Bella nodded. "Yep, Coop and Troop are out back. You guys need me to cook anything before I head out?"
Jaide looked at Blaize, who shook his head. "Nope, I think we're good. I'll see you in a day or two?"
"Yep, I'll be by Monday for sure. Call me earlier if you guys need anything. I'll see you guys later."
"Buh-bye."
Bella left the way that they had just come in.
"Well let’s head upstairs and ... Dad!"
Jaide dropped her bag and ran to the door where Bella had just disappeared. Blaize saw Jaide hugging a tall, black-haired man who looked like the spitting image of a Wall Street banker. When she released him, they both walked to where Blaize was standing.
"Dad, this is Blaize; Blaize, my dad."
They shook hands. "Nice to meet you, sir."
The middle-aged man laughed. "It's Sam, not sir. I'm glad Jaide brought home a friend." He looked at Jaide. "I had Bella make up a guest room."
Jaide looked a little doubtful. "Uh, I hope it's the one that connects to my room and not any of the ones on the other side of the house."
Her dad rolled his eyes. "Yes, of course. I didn't know what, with you two ... exactly ... yeah ..." His voice trailed off, not looking too concerned or interested. "I didn't know you were coming home this weekend until just yesterday. I had already scheduled a conference in New York. I'm flying out early tomorrow morning, but I can cancel if ..."
"No, can we kick back tonight though, before you leave. Watch a movie or something? I'll pop the popcorn?"
"Yeah, of course." He nodded. "But I've got some paper work to deal with. I'll see you later, ok? Nice to meet you, Blaize."
"You, too."
Jaide's dad headed to a stairwell and Blaize could see him reappear upstairs and disappear down one of the hallways.
"Let's go drop our stuff off upstairs and I'll give you a tour." Blaize nodded and followed her up one of the two stairways. When he reached the top, he looked down at the living room from above and then straight across at the diverging hallways, one of which Sam had disappeared down.
"Come on, Blaize. I told you I'm gonna give you a tour. Let’s put our bags down."
"Right." He followed her into a huge room. It was painted the same metallic orange as her car. "Wow, you like orange."
"Yep." She dropped her bag on the floor beside her king size bed. "Put your stuff down. I'll start the tour."
He dropped his bag. "Nice bed."
"Tell me about it." She flopped on her bed. "Little more room then the twin back at school, huh?"
"Definitely." He flopped down beside her. "This room is huge."
"Yeah." She pointed to one door and then another. "Walk-in closet, bathroom with a Jacuzzi tub."
"Wow, you really do live in a mansion."
"Yep. You don't mind that we're hanging out with my dad tonight, do you?"
"No, of course not."
"Good. I just want to spend some time with him before he has to go. Then we'll have the house all to ourselves." She propped herself on an elbow and leaned over him for a kiss.
Blaize pulled her head down to deepen the kiss. They got caught up for a minute, until Jaide pulled away.
"Later? We got all weekend, remember?"
"Yep, let’s go. Tour time."
They exited her room and Blaize wrapped an arm around her waist. "Where to?"
"Well…" She pointed down the hallway. "There's a spare bedroom down there that connects through my bathroom. You can sleep there if you want, but I figured ..."
"Yeah, definitely your room."
They walked out onto the indoor balcony, where they could see the other two hallways. "Up here are pretty much just bedrooms. She pointed directly across from them, to the hallway Sam had disappeared down. "My dad's bedroom and personal office is down there, along with two spare bedrooms." She motioned toward the other hallway. "And Tremaine's room, a sitting room, and two more spare bedrooms are down that way. Everything interesting is downstairs."
They went down the stairs and Jaide walked him through the kitchen and dining room. "Kitchen, big kitchen, pantry, formal dining room, which we never use."
They crossed the large, multi-level living room and into another section of the house. "Let's see, here's the game room; pool table, foosball, air hockey, another TV, video games, Wii and an Xbox. Tremaine’s got a PlayStation upstairs." They crossed the hallway. "Office area, a couple computers, presentation board. My dad uses it for small meetings. Umm, next room is a large meeting room. He holds most of his business conferences in here, pretty boring."
"And what does your dad do, exactly? Bella said he was at the clinic?"
