"As long as you're aware that these cannoli are going to cost you a fucking fortune."
With a laugh, I replied, "I don't care."
"Fine. I'll call Duke and tell him to start an emergency batch. They should be done by the time you make the trip from Bumblefuck to Atlanta."
Duke Martinelli was AJ's father-in-law. When he had retired from the NFL, he'd opened an Italian restaurant in the heart of Atlanta and named it Mama Sofia's, after his mother. "Tell Duke I'll owe him big time."
"Oh, I'm sure he'll let you make it up to him," AJ joked.
"Whatever, man."
"All right, I'm hanging up and calling him."
"Thanks. I appreciate it. I owe you, too."
"The only way I want to be repaid is for things to work out with you and this girl."
Rolling my eyes, I protested, "But you don't even know her. She could be a real bitch or a gold digger."
"I know what you've told me, and from that, I know she's someone worth pursuing-someone like my Mia."
I jerked a hand through my hair. "She could be. I just don't know."
"Then find out."
"Okay, I'll try."
"Talk to you later, man. Thanks."
"Yeah, later."
Long after Gabe left, my feet remained frozen to the kitchen floor. I would have been a complete statue of myself if I didn't continue running my fingers over my swollen lips. Each time I did, I closed my eyes and thought of Gabe's mouth on mine … his hands on my body … his tongue inside me. Just as I would flush with desire, mortification would once again crash over me.
As Aunt Sadie would say, I'd just behaved like a brazen hussy. I mean, how else would one classify my behavior? I'd allowed a man I'd known for less than a week to go down on me in my family's kitchen. Sure, he was a talented songwriter known around the world who called me his songwriting muse, but he was still a stranger to me.
While I'd been an avid watcher of Sex and the City back in the day, I'd only managed to live vicariously through their liberated sexual escapades. The five men I'd slept with in my life had all been within the confines of either a relationship or long dating period. Well, there was that one-night stand with a Falcons player, but I was only twenty at the time. I had certainly matured and become much wiser since then.
"What the hell?" Kennedy demanded.
Coming out of my stupor, I whirled around to face my sisters. Kennedy's wide gaze ricocheted around the room. "What happened?"
"Uh, I burned Linc's brownies."
Kennedy cocked her head at me. "Yes, I can smell that, but did a tornado blow through here as well?" She motioned to the floor where Gabe had swept the leftover ingredients and bowls to the floors before hoisting me up on the countertop.
"Gabe … He … " I pinched my eyes shut.
Ellie appeared at my side. "Did Gabe hurt you?"
My eyes flew open as I wildly shook my head. "No, no, no! It was nothing like that."
"Then what was it?" Kennedy asked.
"I thought my vagina caught on fire, but it was the brownies burning," I said absently.
Kennedy and Ellie exchanged a look. "Do we slap her or try to get some alcohol in her?" Kennedy asked.
With a scowl, I replied, "You don't need to slap me."
"Considering the state you're in and the way you're talking, that's still debatable," Kennedy said.
"While I don't need slapping, I could use a drink."
Ellie nodded. "Kennedy, grab the tequila from the pantry."
"I'm on it."
Steering me over to the table, Ellie said, "I think you need to sit down."
"That's probably a good idea," I replied as I flopped down in one of the chairs.
Kennedy returned with the tequila and three shot glasses. Always one for extreme bluntness, she asked, "Did you guys fuck on the kitchen counter?"
"If oral sex counts as fucking," I replied before throwing back the tequila. Oh shit. That was some extreme TMI I'd just unloaded on my sisters.
While Ellie's eyes bulged in horror, Kennedy paused with her shot glass in mid-air. "Whose ass am I going to be bleaching off the countertop?"
"Mine."
Kennedy bobbed her head. "He went down on you first. I like his style."
"Excuse me?"
"Most men only reciprocate oral sex. They want you to blow them before they'll eat you out."
I wrinkled my nose. "I seriously hate that term."
"What would you prefer I call it? Carpet munching? A c-swizzle? Eating the peach?"
Ellie slowly shook her head back and forth. "I seriously can't believe I just heard those terms come out of your mouth."
"It doesn't surprise me at all," I said as I reached for the tequila bottle.
Kennedy moved it away from me. "Easy there, Tex. Don't you have to pick up Linc at Dad's?"
I groaned. "Yes, dammit. I do." It was one of those moments when I really loved my son, but I also really wanted to get shit-faced with my sisters while sharing my jumbled feelings about Gabe.
"Then no more tequila." She jerked her chin at me. "Hurry up and spill it before you have to go."
With a sigh, I proceeded to tell the girls how Gabe's and my baking had turned into a smoking hot sexcapade that led to me letting the brownies burn, and in turn, how said sexcapade along with Gabe's care and concern led me to emotionally shut down and throw him out of the house.
When I finished, I'd managed to render both my sisters momentarily speechless, which was a feat in itself. Covering my face with my hands, I moaned. "Great, you guys think I'm just as psycho as Gabe probably does."
"No, we don't," Ellie protested.
"I think she's a little psycho," Kennedy replied. Then she grinned at me. "But I get where you were coming from. I mean, the fact that I had an affair with a married French man would be evidence of that."
"How am I ever going to face him again?" I pondered.
"By communicating to him what you've just told us," Ellie said sensibly.
I threw up my hands in frustration. "But I don't know how."
"Of course you do."
"I think the fact that I'm twenty-six and still single would say differently. I'm just no good when it comes to men."
"Just tell him you're sorry for freaking out on him. You just panicked because things were moving too fast," Ellie suggested.
"Then what? Ask him if we can go back to the way things were before he saw me naked and went down on me?"
Kennedy gave me an exasperated look. "Why on earth would you want things to go back to the way they were? You yourself said the man was a hell of a kisser, not to mention was he extremely talented at licking pussy."
"While I'm not sure I would have actually ever said the term ‘licking pussy', yes, he was extremely good at it-like the best I've ever had."
"Then why go back to not being physical?"
"Because he has a job to do." At Kennedy's wicked expression, I said, "And it's not to be my official pussy licker."
"Ha, you said it."
"Whatever."
Ellie tilted her head thoughtfully at me. "Are you afraid if you guys keep going, Gabe might lose his songwriting ability again?"
"Something like that. I mean, things were rolling along perfectly well the way we were. He doesn't need anything to complicate it, and we all know how much sex complicates everything."
While Ellie nodded, Kennedy said, "But maybe what he needs now is some heat. Just because you guys start messing around, that doesn't mean he's suddenly going to be unable to write."
"I just don't want to rock the boat."
"I'm pretty sure from what transpired here this evening, Gabe would be more than happy to rock your boat," Kennedy mused.
"While somewhat misguided, I think Kennedy does have a point. You don't know how Gabe is feeling about all this, which is why you have to talk to him."
"Okay, fine. I'll call him in the morning. Hopefully he hasn't packed up and run back to Atlanta because his muse went crazy."
"I seriously doubt that," Ellie replied.
"What time is the bake sale?" Kennedy asked.
"Noon."
Kennedy nodded. "I can throw something together by then."
"You can?"
"While it'll be a complete, pain-in-the-ass inconvenience, of course I can. You know I'd do anything for that kid." She smiled at me. "And for you, Rae. I always have your back. You know that."
I fought the tears that pricked my eyes. "Thanks, Ken. That means a lot."
"Now go on and get our boy."
"But the kitchen-"
"We'll clean it up while you're gone."
"I can't let you guys do that."
Ellie smiled. "We're family, silly. We always help each other out."
"Even if the other was practically fornicating on the kitchen counter?" I asked.