Regardless, that’s the damn night shit changed. She was sexy all the damn time, but when her guard was down and was less made up, she was damn near perfect.
“What?” she scowls and flips me off.
Like I said, damn near.
I shake my head and she tilts her head. “You okay?”
Holy shit, did she really just ask that?
“Looking for pancake mix. Hope you don’t mind. It’s our Sunday morning ritual,” I manage to say without sounding stunned.
“Catch.” She tosses me her phone. “Google it. You don’t need mix and everything should be here.”
“You sure?” I ask as she walks past me to the sink.
“I’m sure,” she says and the phone buzzes in my hand.
I look at her then back at the phone.
She rolls her eyes. “Have at it, look, I give no fu-”
“Morning sugar,” Natalia says smiling as she runs out and wraps her arms around Kat’s legs. She rubs her face against her leg as she squeezes her.
“Wow, well, hello,” Kat says and actually smiles.
“Thank you for the sleepover. I loved it.”
“Me too,” Kat nods, looks at me and rolls her eyes.
I’m about to ask her why she rolled her eyes when Darby catches Nat’s attention and she’s off across the hardwood floor toward her.
“That piss you off?” I ask.
“What? No,” she shakes her head.
“My kid, the eye roll?” I whisper my inquisition.
“Chill Poppa Bear.” She rolls them now more dramatically.
“Bugs you though,” I say.
“You bug me, she’s, I don’t know, cool?”
I nod and look around trying to refocus on the task at hand. Making sense out of the senseless shit surrounding me.
“I could use your help out here,” Kat calls while walking to a door that I assume goes to her garage. “Nat can you make sure Darby gets her orange juice, she doesn’t come full to life without it.”
“Uh huh. Let’s go Darby.”
I walk out and see a black Pontiac Trans Am. It’s gotta be mid 1980’s. It has T-tops, tinted windows, rear spoiler and nice aftermarket aluminum rims.
“This yours?” I ask walking around admiring it.
“No, I stole it last night so you’d have something to drive,” she says as she opens the drawer to a workbench.
“Why?”
“I didn’t really steal it. Damn you’re moody today.”
“And you’re not,” I say opening the door and sliding into the driver’s seat.
The interior is black leather and looks like it’s been taken care of. “Sweet ride Kat.” I look out as she walks up with the keys. “Why don’t you drive it?”
“It’s not practical. It’s a gas hog.”
“Then why have plates on it?”
“In case I’m feeling impractical.” She hands me the keys.
“I don’t need charity Kat, I can-”
“You’re such a dick.”
“Oh, I see,” I say taking the keys.
“See what? Your contradictions?”
She’s right. I need to get it together. I need to reel it in and take control back.
“You think this is an even exchange for the orgasm I’ve given. Heads up, it’s not.”
I push the key in the ignition and turn it over.
The engine’s purr drowns out her growl.
“I see that you are in a damn good mood this morning and for a woman who says she’s not a morning person, I can only assume it’s because of last night.”
She steps back. “Don’t flatter yourself. Apparently if I don’t get fucked up on Saturday nights, Sundays are a little more tolerable.”
I turn off the car and step out.
“Before we go back in I think you need to shake off whatever it is that’s making you miserable,” she points at me.
“Me? What do you expect?” I laugh.
“I expect you to suck it up,” she says raising her eyebrows.
“Oh is that so.” I reach out and grip her hip.
She wiggles away. “Yep. I expect you to be the man she needs you to be. So pull up your big boy pants and be her dad.”
“Am I really getting a pep talk from Kat?” I look up as if I am asking God the question.
“And then I expect you to make some damn pancakes. So go get your apron on and feed us.” I reach out again and she laughs when I catch her hip and she tries to wiggle away again. “I’m serious. I’m fucking hungry.”
I let go of her hip and I think I see disappointment in her eyes but it quickly fades.
She walks past me and looks over her shoulder. “We good here?”
“We’re good.”
“So you’re staying until Nick DeAngelo gives you the okay?”
“I don’t need an okay from anyone to-”
“For her?” she asks.
“Fine, yeah.”
“Good, tell her you’re taking care of my cat while Darby and I go away. She doesn’t need to worry anymore right?”
“Right,” I agree then ask, “You have a cat?”
