My Curvy Valentine: A Perfect Fit Novella (4 page)

“I was calling you, dingus.” There was concern in her eyes. “At first I thought you were ignoring me like you used to when I was a little kid, but then I realized that you weren’t that big of an asshole anymore. You were simply lost in space.”

“You really thought I was an asshole, Mags?”

“Oh, yes.” She nodded earnestly. “Big asshole. Huge one. I still do. I wouldn’t speak to you now, but you feed me so well I make the exception.”

“You really know how to cut a man to the quick.”

She shrugged. “It’s a talent.”

“If you dislike me so much, why are you here right now?”

“It can wait. What’s up with you?”

He thought about lying to her for a moment, but what was the point? She was right this morning when she said she knew him in a deeper way than most. Even when she was a little kid he felt like she could see through him in a way no one else could. It disconcerted him then. It was probably why he went out of his way to annoy her. “I was thinking about my mother,” he admitted.

Her eyes passed over his face. She didn’t hide her sadness. She had been there through her quick illness. He had seen how the ovarian cancer turned his mother from a healthy, vibrant woman to a shell of one in a matter of months. He had felt alone then, but he remembered Maggie was there too. She was twelve, but she was there, sitting by his side after the wake. “She would have loved it here. She would have been proud.”

“You think so?”

“I know so. She would have hung that article about you on the refrigerator so she could show all her friends when they came over to play cards.”

He grinned, thinking about his mother. “She was proud of everything I did. No matter what it was. If I were a bank robber she would have said, ‘See my Alexei, he knocked over four banks before he got caught. I bet your son couldn’t do that’.” He imitated her Greek accent.

“I miss her.” She walked away from him toward the cozy arm chairs he kept in the corner. He followed her and even through his sad thoughts he couldn’t help but watch her hips gently sway as she went. It was her curvy bottom that distracted him. Those tight black pants combined with those tall sexy boots she wore made her behind swish from side to side as she walked. It was hypnotic.

“You miss her?” he asked dumbly. He knew the last thing he should be focused on was his friend’s sister’s swishing ass, but he couldn’t help it. It was a hell of an ass.

“They were friends, you know.” She sat down, crossing her long legs, looking far sexier than the nerdy Maggie he knew should be.

“What?” he asked again, still unable to focus on anything but how damn tasty she looked. “My mother and yours. They were good friends. I would go out with them. They shopped together. They had lunch. They were close.”

He took the seat next to her instead of the one across from her with the small table in between the chairs. “I guess they were. I never thought about it much before.”

“Your mother was the first one to tell her to leave my father. She said that a husband should treat a wife like a queen and that a wife should treat a husband like a well-loved servant.”

He grinned again. “That sounds like something she would say.”

“Did your father treat your mother like a queen?”

“If he could have handed her the moon on a silver platter he would have. He loved her very much. He was never afraid to say it, or show it, but when she got really sick he kind of disappeared. I understood why and so did she. She didn’t want to be remembered as that skinny,
bald, dying woman. Too sick to lift her head, in too much pain to speak. It was too hard to see her that way. It almost killed him.”

He felt his throat burn, the unfamiliar burn of tears threatening. His father had always been a joyful man, even after his beautiful Damara had passed on, but he had changed a bit. It was like a big part of him was missing.

Maggie’s hand closed over his. He looked up to see that she was staring at the abstract painting he had on the wall and not at him. “My mother came to visit me today. She’s been online dating and has been out with four men in the past few weeks. Part of me is saying
go Mom
, but another part of me finds it troubling.”

“Troubling? Why? She’s cute and single,” he said, glad Maggie had changed the subject.

“Yeah. She should date. She should find a man to make her happy after spending thirty years married to that son of a bitch, but it’s hard to wrap my head around my fifty-nine year old mother getting more action than I do.” She looked adorably disgruntled in that moment.

“Your mom is getting some? You asked her that?”

“I asked her if she was using condoms.”

“You didn’t.”

