Love Built to Last

by Lisa Ricard Claro

  And stay awake he did. TJ ran Cal, and anyone else who would play with him, ragged. They played catch, threw a Frisbee, walked Pirate, played catch with Pirate, had a light-saber battle with barbeque spatulas as standins, engaged in tickle fights and wrestling matches, and more.

  Sean dropped into a chair next to Cal, popped the top on a soda, and guzzled. “Your little guy just beat the pants off me in a game of marbles. I didn’t even know kids played marbles anymore.”

  “You have to watch him. He’s wily,” Cal said.

  “So…uh…listen.” Sean leaned forward and rubbed the back of his neck. “Maddie would kill me if she knew I was asking you this, but—what’s the deal with you two? I’m not looking for details. I know you’re both adults.” He glanced up, scanned, and relaxed when he lit on Maddie working to engage Cynthia in conversation. “It’s just—I love her like a little sister. Whatever you two have going on seems to be making her happy, so I’m all for it. I guess I just want to be sure you’re going to be careful with her, that’s all. She’s been through a lot and I don’t want to see her get hurt.”

  Up until that moment Cal hadn’t formed an opinion of Sean, but in Cal’s estimation the man’s genuine concern for Maddie shot his likeability quotient sky high.

  “I don’t mind you asking. My feelings for her are genuine,” Cal said.

  “Good enough then.” Sean grinned. “Glad that big brother stuff is out of the way. Now we can bond over sports and other manly shit.”

  “Yeah, speaking of big brother stuff, since you brought it up. You’re here with your girlfriend but you keep looking at my sister like she’s what’s for dessert.”

  Sean had the good grace to look abashed. “I have no good excuse for that, except that your sister is gorgeous, intelligent, and makes me laugh. All I can do is apologize for being a man. I don’t mean any disrespect.” Cal’s lips curled into a smile and Sean narrowed his eyes, cluing in. “Bastard. You’re pulling my chain. It must run in your family. Your sister got me pretty good earlier,” Sean said with good cheer. “I guess I deserved it.”

  “I can’t take down every guy that looks at my sister like she’s prime rib. I wouldn’t have time for anything else. And honestly? I’ll give you some advice. She doesn’t need my help. My baby sister is very capable of kicking ass all by herself.”

  “Nice to know you’re there to back her up, though, huh?”

  Cal nodded. “There’s that.”

  And then as Sean predicted, they bonded over sports and other manly shit.

  With the sun going down, everyone set up their lawn chairs to watch the fireworks. Edie and Sada giggled together like teenage girls, nudging each other when Cal set up a chair beside him for Maddie.

  Pirate, who had followed TJ around all day, sprawled out over their feet. TJ settled first onto Cal’s lap, and then onto Maddie’s, and then abandoned them both for Grampa Boone.

  After all the oohing and aahing over the grand finale fireworks display, which was better than expected—considering Bright Hills, population 5,786, had a small budget for such things—the time had arrived for packing up and sitting in the long lines of exhausted people eager to go home.

  “Caleb,” Sada began after blankets and chairs were folded and stacked. “The Kinkaids rode together, so Maddie’s car is way over at their place. You should drive her home.”

  “What a splendid idea, Sada!” Edie gushed, as if hearing it for the first time. “That would be so kind of you, Cal. Would you mind?”

  “It’s out of his way,” Maddie said. “I don’t mind riding back to the house with y’all.”

  “We’ll bring your car to you tomorrow,” Edie said. “Won’t we, Ron?”

  Papa Ron turned at the sound of his name. “What? Do what now?”

  “See? Papa doesn’t mind at all.” Edie beamed at Maddie and patted her shoulder. “It’s fine. Cal can drive you home and we’ll bring your car tomorrow.”

  “That’s silly. There’s no reason to—”

  “Caleb’s happy to do it, aren’t you Cal?” Sada said. “Great! So that’s settled. Say, TJ, you want to come spend the night with me and Gramps? You can bring Pirate with you, too, if Maddie doesn’t mind. He’s such a good dog, and I know our two would love to play with him. How about it?”

  “Sweet! Can I Dad, can I? And can Pirate come too, Miss Maddie? Please?”

  Cal read Maddie’s expression as bemused panic. Reeling a little bit himself, he said, “Uh, whatever Maddie wants is fine with me.”

