Chapter One - Family-Friendly "Face it, Heathcliff. It's a good deal," the man hurried to place the open folder under his nose and then began patting his forehead with a pristine white handkerchief. The guy was probably holding that close just because he sweated profusely regardless of weather and the conditioned air blasted through the hidden ceiling fan...
Chapter Twelve - Perfect Shot He walked over to Heathcliff and his companion, and, for a couple of seconds, he just stood there, not knowing what to do. It was surely foolish, to act on instinct like that because truth be told, he wanted to dance with Heathcliff, too, and there was no turning back. Heathcliff's companion seemed to be the first to notice h...
"I'm going to kill that bastard! Who does he think he is? My father? I don't fucking need a babysitter! Where's Alex?" The guy hired to babysit me by the "king of assholes" himself, looked at me like I was crazy. Hell yes, I was! Crazily mad! I felt insulted! I was not two years old anymore! Even when I was eight, I knew how to take care of myself... But th...
"Drive you home, Chris?" The young blond stopped at the door and looked back at his night's employer. The eighteen-year-old's pulse began racing. He'd thought the older man wasn't going to. "Sure, Mr. Mathers." Another week. Another babysitting job at Mathers' home. Another drive. Chris lived an eight-minute walk from Mathers' house. Somehow, Mathers' wif...
My wife and I typically take one weekend night per month to get away from the kids and enjoy some grown-up time. On Friday night, Jules left the kids with our babysitter and met me downtown at my office. We were going to catch an early movie and then planned to grab a quick bite at a trendy Italian restaurant that our friends had been raving about. As we sa...
It was the twilight of the day and Ted was sitting on the Lay-Z-Boy watching baseball when his wife called. Apparently there was a storm in St. Louis that cancelled her connecting flight to Chicago and she couldn't get home until the following afternoon. He missed Brenda, but in recent years they had become more like co-ed roommates than lovers. Her large...
Chapter Eleven - A Risk Worth Taking "A night to remember," Aidan mumbled to himself as he took the package just delivered by his door, and went inside. He inhaled once and then exhaled. He hoped Heathcliff wasn't in the mood to make fun of him, by sending him something like knee-high socks and pom-poms. At first glance, there seemed to be no pom-poms. Go...
Few things in this world will shake a woman's confidence like being cheated upon. But what happens when your husband prefers another man? Over twenty years ago, during my first marriage I found out just how devastating that betrayal can be. I was due to give birth to our second child in weeks. We were hoping for a little girl to go with our son. I will admi...
David walked up the steps to the house and paused. All was quiet, Richard was nowhere to be seen, and neither was Cormac. "Hello?" David called out. "Come on in," he heard Cormac's voice. He stepped inside the house and found Cormac sitting at the table, drinking coffee. "Want a cup?" "Sure." David couldn't resist Richard's coffee. "Just a warning, it'...
Lou's car pulled up to the pair of dim spaces at the side of a small white service station. At least, Chris thought it had been white at one time. Dust, exhaust fumes from the single repair bay, cigarette smoke, and god only knew what else had dulled and muddled the exterior paint since its 1940s completion. The lack of illumination didn't help, either. One...