“Are you stuck with your head in therailing?” That seemed like the best way to start.
“No.” He was clearly offended again. “I’mstuck beside the toilet. Oh, and I still don’t like that word. Is there abetter one?”
Yep, I was going to retell this story foryears.
“Wedged?”
“Yes, that’s much better. My ass happens tobe wedged next to the toilet.” He said it so precisely, I was picturing himenunciating each word carefully in his head before they came out.
I still wasn’t sure what to do.
“Can you get out?” It occurred to me that itwas very quiet on his end of the phone. “Can someone there help you?”
He snorted. “Of course not.”
Dakota clearly wasn’t too worried, so Iprodded again. “Why not?”
“Jonah said you liked taking care of me.”He seemed to think that was enough of an answer because he stopped.
Smiling, I shook my head and headed for thefront door where I’d left my shoes and keys. “You’re right. I do like takingcare of you. But if you need help before I get there you need to call out toWade or Bradley.”
Or whoever was the most sober.
“Fine.” He might have been stuck, but Icould almost hear him rolling his eyes.
As I headed out of my apartment, I wasstarting to see why Simon had made sure I had Wade’s address. The drive overpassed quickly. Mostly because Dakota continued to ramble about words he’dforgotten and what they’d been up to.
When I finally knocked on Wade’s door, Iwas surprised to see Silas open it. “Hello.”
He frowned. “Why are you here?”
That was not the greeting I expected.“Dakota is stuck.”
That didn’t help his frown, but he did turnand call out. “Austin, you said Dakota was gone.”
He had?
Austin wandered over on extremely highheels that I was surprised were keeping him upright. “No, I said he disappearedand you said he wasn’t magic.”
Laughing probably wasn’t the right answerto the situation, but it was difficult to hold back. Holding up the phone, Ismiled. “He’s in the bathroom.”
Focusing on the phone, I spoke to Dakotawho was still rambling, this time about characters. “Which bathroom are you in,Dakota? Is there more than one?”
“Yes.”
I should have known better than to ask himmore than one question at a time. “Where are you in the apartment?”
Silas was rolling his eyes at Austin. “Nexttime tell me you don’t know where he went.”
Austin snorted and nearly toppled overbefore Silas managed to right him. “I did. You told me he wasn’t magic.”
I was starting to realize just how much ofhis own real life Dakota had put in the romance novels he’d written.
“If you could just point me toward one ofthe bathrooms, that would be great.” I smiled, still enjoying the whole thing.“He’s been stuck for about twenty minutes and I’m getting tired of finding newwords for ‘stuck’ because that one isn’t good enough.”
Silas rolled his eyes. “Yep, that's Dakotafor you.”
He had no idea.