  “Wonderful! That’ll be so convenient for everyone. Okay, troops, let’s go!” Edie scooped up blankets and a folding chair, and marched off across the grass in the direction of the Lump & Grind.

  Brenna, carting chairs and bags of leftovers, whispered to Maddie as she passed, “Go with the flow, Mads,” and laughter trailed behind her.

  “See ya tomorrow, Dad! Night, Miss Maddie! C’mon, Pirate!” TJ picked up Pirate’s leash and took off with the dog after his grandmother. The whole party scattered in what Cal considered to be record time, leaving him and Maddie staring after their retreating backs.

  “I guess you’re coming with me.”

  “‘Whatever Maddie wants is fine with me’? Really? You totally threw me under the bus, Cal.”

  “You could’ve said no,” he pointed out.

  She gave him a look and rolled her eyes.

  “So, wait. Are you mad that I’m driving you home?”

  “I’m mad that you tossed me into the fire.”

  “I didn’t do that. Exactly,” he said, and sighed. “Okay, maybe I did. But you don’t know my mother. She’s relentless.”

  “And Edie isn’t?”

  “Maddie.” Cal took her hands as he stepped closer. “We’ve just been given a free pass to an entire night of total privacy.” His belly tightened when her pupils dilated with awareness. “Just us.” He dipped his head and whispered against her lips, “No interruptions.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that,” she said, and then kissed him blind.

  ***

  Forty minutes later, still stuck in crawling traffic, they held hands and listened to the radio. He preferred rock, she preferred country, so they compromised by flipping stations after every couple of songs.

  Cal shook his head after Taylor Swift promised they would never get back together. Ever. Ever. “I don’t know how you listen to that stuff.”

  “I don’t know how you don’t,” she said. “Clearly, this relationship is headed for serious trouble.”

  “Trouble, trouble, trouble?” he asked, referring to another song, and made Maddie laugh.

  His cell rang and Maddie plucked it from the console to look at the caller ID. “Uh-oh. It’s your mom.”

  “No. No, no, no,” Cal groaned, and held out his hand for the phone. “Hey, Mom. Problem already?”

  “Caleb, are you home yet?”

  “No. We just got out of the downtown mess a few minutes ago. What do you need?”

  “Well, TJ is having a worry fit over his goldfish. Says he didn’t feed him this morning, and he won’t settle until he knows Peter Parker is fed and swimming in happy oblivion. Will you go straight home after you drop Maddie off? Please? And call me back about the fish. TJ will never settle down otherwise.”

  “Yeah. Okay. I’ll call you back in a few.” He clicked off the call. “TJ’s worried about his goldfish, Peter Parker. Don’t let me forget to feed it and call my mother back to tell her I did.”

  “Peter Parker. That’s an interesting name for a goldfish.”

  “Spiderman.”

  “Of course,” Maddie said, and they exchanged a look that turned to warm smiles.

  Cal pulled into his driveway and waved at Shelley who sat alone on her front porch. She perked up at the sight of him, and then deflated when Maddie climbed from the truck. A moment later, Shelley disappeared into her house and her porch light snapped off.

  “I’d have opened the truck door for you,” Cal told Maddie when they me
t at the front of the vehicle.

  “That’s because you’re a gentleman. But I’m capable of opening the door on my own, and I didn’t feel like waiting for you.”

  “Good. We might not be alone for weeks. Every second counts.” He was only half joking.

  Eagerness had him fumbling the key in the lock to the point he and Maddie both dissolved into laughter. Two steps inside, he pushed the door shut and pressed her against it with the hard length of his body, and their humor evaporated. He explored her smooth throat with his mouth while his hands roamed her feminine curves with firm deliberation. God, she felt good, all soft and warm, and she smelled like strawberries and sweet cream.

  And that little purring sound she’d made the first time he kissed her? She made it again and damn near brought him to his knees.

  “Stop. Caleb, you have to stop,” she said, her breath coming in short little gasps. She clenched the front of his shirt and kissed him breathless.

  “Stop? You sure?” he panted against her mouth. “’Cause it doesn’t seem like—”

  “Spiderman.”

  “What?”

  “TJ. Your mother. The fish.”

