Chapter Twenty-Four

Arianna slowly woke up.

She opened her eyes and, for a puzzled moment, she just stared at the slowly rotating fan on the ceiling.

When everything came back to her, she sat on the bed, then had to close her eyes because the rush made her feel heady.

It was still light outside, thank goodness! It was late morning when they came here, she remembered. How could she fall asleep so early? She felt like she'd slept for hours!

Where were her clothes? She had to go home before Tommy could get ahead of her.

Mama! She would be worried about why she still hadn't come back!

She looked out the window, hoping it wasn't lunchtime yet even though she could see that the sun wasn’t directly above the sky anymore.

Holding the blanket carefully over her breasts, she slid down the enormous bed and picked up the pieces of her clothes on the floor. Her face was blushing at the memory of how they got there as she dressed quickly.

She had just gotten out of the bathroom where she washed her flushed face when a