“Faye, honey, calm down. It was not a big deal.”
She snatched the phone out of the base that was on the table over the side of the sectional and her eyes sliced to him.
Oh yeah. Totally f**king pissed.
And totally cute.
Chace fought back a smile.
“It is to me!” she snapped loudly, bent her head, her hair fell forward and he heard his phone beeping because her thumb was jabbing at the buttons.
Chace pushed out of the couch, got to his feet and rounded it as he watched her put the phone to her ear and start pacing.
“Mom,” she said into it before he got to her, “I want to talk to Dad. Immediately.”
Since he didn’t make it to her in time, Chace decided to settle in and enjoy the show. So he rested his ass on the back of the couch, stretched out his legs, crossed them at the ankles, his arms on his chest and did just that.
“Yes, there’s something wrong,” she continued, still pacing. “Let me talk to Dad.”
There was a pause while she halted in a stilted way and stared obviously unseeing out his French doors.
Then she went on, “I know it’s time for church. I don’t care if you’re late. This is important. You can sneak in the back.”
Another pause to let her mother speak before she carried on.
“I don’t care if Dad’s favorite part is singing the hymns at the beginning of the service, I told you, this is important.” Pause then a hissed, seriously pissed, “Yes, it’s about his visit to Chace.”
She listened again as she yanked her hand through her hair, pulling it back, her body jerked with agitation and she started pacing again but when her hand went out of her hair, it fell right back around her face.
She was cute. She was being funny. She looked f**king fantastic pacing through the space between his kitchen and living room in her sexy nightie and his shirt, her long legs on display, her hair swinging around. Not to mention, his stomach was full of her damned fine food and the taste of her was still in his mouth.
All this meant Chace was amused, relaxed and content.
Therefore he was completely unprepared for Faye rocking his entire f**king world.
“That was not fraking cool Mom. It wasn’t cool. Dad doesn’t know and it’s none of his business but I’ll tell you since you won’t let me talk to him then you can tell him, Chace has been through enough. He doesn’t like surprises. He doesn’t need hassle. And I won’t stand for it!”
Chace felt his body get tight and he stopped watching her and started staring at her.
“Yes! I know that fraking means the f-word, Mom. In a television show! I’m the one who told you, remember? When the Cylons explode our world and we’re aboard a spaceship in a ragtag convoy trying to stay alive and find earth, you can take me to task for saying the word frak! Until then, no and definitely not now!”
She halted facing his French doors again and stared out as she listened.
Then she spoke again.
“Right, well, don’t hold your breath for that, Mom, seeing as I’m going to be a kickass fighter pilot like Starbuck so I’ll be out in my Viper most of the time, fighting the Cylons to keep you alive so you won’t have time to give me a lecture about cursing.”
Another pause, this one lengthy.
Then, “I don’t care. It’s not good that he shared his thoughts about Chace to Chace, thoughts he had because of town gossip. That’s not good. That doesn’t say nice things about Dad not Chace. It was judgmental and uncalled for. But it’s more, Mom. It doesn’t say good things about me. Because it says Dad doesn’t trust me to be smart enough to see past the hot guy Chace is to who he really is underneath. That would be a good man I can trust, who takes care of me, makes me feel safe, makes me feel good, teases me, likes me for me and who’s worth my time. Even if Dad had concerns about Chace, he should know me better than that. I may be a dreamer, Mom, but you raised me, so did he so I’m not a stupid dreamer. I’m just a dreamer. And I’ll point out he should have showed Chace respect not only as a man but as the man everyone in this fraking town knows him to be but also Dad should have shown me respect by keeping his mouth shut.”
She fell silent but this didn’t last long.
“No, I still want to talk to him. Tell him to call me after church. I have a few things to say.”
An even shorter pause.
Then, “Okay, and just so you know, I’m angry but still, if I found you were an unknown model of Cylon, I wouldn’t kill you because you’re my Mom. But I would find you a habitable planet and dump you there. I’m also angry enough to dump Gaius there with you. He’s brilliant but he’s annoyingly arrogant, smug, a total jerk, completely self-serving and unpredictable. You’d hate him. So that tells you just how angry I am at you for not letting me speak my mind to Dad. Enjoy church and I’ll see you next Saturday.”