  He rested his forehead against hers and emitted a frustrated laugh. “The kid’s not even here and he’s jamming us up. Unbelievable.”

  Maddie laid her hands on his chest, gave him a hard kiss and a solid shove, followed by her own frustrated laughter. “Go. Hurry.”

  It was the fastest feeding in Peter Parker’s history. Cal was on the phone with his mother before the fish had time to swim to the top of the bowl for a first bite.

  “Hey, Mom. Fed the fish. Call you tomorrow. Bye.”

  “Caleb, wait! So you saw Maddie home okay and everything? Made sure she got in all right?”

  “Yeah, Mom, Maddie’s fine. She’s great.” He stepped up to the woman in question and touched her lips with his own, light, breezy. Moved on to nibble the tender line of her jaw.

  “Did you kiss her goodnight?”

  Cal smiled against the silkiness of Maddie’s throat. “Yes, I kissed her goodnight. Thank you for suggesting that I drive her home. Best idea ever. Kiss TJ for me. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

  “Wonderful!” He swore he heard clapping. “Goodnight, sweetheart.”

  Cal clicked the phone off and tossed it on the sofa.

  “You big fat liar,” Maddie said. “You didn’t kiss me goodnight.”

  “If it will ease your conscience, I can call her back and tell her the truth.”

  “Well, technically, I suppose you didn’t lie. It was more of a zaggerated leading truth.”

  “A what?”

  “I just mean that you did bring me home, just not to my home. And you will kiss me goodnight, eventually.”

  “Eventually,” he agreed.

  He smoothed the loose strands of hair from her face, touched by the unexpected shyness in her eyes. She bit her lip which only made him want to kiss her again, and it occurred to him what a big step this was for her, huge, in fact, and was humbled that she had chosen him. And he wished now that this gift of aloneness hadn’t been a surprise, that there had been time to plan, time to make things special for her.

  “How about some wine?” he asked, and noted the pulse in her throat fluttering as it had the first time he kissed her. He pressed his lips to the tender spot, a gentle touch, there, right there. She tasted salty and sweet. And he wanted—no, needed—to slow things down. “Wine?” he repeated, and she nodded.

  She followed him into the kitchen and leaned against the doorway, watching him. He had one bottle of merlot and was glad now he hadn’t opened it the other night when he’d thought of it, glad he’d had a beer instead. He pulled the wine from the pantry, hunted down a corkscrew, opened the bottle, grabbed a couple of wineglasses from the cabinet, and poured.

  “Thanks,” she said when he handed her the glass.

  “I have an idea,” he said. “Wait here, okay?”

  “Okay.”

  He felt her eyes on him when he disappeared down the hall and hoped that giving her time to think didn’t turn out to be a mistake. He didn’t want her to talk herself out of what they had planned.

  He turned on the tub in the master bathroom and dumped in half a bottle of Batman bubble bath he’d snagged from TJ’s bathroom on his way down the hall. He performed a quick cleanup of the counters and commode, pulled fresh towels from the linen closet. Candles would be a nice touch, but he didn’t have any. He perused the space one last time and deemed it worthy.

  After Gwen had gotten sick, Cal remodeled the master bathroom. He had intended the jetted tub, designed to accommodate two in comfort, to be Gwen’s go-to spot after rough bouts of therapy, but to his recollection she’d never used it. The shower had two separate nozzles, which made it easier for him to join Gwen when she was weak but too stubborn to ask for help. The floor tiles heated with the flip of a switch.

  Cal glanced at the bed on his way back to Maddie and congratulated himself for changing the sheets just that morning.

  He came down the hall and into the living room, and there she was, looking girl-next-door gorgeous with her long braid coming undone, grass stains on her ass, sipping her wine, and looking at the photos on the bookshelf. She picked one up. He knew from the frame that it was the one of Gwen and TJ the day TJ was born, with Gwen smiling at their son with a look of wonder on her face. Maddie set it back on the bookshelf with a tender motion that qualified as near reverence. Cal’s heart twisted. This was more than he’d thought, so much more.

  He stepped to Maddie and took her hand, hoping she wasn’t going to tell him she changed her mind, and was relieved when she didn’t.

  He led her down the hall, through the bedroom, and into the bath where the jets blasted and bubbles that smelled like cotton candy reigned. Her gasp of delight made his heart thud.

