Better Than Me

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

I was on my third beer when I heard Bubba start barking out of nowhere from upstairs.

"It's your turn, dad," Blake said, leaning further back on the couch and kicking his legs up onto the glass table in front of him.

I rolled my eyes. "It's always my turn."

I felt like an overworked mom in this "co-parenting" role of ours. I was the one who took care of Bubba 97% of the time. Blake was mostly just here to be the "fun" parent.

I still got up to see what was going on and was halfway up the stairs when I heard a door slam shut. That definitely couldn't have been Bubba.

I furrowed my eyebrows, looking between upstairs and Blake. "What was that?"

Blake shrugged. "Maybe we're about to die. You can go investigate. I'll stay here and guard the living room."

"Right."

I kept going and found Bubba standing outside the door to my room, pawing at the door like he wanted to get back in. There was no way he could have managed to slam the door shut like that by himself. He was still a puppy.

"Hey, boy," I said. I lowered myself down onto one knee in front of Bubba. "What was that? What happened? Come here, Bubba."

I slowly opened the door to my room. I probably should've grabbed some sort of weapon in case it was a burglar or something, but I didn't.

Bubba barked at the bed and ran closer to it. He stood on his hind legs to reach the bed and sniffed at the covers, trying to stick his nose underneath them.

"Down, Bubba. No, my bed is off-limits. You have your own bed."

I thought I saw something move on the bed out of the corner of my eye, but when I looked back it was still again. It didn't look normal, though. I didn't usually make my bed unless I was expecting company – and I didn't mean Blake – but there was definitely something under there. More like someone. And I had a feeling I knew who it was, but I wanted her to sweat over it a little more.

I walked out of the room and pretended to check other rooms for the intruder. After checking an acceptable amount of rooms, I said, "Come on, Bubba. Let's go downstairs. Blake's still here and his leg's just waiting to be humped. Come on, boy."

I walked away from the door and waited by the other staircase that led to the back of the mansion. This place was ridiculously huge and more than I knew what to do with, but chicks liked it.

She had to have gotten in either through the garage or through the back door, or maybe through a window, but either way, she'd have to get back downstairs. I didn't think she'd managed to break in through a window on the second floor.

I heard the door to my room open, but just barely. She was trying to be more discreet this time. She didn't get very far before I made her stop in her tracks. "Going somewhere?" I asked.

Sophia stopped in her tracks and reluctantly turned around. "Christian. Hi."

"Any particular reason you're here, Soph?"

She cringed. Whether it was at being caught or the nickname, I didn't know. "No."

"That was you in the bed, wasn't it?" I asked. "That Bubba was sniffing at?"

She didn't reply, but she didn't need to. We both knew the answer to my question.

I laughed and crossed my arms, making sure my muscles flexed when I did so.

What? I liked showing off.

"You know, if you really wanted to get in my bed that badly, you could have just told me. I'm an understanding guy. I'd have helped you out."