Page 66 of Hers to Call
“Oh, well, I didn’t think you guys would want…”
“Calita, why wouldn’t we want you to do a wedding?”
“Really, dad, you want me to repeat verbatim your lecture to me on the patriarchy?”
“Well, I only said that so you wouldn’t date until you were like, fifty, I didn’t mean I didn’t want to walk you down the aisle,” he grumbled.
Calita laughed. “Mom?”
“Well, I’m happy for you, of course. I just, I’d really have liked to be there. It seems a little fast.”
Her cheeks heated. “A mating isn’t…you couldn’t…” she stumbled.
“Oh, it’s during sex.”
“Brian!” Janet hissed.
“Well, that’s what our daughter is trying to stutter her way through saying.”
“We can have a wedding if you really want,” Calita offered quickly, to get the subject off her and Simon having sex.
“Well, I don’t want to pressure you,” Janet cleared her throat. “I’ve talked some things over with your father and with my therapist and I realize that I have pushed you to do things that weren’t for you.”
“Mom,” she whispered, her throat clogged. A tear fell. “You guys will love Simon,” she said, changing the subject.
“I’m sure we will.” Brian hastened to assure her.
“I’ve decided to open a bakery here.”
“Oh honey, that’s wonderful.”
“That’s so great,” Janet said tearfully. “I know with the way things ended with David…”
Brian cleared his throat. “You’ve always wanted to bake, honey, I couldn’t be happier. We’ll come visit, when do you have some time?”
“I would love that. It’s beautiful here. Very peaceful.” She would keep recent events to herself.
She talked to her parents for nearly hour as she cooked, before hanging up. She felt unburdened and nowhere near as tense as she could sometimes get on the phone with her mother. It was…
Taking a deep cleansing breath, Calita went into the downstairs bathroom and splashed some water on her face and came back to finish her baking. It was still early and Simon hadn’t yet waken.
Becca came in through the kitchen door, pausing to stare. She smiled, but that smile faltered slightly as the woman sniffed the air.
Calita gave her a polite smile and kept working.
“You’re up early this morning.”
Becca’s irritation colored the air around her but Calita shrugged it aside.
“Well, I’m normally up this early, but the accident set me back a little.”
Becca let out a huff and set her purse down on the counter. “You made breakfast.”
“Just croissants and donuts. Simon’s a little later than normal, I don’t know that he’ll want to eat anything big.”
Becca walked over the refrigerator. “No matter when he leaves the house, he’ll eventually come back to me and eat breakfast.”
Calita shrugged and went back to the donuts she was frosting. She ignored the dig. Simon had marked her, in every sense of the word. She had hickeys in places no one would know. She wasn’t worried about Becca. She looked up as she felt Simon enter the room. He didn’t make a sound, and yet her body went on full alert in his presence. He prowled to her, his shirt unbuttoned and his jeans riding low. Heat suffused her body and she licked her lips.
