Page 73 of Yours and Mine (Friends with Benefits)

He was at my ear again. “There’s no pillow in the world you can bite hard enough to stop the scream that will come out of your mouth when I fuck you.”

Oh, my!

Someone cleared his throat at the threshold and my body fell cold.

“Nick, you have some flour, here” – my father pointed to Nick’s ears – “and here,” he said, indicating Nick’s shoulders. His finger kept on waiving over the different parts of Nick’s body as he kept repeating the two words.

“Actually, it’s everywhere.” Then he looked at me, the culprit with flour-covered hands. I felt like a kid who’d stolen candy from the corner store.

And if things couldn’t get any worse, Marge walked through the swinging kitchen door. She assessed the situation with her keen eyes and sighed.

“I think we should talk.” She pointed to the chairs.

“Mom, I’m a man,” Nick defended.

“Then listen to me like a man would.”

I took the stool to my left and passed it to Nick. I reached for the other one and sat beside him.

“We know you’re in love. I mean, we’ve been in love too when we were your age, but we’re worried.”

“What about?” I asked. When I looked to the side, Nick was as confused as I was.

“You’ve been locked up in the house. It’s just work and sleep for the both of you. I mean, you guys look tired as hell, and I don’t think that spending minutes together through the day when Nick isn’t helping with the construction is doing you guys any good. When are you going out? When are you going to have any fun? You’re missing out on so much. Skipping stones by the lake isn’t exactly socializing.”

Oh!I guessed they didn’t know about all the fun we were having at night when they were asleep in their own bed.

“We want you to spend time with other people too. You’re still so young,” Marge added.

“You were both young when you fell in love. And if I recall, Dad, Mom was right about my age when she had me.”

“So were you, Mom,” Nick said to his mother.

“Are you guys planning a family?” my father jumped in.

“No, we’re not. We’re just trying to make a point. We like spending time together. Love it, in fact.” Nick was trying to do his famous sweet-talk and was looking for an angle. I was afraid that if he didn’t come up with something good soon, I’d blabber that we were spending some good quality time together at night. We were doing what all other couples were doing. Having amazing sex! Okay, so maybe I’d skip the amazing part.

Our parent’s faces remained stone-cold. Geez, it was like they were insisting on us being reckless outside the house.

And then Nick opened his mouth again. “However I think you’re right in this case. We should go out and catch up with everyone else. For reals this time.”

For reals?Was he for reals? Who was he?

“I haven’t seen Carter’s house yet. Let’s visit him. And maybe we can stop by Molly’s to say hello, and check up on Mr. Andrew the firefighter.”

Our parents’ eyes lit up.

“Okay, sounds good. This is the last batch I have,” I said, playing along, and that’s when I saw that secretive spark in the corner of Nick’s eye. Carter had left earlier in the day, so I knew we wouldn’t walk home with him. We’d be alone. That was it! Nick wanted alone time for the two of us, so that I could scream when he…

I felt my cheeks heat from the thought and turned around to finish kneading the dough and twisting it into a braid.

“Good. Also, if you make me a grandmother too soon, I will kill you.”

I whipped my body around.What?

Marge wiggled her stern finger at Nick, turned around, and walked to the front of the store. My father pointed two of his fingers toward his eyes, then back at us in the infamousI’m watching yougesture.

Marge knew? Or maybe she didn’t. What did she mean by that? How much did my father know?

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