Page 20 of Taken By the Bad Boy
He looked at her and Mae waited.Neither of them spoke, and then Caleb’s cell phone rang.He let go of her hand and checked down at the caller.“I’ve got to take his.”
She nodded and took the lead from him.He stepped away, and she crouched down to stroke Snots.
“That wasn’t good, was it?”Mae asked.
The dog just looked at her as he waited.
She continued to stroke him, and then Caleb came back.“That was work.I’ve got to deal with something.”
“That’s okay.I’m going to see Emily.”She offered him a smile, and Caleb looked at her.She waited to see if he would kiss her, but he didn’t.“I’ll call you soon.”
Mae watched him walk away then took a deep breath and slowly expelled it.
“I don’t think we ended things quite so well.”She couldn’t help but wince, and then she gave Snots a tap on the chest and started to make her way toward the bakery.It was cold, and the bakery didn’t like pets inside.
Mae got Emily’s attention and her friend gave her a thumbs-up.She took one of the tables outside, and snuggled down into her jacket.She didn’t have to wait long before Emily was out, complete with coffee and muffins.
“How come you’ve got Snots?”Emily asked, giving him a pat on the head, and she had a dog biscuit for him.
“Caleb got called into work.”
“Are you two going to take care of our kids for us?”Emily asked.
“Yeah, we are.”Mae couldn’t get the last ten minutes out of her head.
“Oh, no, what’s going on?”Emily asked, in between taking a large bite of her muffin.
“What do you mean?”
“That face, it says you’re thinking about something that happened and seeing as the only person you’ve been around is Caleb, what has he done to piss you off?”Emily asked.
“It’s nothing.”
“Do we need to go through this every single time?I’m your life friend, remember?”
Mae scrunched up her nose.“Fine, fine, it’s nothing.He asked me if I wanted to have kids.”
“Caleb did?”Emily asked.
“Yeah, Caleb did.”
To which Emily whistled.“That boy means business.”
“What?”
“Well, you do, don’t you?You want the whole big family.The sweaters at Christmas, the cards and the turkey dinner, and the family events.You want that.”
Mae pursed her lips and Emily looked at her.
“Did you tell him that?”
“I asked him if he wanted kids.”
Emily lifted her coffee to her lips and took a sip.“And?”
“He didn’t answer.”
“Did you?”
