Page 16 of Mr. McBeefcake

chapter

nine

Kathryn

After waking up next to the living furnace that is Donovan Jewel, I freaked out. I admit it, I panicked. What were we now? We’d reconciled an old friendship by boinking the hell out of each other. I lost track of how many orgasms he gave me. I’m pretty sure I’ve used my quota for this month. Maybe part of next month too.

I knew that my old friend Lily Granger—though now she has a married name I can’t remember—lived up on Saddle Ridge. So I took a chance and sent her a text to see if she could come pick me up and take me into town. I didn’t want to risk my sister deciding on another lesson I needed to learn.

“Thank you again for picking me up,” I say.

“No problem. I’m glad you texted. I needed to get away from the house this morning anyways. Also, it’s nice to see you after so long.”

“Yes, it’s really nice to be back home.”

“So you and Donovan finally hooked up, or has that been going on for a while?”

I choke on… air, I guess, because I’m not swallowing anything. “What?”

“That was the Jewels’ cabin. And I know y’all were nuts about each other in school.”

“We were?”

“Oh yeah, everyone knew,” Lily says.

“But he had a girlfriend,” I argue.

“Mona? Please. Yes, they were together, but he did the bare minimum with her. Don’t you remember? He only took her to homecoming and one other dance. But he refused to take her to prom.”

“I didn’t go to any of those.”

“Hayes Crawford took Emmy and I to prom.”

That makes me smile. “I remember that. It was a few years after I graduated, I think. But it was a great story.”

“He’s the sweetest.” Then she looks over at me. “Don’t tell Forest that if you see him. He gets all twisted up and jealous when other men talk to me, which is ridiculous.”

“He loves you.”

“He does,” she says with a smile. “So are you going to answer my question, or did you want to keep deflecting?”

“Yes, we hooked up, but it was a first-time thing. An only time thing.”

“Did he say that?”

“Well, no, but we live in two very different worlds,” I say.

“Because he’s a sports star?”

“Yeah, I mean last year he took a super model to the ESPY Awards.”

“Is that a sports thing?”

“Yes. I’m just saying that I am used to being surrounded by egotistical or awkward nerds. I don’t even own a strapless bra.”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“I don’t know. Just seems like the kind of thing you’d need to own to wear the right kind of dress to a fancy awards ceremony. They’re televised!”