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I’ve barely said anything since we sat down to dinner, contrary to my normal behavior which is me talking up a storm about anything and everything. The table is practically silent until Aria, whose looks I’ve been avoiding since the second I snapped at Penelope, stands with her wine glass. “I’m going to get some more wine. Mads, can you come help me?”
“Get more wine? Sorry, I think you forgot the part where I’m not twenty-one yet.” I raise an eyebrow at her and take an obvious sip of the water in front of me.
She taps a finger against the side of her glass, irritated, and narrows her gaze. “Like that’s stopped you, help please!” I don’t miss the growl that escapes Cal’s lips over her comment and it immediately sets my body on fire. Visions of him growling as he plows into me from behind crowd my brain and I bite my bottom lip. Do not look at him, Maddie.
I roll my eyes before standing. “Would anyone like anything while we’re up?”
“Put some more rolls in the oven.” Margie points at the empty basket of her infamous buttery bread that had the ability to incite a riot when we were down to the final few.
I’m barely through the foyer when Aria is pulling me away from the kitchen and up the stairs to my bedroom. I can already hear the lecture about reigning in my attitude when she closes the door behind us. “Okay, what is your problem?” she whispers and puts her hands on her hips.
“Nothing!”
“You’re pouting like a moody teenager.”
“I am a moody teenager.”
“You never act like it. Something’s up.” She crosses her arms and I wonder if she could read my mind because immediately her face softens. “Mads, I know you…better than you know yourself.”
“You think you do.” There’s no way you have any idea about what’s going on with Cal and me… you’d freak the fuck out.
“No, I do, and I get that you hate the idea of having to share Cal, but don’t you want him to be happy?” I almost choke on her words. What the hell does that mean?
“What are you talking about?”
She sighs and sits on my bed. “I know that you’re a little…possessive about Cal, and that’s totally normal. Girls and their dads…especially when there hasn’t been a mother figure love interest for their father…” She waves her hand. “It’s Psych 101, hon, and you’re the textbook definition.”
“Okay, first of all, don’t psych major me. Secondly, Cal’s not my dad.”
“Maybe not technically, but he’s a father figure, and I wish you’d stop denying that. He’s done a lot for you, Madeline.”
“I’m not denying anything, and Cal knows that I am beyond appreciative of everything he’s done for me, so I don’t know why you’re insinuating that he doesn’t know that.”
“Okay, don’t get so sensitive, and how about we fix the attitude?” She shoots me her signature Mom look, and it is times like this that I know Aria wishes she had children of her own.
I try my best to suppress the fantasy forming in my mind, but a flash happens before I can stop it, and I can’t stop the smile from tugging at my lips. Me. A positive pregnancy test. Cal kissing me and my belly when I tell him the news.
“What’s so funny?” Aria asks and I shake my head as I remember that I’m supposed to be irritated with her.
“Nothing, Aria. I just don’t think Penelope is the right girl for Cal.”
“And you’re probably right, but don’t you think that’s up to him to decide? He holds your opinion in very high regard, Maddie, but give him a chance to figure out how he feels before you force your opinion on him.”
“I didn’t force anything.”
“Oh please,” she snorts and stands up to wrap a hand around my shoulder. “You’re seventeen, and you already don’t see the power you hold over a man. Lord, bless the soul you end up with.”
“I resent that.” I glare at her, though I can’t stop the smile from creeping onto my face.
“Speaking of which, what are we doing for your eighteenth besides getting you on a legitimate poker table? I was thinking about a nice dinner?” I was so excited to go to a casino for the first time; I’ve been practicing my poker game for weeks.
“Dinner sounds good too.” A gasp leaves my lips as I have another idea and I clap my hands together and bounce on the balls of my feet. “Oh! Can we go to a sex shop too?”
Aria stops in her tracks and turns around, closing the door tha
t she’d just opened. “Sex? Wait how, when, what, WHO?!” she shrieks.
“No no no. I just mean because I can…” I shake my head. “Virgin still! Swear!” I grab Aria’s pinky and link them just as we always do.
