“Mom, look who’s here!” Lora sang, bouncing into the kitchen. Lora moved like a little ballerina. She was petite and quick and graceful and if I hadn’t admired her so much, I’m almost certain I would have envied her confidence, and how she always made her presence known. There was no way in hell any person could look over Lora Cane while in the same room with her.
Cane’s mom turned her head, eyes stretching with adoration when she found us. She placed the lids on top of the pots, and then came our way, drying off her hands. “Oh my goodness,” she sighed. She looked at Frankie first, her smile warm and complacent. Frankie returned the smile, and then Cane’s mother shifted her eyes over to me. At first, she swept her eyes all over my face, and then the slowest, most beautiful grin swept across her lips.
“You must be Kandy,” she said.
“How’d you guess?” Lora asked, popping a sliced strawberry into her mouth.
“I remember the way Cane described her eyes…the night I came home.”
She kept watching me. For some reason, I didn’t find it awkward or uncomfortable, but Lora and Frankie obviously did because Frankie shifted on her feet while Lora said, “Mom. Maybe you should back up? I’m sure you’re freaking her out.”
“She’s not,” I admitted with a smile. “It’s really nice to meet you, Miss Cane…wait, it is Miss Cane, right?”
She let out a soft laugh. “Yes, it is, but please. Just call me Nyla.” Nyla? That was an interesting name. It suited her. She extended her arm and I grabbed her hand to shake it. Even though she’d told me her real name, my father taught me manners. Anyone who was older than me—especially Cane’s mom—had my respect. I wasn’t going to be able to not call her Miss Cane now.
“Yeah, the one thing she did right was not naming us after our shithead father.” I looked around Miss Cane to Lora who had hopped up on the island counter, her legs dangling.
Miss Cane rolled her eyes playfully and stepped in front of Frankie to shake her hand too. “And you are?”
“Oh, I’m Frankie—Kandy’s best friend.” Frankie beamed.
“It’s nice to meet you, Frankie. Must be nice to have a best friend—someone to lean on.”
Frankie put on an uneasy smile. “It is, actually.” Before Miss Cane could get any deeper, I heard footsteps and looked to the right.
Cane was coming down the hall, his strides careful and lax. He spotted me before everyone else and put on a sexy smile. His eyes rummaged over me, burning like a heat wave, and I bit a smile when he finally pulled his heated gaze away and stepped into the kitchen.
“Hey, Frankie!” Cane greeted.
“What’s up, Mr. Cane!”
“Feels like I haven’t seen you in ages!” he bellowed, giving her a quick hug around the shoulders. “How’s school treating you?”
“School is good! Only downfall is that my roommate is a stuck-up bitch.” Frankie rolled her eyes and I laughed, just thinking about how annoyed Frankie was with her roommate. She was so fed up with Polly that she’d actually gotten a job as a barista at a coffee shop near campus to save money and get her own apartment.
Cane let out a deep laugh, and then turned toward his mother who was just about make her way back to the stove. “Dinner almost ready, Mama? Don’t want to keep the girls here for too long since they have to be up early to go back to school tomorrow.”
“Yep! Just have to stuff the ravioli with ricotta and bake the garlic bread and it will be done.”
“Oh, God. That sounds so good,” Frankie groaned, like she was already eating the food.
Lora hopped off the counter. “Cane, can I talk to you for a sec?”
Cane glanced at Lora, jaw ticking, before putting his eyes on me. His gray-green irises flashed from the bright lights in the kitchen.
“Anything I can help with while we wait for the food?” I asked, grabbing his hand.
“My mother may need some help. Don’t be afraid to talk to her. She’s a nice woman.” He wrapped a hand around the back of my head, bringing my forehead close to his lips. He kissed my forehead before releasing me and following Lora down the hall and into the den.
“So weird,” Frankie snickered, sitting on one of the stools at the counter and pulling her phone out.
“What’s weird?” Miss Cane asked, looking between us as she stuffed fresh pasta shells with ricotta.
“Actually seeing them out in the open with it,” Frankie laughed. “When I caught them together the last time, it was on a balcony in the dark. Now they’re doing it in the light and it’s super freaky.”
“I swear, you are still a dork,” I laughed and Miss Cane did the same. “Can I help you with anything, Miss Cane?”