Page 40 of Hot Tea & Bird Calls (Kissing At Work #2)

S kye’s parents could have jumped straight off the cover of a neo soul album.

They spoke with their daughter from inside their solar-powered RV, decked out in their usual layers of textiles, patterns, and fabrics, all dyed themselves.

The sharp web camera quality highlighted their bright smiles—a result of charcoal toothpaste, according to them.

The crocheted crop top Skye wore served two purposes: One, to bring smiles to their faces, as her mother made it, ever conscious to keep the sleeves long “for Skye’s feathered comrades.” And two, because it was stylish and showed the skin she knew Celene would appreciate today.

“Enough about us,” Gael went on in his upbeat drawl, rattling beads around his neck and wrists. “I feel sunshine coming from your smile. It’s that girl, isn’t it?”

“Celene,” Aisha clarified. The more practical of the two, she laughed lowly, with a refined air. “Our daughter can smile for whatever she wants.”

He waved his hand, nodding. “Alright, alright. Just saying. Smiles are a good thing.”

“Thanks, I do feel good.” Skye stuck her pinky through the gaps in her top. “Life’s great lately. Shop’s doing well, Luce is back to normal. And yeah, Celene’s special.”

Aisha and Gael established free-range, conscious parenting before they were internet buzzwords, allowing Skye hours of unsupervised play out in the woods.

It’d encouraged self-reliance, trust that she’d learn from her mistakes with subtle guidance.

Luce pushed back on some of their methods, but ultimately, Skye had a fun, almost magical childhood.

They spent a lot of time together back then, too, but that independence prepared her for their foray into helping the community for long hoursand eventually taking the RV cross-country.

With all that, something as insignificant as crushing on girls didn’t make a blip in the Florentine household.

Feeling brave at sixteen, she’d called herself a lesbian around her parents, brother, and grandparents at the dinner table.

They blinked, absorbed the information with smiles, and asked her to pass the kale.

Their family life hadn’t been perfect, though.

Cosmo, her older brother, detested all that freedom.

For him, it came with wounds he didn’t properly dress, bug bites, and too much sunscreen.

So, he stuck to the indoors, more in tune with video games.

That caused a lot of friction, and though Skye aligned with her parents, she took Cosmo’s side a lot.

He’d deserved to be his own version of different.

The minute Cosmo reached adulthood, he raced towards a more traditional life path—picket fence, uncreative job, wife and kids in one stable setting, free-range nothing.

And he was happy .

Skye wavered between his path and the older Florentines, unsure which end of the spectrum to take root.

“You speak of the shop and Luce.” Her mother lifted her voice with her jaw, eyes widening. “How about you? Are you feeding your spirit with anything important?”

The fuchsia sculpture’s progress finally pleased Skye. She smiled and came up with a boilerplate, “I am. Enjoying nature, reading outdoors lately.”

“You’re your mother’s daughter.” Gael’s shoulders shook in a chuckle. “She liked being on her own more than hanging out with me when we started dating.”

Aisha laughed along with him. “The earth’s a resplendent thing.”

“ I was resplendent in my twenties.”

“How did you know?” Skye asked as her mother playfully nudged her father in the arm. The question intrigued her parents, taking note of them leaning forward, brows ticked. “When you were in love? How’d you know you found the one?”

“You never asked that before.” Gael’s eyes sparkled like he wanted to pick on her, but again, conscious, kind parents.

Going the sincere route, he explained, “I didn’t know at first. I was a twenty-one-year-old punk who thought I was a prize.

Aisha came along—fly, well-read, so intelligent, she got into debates with Walter and won every time.

She pulled me in closer and closer until I looked around and realized I couldn’t picture a life without her. ”

Skye crossed her legs upon her bed, heart hammering. She’d heard a few renditions of this story, yet never with that level of adoration. “Cosmo told me something similar. That when he met Soraya, he realized life before her was black-and-white.”

Her parents shifted uncomfortably, typical of a Cosmo mention. While years helped repair their relationship, he primarily kept Skye and Luce current on his life. Anything Aisha and Gael heard came second-hand.

Brushing at her sleeve, Skye asked, “And you, Mama?”

Though unrelated by blood, Aisha reflected Luce’s shrewd temperament.

“Your father proved early on that he excelled as a partner. Not a boss, not an untouchable head of a household, not a master. He makes me feel safe without stifling me. When two people are equals, able to be their full selves together, they can weather anything.”

