“I know you’re upset, but you never appreciated him the way I do. I love him, Anna.”
“And I hope you’re happy together, but for the love of God, both of you just leave me alone.” I hang up, switch my phone to silent, and shove it in my bag.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess you forgot to tell me something?” Calvin says, and I focus on him. When I see his expression, I realize I should have told him about Lance being in town.
Crap.
“Um . . . Lance was outside with Edie when I got home from work tonight.”
“You didn’t think to tell me about this earlier?”
“It wasn’t a big deal.” His eyes narrow, and I press my lips together, knowing that was the wrong thing to say.
“What did he want?”
“We didn’t really get into what he wanted. I told him to leave. He thought I was upset about him and Lucy, but I told him I wasn’t, then told him to leave again. We argued a little more, and then I found out my dad offered him half of his company if he asked me to marry him.”
“Jesus.”
“He might have mentioned plans to destroy my dad’s company.” He stares. “Oh, and I need you to add Edie to the reservation for dinner. She’s coming with us tomorrow.”
“I’m not sure it’s a good idea for me to come to dinner, Anna. The way I’m feeling right now, I might just kill your father.”
“I’m not very happy with him either right now.” That’s an understatement.
“I’m also pissed at you for not calling me when you got to your place and Lance was there.”
“It was fine.” I wave off his concern. “Edie was there. It wasn’t a big deal.”
“I can see you love Edie, but she couldn’t have helped if he’d tried to hurt you.”
“He wouldn’t do that.”
“I bet you never thought he’d sleep with your friend either.” Damn, he has a point. “People are unpredictable. He’s proven he’s willing to go to extreme lengths to get your attention. So please, if something like that happens again, call me.”
“Should you being all protective make me tingly?” I ask, trying to ease the tension I feel coming off him, but he doesn’t even crack a smile. “Fine,” I agree with a sigh. “I’ll call you.”
“Good, now come here so I can kiss you properly,” he orders.
I close the distance between us, and as he wraps his arms around me, I rest my hands against his chest. “Sorry for not telling you about Lance showing up. Honestly, once he was out of sight, I’d forgotten about his existence until Lucy called.”
“I don’t want to talk about him anymore tonight.” He gives me a squeeze.
“Okay, what do you want to talk about?”
“You can tell me exactly where I make you tingle.” His hands glide down my back to my bottom as I lift up on my tiptoes to get my mouth closer to his.
“Or I could show you.” I smile and nip his bottom lip.
“I like that idea,” he growls. He lifts me off the ground and carries me to his bed, where he has his way with me.
An hour and two orgasms later, I walk into the kitchen wearing Calvin’s T-shirt and my panties and watch him come out of the pantry with a jar of red sauce, along with a box of pasta, in nothing but a pair of plain black sweats.
“What can I do to help?” I ask as he stops to kiss me on his way to the counter.
“You can grab the meat from the fridge.” I run my fingers along his abs as I walk away, then open the fridge and frown when I see a bouquet of pale-orange roses on the shelf inside.
“Those are for you.” Arms wrap around my waist, and he presses a kiss to my neck as I pull the flowers out and hold them to my nose, which is stinging.
“Why?” I turn to meet his gaze.
“I thought of you when I saw them.” He kisses my neck, then reaches around me to grab the ground beef off the shelf.
“So they aren’t apology roses or ‘it’s your birthday’ roses; they’re just because you were thinking of me?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you.” I fight back stupid girly tears.
“I don’t have a vase, but I’m sure there’s something in one of these cabinets you could use.” He motions around the room.
“Do you mind if I look?” I ask, inhaling the scent of roses once more.
“Make yourself at home, baby,” he says, and I open and close cabinets until I find a red oversize plastic cup with a handle and lid, the refillable kind you get from the gas station.
“Is this okay to use?” He nods, and I fill it with water, then cut down the stem of each flower carefully before arranging them in the cup. When I’m done, I place them on the counter and admire them for a minute before I go to where Calvin is now browning the meat in a pan, slide my arms around his waist, and kiss his shoulder. “Thank you for the roses. I love them.”