You Dropped a Blonde on Me by Dakota Cassidy Read Free Book Online Page B

cash were the reward. Her heart began to race. It was Connor’s idea to place fliers all around the village, advertising dog walking. When they’d done it, the original intent was for him to offer his services, noting how many of the elderly had pets but in some cases were semi-homebound by the occasional aches and pains, leaving them unable to take their dogs on long walks or bathe them. Desperate times and the fact that she was supposed to support her kid, not the other way around, made her decide she’d give it a shot.
    At that point, she’d have slept with the devil for cash. So two days ago, she’d made up some fliers on her mother’s antiquated computer and hung them up all over Leisure Village. And now look—she had a taker. Which meant the forces of the universe hadn’t totally abandoned her—they were just slacking off for happy hour appletinis.
    “You still there?”
    Maxine cleared her throat, taking the phone down the small stretch of hallway to the guest bathroom. Stepping over the debris of scattered tools, she planted herself on the closed toilet seat. “I am. So, uh, Mr. Hodge, right? You need your dog walked.”
    “Well, I’m not callin’ for a date, that’s for sure. We haven’t even met.”
    Maxine giggled. She’d discovered that when you reached a certain golden age, you didn’t much care about protocol, or in the case of her mother’s other cohort in chaos, Mary Delouise, modesty and manners. Something she had to admire. Their time here on Earth was limited. Why waste it on bullshit and sucking someone’s ass? “What kind of a dog do you have, Mr. Hodge?”
    “You got rules about what kind a dog you’ll walk?”
    “No, no, of course not. I just want to be sure I have all the details.”
    “He’s a mutt. A big ole mutt, and he shits like a horse. Big stinkin’ piles of shit I can’t pick up no more ’cause of the fact that I have arthritis in my knees. Hurts to bend down, you know. Doc says I gotta take baths to relieve the pain. I say, who the hell’s gonna pull me outta the tub after I get in there?”
    Who indeed? A finger went directly between her eyes to massage the bridge of her nose. Sometimes, when she wasn’t hiding in her mother’s house and she actually chatted with the occasional village resident, she found it was hard to keep them on task. Much like herself when she rambled in nervous bouts. Jesus, she’d be a handful at seventy. “I understand completely. So how often do you need someone to walk your mutt?”
    “As often as he has to shit. And his name’s Jake, not Mutt.”
    The heat of the bathroom was becoming sauna-ish. She struggled to pull off her suit jacket, draping it over the yellow vanity. “Why don’t we set up a time so I can meet Jake and we’ll discuss it then?”
    “You busy now?”
    Busy? Hah. Cold hard cash had just called her via AT&T. Though it was probably only Happy Meal money, it was money, and even a meeting and the promise of some hot lovin’ with John Cusack wouldn’t keep her from it. “What’s your address? I’ll be right there.” Forgetting the door was open, forgetting there was a man present, Max unzipped the back of her skirt and shimmied it off as she memorized Joe Hodge’s address, clicking the “off” button on the phone.
    “We haven’t even had that cup of coffee and already you’re getting naked. Who’d have figured Chuck Norris actually knew what he was talking about when he infomercialed me into buying that Total Gym. He had that look in his eye like he knew if I worked out enough, hot women would just throw their clothes at me.”
    Maxine let her head hang low.
    To look at the skirt she’d been wearing, now almost at her ankles. Nice. God was clearly back to shunning her again.
    Instead of hiding, she turned to face him full on. What difference did it make if Campbell Barker saw her in her panties and silk shirt? Nowadays, this could be considered haute couture—sort of. “Did that twinkle in his eye