Page 59 of Feels Like Falling
“Are you with Montana Greene?” she asks, her lips curving up as her head cocks slightly to the side.
“Yes?” The single word is a question because despite the cluster that was last night, Iamwith Montana.
Her smile is both knowing and sympathetic as she presses her palms against the counter and grins. “He’s in here all the time going on and on about you.” She winks and I blush. “Y’all will have to come for my pottery class. Couple sessions can beverysensual.” She winks again as Cal strides toward the counter, removing his sunglasses and tucking them into the collar of his shirt.
“I’d apologize for being late but I’m not sorry,” he deadpans, and Nicolette snickers as I turn to face him, my eyebrow arched expectantly. “What? It’s barely morning and she’s”—he hitches his thumb toward Nicolette—“used to me.”
“And here I thought we were friends,” I tease.
“I got out of bed for you, didn’t I?”
“Your sacrifice is noted,” I say solemnly as I turn back toward Nicolette who doesn’t bother to hide her smile.
“What can I get you two?”
After ordering the largest coffee I’ve ever seen, Cal and I settle into a little table in the corner. I pull my own mug close to me, letting the warmth seep into my hands even though I’m not cold.
“So…” Cal presses as he stares at me over the lip of his cup.
“So, my father is divorcing my mother, who is apparently more diabolical than even I realized, and he couldn’t stay at their house in Blackstone Falls for whatever reason and him showing up at my place effectively cockblocked me when Montana and I were trying to rip each other’s clothes off in my kitchen.”
He blinks at me, his mouth falling open probably at the ridiculousness of that run-on sentence.
“I don’t think I’ve had enough coffee to work through that,” he says finally.
“Me either.”
“What is bothering you the most?”
Taking a sip of my coffee, I think about his question—really think—and the answer is not easy to admit. “I feel like I can’t have both of them in my life if I want to be happy. There’s tension that I think goes beyond my parents not wanting me to date Montana in high school.”
“Really?”
“I always thought my father didn’t want us together, but after talking to him last night, I can’t help but wonder if my mother put him up to it, you know? I mean, she never liked Montana either but…I don’t know. None of it makes sense.”
Nodding slowly, Cal puts his cup on the table. “I think that you’ve put too much pressure on making your return home the best thing that’s ever happened to you. And that was before”—he makes a circle with his hand—“all of this happened. I’m not saying you don’t deserve all the magic and excitement, but maybe look at what you actually want rightnow—what you can control. Do that and make everything else secondary.” He shrugs. “You need to prioritize.”
It sounds easy enough.
“You’re right.”
He sighs dreamily. “I never get tired of hearing that.”
Rolling my eyes, I take a sip of my coffee, my mind already sifting through everything I’d been hung up on before settling firmly on Montana.
My father’s presence had been so much more than a minor inconvenience. I’d wanted so desperately to cross that line with a tall, dark, and delicious cowboy. The flirting and the banter had been fun, but I craved the connection above all else.
The one that zipped through my veins and made me feel like we were tethered together. The thought is calming and I let it wash over me, calming my soul and the discontent that pulled me out of the house at such an ungodly hour.
My mother’s drama can wait.
And so can my father.
“So what are you going to do?” Cal asks as he sits back and crosses his ankle over his knee.
“I’m going to get my father out of my house and settled, establish some boundaries with him, and then I’m going to find Montana and make sure he knows exactly where we stand.”
“Well,” he says, tipping his cup back and placing it on the table. “Let’s get you another coffee; you have a hell of a day ahead.”
