Page 53 of Dear John

Screams sounded from the back of the house and I rushed through the kitchen to the back door. I gasped in horror as I saw Riley on the ground, covered in a net, shaking uncontrollably. Rae rushed over and quickly disabled the safety feature, if that’s what you wanted to call it, then tore the net off Riley.

“Are you okay?”

She was still shaking, her eyes wide. “I think… I pissed myself.”

I winced at the puddle underneath her.

“I’m gonna need some Jujyfruits.”

“Anything you want,” I said, helping her to her feet.

When I turned, Kavanaugh was scratching the back of his head. “Well, that wasn’t supposed to happen.”

I glared at him. “Too much. Definitely too much.”

“So, does that mean you won’t let me install the vacuum robot Knight was telling me about?”

“Does it do anything other than clean the house?”

“Maybe.”

“Then that’s a hard no.”

“But—”

I glared at him and he immediately snapped his mouth closed.

He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I’ll have it all taken out.”

I woke up,groggy and more than a little irritated for the third week in a row. Yes, there was a sexy man in my bed. However, his incessant snoring kept me up all night and I was on the verge of murdering him. He was taking up half the bed, sprawled out as if he was the only person sleeping here.

I sat up, rubbing my eyes as he let out another long snore. There was no way I was going back to sleep with my own personal noisemaker in bed. Flinging off the covers, I got up and headed for the bathroom, slamming my foot into the boxes stacked by the door.

“Ugh!” I groaned, sucking in a breath as pain shot through my pinky toe. “Mother fucker,” I hissed, then sidestepped the box and headed for the bathroom.

After locking myself inside, I stared in the mirror, vowing today would not be the day I committed murder. Kavanaugh was my boyfriend. My now live-in boyfriend with all his things in myhouse. I hadn’t planned on moving our relationship along this fast. Yes, I loved him, but we were barely functioning as a couple when his boss fired him.

And that was our biggest problem. I knew his decision not to work with the senator wasn’t completely about me, but he definitely took my feelings into consideration. I hadn’t realized how much the possibility of him working the job with the senator was affecting me until he made the decision not to take it. Slowly, the nightmares receded and I could function without jumping at every sound.

So, when Kavanaugh made the suggestion he move in with me, I allowed it. Of course, he had other reasons than not wanting to find someplace to live. He wanted to protect me. The security system was plenty, but over the last three weeks, I’d had to thwart several attempts he made to put in outrageous security measures that would no doubt get me killed.

Despite all that, Kavanaugh really was trying to make this transition as easy as possible. I just wasn’t ready to live with a man. Or him, really. I was trying not to let his lies get in the way of all he was trying to do for me, but it was going to take more than a few weeks of living together to solve our problems.

After cleaning up, I headed downstairs and checked my emails while the coffee brewed. There was one in particular that looked promising, but I couldn’t function without my coffee.

“Hey,” Riley grumbled, walking into the kitchen in her ratty robe and her hair flying all around her head.

“Rough night?”

She grabbed the carafe and poured herself a cup of coffee. “That depends. Would you consider getting hit in the shin over and over again with a cast a good night?”

I chuckled, taking a sip of my own. “Would you consider a man sprawled out next to you, snoring like a train the whole night, good?”

Groaning, she sprawled out on the counter as she rested her face on the tile. “When did our house get taken over by men?”

“I think that would be when we thought it was a good idea to sleep with them.”

“I don’t get it. Bowie is so…masculine and hot. Shouldn’t I want to be with him more?”