"Yeah, he just helps out the local clinic if they need it. He was actually an ER trauma surgeon early on, then became an investment banker, and he’s a best-selling author. He does motivational speeches too, all sorts of stuff. The best-selling author part paid for the house. Ok next, another sitting room." She stood in the open hallway and pointed to doors. "Boring stuff, um, laundry room, storage, bathroom, and that bedroom is Bella's for when she stays over."
"Wow, this is really big house. All the rooms are huge. Your living room is like ... the size of my house."
She smiled. "Yeah, it’s big, I like it. Let’s go outside, see the dogs and I can show you the pool and stuff."
As soon as Jaide slid open the glass door, two white-blond heaps of fur came running at them.
"Cooper! Trooper! Awww, I missed you guys!" She knelt down and hugged them both. Blaize saw that they were all over her, licking her face and hands, wagging their tails like crazy.
Blaize laughed and petted one when it noticed him. "They are really cute, and fluffy."
Jaide nodded and stood, throwing a tennis ball. Both chased after it. "Yeah, they are just the sweetest things. They do need a trim though. Anyways, you can see the backyard. It’s big, lots of room for them to run around in. There's a half basketball court over there and you can see in the far corner of the yard, me and Tremaine set up a soccer goal, to practice and whatnot."
Blaize nodded, surveying the property. It was a huge backyard, probably about half an acre.
"And then we got the pool and hot tub."
"Wow, nice pool, big hot tub." The pool and hot tub were built into the cement patio.
One of the dogs dropped the tennis ball at his feet so he chucked it across the yard. The big fluff ball chased after it with surprising speed.
Jaide wrapped her arms around him and looked up at his face. "So? You like?"
He slipped his arms around her waist. "Uh, yeah, hellllo, your house is amazing."
"Are you sure you don't mind spending time with my dad? It's just that he's only here tonight. He’ll probably leave before we get up. When he says early, he means early."
"It is totally fine, Jaide. You should spend time with your family. That’s the reason I didn't want to come at first."
"Just the rest of the afternoon. Tomorrow we'll be able to do whatever we want, ok? I just want to keep it G-rated around my dad."
"Of course."
"Alright, well are you hungry? I am. I'm gonna make something to eat, and then see if my dad is done pushing papers. We can all eat lunch and watch a movie together, talk, whatever. I just want to get quality time in before he leaves."
"Sounds like a plan. Do the dogs get to come inside?" he asked as the dogs waited patiently for them to open the door.
"Heck yes, they do. This breed doesn't shed, so that's nice. They are supposed to be hypoallergenic, too."
The afternoon and evening evolved into anything but a hypoallergenic happening, with Sam telling Blaize off-color jokes and the movie they watched eliciting roars of laughter at its obscenities. “
Pulp Fiction
does it every time,” Sam confided. The dogs snoozed at their feet. Blaize praised the quality of Jaide’s popcorn and Sam wished them well before he took a call from his pilot to hear that tomorrow’s weather forecast was fine.
“Dad owns a Citation jet,” Jaide confided once Sam had retired.
“That figures,” said Blaize.
When they headed up to her room for the night, Jaide pushed her door open and Blaize noticed that there was a rectangular hole in the door.
"You have a dog door into your bedroom." He looked up to see Jaide sitting on her sofa between two big yellow fluff balls.
"Of course. Trooper and Cooper are my biggest fans. But it is one of those doors that I can lock if I don't want them in here." She looked up at him suggestively. "Like tonight?"
Blaize unzipped his duffel bag. "Honestly, I'm a little tired." He pulled out a pair of sweats and pulled off his jeans.
Jaide stepped over to her dresser. "Well, you can just lay back and relax, and I can do all the work?"
Blaize slipped the sweats on and pulled his shirt off. "What exactly are you talking about?"
Her jeans came off. Blaize eyed her backside. She had cute underwear on, polka dots. His view was obscured by a pair of tiny shorts that didn't cover much more than her underwear had. She pulled her shirt off and he noticed some scars on the back of her hip, they almost looked like they were in a pattern. He meant to ask her about it, but she turned around before she pulled her tank top on.
"I can tell when you're looking at me."
Blaize looked away. "Sorry."
"Don't be sorry. I don't mind. It’s not like you haven't seen it before. Or, at least touched it."
"I know, but ..."