“I did! The last thing any daughter wants to hear is that their mother picked up an STD from a guy that she met on the Internet. Then I would have to take her to the clinic and then we would have to get tested and go through the embarrassment of going to Waltman’s Pharmacy to pick up her meds and
you know
Mr. Waltman has been there since the Stone Age.
You know
he’ll
judge and every time some member of our family walks in there he’ll look at us and think,
There go those Calhouns with the mother who has a social disease
.”

“Your mother doesn’t have a social disease, Maggie!” He laughed, her presence easing his sadness.

“I know. She says she’s never been with anyone but my father.”

“If you know that, then why are you getting so worked up?”

“Because that made me sad too. She’s been with one man and that man treated her like shit for so long.”

“I don’t know your father well. He was away a lot for work when we were kids. Was it that bad?”

She nodded. “My mother was much heavier than she is now. Every member of her family had diabetes or heart disease and she didn’t want to go down that road. So she started exercising. We ate healthier. No more fast food three times a week. No more soda. And the more weight she lost, the meaner my father got to her. It was her birthday and he took us out to eat. She ordered a salad and right in front of the waitress he said that he wasn’t going to pay for her to eat leaves. If she wanted to graze like the cow she was, she could go into the parking lot and have at it.”

“I would have broken his fucking neck.”

“I wanted to,” she said. Her voice grew thick, her eyes watery. “It was her birthday and he couldn’t be nice to her. He had to embarrass her in front of everybody. Why couldn’t he have pretended to love her for just that one day?”

“Was it always like that?” He wasn’t sure how it happened but somehow her fingers had wound up entwined with his.

“I don’t think he was always so bad. I remember being a little kid and loving him so much. But something changed and suddenly growing up in our house was like being in basic training. Everything had to be perfect for Mr. Military. Our beds had to be made just right. The dishes had to be stacked a certain way. The pressure was insane. I think that why Clayton was wild growing up. He needed some way to relieve the pressure before he exploded.”

Clayton had stayed wild for a long time. But going to war seemed to have changed him. Alex had always thought of Clayton as one of his best friends but the truth was, he was closer to Maggie since Clayton had been to war. “I’m sorry, Mags.” He didn’t know what else to say.

“My mother wants me to talk to my father. She wants us to have a relationship, but I don’t know why. The only thing that he taught me is that sometimes not having a father is better than having a shitty one.” She shook her head and laughed. “Look at me, sounding all man-hating and angry.”

He leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Don’t be all man-hating and angry. Men are good for some things.”

“Like taking out the garbage and giving orgasms? I can do both of those things myself. Thank you very much.”

He grinned at her insolence and kissed her again, letting his lips linger on her smooth cheek. “You’re only saying that because you haven’t found a man who could give you a way better orgasm than you could give yourself.”

“He doesn’t exist.” She looked up at him with her big brown eyes. “I went through a little phase when I first moved out of my parents’ house trying to find him. Trust me, I’d rather call out my own name.”

“Why don’t you…” He stopped himself from talking and sat up straight.

“Why don’t you what?”

Let me try
.

He shook his head, not so sure why he was surprised by that thought. Surprised that he wanted her. He had felt the attraction, the pull lately. But she was Maggie. Why couldn’t he see her as the annoying kid sister she used to be?

“What about making a baby and having a partner and all that stuff?” he asked, trying to distract himself. “Men can be useful for that.”

“I don’t want any children. Don’t really care for them. Besides, I can raise a baby alone. Women do it every day. Some single mothers raise super successful people. I can be one of them.”

Alone. He could see Maggie doing a lot of things, but he couldn’t see her being alone. He didn’t want her to be alone.

“Some single mothers do raise great children. But you need a man in your life, Maggie. Children need fathers. They need men in their lives. We are just as important.”

“Whatever. I think I could be much happier without one.” She turned her face away from him and he knew that she knew. He knew she was lying to them both.

“Bullshit. What about waking up alone in the morning? What about going to bed at night? What about having somebody there to make you feel good? You can sell that crap to somebody else, but I know you. I know you need a man.”

She swallowed hard. “Why does it have to be a man? Have you ever considered I might be into girls?”

