The 2014 R.L. Mathewson Chronicle Collection (6 page)

The List

The List

Orlando, Florida

The Morning after Book Bash……..

            “Nick?”

              A gentle shake of his shoulder was followed by another, “Nick?”

           With a disgruntled groan, he rolled over onto his side and reached for the heating pad that he’d placed by the bed, knowing that Jamie would need it this morning. Still struggling to open his eyes, he blindly reached out, slapping his hand against the carpeted floor and the side of the nightstand until he found what he was looking for. With another grunt, he picked up the heating pad and rolled over onto his back as he unraveled the rolled up heating pad.

            “Do you want me to draw you a bath?” he asked, struggling against the desperate need to yawn as he forced his eyes open, only to frown when he found his wife, who by all rights should be curled up in the fetal position, whimpering and moaning as she struggled to get through the morning after a sugar binge, kneeling on the bed, fully dressed and practically bouncing with excitement.

            “What the hell is going on?” he asked, rubbing his hands roughly down his face even as he did a mental tally of all the sugar that he’d caught her consuming yesterday, making sure to multiply that by five for all the sugar that she’d most likely snuck behind his back and knew without a doubt that she should be begging for him to put her out of her misery right about now.

            Instead she was wide-eyed, smiling and apparently energetic after only four hours of sleep, which meant……

            “Oh, shit,” he grumbled, dropping the heating pad on the bed as he rubbed his hands down his face again, praying that this was a dream, a really bad dream. “You never went to bed, did you?”

            “Nope,” Jamie said, shifting anxiously on the bed next to him.

            “How much?” he asked, mentally preparing himself for her answer, an answer that was no doubt going to either lead to spending the night in the emergency room, getting another lecture from doctors about limiting her sugar or by her side in the bathroom while she begged him to knock her the hell out between promises that she would never touch sugar again.

            “How much what?” she asked, pretending not to understand, something that she only did when she broke her promise and went over her sugar quota for the week in a single day.

            “How much sugar did you have between the moment that I passed out and just a few minutes ago when you woke me up?” he asked, groaning as he forced himself to roll over and sit up, throwing his legs over the side of the bed as he struggled to chase away the last few strands of sleep trying to drag him back under.

            “Not much,” she mumbled, shifting nervously on the bed behind him.

            With a sigh, he stood up and headed for the hotel room’s door, bypassing all of Jamie’s old hiding spots, the bureau, the trashcan, the suitcases, the tub, toilet and finally the safe.

            “Wait!” Jamie cried, rushing up behind him as he yanked the door open and stuck his head out, ignoring the startled housecleaner walking past their room as he looked down to the right of the door and muttered a curse only to release a more vicious curse as he looked to the left of the door. Grumbling about twelve step programs for sugar addicts, he stepped back into the room and slammed the door shut.

            “Tell me that you really didn’t go through what appears to be a dozen cans of soda and about fifty pounds of chocolate and junk food,” he pleaded, pressing his forehead against the door as he waited for his wife to come up with some piss poor excuse that would make him feel better.

            “I love you?” she said a minute later with what sounded like a hopeful smile.

            “Why?” he asked hollowly, raising his head only to slam it lightly back against the door, more angry with himself than he was with his wife for her junk food obsession.

            He should never have fallen asleep until he’d made sure that she had, but he’d been so damn tired by the time they’d finally managed to make it back to their hotel room this morning. It had been a long week of traveling and meetings and he would have liked nothing better than to curl up with his wife in their own bed and slept the weekend away, but they couldn’t miss Book Bash.

            While Jamie was doing a lot better with meeting new people and seemed to enjoy doing book signings now, they still weren’t her favorite part of the job. It usually took him a pound of baked goods, a bottle of soda and a half-pound of chocolate to convince her to attend a book singing, but that wasn’t the case with Book Bash.

            Last year the first Book Bash had been held and Jamie had reluctantly attended after the customary sugar payment. After he’d dragged her from their room all the way down to the meet and greet for the authors, he’d been prepared to keep her adorable ass there with the chocolate bars he’d hidden in his jacket pocket when Maryse Couturier Black, the woman behind Book Bash, walked over and greeted Jamie with a warm smile.

            Before his eyes, he’d watched as his normally nervous wife, relaxed and in less than a minute she was smiling that smile that she normally reserved for those times when it was just two of them and she could relax. It was the first time that she’d willingly stayed the entire time for a meet and greet without chocolate being involved. She’d smiled, laughed and seemed to have a genuinely good time. It didn’t hurt that R.L. had also attended the signing and had dragged him and Jamie to join her table.

            He’d been even more surprised when Jamie decided to tag along with R.L. to hang out in the signing hall to greet the readers who were registering early. They’d hung out with the readers, laughed and joked with them and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. The next morning had been an even bigger surprise when she’d dragged
him
out of bed, anxious to make it to the signing on time.