"But nothing. You can look all you want. I can turn on some music if you want, and dance." She circled her hips a couple times, teasingly.
"Ah, no, that's ok."
She smiled. "I'm sorry, you did say you were tired."
"Sooo tired." He flopped down on her bed.
Jaide smiled. She shooed her dogs out through the dog door. "I guess we better go to bed then."
"We don't have to go to bed,” Blaize said, “but I'm falling asleep either way."
She smiled and climbed into bed with him. "Goodnight then."
He pulled her body close. "Night."
The next morning, Jaide and Blaize slept in. When they finally did wake up, they decided they better go for a run. They jogged the dogs to the dog park and let them play and run around for a while before running back. They showered and ate a late breakfast in front of the TV, just lounging around.
"It feels soo nice not to have to go to classes or practice."
"Yeah ..." She leaned against his shoulder and flipped through channels. "I do feel really lazy though."
"We went for a run. That is very un-lazy."
"That’s true, and we're gonna go for a swim sometime today, right?"
"Hell yes, we are. What time is it?"
She twisted her head around to look at the clock. "A little after 12. Wanna swim now?"
"Sounds good to me. We’ve got the house to ourselves, right?"
"Yeah. Tremaine might stop by, but I don't really know. He's in town somewhere."
The front door opened and they both looked up. "Well, speak of the devil."
"Hey kiddies, what's up? Is Bella gonna be by today?"
"Hi to you, too. No, she said not unless we gave her a call, why?"
"I stole her parking spot. C'mere."
"Do I have to? I'm really comfortable." She cuddled against Blaize.
"Bring him with you. It’ll only take a second."
Blaize stood and helped her up. They both followed Tremaine into the garage.
"Ok, now what ... where's my Audi?"
"Calm down sister. It’s right there."
Tremaine motioned at an Audi SUV the same color as Jaide's Audi, but it was definitely newer and larger.
"You bought me a new car?" She headed for it, skirting around Tremaine’s BMW.
Blaize noticed someone in the car. It was Mason, fiddling with some dials.
Jaide went over to open driver’s door. "Mason!"
"Hey babe, you like? We gave it the custom paint job that you like, orange."
"I see that, but why?"
Tremaine and Blaize reached the car.
"Dad mentioned it to us a couple of days ago. He wanted you to have something safer if you're gonna be driving a lot."
"Casanova was safe."
"Yea but this is safer, an Audi Q7 Prestige. Fully loaded. V8, all-wheel drive, you can even start it with your key chain, all that good stuff."
"I don't really know what all that means but it
sounds
cute."
Mason laughed and slid out of the driver’s seat. "Cute? Hardly. This puppy can go. Trust me. I drove it here from the dealer. 350 horsepower. Hop in, feel it out."
Jaide slid into the driver’s seat. "Ohhh, sun roof."
"Not just any sun roof. It’s a three panel panorama sun roof. I'm telling you, this guy's got any and every accessory I could find, right down to the $6,300 stereo system."
Blaize admired the car. "These things run like 80 grand fully loaded."
"Shit, Tremaine!"
"What? Dad told me to. Besides, that's like half what my Beamer cost."
Mason nodded. "I wanted to get you a Bentley."
Jaide rolled her eyes at him. "Yeah, right. I wouldn't be caught dead in a Bentley."
"I know. That’s why I picked the Audi."
"Oh, you picked it, huh?"
"Sure did, sweetheart. I know what you like." Mason winked at her.
"Yeah, yeah. He did pick it out, but I wrote the check."
Jaide corrected him with a smile. "You mean you filled out Dad's blank check."
"Same difference. Anyways, you like it?"
"Yeah, it's awesome. When did you come and get Casanova?"
"This morning. We looked inside to see if you were up, but you weren't." He glanced at Blaize. Jaide kicked Tremaine.
"Don't look at him like that."
"It was ten, and you guys still weren't out of bed? That tells me only one thing."
"Oh shut up and mind your own business." She climbed out of the orange SUV and snatched the keys from Mason.
Mason held up his hands innocently. "Hey now, no need to be cranky with me. I don't care how much sex you guys have."
Jaide groaned and slid under Blaize's arm. "Just ignore them. They like to think they know everything."
Blaize tried to hide his smile.