A Daddy for Summer: Cruz by Shannon West

Author:Shannon West [West, Shannon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2024-08-02T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

We got to his condo, and it was gorgeous, like I knew it would be. Located on N. Ft. Lauderdale Beach, his was one of the less expensive ones in the area and still cost probably a few million or more.

We took an elevator to his condo, which overlooked the ocean, and he took me inside. It was gorgeous and sleek and luxurious, full of modern furniture, mostly in black, with pale gray walls and gorgeous white trim to set it off.

There were large paintings on the walls in vibrant colors, and soft golden lamplight everywhere, which made the room look cozy, even though it was huge. The kitchen, which I could see from the main room, was sleek and modern, with appliances hidden away behind cabinet doors and the most beautiful waterfall granite countertops I’d ever seen—and I watched the Home and Garden channel religiously. They were white, but with a large gray grain swirling dramatically all through them. The matching backsplash went all the way to the ceiling.

He asked what I wanted to drink. “Nothing for me, thanks.”

“Nothing?”

“I don’t normally drink much as a rule. I don’t like the taste of liquor.”

“Really? What about a beer, then? Or some wine?”

“No, nothing. Okay, maybe a soda if it’ll stop you from giving me that look.”

“I have soda. If you’re sure that’s what you want. That stuff rots your teeth, though.”

“God. Okay, then juice if you have it.”

He grinned and busied himself at the counter and then brought me a glass of the good orange juice that still has the pulp in it and tasted like freshly squeezed. He sat down beside me with his drink, which looked like bourbon.

“A bartender who doesn’t like the taste of liquor. Is that more to that story?”

“Alcoholism runs in my family. It killed my mother.”

He looked a little shocked, and hesitated, like he thought I might be kidding. I immediately regretted saying anything at all. That was the usual reaction I got when I told people, so I didn’t know what else I’d expected. Maybe I’d been trying to shock him or play on his sympathy.

Rather than brush it off, he grazed my cheek with the back of his hand and said, “Do you want to talk about it?”

“Nothing to talk about,” I said with a shrug. “She was a drunk, and a meth head. She locked me in a parked car in Orlando in front of a bar when I was a kid and went inside for a couple of hours. She had parked there for “just a minute” which turned into longer when she went in and then forgot I was with her. I don’t know what the temperature was when she first parked there. But it had reached ninety degrees outside when I was found. The temperature inside a closed car when it’s ninety outside can reach 120 degrees in only twenty minutes. Like I said, I don’t know how long it was like that, but that must have

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