Kane (Arizona Vengeance 8)

My mom is silent for a moment before she asks, “What’s going on?”

Part of me wants to laugh at how astute she is, but the other part holds my silence and lies. She knows I’ve been at Kane’s for a week. I’d told her I wanted a break from traveling, and it was fun hanging out with my bestie. This, she readily accepted. While my parents are free spirits, which apparently got handed down to me through the gene pool, they do worry about me being out on the road so much. They always urge me to take more breaks, and well, they adore Kane.

But they’ve never known me to want to stay in one place for so long, and it’s causing her eyebrows to rise across the phone line.

The real reason I don’t answer her truthfully is because I’m not ready to tell her about Matthew. That’s not something I want to discuss over the phone because both of my parents are going to freak out.

As they should.

They love me, and they’ll be horrified I went through that.

Which is the real reason I want to fly in this weekend to see them. I want to tell them what’s going on, not only what happened with Matthew, but also current news of Kane and me. It’s the sort of situation I could use motherly advice on.

Samson’s head turns toward the front door before I even hear the lock snicking open, but then Kane is walking through. Samson looks back to the bowl of seasoned chicken, then to Kane. His desire to greet the latter wins out, and he scrabbles across the kitchen tile toward him.

“Mom… I gotta go. Kane’s here.”

“Well, let me talk to him,” she says excitedly.

“Um…” I mumble, because the minute he stepped inside his apartment, his eyes found mine and locked. And the way he’s gazing at me now, as if it’s been ten years since he’s seen me rather than just one day, causes my heart to slam against the inside of my breastbone. “Maybe later. I have to help him with something.”

“What’s that?” she asks conversationally. Kane’s head tips to the side in curiosity over my words. He lets his gym bag slide from his shoulder to the floor, ignoring Samson dancing around him in excitement.

Oh, I have to help divest him of his clothing, I think.

Instead, I outright lie to my mom. “He has a load of groceries I need to help carry in. I’ll call in a few days to let you know my flight information, and you can talk to him then.”

At the mention of me flying somewhere, Kane frowns.

“Okay. Mom… love you. Talk later.” I disconnect the phone, then set it down on the counter. Just moments ago, I was thinking of getting Kane naked, but he’s still frowning. Plus, I smell all the spices from the chicken. It makes me feel awkward now that I was making a home-cooked meal for him after a long day of training camp.

“Flying somewhere?” he asks as he starts toward me.

I nod. “Going to go visit my parents for the weekend.” As he gets closer, I have to tip my head back to keep eye contact. “I was going to come back here after… if that’s okay?”

His answer is the crushing of his mouth to mine. Kane takes me in his arms, bending me backward with the force of his kiss. When he lets me up, he orders, “Don’t ever ask if it’s okay if you stay here again. As long as we’re together, this place is yours.”

“Okay,” I breathe out. My head is reeling a bit, not only from the kiss, but also from the permanency he’s giving our relationship. He’s essentially saying his home is my home. I know we had the philosophical discussion about making our friendship a sort of home base, but this is quite the commitment he’s rolling out before me.

Before I can think about it too much, he’s changing subjects on me again. “Are you going to tell your parents about Matthew?”

He knows I haven’t wanted to involve them in this to keep their worry at a minimum, but it’s not a farfetched guess that it’s the reason for my trip home.

At least one.

“I was also going to tell them about me and you,” I admit, giving him a sheepish smile. “They adore you, of course, so they’ll be thrilled.”

“They will,” he replies with a grin, his chest puffing out. “Because I’m awesome. They’ll wonder why it took you years to realize that.”

“I always knew you were awesome,” I point out.

Kane sobers a bit. “They’re going to flip out about Matthew.”

“No more than you have,” I reply dryly, pulling away from him and returning to my task. Thoughts of a quick hop in the sack have been dispelled with all this talk of Matthew and outing our new relationship to my parents. It causes me to feel a bit anxious, so I decide to continue dinner.