From Skye’s phone, an alarm chimed. Ten minutes until she’d visit the Vales. “Sorry to head out so soon. I’m meeting Celene.”

“You two looked comfortable in Larkin’s Toast Festival videos,” her mother said, faking a hair tuck behind her ear to get Skye to laugh. “We already trust you, but Luce liking her is a big accomplishment.” She cringed, adding, “Luce walked all over June.”

“’Cause June let her,” Gael surrendered, his hands to the air. “Glad you let that go to friendship. Luce is not the one to contend with.”

Skye agreed with an exaggerated nod. “I receive that.”

After giving salutations to her parents, Skye touched up her hair in the bathroom. She’d applied more makeup, as seeing her parents was always a nice occasion. Appropriate for seeing her girlfriend, too.

Skye hopped in place, her gleeful whistle echoing on her bathroom’s tiled walls. Girlfriend , wow.

She’d miss Celene terribly until her return to Yielding in another week, but she’d leave that cloudy feeling for later. It was time to work on her own love story.

For the first time since she’d been given the go-ahead, Skye let herself into the Vale residence.

Considering she and Celene saw each other every day, she’d inevitably been formally re-introduced to Elise.

Elise had squawked and squealed, hype to embrace Skye like they were long-lost friends.

Truthfully, she hardly remembered Elise from her youth; she’d been too wrapped up with Celene, often seeking any reason to explore on their own.

Thus, Skye recognized Elise’s voice at top volume when she slid in through the unlocked glass doors.

Fat raindrops hit her in the short trip from the driveway, dampening skin through her top.

She shook at her clothes and hair, then froze at a sisterly standoff.

Ajay hovered in the middle of the shouting match, blocking Elise.

It took 4.5 seconds to pick up on their ever-present point of contention: the house.

“I swear to god, you’re the most controlling person on the face of the planet,” Elise lashed out, nothing close to the singing, sniffling thesbian who welcomed Skye days prior.

Her vibrant ponytail flicked like a flame as she jabbed a harsh pointer in Celene’s direction. “Why won’t you let this go?!”

Celene didn’t flinch. Arms crossed, feet primly together in stark composure. “This is a great act, Elise, but I’m over it.”

“An act?! An act,” Elise blustered as a mini human tornado, arms flailing. “Where are your morals? Your fucking feelings ? Why do you hate us?”

Ignoring her, Celene turned to Skye, who shivered at the sudden attention. “Mavis, our realtor, dropped by while I was on a call today. She’d brought an appraiser for a tour, and Elise dismissed them both.”

Oh, shit. Skye strayed as closely as she dared to Celene. Something innate told her an angry Celene Vale wasn’t too touchy-feely. She evoked a rose—sharp, thorny, appealing from a safe range.

Ajay piped in with a possible rationale, but Elise yelled around him, “This house is as much mine as it is yours. You can’t decide for the whole family.”

“I was put in charge by Dad,” Celene shot back a clear reply, much more chilling than Elise stomping around.

“How convenient of you to want it after the renovations happened. I hired contractors, tended to the yard, got all the new furnishings and deck—that’s all me. Even Ajay contributed more than you.”

“Whoa, now. Don’t include me,” Ajay muttered.

“It’s true. So be it.”

Elise stopped swinging. “You don’t care about any of us, do you? Because you’re condescending and miserable. It’s unbelievable that Skye likes you.”

Skye fisted the labradorite and sugilite pendants to keep her own temper from flaring. She could relate to Ajay, whose unshaven jaw dropped. He started, “El, you can’t?—”

“Fuck you, Elise,” Celene snapped, breaking her stance to lunge a threatening few inches. “I don’t need you to believe anything.”

“Skye’s light; you’re the deep, dingy darkness,” Elise taunted after stifling a hard cough. She wouldn’t let this go now that she’d garnered a strong reaction. “And if you don’t change, you’ll chase her away like you’ve done us and like you’d done Quinn.”

Okay, this wouldn’t yield anything solid.

This woman, who looked on the verge of committing a felony, was Celene Vale, the complex, giving woman who Skye couldn’t get enough of.

She tested a hand on Celene’s arm like one would to see if a pan was hot.

When nothing burned her, Skye escorted Celene to the primary suite, pleased she relented that willingly.

Skye gathered Celene’s hands within her own. They were frigid, not her usual warmth, and that tanked her mood even further. “Hey. I’m not going anywhere.”