“Well, you know, if they find a nice Roma boy...” I said, my voice trailing off as I thought about all the times my parents had threatened to ship me off to Italy to get married. Which I thought was pretty hilarious, seeing as my father wasn’t even of Italian descent. His ancestors were from England, and Nonno had taken a while to warm up to him when he was wooing my mom as a teenager.
“Haha, imagine you living in Rome?” Sally laughed. “I’ve got to go, though. Are you going to be okay? Or do you need to talk some more about your sexy underwear and how you’re horrible with money?”
“Whatever, Sally.” I giggled and sat up. “I’m fine. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay, bye.” She laughed. “Try not to buy any whips or anal beads before tomorrow morning.”
“Funny—not!” I said and hung up. I looked at the stack of clothes on my bed and then at my suitcase, and groaned. I wasn’t sure what I was going to where and I wasn’t sure exactly what activities we’d be doing, but I needed to minimize the amount of clothes I was taking. The pile was high, even for me.
Chapter Two
Mila
July 14th, 2011
Dear Diary,
I am going to marry TJ Walker. Yes, I said marry. I am predicting that I, Mila Brookstone, will one day marry TJ Walker. Yes, I’m only 18 and yes, we’re not in a relationship, but I know it will happen. How do I know? Because last night was the most magical night of my life. Last night TJ Walker kissed me. Yes, he kissed me. No tongue and not for long, but it was the most perfect kiss I’ve ever had in my life. Even better than kisses with Channing Tatum. Not that I’ve kissed him, but I’ve thought about what sort of kisser he would be and I think that TJ is better. You heard it here first!! I’m going to marry TJ Walker. That is, if he doesn’t annoy me too much first.
Thursday, One Week Ago
I stared at my suitcase with a happy smile. I was finally packed. Well, I had two stacks of outfits: one stack was causal-sexy and the other stack was sexy-sexy. I was trying to decide if I should try and go full-out seduction mode on TJ or to try and play it a little bit cooler. Sally advised that I play it cooler because she doesn’t want me to embarrass myself if it doesn’t work out. Because yes, now she is coming as well. Sally always has an open invite to come, but this year she thought she’d be busy with work, but three days ago she found out she has the time off. So now she’s coming to the lake house and she is planning on going into cool seduction mode this weekend, only not with TJ—thank God. She’s after my brother, Cody. Eww. But who am I to stop her? My only problem is, if both of us are successful with our seduction plans, what are my parents going to think is going on? We can’t just disappear, and there is no way we can have sex at the lake house. The rooms are not soundproof. I mean, I can try and be quiet, but if TJ is as good a lover as he is in my dreams, it’s going to be hard. And let’s just say that Sally will have a bigger problem than me. I lived with her in college and trust me, she doesn’t know what the word quiet means. I giggled as I picked up two different bikinis and tried to decide which one to take with me, when the phone rang.
“Hello, Mila here,” I sang into the phone, assuming it was Sally. I looked at the thong bikini and threw it back onto the floor. I wasn’t sure why I’d even contemplated taking that. That was not appropriate for a family trip. If my dad saw me in that, I’d be on the first plane out of the country for sure.
“Mila?” The voice was deep and gruff and tingles ran through my arm to my fingers.
“This is Mila,” I said, my voice sounding like a deep croak. “Mila,” I said again, almost singing my name, in my nervousness.
“It’s TJ.” His voice sounded amused. “Auditioning for The Voice or something?”
“No,” I laughed, excited to be talking to him. “I’m trying out for The X Factor, actually.”
“Oh.” He cleared his throat. “I would have thought you would go for The Voice!”
“Why is that?” I said, confused.
“Because they don’t see your face at first,” he said with a straight voice, and it took a moment for his meaning to sink in.
“You’re an asshole.” I groaned at him, shaking my head at his diss. That is what I meant about him thinking he was my big brother. It was like he and Cody had sat down one day and discussed the responsibilities and tasks of being my older sibling. And teasing me was the number-one duty.
“You gotta love it.” He laughed as if he thought his joke was hilarious.
“Not really.”
“Aww, well, sorry to break your heart, but this isn’t The X Factor calling.”
“Uh huh.”
“I was calling because Cody can’t pick you up tomorrow. He’s stuck at work until early Saturday morning, so he asked if I can pick you and Sally up and drive you up to the lake house.”
“Oh, really?” I grinned into the phone, slightly excited that we’d be alone together, but then I remembered that Sally would be with us. “I guess that’s fine.” I tried to sound nonchalant.
“What time will you be ready?” He cleared his throat. “And an accurate time, please, not a ‘I’ll try to be ready, but I’ll keep you waiting for thirty minutes’ sort of thing.”