            They’d shown up just in time to catch R.L. switching nameplates on a table so that she could sit next to Jamie. The signing had gone smoothly, better than good actually. Jamie had been able to relax and he ended up having a great time as well, enjoying himself more than he usually did at signings. The event had run smoothly, better than most, leaving him with nothing to do but spend time with his wife, talk to some of the authors and get to know Maryse and her husband. Later that night they’d attended the after party, danced and hung out with readers and by the time they came back to their hotel room they’d been too exhausted to make love, a first for them.

            It had been the best signing they’d ever attended and when Jamie had received her invitation to attend this year’s Book Bash a few months ago she’d jumped at the chance. Even though Jamie had been just as exhausted as him and R.L. hadn’t been able to attend this year, she’d still been excited to attend Book Bash. She’d been having such a good time that he hadn’t had the heart to ask her to spend the night relaxing in their hotel room. Instead they’d had dinner with a few readers, attended the after party and danced until around three this morning before hitting a club for a few more hours until he could barely see straight.

            When Jamie mentioned hitting an all night diner with a few other authors and readers he’d been forced to beg her to call it a night. With a smile and a kiss, she’d agreed to take pity on him and call it a night. He’d barely managed to make it through his shower and collapse on the bed before he’d passed out, something that he was now seriously regretting.

            “I didn’t want to be stuck in the hotel all day,” she simply explained as she took his hands in hers and gave them a gentle yank, pulling him towards the bathroom.

            “Please don’t tell me that you want to spend the day at Disneyworld,” he grumbled, praying that he wasn’t about to be faced with a day of screaming, crying children, long lines and chasing after his wife every five minutes when she spotted vendors selling sugary treats that she just had to have.

            “No,” she said, shoving him towards the shower, “something better!”

            “I took a shower four hours ago,” he reminded her with a calm sigh, wondering what hell she had in store for him today.

            “This will wake you up,” she said, sounding excited as she quickly moved around him and started the shower, double-checking the temperature of the water before gesturing rather impatiently for him to get in.

            “I don’t want to wake up,” he pointed out grumpily even as he stepped in the shower, helpless to deny her something that she wanted.

            Well, helpless to deny her something that she wanted unless it was a shitload of sugar.

            “Please do this for me?” she asked, worrying her bottom lip.

            Even though he wanted nothing more than to crawl back in bed, he found himself reluctantly nodding as he ducked his head beneath the stream of hot water. “Fine,” he said around a heavy sigh, promising himself that they’d call it an early night tonight so that he could catch up on some sleep before their flight in the morning.

            “What are we doing?” he absently asked as he reached for the small travel bottle of shampoo that Jamie had packed for him.

            “Nothing big,” she said as she rushed around the bathroom, grabbing towels and clean clothes for him, clearly impatient to leave.

            He nodded, wondering if maybe they could knock this thing out in an hour or two so that they could come back to the hotel and-

            “I just want to cross one or two items off my list,” she casually explained, leaving the bathroom with a shrug as shampoo suddenly shot out of the small bottle in his hand, shooting up into the air before crashing down in the tub with a soft
splat
.

            “
Shit
,” he bit out on a groan as he was forced to squeeze his eyes shut and will his body that was suddenly very much awake to calm down, but it was nearly impossible as the thoughts of all the very naughty things that his wife wanted to do raced through his mind.

            It was going to be a very long day and if he survived another item on her list, he thought with a grin as he reached out and switched the hot water off, leaving a torrent of ice-cold water hitting him, it would be worth missing out on a little sleep.

Part II

The Bradford Invasion

The Day After Book Bash……….

Orlando, Florida

            “Wake up!”

            “Go away,” Jason muttered, trying to roll over, but Haley wasn’t having that.

            “
What the fuck
?” Jason demanded, suddenly wide awake as he scrambled off the bed, his hand shoved down the front of his boxer briefs as he frantically searched for the handful of ice that she’d been forced to use.

            “Oh, good,” she said, smiling brightly, “you’re awake!”

            His glare shifted from her to the alarm clock on the hotel room’s nightstand and then back to her. Eyes narrowed in accusation, he said, “It’s not even seven in the morning.”

            She sighed dramatically as she nodded, “I know. I let you sleep in.”

            “Sleep in?” he repeated back in disbelief as his eyes shot back to the alarm clock.

            “Exactly,” she said, picking up the pile of folded clothes that she’d set out for him last night when they’d dragged their exhausted butts into the hotel room, which she’d expected to happen after Book Bash.

