Page 83 of Heavy

“Okay… I will come back to that.” My words are delivered as a promise, not playful. It’s an old wound. I wouldn’t have likely noticed it if I weren’t checking out her bare backside like the masterpiece it is. As though I’m standing in the Louvre, looking at the Mona Lisa up close, I’m in awe. “What is your middle name?”

A big smile pulls up her cheeks, her white teeth parting as she sucks a breath in. “Winter.”

“Calista Winter Byrne.”

“Sanderson. Calista Winter Sanderson. I never took the Byrne name…” She licks her lips, not looking at me, but I can see the struggle to not do it. “I was eighteen when Eamon and my mom got together, they married when I was twenty. He never asked to adopt me, and even if he had, I’d likely have declined.”

I wonder if it was for selfish reasons my brother didn’t, but maybe it will be the first thing I thank him for. Technically, she’s not family, but like I told Ken, I’d still have fucked her whether my brother adopted her or not.

“Why would you have declined?”

“I want to keep my dad’s name.”

I think asking about her father will be a difficult question, so I’ll return to it another time.

Coming to stand beside her, I grab my toothbrush and say, “Your question.”

I enjoy her smiling. I hadn’t made many smile in my childhood, and even less in my adult life. So being able to bring that to someone like Cal, it hits me in a way nothing else does. A woman like her finding any joy with someone as shadowed as I am... it gives me hope.

“Last sexual partner.”

“You.”

She huffs. “Ronan.”

“That’s my name.” I shove the toothbrush into my mouth and begin brushing. She tilts her head to look at me directly this time, her mouth open incredulously, one eyebrow popped while the other has her eye squinting.

I just brush and brush.

“Come on! That’s so rude.”

The way she moves her hand up, I can tell she wants to put it onto me. Swat me, push me, justtouch. However, she diverts, and instead just rests it against her waist.

Leaning over the sink, I spit and rinse it down. “It was while I was in prison.”

“Oh…” I look up at her in the mirror and her face is beginning to turn red. “I didn’t know you could see visitors like that.” Her tone is sheepish, and I can’t help but find it strange for someone that has her clit pierced that the thought of me with a guy makes her flustered.

“We can’t. I fucked my dentist, and Ken.”

I’m surprised her eyes didn’t pop straight from the socket. “Is that a problem?” I square my shoulders to face her, leaning my thigh against the counter.

“No, I’m just surprised I guess… that’s ignorant of me to assume you… are straight…”

I'm not sure where the urge comes from, but I gently run the back of my knuckles across her cheek. She exhales sharply, her gaze lifting to meet mine.

“All good. Sex isn’t something I glamorize. Dentist was a hole, as was Ken.”

Her face begins to turn an even darker shade of red. “But you guys are friends?”

“He’s like family at this point. He was the only one that came to see me, of course, after being released himself. That, and he took in the boys and introduced me to Mia. Which meant a lot.”

My hand moves down to her neck, my thumb brushing across her pulse.

“Hurry and ask your question,” she says in that dreamy state between wanting and pouting. “I have another.”

“Go ahead, I think mine will be difficult and I’m slightly distracted.” I sure am, because my fingers move to the curve of her breast, slowly exploring down toward her pierced nipple.

“The boys. Are they your kids?”