Fix It Up - Mary Calmes Page 0,79
should have been a wonderful example for you,” she chided, and when I passed her the glass I’d used, she looked at me with so much raw, open affection that no one could miss it. When she reached for my hands, I slipped them into hers. “And for the record, there’s no missing that Nick Madison is completely and utterly in love with you.”
“I refuse to discuss this with you.”
“Just because you don’t want to put a name to something doesn’t mean it’s not there.”
I shook my head. “Like I said, give it a bit. It’ll burn off.”
“Sweetheart––”
“He doesn’t know what he really wants, Mom. He’s so young.”
She pursed her lips and nodded. “Yes, it’s true, he is young. But you know, some people, even when they’re young, know who they are and what they want.”
I made a derisive noise. “Yeah, nice, you think you’re clever with the whole ‘I was seventeen, and I knew I was going to keep my baby’ crap.”
Her giggle almost made me smile, but I scowled extra hard.
“Now go take a shower,” she snapped at me, letting go of me and trying to shoo me away. “I made lasagna.”
“Stop,” I ordered her, and she huffed out a breath before rounding on me. “You always get all grouchy and bent outta shape before I leave.”
She glared at me.
Leaning in, I kissed her cheek. “I will always come back, ’cause I like you just a bit.”
She grunted, but her smile made her eyes sparkle, and I left her to go get cleaned up.
Walking into my room, I realized that Nick’s duffel and garment bag were now on my bed, and my shower was running. Slamming open the door, I yelled at him.
“You have your own bathroom!” I was indignant.
“I did,” he said, popping his head out from behind the curtain that went around the ring above the clawfoot bathtub. “But now I’m in here with you.”
“No,” I railed at him, stalking over to the tub and reaching in to turn off the water.
“Yes,” he insisted, leaning in close to kiss me.
The fact that I took hold of his cheek and kissed him back took all the sting out of my words. His wide smile and dancing eyes told me I was a complete disaster when it came to threatening him in any way.
Grabbing a towel, I turned and stalked out of the room.
I took a lukewarm shower in the guest bathroom, which had very recently been his but was now empty of anything that did not belong to my mother. He had taken it upon himself to move all his crap into my room, uninvited. What the hell?
I was growling by the time I was done, and as I stood in front of the mirror, with my hair combed back from my face, I realized how badly it needed to be cut. It was falling to my shoulders now, as thick and heavy as my mother’s.
Turning and opening the door, I nearly walked into Nick, who was standing right outside.
“You can’t just move your shit into––”
“God, you’re annoying,” he said, chuckling as he took hold of my hips and stepped in close to me, his mouth a hairsbreadth from mine. “Kiss me.”
“You’ve been kissed enough,” I lied, because yes, I wanted more of every part of him.
“You’re worried that because I’m young, I’ll get tired of you, and I’ll want to go out and party.”
“No,” I groused, because yeah, that was part of it, the rest being that he’d wake up in the morning, in bed with me, and wonder what the hell he was thinking.
“Yes,” he said, smiling. “And I can’t fix that because only time will show you how serious I am about you.”
I wasn’t touching that.
“Where’s my ring?”
“Right here,” I grumbled, holding up my hand. “But you should––”
“Is your plan to not kiss me or touch me? Just make me do it all until I’m sick of being the only one initiating contact?”
Perhaps…
He shrugged. “It won’t work,” he assured me, chuckling. “I have no problem being––”
“Shuddup,” I ordered, slipping my hand around the side of his neck and drawing him close for a kiss.
I tipped his head back and kissed him slowly, taking my time, cupping the back of his head in my hand as I stroked over his jaw with my thumb.
The full-body shiver made me smile, and when I pulled back, his pupils were blown, and his face was flushed just enough that I noticed. “I am not easy to like or