“Nope, but it’s a damn good excuse. Tell her it’s out hunting or some shit.”
“Kat, I got this, but thanks.”
“Thank me with pancakes,” she says and opens the door.
I walk in and Nat is on a stool at the counter on her knees with a mixing bowl in front of her and Darby is handing Nat a measuring cup of flour to add to the mixture.
Nat looks at Kat and her head tilts. “You’re pretty.”
Kat looks back at her and says, “You just noticing this?”
“You look more prettier in the morning. You don’t have the eye stuff and red lips,” Nat says with all her three-year-old honesty.
“Makeup,” Kat says.
“Yeah, that. Why do you wear it?” she asks as she dumps the flour in the bowl.
“Well, that’s a great question. I suppose it’s habit.”
“Well you look pretty.” Nat looks up at Darby. “You too.”
“Well so do you,” Darby says and I see Kat smile out of the corner of my eye as she walks over to her coffee pot.
“You want some knockoff Dunkin’ Donuts coffee?” she asks me.
“Sure.”
KAT
“My girls!” Mom says opening her arms wide and then squeezing the hell out of us.
“Hi Mom,” Darby laughs.
After the hug I step back and look at my mother. She has on a hippy helmet and denim bibbed overalls splattered with paint.
I almost laugh because my mother doesn’t wear shit like that.
“What?” she asks when she notices me eyeing her.
“You, you’re, I don’t know, dirty.”
“I’m painting Katherine,” she says and quickly walks through the kitchen to the dining room. “I wanted a nautical feel.”
I look around the room. The floors look unharmed. They don’t look like there was any damage. Hmm.
I look up at her and she gives me a look. A look to say ‘no, don’t, stop, bite your tongue.’
So I oblige.
The walls in the living room and dining room are white half way up and navy blue the rest of the way.
“You did this?” Darby asks.
“I did.”
“Wow Mom, it looks, great, beachy. I like it.”
“Just like?” Mom asks her.
“Love, I love it.”
She hugs her again and I watch my mom melt before me. Every uptight muscle in her body morphs into mush.
I don’t ever remember her being that way with me. I have a better understanding of why now.
“Is my room done?” Darby jokes.
“Why don’t you go have a look,” she smiles.
“Really?” Darby squeals, yet doesn’t give her a chance to answer as she runs to the stairs.
“Your room is too,” she says with a smile.
“You do know I have a house right? I mean you were just there a couple-“
“I’m aware. I just hope you come home more.”
I nod and look around. “Floors look great.”
She leans in and whispers, “New contractor.”
“Oh yeah?” I can’t help but laugh.
She smiles and nods. “Yeah.”
“You work fast Mom. Damn.”
“Macey talked me into Tindered, a different app,” she whispers.
“Oh dear God,” I say as I sit down and lean back in the light denim colored chair.
“Matched Up just didn’t give me enough options,” she sits down in the matching chair. “So tell me, how are you doing on there?”
“It’s amusing. Entertaining-”
“Addicting,” she says in a low whisper.
“Great way to combat boredom.”
“I’m not bored,” she says. “Look around.”
“Cool, so this contractor,” I stop when I hear Darby running down the stairs.
“It’s perfect. Perfect Mom,” she laughs and smiles.
“I’m so glad you like it.” Mom stands up. “How about I get changed and we have a picnic on the beach.”
She nods at Mom and looks at me. “Natalia would love it. She is so funny, she loves everything girly.”
“Who’s Natalia?” Mom asks.
“Kat’s partner Ricco’s three-year-old-”
“Partner in what?” Mom gasps.
“The tattoo shop. Kat is co-owner with the Steels until he gets things sorted out with the sisters who both said they were carrying his baby. Turns out, they aren’t his and-”
“Hold on, slow down.” Mom puts her hand over her forehead and sits in the chair. “Kat did you use your trust fund money to buy that place?”
“That place?” I laugh. “You mean where I have worked for over three years?”
“And the man she’s talking about, is he the one from Wine Wednesday, the huge inked up-”
“That’s him,” Darby laughs. “He’s super nice Mom, and he’s a great dad. I watched his daughter last night and when I go back to Kat’s I am pretty sure I’ll be watching her a lot. I adore her and-”
“Darby, slow down.”
