I open my eyes to find Bobby staring at me.
“Nope, I think you’re right. You’re not even close to done. How long is this going to continue?”
He kisses me and pulls out, lying back on the bed and taking me with him until I’m nestled into his side.
I shake my head, amused. “Are you complaining?”
“I’m not sure. Depends on why you’re hypersexual lately. If it’s because you’ve been gone for a week then, no, I’m not complaining. It was agony you being in Santa Barbara over the holidays. I hated not being with you for Christmas.”
I pretend to think it over, but inside I’m a little hurt. Hypersexual? Really, Bobby? “So suspicious. It’s your Christmas gift.”
He picks up the very naughty panties I somehow managed to buy with Chrissie watching me shop, and laughs. “I like how you wrapped my present.”
I drop a kiss on his nose. “You liked unwrapping it better.”
His eyes gleam. “Definitely.”
I make an aggravated groan. “I need to get dressed. I need to get out of here.”
He rakes back his hair with his hand, frowning. “I thought you were staying the night.”
I kiss his neck and climb from the bed, trying to figure out where my clothes got dumped.
“I can’t. Chrissie’s been all up in my shit since Christmas. Snapping over everything. I don’t want to push it. I don’t want to get busted. And I definitely don’t want to get grounded.”
“Grounded, huh? You’ll be eighteen in a few weeks. Chrissie wouldn’t really try to ground you, would she?”
I grab my panties from his hand. “Ah—yes. She’s been really sad, upset lately. It’s the only reason she’s been on my back about the smallest things. She blows over everything. I feel kind of bad for my mom.”
Bobby turns on his side. “Are you going to tell me what happened over Christmas? You’ve been off, too, since you got back.”
I shrug, fighting to keep my thoughts from my face. “Nothing happened. It was just your standard Parker family Hallmark Christmas.”
Bobby sits up on the edge of the bed, alertly watching me as I dress. “Exactly what is a standard Parker family Christmas?”
I put on my bra. “You know. Mexican food on the patio. No tree because we’re at Grandpa Jack’s and he hates commercial Christmas. Modest number of presents. Then all of us hanging out together at the beach.”
“It sounds nice.”
“It was nice.”
“Then why do you sound—I don’t know—angry when you talk about it?”
I flush.
Angry? I didn’t know I was so obvious. I make a show of searching for my shoes. “Things can get intense with Chrissie. She’s so emotionally exposed and oozes 24/7 sometimes. She floods the fucking airways with it. Especially over the holidays. It made our afternoon Christmas Day ritual even worse this year.”
Bobby crosses the room, reaches under a chair, and hands me my shoes. I sink down on the bed to put on my Converse. I can feel him watching, patiently waiting for me to explain that last part.
I jerk the laces into order and then sigh. “Fuck, you’re really going to make me tell you about this? It’s so creepy and awful. We go to the cemetery in the afternoon. Every Christmas since my dad died. Only this year Mom took Krystal and the twins to visit Jesse. Just Khloe was spared. She got to stay home with Grandpa Jack.”
I turn toward the mirror, pretending to focus on my hair. Bobby comes up behind me, encircles me with his arms, and lightly paints kisses across the back of my head.
“I’m sorry. That must be rough for you.”
Emotion swells in my throat. I let out a ragged breath. “The cemetery outing wasn’t hard. That I’m used to. I didn’t get a present or a card this year from Alan. Again. Neither did Mom, which I’m sure is why she’s all butt-hurt these days.”
Bobby’s eyes lock on mine in the glass. “I’m sorry, baby.”
I search for something funny to say. “I guess Alan will have to die before Khloe will ever get to see her father on the holidays,” I quip before I realize that it was mistake to say that.
Bobby’s eyes flash. “I wasn’t sure when you returned to the ’Sades what I was feeling in you. It’s like you’re trying to fuck something out of you. It was a turn-on when I thought it was us not being together for so long, right up to the point when I figured out you’re pretty much just angry. All the shit stirred up in you gain. And I’m not sure how I feel knowing that all we’ve been doing the last two days is Kaley anger fucking.”
My cheeks are now burning crimson. “Fuck you, Bobby, if you think that.”
He steps back from me, grabs his jeans from the floor and pulls them on. “I love you, Kaley. I get what’s going on with you, how emotionally complicated it makes you at times. But don’t expect it not to bug me occasionally.”
I grab my tote and pull the strap across my body. “Well, since I’m bugging you so much, I’m out of here.”
I’m almost to the door before he stops me. I try to pull away and he holds me in a tight cocoon of his body. “Talk to me when you’re angry. It’s better for both of us when you do.”
I struggle not to cry.
He’s right. Bobby is always right.
I exhale loudly. “Fine. And I did talk to you. Just now. Remember? And I really have to go.”
He kisses me. “Have you asked Chrissie about the Tahoe trip? I think it would be good for us to spend a week alone together.” He grins. “I know it would be good for me.”
I laugh, but inside—fuck, snowboarding. Like that excuse is going to work twice in a millennium with Chrissie.
I lift my brows, widening my eyes. “I’d love it, Bobby, but I’m not even going to try to ask my mom. Things are no bueno with her. I shouldn’t leave her right now. Not now.”
He nods, his eyes softening in understanding. “Then I guess that means you’re not coming back tonight.”
I laugh harder, pushing him away. “Fuck, you’re such a jerk at times.”
He smiles. “Nope, I just really love my girlfriend.”
I loop my arms around his neck. “Then you’re forgiven. I’ll text you later once I know what’s up at my house. Maybe I can get out.”
“Don’t push, Kaley. Do what you need to do.”
I kiss him, step back, and then rush out the door.
I climb into my car and make the short drive to my house. As I pull into the driveway, I notice a black Mercedes parked by the front door.
Ah, Chrissie has company.
Maybe I’m finally going to get to meet one of the guys Linda’s been fixing her up with.
Crap, it’s so weird that Mom’s dating.
But maybe I will be able to get out of the house tonight.
I pull the key from the ignition, grab my bag from the passenger seat and hurry up the walk. I put in my earbuds and click on my music before I enter because the twins have been out of control since break started. And with the earbuds in I won’t hear Chrissie yelling at me to do something so it’s not like I’m really ignoring her.
Fuck, I just want to get to my room as quickly as possible. I open the front door. Hallelujah. Empty. I cross the entry toward the hallway and as I pass the open space living area, I halt mid-step.
After a year MIA he finally showed up.
Standing in the family room.
Alan.
I hang back, trying to figure out what I’m feeling and what I should say. Seeing Alan causes all my chaotic emotions to amplify. He’s aged in a year and he looks tired. He doesn’t look well. It should please me to see signs of aging, and I am disappointed to discover that it doesn’t.
Where the fuck is everyone?
Where’s Mom?
He’s alone and it definitely doesn’t feel like a shitstorm has happened here. Oh no, am I the first one to run into him? Good one, Chrissie, not to be here when Alan gets here so I have to deal with this on my own.