"Eight-fifteen." I kiss her head. "You better get up or you'll be late for work."
She yawns. "I think my boss will be okay with it, given that he's the one making me late."
"How is he making you late?"
She hugs my chest and takes a deep breath. "He's comfy and it makes me not want to get up."
"He'd love to stay, but your boss needs to go take a shower then get us some breakfast. Any requests?"
"Oh!" She sits up, all excited. "Can you get one of those breakfast sandwiches where the bread tastes like French toast?"
I smile. This is the Callie I saw glimpses of when I first met her. The firecracker, who's quiet and still one moment, then bursts with emotion the next. Just now, she went from half-asleep to alert and excited within less than a second.
"Yeah, I can get you one of those," I say. "But you gotta let me up."
"I think you already are." Her hand brushed over the front of my jeans when she moved. She's blushing, but having her notice my erection doesn't embarrass me in the least.
"What can I say? Morning? A beautiful woman lying on top of me? It's bound to happen." I kiss her quick before getting up. "Come over when you're ready. I'll have breakfast waiting."
It's a warm, sunny morning so we have breakfast outside. Cat's meowing at the back screen door so I open it to let him out.
"He's not an outdoor cat," Callie says, pouring herself some more orange juice from the carton.
"He'll stay on the deck. He won't run off, will you, buddy?" I rub his neck and he purrs.
"I don't think he'll ever come back to my house. He likes it too much over here."
Just as she says it, he strolls over and jumps up on her lap. She sits back, startled.
"That's weird. He's never done that before."
"He's never jumped on your lap?"
"No. He was Ben's cat, so he followed Ben around and completely ignored me."
"Well, he's not ignoring you now."
He settles down on her lap, curling up into a ball. She pets him and he closes his eyes and purrs.
"Maybe he's starting to like me."
The three of us remain outside until it's time for her to go to Lou's. I told her she could skip working for me this morning. She's almost done going through the boxes, so there's no hurry to get it done. I'll be here doing renovations for at least another month, and after that? I don't know what will happen. I'll go back to Chicago, but what will Callie do? Keep working part-time for Lou? Living all alone in that house with nobody around?
"I gotta get to work." Callie lifts up Cat, who's been on her lap all through breakfast. "I'll see you later, Cat. Have a good day."
"You never told me why you named him Cat."
"I didn't name him. Ben did. He was really little when we got Cat and he didn't know many words so he just called him Cat and it stuck and soon we were all calling him Cat." She opens the screen door and goes inside, setting him down.
I walk her to the front door. "Are you hosting dinner tonight?"
She smiles. "I guess I could. Any requests?"
I lean down, my lips brushing her ear as I answer, "You. Wearing next to nothing. Waiting for me at the front door."
Her breath catches and my lips move to her mouth and I kiss her once, then twice, and because I love kissing her, I do it once more. When I back away, she's breathing fast, her eyes on mine.
I smile at her. "Oh. Did you mean requests for dinner?"
"Um...yeah," she says, breathless.
"Anything's fine. I don't care. I like everything you make. I take hold of her shoulders and turn her around toward the door, then kiss her cheek. "Have fun at work."
She walks out the door and back to her house in a total daze. It makes me laugh. That kiss took her by surprise and totally violated our professional relationship. But by her response to the kiss, I'm thinking Callie might be ready to forget the professional relationship and resume where we left off a few weeks ago.
By the afternoon, I'm feeling pretty damn good. I've got my country music blasting, a warm breeze blowing through the windows, and two fresh coats of paint up on the kitchen walls. But the best part is that the girl I love will be here any minute and then I'll get to have dinner with her and maybe we'll fall asleep on her couch again.
I never felt this way about Marissa, which should've been a clue she wasn't right for me. But before Callie, I'd never felt this way about a girl and didn't know I could.
My phone rings as I'm sitting at the kitchen table, admiring the completed room. I reach over and turn down my music and answer the phone.
"Hello?"
"Is this Nash?" It's a woman's voice.
"Yeah, who's this?"
"It's Tammy Klayton. You called me the other day. Left a message."
"Yeah." I stand up, holding the phone closer to my ear. "Thanks for calling me back."
"Your message said you're looking for Donna?"
"Yes. Do you know where she is?" My heart's pounding as I walk to the other side of the kitchen.
"No. We haven't spoken since she left. That was ten years ago."
"Do you have any idea where she went?"