3 Straight by the Rules by Michelle Scott Read Free Book Online

nothing innocent about it, believe me.  I lay there for two hours feeling his hands brushing against my skin.  Two hours!”  She shook her head.  “Do you have any idea how sexy that was?”
    I imagined lying on my bed while William lovingly drew patterns on my back.  I started to feel warm.  “Yes, I can imagine.”
    She lowered her shirt.  “He’s driving me crazy!  If he doesn’t do something about it soon, I swear I’ll…”  She screamed into the blanket.
    While I patted her shoulder and consoled her, I wondered where I could get my hands on a CD of Tibetan chants and some henna paste.
     
    Only the promise of a coney dog lured Ariel out of her room.  We went to East End Coney and sat at our favorite booth by the street-side window.  With Grace gone, Ariel and I were spending a lot more time together.  To my delight, Ari had not only warmed up to me, she had also lost her habitual scowl.  She’d even started smiling at people.
    I’d also found out some surprising things about her.  Like the fact that she enjoyed eating French fries with mayonnaise instead of ketchup (something she had learned from one of her mother’s many boyfriends), she loved lions (hence the reason Tommy had started her on The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe ), and she was surprisingly good at basketball (despite her small stature).  I’d signed her up for a three-week basketball camp so that she could make friends before the school year started, and the coach had taken me aside to remark how well Ari could pass and dribble.
    Ariel ordered her usual: two chili dogs with no onions, fries, and a Coke.  I ordered a gyro and a small, Greek salad.
    “Where should we go for your birthday?” I asked.  Although Ari would be included in our traditional family celebration, I also wanted to throw her a real party since I didn’t think she’d ever had one before.  I planned to invite the girls from the basketball camp.  “Have you ever been to the zoo?  They have lions there.”
    Ari seemed less enthusiastic about the party than I.  “Yeah, okay.”
    “Or we could take everyone to play miniature golf,” I offered.
    She shrugged again.  The waitress brought over our drinks and Ariel sipped her Coke thoughtfully.  “Do you think Tommy would want to date my mother?”
    I nearly spilled my iced tea.  Ariel’s mother was currently in jail for child endangerment, possession of narcotics, and drunk driving.  There was no way in hell I’d introduce her to Tommy.  If my sister-in-law saw what a good guy he was, she’d cling to him like a leech.  “I think Tommy’s got his eye on Jasmine,” I said.
    “Oh.”  Ari slumped in her seat.
    “You’re very special to him, though,” I said.  “Like a little sister.”
    She continued to look disappointed.  “I wish he was my dad.  My real dad.”
    Instead of pointing out that Tommy would have had to father Ariel when he was twelve, I said, “I know what it’s like.  Growing up wondering who your dad is.”
    “But you know who your dad is.”
    I frowned.  “I do?”
    “It’s Simon?  Hel-lo?”
    “Simon’s not my real father.”  It amazed me that she hadn’t figured this out on her own.  “He’s Japanese.  I’m not.”  Simon hadn’t even adopted me since my mother had never been around long enough to sign the papers.
    “Oh, good point.”  Ariel mulled this over while she drank her Coke.  “Did you ever want to find your real dad?”
    The difficult question made me shift uncomfortably.  When I became an adult, I’d given up fantasies about finding my sperm donor, figuring I was better off without him.  However, once I’d discovered that I could not only see Heaven’s doorways but enter them as well, I’d become curious again.  Maybe my father had been one of the many humans my mother had slept with.  Then again, maybe he’d been supernatural.
    To answer Ari’s question, I settled on a compromise.  “I used to want to find him, but