Page 46 of Virgin Skin

Since we’re snowed in, I decide to go with the vibe and pick a peppermint coffee from the bottom shelf. I look over to find Piston’s eyes glued to me while he fills the coffee pot with water at the sink.

“I didn’t mean…” He shakes his head.

“No, you were just trying to add to your list of reasons you shouldn’t be fantasizing about bending me over the counter right now and making me scream your name all over again.”

Before he has a chance to respond, my phone vibrates. I finish pouring the coffee beans into the grinder, then I hit the button to turn it on and slip out of the kitchen so I can see who’s calling without all the racket. My mom’s name lights up my screen and I accept the call while I flop down onto the couch.

“Hey, sorry, I’ve had a reminder in my phone to call you for the past week, but I keep forgetting.” She’s heard the same greeting from me for years now, and her laughter echoes from the other end in response.

“Same,” she confesses. “I enrolled in this tap dancing class a few weeks ago and every minute I haven’t been practicing, I’ve been watching videos of people tap dancing. I swear, it’s one of the more obnoxious fixations I’ve picked up. Then I woke up this morning and just the thought of all that clickety-clackgave me a migraine.”

I snort a laugh and pull the comforter a little tighter around me, burrowing down into it contentedly.

“Like that summer I wanted to be a drummer?” I swear, I can feel her flinch through the phone.

“Worse,” she says, and we both chuckle again. “I got a weather alert that there was some kind of blizzard there. You’re not trapped at the motel with no way to leave or get food, are you?”

“Aw, you’ve got your weather alerts set for Wisconsin?” She may be flighty at times, but it’s hard not to love her. Besides, it’s hard to be mad about her quirks when I inherited most of them and I know just how tough it is to be the responsible adult you want to be when your brain has whole other adventures planned that you rarely have a say in.

I glance towards the kitchen and a warm feeling flutters inside of me. Really difficult to be mad about this adventure in particular though.

“Of course I do. I’m your mother.” That was always her excuse for everything when I was growing up, whether it was good or bad, rational or irrational.

“It’s a proper winter wonderland out there. It looks well past a foot, and I guess the city wasn’t expecting it so the plows aren’t running yet. I’m not at the motel though. I thought I told you I’m staying with one of Hero’s friends.” Maybe I didn’t tell her, I honestly can’t remember now. I definitelymeantto tell her, which should count for something.

“Hero?”

“Kaiden,” I correct. ‘Dad’is the part I don’t say, because she already knows who he is, obviously, and it feels weird to call him that to her when she didn’t even want to tell me about him in the first place.

“Oh, that’s right. I forgot.” She chuckles.

My phone beeps in my ear and I pull it away to see that Hero’s ears must be burning because he’s trying to call me too. I ignore it for now and give my mom my attention for a few minutes, answering her questions about how things are going, about Hero and my new job. When I told her my idea to comelooking for him, she wasn’t thrilled, to say the least, but she seems happier about it now that he hasn’t turned out to be an asshole.

“Can I ask you something?” I interrupt her telling me about her snarky coworker to ask. “Why didn’t you ever tell him about me?”

“Kaiden?” she asks. After getting used to everyone calling him Hero, it’s weird to hear his real name.

“Yeah.” I give an exasperated chuckle.

“I don’t know. It just seemed like such a burden. Not thatyou’rea burden,” she hurries to correct herself.

“It’s fine, Mom, I’m not going to take it personally. I just want to know.”

“We didn’t even know each other. We met at a bar, went home together, and then bam, a month later I was looking at a positive pregnancy test.” She’s told me all of this before. “I was young, and everything was already confusing enough trying to figure out my future, getting ready to go to college. I thought it would be easier to just do it on my own.”

I guess I can see the logic in that. I nod, even though I know she can’t see me.

“I never regretted it,” she says firmly. “You were the best thing that ever happened to me.”

“I know.” I sit up and put my feet back on the floor. “Listen, I need coffee and a shower, so I’m going to let you go. I love you, Mom.”

“Love you too.”

We say goodbye and I end the call. There’s a text waiting for me that I expect will be from Hero, but when I open it up, I sputter a laugh.

JAG: Wow, you and Piston snowed in with yourhookups. It’s gotta be an awkward morning over there, huh?

Ass.

---