smiles then leans over me, crushing me to the mattress with his weight as he reaches down over the side of my bed. A moment later, he comes up with his pants and reaches into the pocket. Once he retrieves his phone, he clicks on the screen and I see it’s just after nine.
“Two hours.”
“What?” I struggle for breath, and he leans back, grinning at me, and then gathers me against his chest. He rolls us once more so I’m straddling his hips.
“After I get rid of this condom we have about two hours to do that again.”
“Oh,” I whisper, enchanted by his words, our new position, and the feel of him under me.
“Oh yeah.” He tangles his hand in my hair at the nape of my neck and drags my mouth down to his. For the next two hours, we don’t waste a moment talking. We spend each second exploring each other in the best possible ways, and when he kisses me goodnight at my door, I’m pretty sure I just had the best first date in the history of first dates.
Eight
December
I PULL OPEN the door to Jones’s, a small restaurant that is nestled between other businesses on Main Street, and am immediately bombarded by the chatter of talking patrons and the scent of breakfast foods coming from the open kitchen. I scan the small space and find my sisters along with my mom all seated in a booth near the window, drinking coffee and waiting for me to arrive.
I force my feet to take me forward, hoping no one can tell what happened last night just by looking at me. When I reach the table, Mom gets up to hug me, and when she lets me go, April nudges her elbow into May’s side, forcing her over so I can sit next to her.
“Sooo, how did it go?” April lets the first word drag on, and I tangle my fingers in my lap.
“Good.” I accept the cup of coffee my mom slides toward me and she winks. Crap, she totally knows what I did last night, the same way she knew everything I did when I was growing up.
“You didn’t call me until almost midnight, and then all you said was you were going to bed and would talk to me in the morning. So I’m guessing the date went better than good,” April states as I take a sip of coffee.
“Okay, it went better than good.” I sigh, wishing I woke up in time to get some caffeine into my system before I had to leave my place. Unfortunately, I slept through the three alarms I set in fifteen-minute increments and still pressed Snooze on the last one, which left me only minutes to get showered, dressed, and in my car to make it here.
“So,” June cuts in. “Did he bring you peonies?”
“I think you all already know he did,” I say, looking around the table and feeling overwhelmed when I see everyone waiting for me to elaborate.
“We knew he asked for your favorite flower, but we didn’t know if he’d actually buy them for you, since they aren’t exactly easy to come by,” July pipes up, looking happy.
“Where did he take you for dinner?” Mom asks, and I pull my eyes off my sister’s smiling face to look at her.
“Flame,” I reply, and Mom’s eyes widen with awe. “He knows the owner. We had dinner on the rooftop, which has been enclosed with glass, and were the only people there after the owner’s parents left.”
“Was the food good?” May asks, and I look around April at her.
“It was one of the best meals I’ve ever had.”
“Peonies and dinner at Flame,” Mom says, and I find her shaking her head. “He’s not messing around.”
“Can we please cut all this crap and get to the good stuff? What happened when he brought you home?” April asks, raising one brow.
My chest gets tight and my face warms. It’s one thing talking with my sisters about sex. It’s completely different with our mom present.
“April,” Mom scolds.
“What?”
“You know what. We talked about this.” Mom narrows her eyes in disapproval, and April shifts uncomfortably next to me.
“I see the last of you has arrived,” a waitress says, appearing suddenly at the side of our booth, and I couldn’t be more thankful for her interruption. “What can I get you ladies to eat?”
We give her our orders, food enough to sustain six grown men, and she looks impressed by the time she walks