilarious journey through puberty and what a journey it was! I hope that each of you who reads this novel has your own “Danielle” in your life, we all need someone who will knock us off our high horse and help us climb back up in the saddle.
-S. A. Gilmour, 2015