Page 25 of Best In Class (Savannah's Best #7)
Dom
S hoes in my hand because the freaking hardwood floors are loud. Shirt halfway buttoned. Hair still damp from Luna’s shower, after I ate her out in bed and left her exhausted and asleep.
I try to sneak out like I’m sixteen again, trying to make sure neither Nathaniel nor Mama know where I spent the night.
We’re like teenagers again—making out, sleeping in the same bed, but not going all the way.
It’s exhilarating.
It’s frustrating.
It’s fucking everything .
The sun’s just rising over the marsh behind her house, casting that honey-gold light that makes everything look gentler than it is. I’m halfway through the living room when I hear the voice I’ve never once managed to slip past.
“Dominic Elijah Calder. ”
I freeze like I’ve been caught stealing peach pie straight off the windowsill.
“Mama.” I spin around with what I hope passes for a winning smile.
Mama stands at the kitchen doorway in a pale blue dress and an apron that reads ‘ Kiss the Chef .’
Her silver-streaked hair is pulled back in a scarf, and she’s holding a mug of coffee in one hand like it’s both weapon and witness.
“You come creeping out of my girl’s house before seven a.m. and think you’re not sitting down for breakfast first?”
I sigh, defeated. “Of course not, ma’am.”
She jerks her chin toward the kitchen. I follow, feeling mightily uncomfortable as to what I’d been doing with Luna upstairs while Mama was down here.
Christ! I hope she didn’t hear Luna screaming my name.
Inside the kitchen, it smells like cinnamon, warm butter, and the ghost of every Southern breakfast she’s ever made. She sets a plate in front of me without asking—scrambled eggs, a biscuit, a scoop of leftover peach cobbler—and pours coffee into a mug.
It’s obvious that she knew I was upstairs. She knew when I was taking a shower and when I would be coming down, since she’s got my breakfast ready.
Which means she heard …. I shake my head. Nope! Not going there, ‘cause nothing shrivels a man’s dick faster than knowing his mama just got high-def audio to his sex life.
I sit down. I don’t speak.
She doesn’t, either .
She’s waiting.
I clean off my plate. No one, but no one, has the patience of Mama. Once, she sat with me for two hours until I finally told her why I got detention.
She didn’t push. Didn’t harass. Didn’t order. Just wore me down with her presence.
She’s doing it now.
After a bite of cobbler and a sip of coffee, I clear my throat. “I want to marry her.”
She doesn’t look surprised. Not even a little.
“Want to or going to?”
“ Going to ,” I amend.
“Good.” She smiles now.
“I want it all, Mama. The life. The house. Maybe kids, if she wants them. I want Sunday mornings, sleepy eyes, and bickering over throw pillows. I want her. All of her .”
Mama sets her coffee down, and presses her fingers to her lips. And then she starts to cry—quiet, steady tears that track down her cheeks, and she’s in no rush to stop.
“Mama—”
“I’m fine,” she says, waving me off with one hand, wiping her tears with another. “I’m just…so proud of you.”
I swallow the lump in my throat as she wipes at her face with the edge of her apron. She won’t be proud if she finds out how I broke Luna’s heart.
“You know,” she says softly, “your daddy looked at me like you look at Luna. Like I was the only thing in the world worth believing in. ”
I nod. I’ve heard bits and pieces about my father over the years, the man I never met.
“He was so wild…so much fun. A tall white boy from Hilton Head. Smile too big, heart too soft. Fell in love with me over church potluck—made me fall in love with him, too.”
“Was he scared?” I ask. “You know. Because of how people would see you as a couple?”
Those days, a white man and a black woman marrying…well, that was a scandal. Even now, I wonder how the world would react to Luna and me together. I knew Nathaniel would lose his shit.
Mama shakes her head. “No, he wasn’t. I was. But he said he didn’t give a damn what the world thought. Said if love didn’t cost you something, it wasn’t worth anything.”
There’s a dreamy look on my mother’s face as she thinks about the man she loved, the man who passed away over three decades ago.
My father died when Mama was pregnant with me. It was a car accident on Highway 17. A drunk driver swerved over the line. Benjamin Calder was dead even before the ambulance got there.
My heart aches. It’s an old grief, but it always feels fresh. I miss the father I never knew. And I know Mama misses her husband.
“Mama, I know you’ve had….” I pause to think of a word other than boyfriend, because that sounds weird.
“Men?” Mama suggests .
I shrug. I’m not a prude. My mother has every right to be in a relationship if she wants it.
“Never fell in love after Ben. Had a few men come and go, but none of them could get my heart—because it already belonged to someone else.”
She reaches across the table, rests her hand over mine. “You are my great love after him.”
“Mama, I am who I am because of you.” I swallow the lump in my throat. “Lev and Luna say you raised them, too.”
“Damn right, I did,” Mama says proudly. “You three are the lights of my life. Now, Dom, you get to have your love while you’re still young. Grab it with both hands. You both have wasted enough time. Now, I don’t know what happened and why you…. But it doesn’t matter. Now is what matters.”
“I made mistakes, Mama. She’s still…working on getting past the hurt I caused her.”
Mama scoffs. “That girl has been in love with you since she was sixteen. Never fell out of it. She has a heart so big that she can’t help but keep loving you. She’ll forgive you…no matter what you’ve done.”
There is that mother’s confidence that I appreciate, but can’t always believe. “I’ve got to earn it, Mama.”
She squeezes my hand. “I’m sure you will. I’ve never known you to fail when you went after something.”
Outside, the wind shifts, and I hear the sounds of the world waking up.
“Mama? ”
“Yes?”
“Will you help me pick out a ring?”
Mama sniffles and then lets out a laugh that breaks whatever heavy was still in the room.
“I have the perfect one for you.”
I look at her, confused.
She pats my hand and rushes out of the kitchen. I button my shirt and put on my shoes. My phone beeps.
Fuck! I have a meeting in my office in thirty minutes.
I’m about to go to Mama’s place and tell her I have to leave but she rushes back, breathless, holding a small velvet box in her hand.
Her eyes are bright, her smile soft, but there’s something reverent in the way she clutches it—like it holds more than just metal and stone.
She hands it to me without a word.
The box is old. The corners are worn smooth, the hinge a little creaky. I open it carefully.
Inside is a ring.
Not flashy. Not big.
Beautiful.
A vintage gold band, the metal burnished with time.
At the center sits a modest round-cut diamond, framed by two tiny sapphires, each set deep in delicate scrollwork.
The band curves with just the slightest dip, like it was made to hold stories.
The diamond catches the light—not because it’s flawless, but because it’s been worn with love.
“It was your father’s grandmother’s,” Mama tells me, her heart in her voice. “He gave it to me when he proposed. Said if I was going to carry his whole heart, I should at least have a piece of his family’s, too.”
I look into her eyes, throat tight.
“I always meant to give it to you,” she continues. “But I wanted you to be sure. Not about the ring—but about the kind of love you’d be tying to it.”
The weight of her ring in my hand feels like a legacy. Like home.
“Mama….”
“She’s the one,” she says simply.
“Has always been.”
Mama nods happily.
Tears fill my eyes as I clutch the ring. It’s old and sacred, and the perfect start to my forever with Luna.
“Thank you, Mama.” I hold the ring box like it’s made of glass. Precious .
“Now, you be careful with it and my girl.”
“I promise.” I kiss her cheek, and head for the door with twenty minutes to make it to a meeting, already knowing nothing I do today will matter more than what just happened here in Luna’s kitchen.