Page 172 of Rock Bottom Girl

The doorbell rang, and I dropped my spoon on the counter with a clatter. Jake. What had possessed me to invite him for dinner?

“I’ll get it,” my dad screeched.

A second later, Homer romped into the kitchen and made a beeline for me. He shoved his nose in my crotch and wriggled with delight when I dislodged him and gave him a good scruffing.

“Doggy!” Children appeared from all doorways staring gleefully at Homer, who was busy telling me about his day in a series of grunts and groans.

“A dogandpresents!” Jake announced from the doorway.

He held up gift bags, and I shook my head. He’d dragged me into a toy store last weekend with the plan to buy the affection of my nieces and nephew.

It appeared to be working. The kids couldn’t decide whether they were more excited over Homer or the mystery gift bags. Jake swooped in and gave me a steamy, hard kiss on the mouth. “Hey, beautiful. I missed you.”

This sexy son of a bitch was going to make some woman feel like the most important thing in the world someday.

Zinnia’s eyes widened as she watched us.

“Nice to see you again, Zinnia,” he said charmingly when he was done kissing the crap out of me.

They shook hands politely, and then Jake plopped down on the kitchen floor, calling Homer over and distributing the gift bags to the kids.

“Whoa! Glow-in-the-dark slime!” Edith was delighted. Zinnia was vaguely horrified. Score one for Jake. I’d told him the kids only got educational toys. He called bullshit and scoured the shop for the perfect gifts.

“Sticky bugs,” Rose yelled at playground volume. She held up giant blister-wrapped insects.

“Zombies that shoot darts!” Chandler triumphantly held up his prize action figures.

“So my thought is, after dinner we have a sticky bug vs. zombie war, and they throw darts and slime at each other,” Jake said.

The three kids looked up at him like he was Santa in a candy store offering them ponies and unlimited bounce house time.

“Aunt Marley, will you play with us?” Edith asked as if daring to hope.

“Only if you let me throw slime at Jake,” I told her.

They all squealed. My sister closed her eyes and took a long drink of her wine.

Poor Zinnia. She and Ralph worked so hard to make sure their children were well-mannered little geniuses. All Jake had to do was roll in with disgusting toys, and all their hard work and private schooling went out the window.

My phone buzzed on the counter, and I glanced at the screen.

It was an unfamiliar number, but…

I snuck into the foyer and answered with a professional, “This is Marley.”

“Ms. Cicero, this is Thad from Outreach in Pittsburgh. I received your resume for our data mining team and wanted to schedule an interview with you.”

My heart rolled over in my chest. The knee-jerk urge to say “no thanks” and hang up was overwhelming. I wanted to stay in Culpepper. With Jake and my parents and my team. I wanted the life I’d somehow stumbled into.

I was so surprised by the visceral certainty of it, I went into an immediate backpedal. I “uh-huhed” and “sure thinged” my way into scheduling an interview for the day before Thanksgiving.

I didn’t have to keep it. I could change my mind. Or I could go. I could interview. I could try to envision a life in a busy office in a busy city four hours away from my old life.

When Thad hung up, I covered my face with my hands and took a deep, shaky breath. The fork in the road was rapidly approaching, and I had to make a decision soon.

74

Marley