AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She grasped the back of the chair, a gold bangle bracelet glinting in the light. Her pale pink slacks were pressed flat, the collar of her white blouse flipped up in a way she made work. My mother didn’t look anywhere near the sixty-something she was. Somehow that disappointed me.
The life she’d left us for had obviously treated her well.
“I’d like to speak with you.” She glanced around the space. “Somewhere more . . . private,” she finally settled on. “Could we meet for lunch? Or dinner perhaps?”
“I don’t know.”
She’d presented the opportunity I’d been waiting for my whole life, yet I wasn’t sure if I could take it. Sometimes the not knowing was better. She had the power to confirm my worst fears. I didn’t think I could take being responsible for robbing my father of a wife and my siblings of their mother.
She reached in her purse and handed me a cream business card, a phone number the only thing written on it. “When you do know, you can reach me at this number.”
Before I could respond, she disappeared, almost as if I’d dreamed up the whole thing.
“You know her?” Ed wiped his hands down the front of his coveralls. He and Dad had been friends for a long time, but post-divorce.
“Not really.”
Not so long ago, I’d been determined to talk toher, even against Andrew’s wishes. It was one of the reasons I’d returned to New York, to get the very chance she’d just given me. Had she stopped by because I’d reached out to her? If she were as eager to reconnect as I was, why did it take her so long? Months had gone by since I’d messaged her on social media.
I flicked the card in the trash. My brother was right. She’d abandoned us. That was her choice. Now I’d made mine.
“Did you speak to your sister?”
Baker stood in the kitchen, already changed into my T-shirt and a pair of sweats. Her hair was piled on top of her head and her feet were bare. My first thought was strip her down and get lost so I didn’t have to think about my family or the mess I’d made of my life.
Instead, I tossed my keys on the island and kept it between us. I didn’t trust myself in the mood I was in.
“No.” Sarcasm seeped into my voice.
When she opened her mouth to respond, I was 100 percent sure she’d press me on the topic.
I held up my hand. “Not now.”
She stuck out her tongue. “I was going to tell you about my meeting with Hayden, but I think you need some time to chill on your own.”
I shrugged off my leather jacket and unzipped my coveralls. Her eyes followed the motion. My body came to life.
“I need a shower. And something to eat. And a beer. And then I want to see how that other shade of lip gloss looks on me.”
Her mouth lifted a fraction. I held the edge of the counter to keep from rounding it. The ferocity with which I wanted her caught me off guard.
This morning I’d tried to leave without waking her because I needed to get away from her. Fromthis. . . whatever it was.
The pressure of it still suffocated me, but I needed her. After the shit for a day I’d had, I didn’t want to talk. I wanted to park it on the couch, play guinea pig, and find any excuse I could to touch her.
“Dinner, beer, and lip gloss; I’ve got it covered.”
No longer able to resist, I rounded the island and tapped her on the nose. “Spoiling me.”
She tilted her head back to look at me where I towered over her. So close, yet not anywhere near close enough.
Baker wrinkled her nose, though her eyes smoldered. “You stink.”
The words were husky, a tease, and my body reacted as if she’d given me a compliment.
“And you smell like heaven.”
I ran my nose up the column of her neck, inhaling like a man possessed. Honey. My new favorite scent.
