Page 26 of Over & Out
“People still say capisce.”
“I would argue they do not.”
I hold up a third finger. “Three!”
He straightens, nodding like he’s ready.
“I’m not alerting you to meetings in your bedroom,” I say, remembering Tru and Cindi had to go in there to wake him up. “It’s weird.”
“Come on. Sometimes I have a hard time waking up.”
“You’re a grown man.”
“You noticed?”
I narrow my eyes. “That gong is going to live beside your door. If you’re not awake, I’m going to hit it repeatedly until you are.”
“That’s a little excess?—”
“Which brings me to number four.”
He lets out a huff of breath. He’s annoyed now, which is good. It’s easier to focus on how much I can’t stand him this way.
“Four.” I continue. “You wear clothes when you talk to me.”
He waggles his brows. “Too distracting without them?”
Luckily the rage I feel at his cockiness is hot enough to mostly drown out the rush of hormones that flares through me remembering him shirtless in the kitchen. “No. I prefer not to have meetings with toddlers. Or did you forget that part?” I think back to how furious he got when I called him a toddler at the restaurant.
But his brows are knitted together. Hedidforget.
I huff. “Clothes,” I say. “No exceptions.”
“What if I’m on working out?”
“There are clothes for that.”
“On set?”
I give an exasperated huff. “One exception.”
“What if it’s hot out?”
“Shorts are fine.”
“What if I’m in the pool?”
I grit my teeth. “Don’t be pedantic, Donnach. Shirts, where applicable. No pants and you get a…a… one-hundred-dollar fine.”
“That’s it?”
“Five hundred dollar fine!”
“Okay, Drill Sergeant. Anything else?”
I pinch my lips. There is one more thing. It’s the one I should have said first. The one Tru already confirmed, but I know I need to hear it from hismouth.
“You will never bullshit me.”