  Cal took her wine glass and set it with his on the wide shelf of the tub. He turned to face her but kept his hands at his sides.

  “Do you want to make love with me, Madelyn Rose?”

  He had promised her that day in her kitchen that he would always give her the chance to say no. And if she didn’t want this, now was the time for her to say so.

  “Caleb.” She moved into his arms. “Yes.”

  They undressed each other in a slow dance of discovery. Unbuttoning the embroidered top Rebecca had oohed and aahed over took forever, and Cal cursed the tiny buttons, mother-of-pearl looking things he gauged to be smaller than the head of a thumb tack. It didn’t help that his hands trembled.

  By the time he reached her bellybutton, he felt like he still had miles to go, and considered ripping the shirt off her and those damn buttons with it. But she watched him with such an expression of rapt anticipation that he finished the task without resorting to destruction of property. There was no hurry, after all, they had all night to touch and taste. After slipping into the water, they explored some more.

  Cal situated Maddie at one end of the tub to sip her wine and he sat at the other, massaging her feet and her calves until she groaned from the pleasure of it.

  “I’m going to be boneless,” she said, head back, eyes closed. “I didn’t even know I was sore. Sweet Lord, that feels good.”

  “I haven’t gotten to the good stuff yet,” Cal promised. “I’m working my way up from here.”

  And then she surprised him by setting down her wine glass. She sat up and shifted to her knees and crawled over his legs to straddle him. The flush of her cheeks brightened her eyes and the gold flecks shone like polished amber. No sadness there now, he noted with relief, just desire. The knowledge of that humbled him yet again, so that when he kissed her and moved his hands over her skin, wet and slick with sweet Batman bubbles, he held his passion in check, and forced himself to slow the pace.

  He lifted her from the tub, heedless of water swooshing up and over the sides, bubbles still foaming from the drive of the jets. He set her on her feet, wrapped her up in a thick towel, then scooped her
up and off her feet. He set her down on the bed and took her face in his hands. Her braid was soaked, but escaped tendrils of hair curled around her cheeks. He kept his eyes focused on hers and slid his hands around her head to undo her braid. He freed the long plait, threaded his fingers through her hair, and massaged her scalp with gentle hands, loosening the wet strands into a wavy mass. She closed her eyes and moaned, leaning into his strong fingers like a cat.

  Cal kissed her then, long and deep. He tugged her towel and let it fall away from her body. Maddie’s skin, pink and warm, and still damp from the bath, heated further under his hands. He explored every slope and valley, every curve and smooth line, thrilled when she began explorations of her own.

  And much later, when they lay heart to heart, their ragged breaths warming each other’s skin, he became hers the moment she breathed his name.

  Chapter 13

  Maddie stirred. She tugged the cotton sheet over her shoulders and burrowed into the pillow. Her nose twitched. Bacon. Coffee. Something else delicious. And a hint of cotton candy.

  Her eyes flew open and she sat up, drawing the covers up over her breasts. Memories of last night flooded her senses and warmth buzzed through her. She was naked in Cal’s bedroom, sitting in Cal’s bed. A sleigh bed design, gorgeous, like nothing she’d ever seen before, built from…oak? She touched her fingers to the carved headboard like it was braille. She’d have to remember to ask him if he built it.

  She blinked her dry eyes to adjust her contacts, which she made it a point never to sleep in, and squinted to clear the hazy blur. Cal had pulled the curtains over the wide windows to keep out the sun, so the light wouldn’t wake her up, she presumed. Wow. She laughed a little and fell back into the pillows.

  She stretched like a cat, joints and muscles loose and fluid. And no wonder. The wine, the bath, the sex.

  Caleb.

  Wow.

  When he strode into TJ’s room to feed Peter Parker, she expected that, after the task was complete, they would pick up where they left off, hot and desperate to finish what they’d been starting for weeks. She questioned whether they’d make it to the bedroom. So when he brought everything to a dead stop to offer her wine, it came as a surprise. She smiled now, remembering how adorable he was tearing up the kitchen in search of a corkscrew. And when he led her to the tub, he turned her heart upside down by asking if she wanted to make love with him. What man does that, she wondered, risks what he must know is a sure thing for the purpose of being honorable?