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A visit from my mother typically also means a visit from Christian.  My mother had always loved Christian when we were in college together and pretty much adopted him as her other son.  They got along fabulously from day one and when Sean died Christian was right there with us, a true part of the family stepping up as the token son left in the family.  Frankly, he loved being adopted into my family because his own parents were pretty nonexistent.  Where my mom was constantly calling him and checking up on him, his own parents called him maybe once every six months and generally didn’t seem to care what he did with his life.

When I called Christian to invite him and Josef over for dinner that evening it was like I’d barely hung up the phone and Christian was bursting through my front door yelling, “Mama!” and hugging her tight.  When they were done with their love-fest I smiled and looked at my imaginary watch on my arm, “Chris… I invited you over for dinner, not lunch…”

He laughed and flipped me off, “Oh bite me.  You don’t call me up and tell me that Mom’s in town and expect me to wait until dinner time to come over… Puhleese.”

“Mmm hmm…”

“You’re just pissed that I hugged her first…”

“You haven’t hugged me at all actually…” I said and raised an eyebrow at him.

He chuckled and practically tackled me with a hug and then grinned, “Better?”

“Yup…” I said and kissed him.  “Couldn’t talk Josef into coming over so early?”

“Nah… he left this morning to go do some cooking thing in Miami.  He’ll be gone for a few days.”

I looked at my mom and she smiled, “Sounds like we’re having a sleepover!”

“Oh lord…” I said and laughed.  “Last time we had a sleepover you both ate all of my ice cream and I swear Vinnie gained five pounds from all of the treats you gave him.”

They totally ignored me.  Christian sat down with my mom and held her hand in his, “I think we should see if Kevin will join in on the sleepover too.  Did you guys invite him to dinner too?”

“Not yet, but he’s definitely on the invite list.  She was about to call him when you showed up.”

“Wait until you meet him… he’s beautiful.”

“He’s certainly got a lovely voice over the phone and he seems like a nice person.”

“Oh he’s totally cool…” Christian said and reached out to grab a piece of the coffee cake we’d been munching on.  “You should see him with Kel too… They’re freaking adorable together.”

“Shut up, Chris.” I sighed and picked up my coffee mug. 

“I’m looking forward to meeting him, I’d like to finally see if he lives up to all of the things she tells me about him.”

“Hello?  I’m in the room…”  I said with a groan.  “Stop talking about me like I’m not here.”

Christian made a confused face at my mom, “Did you hear something?”

She winked at him and shrugged her shoulders, “Must have been a bug or something…”

“Now you can both bite me…” I said and picked up my phone off of the coffee table.  They both chuckled and made kissy faces at me to which I gave them a stuck out tongue and stepped out onto the deck while dialing Kevin’s number.

He answered on the second ring, “Hey you…”

I lit up like a light house and grinned, “Hey yourself… Welcome home.”

“Thank you…”

“How was the trip?”

“Long… my flight was delayed twice.  But once I finally got in the air it was fine.  I just got home a few hours later than expected is all.”

“That sucks, you should have called me, I could have kept you company.”

“I thought about it but I was reading and before I knew it they were calling for boarding.”

“Must have been a good book…”

“Yeah, it’s by this chick I know… Kellie something.”

I laughed, “You’re reading the Lake Pleasanton books?”

“Yup…”

“Oh man… now that’s a funny thought.  Big strong sexy Heartthrob sitting in an airport totally engrossed in Chick Lit about teenagers…”

“They’re not teenagers anymore, I’m up to the sixth book.”

“Holy shit…”

“They’re really good books… I’m having a great time reading them.”

I was blushing and found myself shaking my head, “You’re really something, Kev…”

“Why, because I’m interested in what you do?”

“There’s a difference in being interested in what I do and reading my whole library of work in just a few weeks.”

“What can I say, I’m addicted to all things Kellie.”  He didn’t just say that ultimately sweet thing, he said it in his deep flirty sexy voice and I could hear the smirk in his voice.

More blushing. “Do you realize that every time I talk to you on the phone you make me blush?”

“Really?”

“Really.”

“Cool.”  I had to smile, yeah it was cool alright.  “Oh my mother says thank you for the book… she was so geeked about it when I showed it to her.” Kevin chuckled and the sound made me smile like an idiot.  “She started reading it that night and handed over her collection of your books and told me to start reading.”

“Oh so it’s her fault…”

“Only partially… I was planning on reading them anyway.  But once I got started I sort of got sucked in and now I’m hooked.”

“You’re adorable…”

“Naturally…”

Vinnie trotted up to me with a ball and nudged my hand with his head until I took the ball from him and threw it out onto the beach.  “So hey… are you free for dinner?”

“I was actually going to ask you the same thing.”

“Great minds…” I smiled and Vinnie returned with the ball, gave it to me and sat down panting at me waiting for the next throw.  “This crazy lady who swears she’s my mom showed up this morning demanding a place to sleep for the night but she also said she’d cook dinner for me and my friends so I was ordered to call you and see if you would come over in a few hours.”

“Very cool… Sounds like fun.  And let’s face it.  I’m sure whatever your mom is cooking is going to be better than what I could offer you.  I was just going to order pizza or something lame like that.”  He laughed at his own joke which was one of the million things that I totally loved about the guy.  “Should I bring anything?”

“Just wine… We have sort of a tradition when she visits… we make a big meal, drink a lot of wine, and have a sleepover.  No one is allowed to bring any food though because we do all of the cooking.  Christian’s already here and has made it clear which bed he’s sleeping in tonight.  So if you’re going to stay here with us you should probably bring those pajamas and fuzzy slippers too…”

Kevin chuckled, “Sounds like a fun tradition… I’ll only stay overnight if I get to bunk with you though.”

Blushing again…. Totally.  I smiled, “If you demanded anything else I wouldn’t let you stay… I’ve missed sleeping next to you.”  It kind of freaked me out hearing myself say those words.  They were true and yet they scared the hell out of me because saying them aloud was admitting that they were true.  I missed Kevin and I loved it when he was around.  Little Miss I’m Not Going To Date Men Anymore was totally and utterly swept up in the dance of courtship. 

“I’ve missed that too… other things too of course…”

“Of course…” Chuckling I ran my hand through my hair as I faced the house and looked in to where Christian and my mom were still sitting on the couch talking a mile a minute.  I imagined the two of them interrogating Kevin and almost felt sorry for the guy… he had no idea what was coming.  “So we’ll probably do dinner around six but you’re welcome any time.  I imagine it’s going to be an all day and night sort of affair so whenever you feel like joining just come on over.”

“Do I get to kiss you in front of your mom?”

I smiled and then made goofy faces at my mom and Christian who were clearly watching me talk to Kevin on the phone and were cooing about how “cute” I was when I talked to or about Kevin.  “Sure… just don’t make it too x-rated.”

Kevin laughed in my ear and it sent a shiver over my body touching all of the right spots, “Then I’ll be over soon…”