The Hot Corner Read Free Page B

birthday. I’d baked him a horrible cake that we’d both laughed at before throwing it out and eating ice cream right out of the carton. I’d made him a birthday crown out of a Budweiser case and told him I was his royal subject for the night, there to serve his every whim. His whims had all involved my being naked. That night was a billion times better than this one.
    “Nothing happy about it.” I pushed the roses aside and stood on unsteady feet. He caught my arm before I could fall or walk away from him.
    “I’m sorry.” I heard the sincerity in his voice and saw it in his eyes, but it wasn’t enough.
    “I’m sure you are, now that you actually remember. Which you only do because I told you.”
    “I remembered. Just not today.” He tried to smile but my glare stopped him cold. “I have a present for you back at my place. Come home with me.”
    I smirked and tugged my arm loose from his hold. “I just bet you do. I’ve had enough of that present, thanks.” Not really. I still wanted the hell out of him, which pissed me off.
    He had the audacity to laugh. “I wasn’t talking about that, although it would be a nice way to end your birthday.”
    Asshole. “No, it would have been a nice way to start my birthday, along with breakfast in bed and a whole day of doing nothing but watching movies and eating junk food and having fun before going out and celebrating tonight. But what did I get instead?” He winced. “I woke up alone with a text telling me you were at practice, then more practice, then meetings, more practice, and finally your self-imposed practice. Not quite the day I had planned.”
    “I know, and I’m so sorry, Red.” He wasn’t allowed to call me that right now. “I can make it up to you.”
    “I just want to go home.”
    “Let me take you.” My body yearned for him to do just that, and I hated it. I wobbled a little and knew the beers I’d pounded when I first got to the party were taking effect.
    “Fine, but you’re just dropping me off.”
    He smiled, knowing he’d won. I turned toward the doorway, but he stopped me. “After I dance with you at least this once.” He pulled me against him, and I fit into his arms perfectly, just like always. My arms wound around his neck without my actually telling them to, and I inhaled his fresh, clean, soapy scent from his shower. I loved the way he smelled after baseball practice. He knew it, too.
    The opening strains of “If I Ain’t Got You” started playing, and I knew he’d arranged it.
    “Bastard.” It was our song—at least our song of the moment, since I constantly changed it when something new and fitting came out. But this one seemed to be sticking. Plus, I loved Alicia Keys.
    “Yes, but I’m your bastard.” His arms tightened around me and I rested my head on his shoulder, my nose pressing into his neck so I could inhale him. “I am still, right?”
    As if I could walk away from him. Things may have been kind of shitty right then, but I still loved the guy. “Yes, but I don’t like you very much right now.”
    He laughed and rubbed my back. “That’s okay, because I like you a lot. I love you, even.”
    “I love you, too, even if you’re a jerk.”
    He pressed a kiss to the top of my head. “I know things have been insane lately, and I can’t promise the next few weeks are going to be much better, but I do promise to make more time for you, and I won’t make plans I can’t keep.”
    I sighed and burrowed into him. “Yeah, you probably will. I understand mostly, but today—”
    “Today I fucked up royally. And I can’t take it back. But I can give you the day you hoped to have—it’s just going to be a day late.”
    I peered up at him, surprised and feeling hopeful for the first time in weeks. “Really?”
    He smiled. “Yes, really. Starting now, I’m all yours for the next thirty-six hours. I told coach I’m taking tomorrow off and not even hitting the gym. How does that sound?”
    “Perfect.”
    He