“Mom it’s cool, it’s like a summer job and-”
“Darby,” Mom says shaking her head. “We need to get settled in here. A week maybe, but the summer, I don’t think Kat needs that kind of responsibility.”
Darby’s face goes flat and she shrugs. “Right. Of course.”
“This is a me and Mom thing Darby, it’s nothing against you, trust me,” I say as I stand up.
“That’s not true Katherine.”
Nails on a chalkboard.
“Please Kat,” Darby whispers.
I look at her and then Mom. “I’m good Darby. We’re all good.”
This smile is brought to you by the chick whose fictitious balls just shriveled up because the one fuck I still have to give goes to my sister.
“Perfect.” Mom’s fake smile lights up and she stands again. “I’ll be right back.”
As soon as she is up the stairs Darby says, “Thanks Kat.”
“No big deal,” I say. “I’m going to change, you should too.”
“Right,” she smiles and I suspect that hers is a fake smile as well.
I laugh and shake my head. “Let’s go.”
When I walk in my room I look around. My heart immediately is in my throat and I want to cry, and I don’t fucking cry. I get pissed, but how do you get pissed about this.
There are poster size pictures on the walls of me and my father, two of them. One when I was about three and another when I was in a cast. There is one of all three of us and I know that it was taken months before he died.
There are vintage Alice framed pictures on two walls and the last wall says, ‘Dare To Dream’.
“Damn it,” I mutter as I wipe away a tear.
Years and years I looked at him in a tiny picture album I literarily had in my nightstand drawer because Darby’s dad, my stepdad, might find it offensive. Now here he is larger than life and the memories evoked by the photos are more vivid than the ones in my head.
A light knock on the door and I turn around.
“Awe, I’m sorry.” Mom walks in and hugs me. “It’s just-”
“It’s okay Mom. It’s good.”
She pulls back. “You sure?”
I nod and more tears fall. “Yeah.”
She wipes them away and Darby walks in. “Is that your Dad?”
“Yep,” I smile through tears.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen him,” she says walking up to one of them with her back toward us.
Mom mouths, ‘I’m sorry.’
I shrug.
“Wow, you look a lot like him.”
“Sure does. Her eyes and lips are definitely his.”
“Thank God I didn’t get his stubble,” I laugh trying to lighten up the mood.
“That comes with age my dear,” Mom laughs.
“Okay go, both of you. The beach is calling.”
We had a great day on the beach, I wore a bikini in front of my mother for the first time. It was kind of hysterical.
She tried real damn hard to hide her annoyance, and when she couldn’t, she pulled her shades down and looked away. Darby smirked at me.
Yeah it was a good day.
When we get back to the house we’re all drained. The sun, the sand, and the water do that to you. I avoid the beach near my house, but it’s unavoidable here, it’s right out the back door.
Darby showers and decides to take a nap. I use the other bathroom to shower and rid myself of the sand in places sand has not been in years.
When I come downstairs to look for my phone, Mom is sitting on the couch with her legs tucked under her, my phone in her hand.
“Mom, my phone,” I say holding my hand out as I walk to her.
“Who is rider one, he seems to like you.”
I hope to hell she hasn’t read everything.
“Mom,” I say standing in front of her.
“Fine. What about baller one?”
“Too desperate,” I answer sitting down to check exactly what she read.
“Mister, mister?”
“Who?”
“He sounds amazing. Seems like he’s not into games. Would prefer when you tell people how you met you make up a great story. He is married to his career, but would make time for the right person.”
“Seriously Mom,” I groan.
“And he liked every one of your pictures so he apparently likes girls with,” she pauses briefly, “art work.”
“Does he have ink?”
“No, not even one. He said he likes them on women but his profession would frown upon him having-”
“Wait! You messaged him!”
“Shh,” she says, “Darby is asleep.”
“Mom, boundaries,” I gasp.
“Oh, well it was okay when Macey was-”
“No, no it wasn’t but she’s out of control,” I hiss.
“Well maybe I am too.” She takes a sip of her coffee and smirks.
“Oh my God, you got laid,” I gasp.
“No, not yet but I’m thinking when we go out next weekend, maybe.”
I point to her phone. “Show me.”
We spent the hour Darby slept laughing about some of the men on the site. Then we went to dinner.