Tempting Perfection

When he didn’t move, I gave him a shove. “Kurt, make your phone stop.”

He shifted, and I heard him knock over something on his nightstand as he tried to grab the phone. For a moment, there was nothing but heavenly silence.

“Oh shit! Shit! Shit! Shit!”

I jerked up. That got my attention. “What?”

“My mother is on her way from the airport. She’ll be here any second.” Kurt rolled out of bed, pulled on his jeans, and finger-combed his hair while he looked for a shirt. “Where’s my shirt. You’ve organized it, and now I can’t find anything.”

Wait. He’s worried about a shirt? This was not good timing—not good timing at all. “Your mom is coming? Now? Why?” Then I froze as I remembered the schedule for the day. I had done this. I’d arranged for Lana to come here and surprise Kurt. “This is my fault. This was supposed to be a surprise for you.”

“What?” Kurt paused to look at me.

I scrambled off the bed and retrieved my Kurt-approved pajamas. “Before the tour, I made arrangements for her to come see you in Denver.”

I froze, remembering I left my prenatal vitamins in the living room. I dashed down the hall.

“Sawyer! Don’t run like that!”

Rolling my eyes, I found them and ran back to my room.

Kurt scolded me from the doorway. “Sawyer, don’t run. You’ll jiggle the baby.”

Putting my hands on my hips, I tried to keep a straight face. “Don’t you think fucking my brains out last night jiggled your baby?”

A look of disbelief crossed over his face. “That’s different!”

We stared at each other and burst out laughing. I pointed at him. “I’m blaming your baby for forgetting about your mom. I never forget anything. It’s like the Hendrix gene has infected me. If I start being messy, so help me, I’m coming after you with a baseball bat until you’re infertile.”

Horror crossed his face and he cupped himself. “No touching the jewels.”

I waved my hands in the air. There wasn’t much time. Later, we could argue about jewel mangling. “Go get a shirt! We look like we’ve spent the night fucking and not sleeping.”

“Because that’s what we did.”

“Kurt! Your mom is going to be here any minute. Put. On. A. Shirt.”

Seriously. I forgot. I combed through my hair, managing to put it up in a messy bun as I walked around the bus making sure everything was in place. An easy morning lounging around the bus look. I believed I accomplished it.

The brunch.

“Kurt, you have reservations to take your mom to brunch downtown.”

What was wrong with me? Then there’s the scenic drive. Oh hell, I had fallen apart.

Kurt came back into the hall, his toothbrush in his mouth. Oh, I need to do that too. I ran back to my bathroom with him on my tail.

“Stop running, Sawyer. What else do we have on this surprise agenda?”

The way he said surprise riled me. I knew he’d probably spit some toothpaste out as he spoke. I started to brush my teeth, refusing to turn around. Don’t look at the splatter. Don’t look.

“Umm, you have brunch and then a scenic drive to the lake.” Ugh, I now sputtered toothpaste out. We were a mess. I grabbed a towel and cleaned the spots.

He spit, and I followed. The difference was his rinse job was not thorough. So I took the extra time to get the excess toothpaste from the sink. Then he tossed his toothbru

sh on my counter. Not wanting to argue, I put mine in its proper holder and speed-walked to his bathroom to put his away.

“Okay, I think that’s it,” I announced from my doorway.