“If you are,” he spoke into her ear, his lips brushing her skin, “that’s something I might like to watch.”

“You’re a perv.” She turned her face to look at him. “A complete and total perv.”

“That may be, but I know you need somebody. Everybody does.” Their eyes locked, their lips were close, and all it would take was for him lean in an inch to close the gap between their mouths. He wanted to kiss her, he realized. He wanted to take her mouth and kiss her until she moaned the same way she did when she was eating his cake.

“Why are you so close to me?” She moved away, sitting all the way back in her chair and putting some much needed distance between them. Things had gone too far

“I don’t know,” he said truthfully. He didn’t know why he wanted her so bad these past few days. He knew he couldn’t have her like he wanted to. He knew that they weren’t the type that could ever be together as a couple. And they could never be friends with benefits. He could never just use her body without the expectation of more. She was Clay’s little sister and Clayton would kill him if he tried something. But more than that, Alex could never just sleep with Maggie. She was the type of girl that needed to be loved.

They were silent for a long moment and he wondered what was running through her head. If she had any idea how he felt about her. If she was feeling any of the things he did. “I came down here to ask if we can have Belinda’s baby shower here next month.” She wasn’t looking at him again, instead she stared at a spot on the wall as if were about to come to life.

“Of course,” he said without hesitation.

She looked at him. “What about the price for the rental?”

“I just need enough to cover the cost of the food. What kind of menu are we talking about?”

“I don’t know yet. We’ll talk about that later. You would close the shop down for a few hours for free, basically?”

“It’s Belinda’s baby shower. You love her. Of course I would.”

“I spoke to her mother-in-law. She said she’ll pay you whatever you would like to rent the place out. Don’t be dumb and refuse it. The woman is loaded.”

“Belinda sends people in here every day from the store. I got three nurses in here from her OB-GYN’s office asking for brownies around noon. The word of mouth is worth much more than shutting this place down for a couple of hours.”

“Oh, you’re not as dumb as you look.”

“No. I guess I’m not.”

She got up to leave and he knew that he should let her go, that he would see her tomorrow, but he grabbed her hand, preventing her flight. She looked down at him, her eyes wide, her mouth slightly open.

“What?”

“The owner of Kerman’s Marketplace was just here. He wants sell my cherry chocolate muffins in his store, for a trial run. Only he wants me to make them into cakes. If things go well he’s offering to carry more of my stuff.”

“That’s amazing, Alex. Congratulations.”

“So you think I should consider it?”

“What are your reservations?”

“I never wanted this to be a commercial bakery.”

“It won’t be. You can do this on your own terms, but I think the more people who have the opportunity to taste your stuff the better it will be for this place.”

He had thought the same thing. He just wanted to run it by her first. She always told him the truth when it mattered. “Thanks, Mags.” He let her hand slip out of his. “Good night.”

“Good night.”

Chapter 3

She smelled sugar in the air. No. It was more than just simple white sugar. It was richer. Thicker.

Frosting.

That yummy cream cheese frosting that always tasted so damn good on red velvet cakes. Maggie was having one of her dirty dreams again and even in her sleep her excitement grew. She was going to be able to sink her teeth into some cake. And any day that started off with cake was a good day.

A man walked into the room, holding the cake on a pink platter, only she couldn’t see his face. He had dark hair and a big body, but she wasn’t focused on that. She couldn’t take her eyes off the huge treat that was coming toward her. She reached out to grab it, ready to let the sweet sugary rush overtake her, but it disappeared before she could get her hands on it. All that was left was the man and somehow her hands latched on to him. His arms were hard and as they wrapped around her she leaned into his chest, getting the full feel of his warm, solid body.

She hugged him back, her body telling her to, even though her mind was trying to figure out what was going on. It felt good though, maybe just as nice as digging into a freshly baked cake. The dream man held onto her tightly, his nose followed by his lips brushing over her neck. It was then she realized that it was him who smelled like sugar and frosting and… spicy soap. She knew that smell. As he kissed down her throat she recognized who her dream man was.