Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 61576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 61576 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 308(@200wpm)___ 246(@250wpm)___ 205(@300wpm)
I find my clothes neatly folded on Jake’s bedside table and slide into them as fast as I can. All of a sudden, that sexy feeling of having a lace bra and panties and garter on underneath my clothes isn’t as sexy anymore as I take the stairs two at a time and find my mom and Jake chatting it up in the kitchen, teacups in their hands.
“Mom!?” I exclaim. Both of them turn their heads.
“Good morning,” Jake says.
“Sadie-bear!” My mom smiles. “Jake and I were just talking–”
“Can I talk to you outside?” I ask through my teeth, doing my best not to completely freak out.
This is like the worst possible scenario I could have imagined. No, I take that back. I never could have actually imagined waking up in Jake’s house and finding my mom downstairs in the kitchen.
“What do you mean, Sadie-bear?” my mom asks, shrugging all dramatically like she isn’t just doing something totally strange and weird and invasive right now. She’s smiling so obnoxiously right now too. God, Jake must be cringing so hard inside. “Jake and I are just having a great conversation. Why don’t you come and join us?”
“Mom!” I snap. “Outside. Now.”
I’m using the best girl-boss voice I can possibly muster and looking at her with don’t-fuck-with-me eyes too. If she doesn’t get the message from this, I may just have to call The Rock to handle her for me.
Thankfully, my mom’s ridiculous smile slowly fades from her face, and she sees that I’m being serious.
“Okay, Sadie-bear,” she says, turning to Jake. “If you’ll excuse me. I just need to go be a mother to my daughter for a moment.”
“Of course.” Jake smiles for her sake, but quickly eyeballs me with a look that lets me know he’s on my side.
You’d better be, mister, I say back with mine. I see him try not to chuckle.
My mom sets her teacup down and gives Jake a little wave as she walks with me to the door. I feel my chest tightening as we step outside together. Countless options of things I could say to her race through my mind, but I can’t seem to settle on one.
Should I shout at her? Be passive-aggressive? Just simply ask her what she’s doing here?
But as it turns out, I don’t even get a chance to speak, because as I close the door, my mom throws her arms around my neck and exclaims, “Oh, honey, I’m so happy for you!”
My heart sinks, and I take a deep breath.
“Happy for me?”
“Yes, of course!” She’s practically shouting at this point. I pull myself away from her and put a finger to my lips. “You’ve finally–”
“Would you keep your voice down?” I hiss, walking quickly across Jake’s lawn and over to my house. My mom pads quickly behind me, easily keeping up. All those morning jogs seem to have been paying off.
“You’ve finally found yourself a keeper!” she repeats, slightly softer this time, but not by much.
“A keeper, Mom?” I scoff. “Seriously?”
“Honey, I met Jake! He’s wonderful! He made me tea, he told me about how he landscaped your yard and bought you ice cream! Mint chocolate chip ice cream. Your favorite.”
This can’t be happening. Oh God, this can’t be happening.
“Yeah, how did you even meet Jake, Mom?” I ask as I open the front door to my house and quickly step inside. “Are you spying on us or something?”
Mom laughs as though I’m being absurd.
“Of course not, honey. I came over this morning to say hello, and your door was locked. Then I saw this handsome gentleman next door grabbing his mail and I asked if he had seen you–”
“Ah, I see,” I groan, slumping down in a chair. “And he just happened to invite you in for a chat.”
“That’s right!” My mom smiles.
It’s all starting to make sense now.
Jake had two options when he ran into my mom this morning. First, he could have simply said no he hadn’t seen me and let her go on about her business. Second, he could have done what he did and invited her in to charm her socks off.
But why would he do that? What would be the motivation behind charming my mom and getting her on his side?
Well, that’s pretty obvious. Jake thinks that if he wins my mom over, it will help him win me over and get me to break my rule about relationships.
Smart, Jake. But you overplayed your hand.
“I am so glad to see you are finally wising up, Sadie-bear.” My mom smiles. “Because he’s a great catch. So handsome. So sweet.”
“Mom, why don’t you worry about your love life and stop getting involved in mine?” I snap, turning my back and walking quickly back to my house.
But not only is Jake’s little plan not going to work, it’s going to backfire and blow up right in his face. Because today marks the end of anything going on between us.