Page 170 of Loving Ladybug: Part One
“How was class?” He took another bite.
“Fraud class was great. After class, I studied and had coffee in the campus center with some classmates.” All the campus center places took either meal swipes or dining dollars. “Then we had practice, which ended early.”
Using a knife, I opened the big box from my brother. At the top was a small box, with all of my hockey cards I’d fenced.
“Oooh, is that your Maria Barilla card?” Clark leaned into me, making meveryaware of his hay and sunshine scent.
Since the night I’d ended up in his bed after the nightmare, we’d been going to bed together a lot. He always let me take the lead. If I needed to snuggle, we snuggled. If I needed knots, I got knots.
If I needed to be eaten out on the seat of his motorcycle, we did that.
Mmmm, I could get used to this.
“Yeah.” I ran my finger down the case the card was in. I was so happy to have it back. I’d like to think she wouldn’t be too mad that I sold it, considering it was for my education.
I showed him the others, including the signed Mario D’Angelo card my brother Luca had given me. Mario had played for Venice and the Italian national team and had been Luca’s favorite player. It was the nicest thing he’d ever done for me.
Clark took some photos out of an envelope. “Is that your mom?”
There was a picture of my mom holding me as a baby, the dads with her. “Yep.”
Clark smiled. “She’s beautiful and looks a lot like you.”
Tears pricked my eyes. “I miss her.”
“I’m sure you do.” He hugged me to him.
There were a couple of other pictures, including a family photo from Isa’s wedding of all of us, one of me and mom at a skating competition, and one of Matty and me at his mating party, at the wildlife park in Quebec.
“I love seeing these pictures.” Clark shoved the last of the fries in his mouth and looked at his phone. “Ugh. I have to go. What are you doing tonight? Study? Party? Work?”
“There’s a party. I should study. I think I’ll go to Mercy’s and make cookies and play video games. We haven’t done that in ages.” I carefully put the photos back in the envelope.
Clark put his shoes on, then grabbed his keys and helmet. He kissed me long and deep. “Have fun. See you later.”
I waved as he disappeared out the door. Mmmm, I liked me some goodbye kisses.
Mercy
Are you coming? Kaiko’s here.
Me
On my way.
There were a few other things in the box–including the jewelry I’d sold Lenny, minus the things from Austin. At the bottom was a paper sack with pink fabric. The dress. The pink looked lighter than I remembered–not that my memory was perfect by any means. I texted Matty.
Me
Thanks for all the stuff.
Matty
I’m glad to give you your things back. I sent pictures and found the dress. It was always my favorite of hers.
Was it? Okay.
However, my painting wasn’t in the box. Maybe it didn’t fit, and he’d mail it separately.
