Page 51 of Hot Tea & Bird Calls (Kissing At Work #2)
While bears weren’t the most uncommon sight in this area, it was magnificent to get such a close-range vantage point.
Her joke about him liking it at the Vales’ fit the bill.
The bear flopped on his side, shuffled his large, rough paws, sat up suddenly to sneeze.
Skye rubbed Celene’s arm: it’d slackened in their minutes of wildlife observation. “He’s like a big dog.”
Celene flipped over, her breath puffing softly, “Do something.”
“Do something, the hell?”
“What if he’s hanging out because he knows you’re here?”
“I don’t have magical powers.” Skye suppressed a huge laugh.
She hadn’t anticipated this side of Celene, as she’d been scarier than any bear weeks ago.
“He probably loves the landscaping. Your house officially outshines all others on Goldfinch Lane. Ms. Greene will probably steal more of your mail.”
“The bear you attracted is falling asleep,” Celene stressed, waving at how the bear’s head slumped into the grass. With a paw, he scratched his round side until that slowed, too. “Will he hang out here all night?”
“Might as well name him.”
Celene readjusted to lie on her back, smoothing hair from Skye’s forehead. Backlit by the motion light, her faraway smile reached her eyes as she replied, “Bearnard.”
Skye dropped her head to Celene’s chest as they giggled. Breathing in faded fragrance on her skin, Skye kissed there, too. “So it is proclaimed: Bearnard.”
“Bearnard Vale. The way he showed up unannounced, upending my night. Must be family.”
She had to ask her, right? Skye crept halfway on top of Celene. Smiling like this, blanketed by the shadows, she could say, “Dragonfruit.”
Celene didn’t rush to reciprocate their reality word. In a daze, one would call daydreamy, she continued to piece Skye’s bangs into place, strand by strand. It fascinated Skye to see another person as in-the-clouds as herself in real-time.
Quietly, Celene asked, “Should I give you a key?”
Skye threw a glance at Bearnard, smacking at his ears, a lump that wouldn’t leave the yard any time soon. “Why?”
“I don’t like this house sitting around when I’m not here.
With my security system, my phone’s alerts whenever my siblings drop by, but Dad told them to warn me.
” With a deep sigh, Celene ran her thumb over Skye’s lips.
“I can postpone selling the house. Mavis named the best seasons, but no deadline. Until then, crash here whenever you want.” Celene shook her head, back to herself, like she’d been in another state of being.
“I’m sorry. Dragonfruit. You were saying? ”
However, Skye had gotten her answer. She’d meant to ask if this was long-term, if they had a future beyond these beautiful snippets of time.
Loving Celene came naturally, and she wasn’t keen on adding pressure to something this new.
Skye’s lips worked without a good reason to close the reality portal when her phone vibrated in a unique pattern—an incoming call from Luce.
“Hold that thought.” Skye crawled from her place, then froze. Over her shoulder, she said, “Actually. Wait. I do want a key, please.” That way, she could enjoy Celene’s satisfied smile before swiping to greet her grandmother.
“I baked some ziti. It’s meatless,” Luce greeted, Vengeance: Retired ’s theme song playing in the background. “You’re with Celene? Invite her over and we’ll have a girls’ night.”
Skye was already knee-deep in a better kind of girls’ night. No relatives allowed.
“Well, uh.” She watched as Celene got her phone out to record Bearnard, his legs shifting in slumber, reanimating the motion light. “Could you save it? I won’t be home tonight.” Chewing the corner of her lip, the honesty flowed out in, “Or tomorrow morning. Or possibly tomorrow afternoon, so...”
A speechless half-minute followed. Her grandmother’s progressive views battled with an old-fashioned upbringing, vestiges of being raised by ‘the sanctified population,’ as Luce called her old hometown.
Having a lesbian granddaughter put that in a gray area, though she hadn’t ever been confronted by the suggestion of a sex life.
At last, she said, “You’re spending the night. With Celene.”
“I’m spending the night with Celene,” she confirmed as unambiguously and respectfully as possible. When Luce met her with a lack of response again, Skye decided to wrap this up. “Please remember to feed Phish and Swindle. I’m hanging up now.”
Skye disconnected the call, conflicted. Much like her ever-changing views on adulthood.
“Spending the night, are you?” Celene beckoned Skye with a tug of her necklace, the light outside casting onto her raised eyebrow. “I didn’t even have to ask.”
Skye sloped her head into a kiss, in pure exhilaration.
While she found little shame in her living situation, especially for their family business, Celene offering a house key sparked something significant.
She crumpled within Celene’s arms and chose to stay, their lips and tongue reacquainting so long that the motion lights timed out again.
Interrupting their momentum, of Skye moaning loudly for more, Celene broke away. “You’d said Dragonfruit. Is everything okay?”
Skye bit her lip. Right, that . “Everything’s wonderful. Don’t worry about it.”
Even in the dark, she knew Celene was trying to size her up. Mercifully, she didn’t belabor it. “I’ll take your word for it. But if we’re going any further with this...” She cupped Skye’s breast, breath short. “One of us has to close my blinds. Bearnard doesn’t get to watch.”