Chapter 819

"Well, shit," I said, "I guess I better buckle up and get ready for a wild ride."

"My love, you have no idea," I said.

I shook my head and grinned boyishly. I might have been the breadwinner, but I wondered how much control I actually had over my life. Maybe that was part of the fun. The girls were going to take me places my imagination couldn’t even conceive of. There was nothing to do but embrace it.

Despite being an objectively hard-partying marathon, the weekend in Napa with Kat had the opposite effect on me that I expected. It was like when I had sex. I came out more energized and focused than before. That’s how our trip had been. I was ready to go right away. We had a lovely week at home and, as had become the pattern between getaways, enjoyed a quiet few days as a family.

When we returned, too, Rita had some news. It turned out that the midday meteorologist at KNBC was taking a medical leave of absence for six weeks, and t