My Dad's Best Friend Moved Into My Spare Room After His Divorce, and the Promise He Made My Father Lasted Four Days novel · Chapter 19 of 24

Chapter 19: Dawn's Kitchen

Dawn's kitchen looked as if a very small bomb had gone off in the sink.

There was gray water on the counter, a wooden spoon standing straight up out of the drain and a smell like a wet penny.

"I put a lemon rind down it," Dawn said. "One lemon rind."

"And the spoon?" said Ed.

"The spoon was already in there."

He knelt on her linoleum with his head and shoulders under the cabinet and a flashlight in his teeth.

I stood over him in my work blouse and skirt, holding his wrench.

I was trying not to remember what his shoulders had done in the closet an hour ago.

Dawn looked at my face.

"You're pink," she said.

"It's hot."

"You smell like cedar."

"We cleaned the closet."

"I'm sure you did."

Her phone rang on the table.

She looked at it and made a face.

"It's my mother," she said. "Six sharp. It's been six sharp every Tuesday since I was in college. If I don't pick up, she calls the police."

"Take it," I said.

"It lasts forty minutes."

"Take it in the living room."

"Don't leave him alone with the spoon," Dawn said, and picked up, and said in a bright false voice, "Hi, Ma!" and carried the phone out through the doorway, still talking.

I heard her sink into the couch.

The living room was twelve feet away, around the corner, and the door between them stood open.

I could hear every word.

"No, Ma, I'm fine. No, Ma, I'm not eating enough. I had a salad. It had chicken in it."

Ed took the flashlight out of his teeth.

"She's right there," he whispered.

"I know."

"Lori, she is literally right there."

"Then don't make any noise."

I stepped over him.

I planted a foot on either side of his chest, with my back against the lip of the counter.

His face was upside down and bright with surprise, about two feet below my skirt.

The hem hung over his forehead.

He looked up the length of me.

I had taken off the gray cotton underwear in Dawn's bathroom and put it in my skirt pocket, because I am a planner.

"No," he said, soundlessly.

"Yes."

I lowered myself an inch.

He made a noise that sounded like a man falling off a roof.

I put a hand over my own mouth to hold in a laugh.

Dawn's voice rolled on.

"No, Ma, I'm not seeing anybody. I'm fine. I have a plumber over."

I lowered myself the rest of the way.

His hands came up around my thighs and held me there.

His mouth closed over me, hot and sure.

I gripped the edge of the counter and bit down on my knuckles.

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