            What she hadn’t expected was to miss Book Bash completely, because of her husband and his cousin. She also hadn’t expected to spend most of the day and night trying to bail them out of jail or tying to talk the angry and frightened restaurant manager out of pressing charges. It had taken her ten hours, a call to her father-in-law and his credit card to get them to drop the charges.

            Well, that and the promise to stay away from Orlando, Florida for the next five years and the restaurant that they’d closed down for the rest of their natural lives. The guys hadn’t been happy about Orlando, but they’d grudgingly agreed after she’d threatened to leave their asses in jail for the night. They’d tried to argue the restaurant stipulation, because apparently it had great fried chicken and the guys weren’t willing to give that up. It had taken Jason’s father, Jared, and the reminder that a restraining order pressed against him would probably cost him his job at the school to fix things.

            Grudgingly, Jason and Trevor had agreed to the terms. Once the manager had the damage assessed and Jared had paid over the phone, they’d been released. Unfortunately for her and Zoe, that hadn’t happened until around midnight. With Book Bash over and the after party winding down, they’d had no choice but to call it a night.

            “But it’s our vacation,” Jason pointed out with a pout, his glare gone as he sent the bed a look of longing that had her rolling her eyes even as she gestured for him to get his butt in the bathroom and get dressed.

            “Uh huh,” she said, absently returning to packing her bags, “and according to the agreement that you signed last night it ends in four hours when the police escort is scheduled to bring us to the airport.”

            With a grumble, he grabbed his clothes and headed for the bathroom.

            “You know that they’re making a big deal out of nothing, don’t you?” he yelled from the bathroom.

            “I know,” she yelled back, knowing no such thing.

            She hadn’t been at the restaurant so she really couldn’t say for sure whether or not the restaurant staff and customers had overreacted, but knowing the Bradford men the way that she did she doubted it. There was absolutely no doubt in her mind that it had been just as horrifying as all those people crying and hyperventilating in the precinct had claimed. Actually, she’d be willing to bet that it was actually ten times worse, but she knew the mind had a way of protecting people from horrifying events by dulling memories so that they could function without breaking down.

            As she picked up her makeup bag and packed it, she couldn’t help but shake her head in disgust. She’d known better than to trust Jason and Trevor on their own, but she’d let the excitement of attending Book Bash and seeing Jamie and Nick distract her. Normally when they went on vacation she kept an eye on Jason, making sure that there were no buffets within a fifty-mile radius and if there was, she’d normally kept him distracted with sex to keep him out of jail and off the eleven o’clock news.

            She’d known that Orlando had buffets, a lot of buffets, and she’d planned on keeping Jason distracted at the signing by talking about his possible promotion, but….well……..she’d spotted Tina Reber walking into the hotel and she may have completely forgotten that Jason even existed, never mind was in danger of causing a state of emergency. Zoe had spotted Mrs. Reber and turned her attention away from her husband to watch the authors walking inside and Trevor and Jason had taken advantage and snuck off, but they hadn’t gone far.

            An hour later, just as they were stepping into the large room that held Book Bash, her phone had started to ring. Without looking, she’d taken it out of her purse and held it out for Jason, too distracted by all the authors in one room to answer the phone. When the phone had chimed a minute later, letting her know that she had a missed call and had a voicemail, she’d realized that at some point her husband had snuck off. Her stomach turning with dread, she’d pulled her phone out, hit the play button for the voicemail message and closed her eyes, cursing the Bradford appetite to hell and back.

            Now, Jason and Trevor were going to have to work off their debt to Jared by working weekends for the next two months while every Bradford alive rushed to go to Orlando to hit the buffets before the family was placed on the banned list again. The family had just got off the banned list less than a year ago and already twenty-five Bradfords were banned from Orlando, Florida and in some cases, the entire state. It was only a matter of time before the state officials and the restaurant owners realized that all the incidents were connected and issued another family ban, which was why every Bradford male was in a rush to get down here.

            “Is my razor out there?” Jason yelled over the sounds of the shower.

            With a sigh, she grabbed the razor that he’d left in his duffle bag and headed for the bathroom, wishing that she’d at least got the chance to meet one of her favorite authors yesterday to make this trip worth it. Knowing that Jason would do whatever it took to make it up to her, she shrugged away her disappointment. She also loved Jason too much to stay mad about this. She knew that he hadn’t done this on purpose. He’d been looking forward to returning next year with the kids as much as she had so-

            “Thank you,” Jason said against her lips, his wet body suddenly pressing against hers, getting her clothes wet as he wrapped his arms around her and picked her up.

            “What are you doing?” she asked breathlessly as she struggled to think straight, but it was kind of difficult to do with Jason nibbling on her earlobe in the way that drove her crazy as he carried her over to the bed.

            “Getting an early start on my apology,” he whispered as he dropped them onto the bed and……..