Bait: The Wake Series, Book One(125)
She needed to eat.
I said softly in her ear, “Good morning, Betty.” I put my lips on her shoulder and left them there. “Let me make you breakfast.”
She laughed a little, “What are you going to make me?”
“Pop-tarts.”
She stretched her arms above her head, and in her stretch her ass pressed deliciously into me. “What kind?” she said through a wake-up yawn.
“What does it matter? A Pop-tart is a Pop-tart.”
“So not true. Some Pop-Tarts are good, some aren't.” She rolled to face me. “So what kind do you have?”
“Maple and Strawberry, I think.”
“Okay, I'll let you make me breakfast then. I'll brew the coffee.” And she grinned.
“This is something new now, isn't it?”
Her eyes looked thoughtful. “This feels all new. A new day.” I grabbed her by the ass and lifted her to my stomach to lie on top of me.
“I like new days when they start like this.” I paired our foreheads. And she closed her eyes.
“Me, too.”
We made Pop-Tarts and coffee and sat outside. Blake cut up a melon that I'd brought in from the garden. It was a little foreign and a lot more natural than I thought it should be. Even after all of this time and everything, we still knew how to be Casey and Blake.
We remembered how to talk to each other. In a matter of an hour, it didn't even feel like we'd been apart.
I charged my phone and called my family to let them know I was still alive. They all sort of got the hint that I needed some space after I'd told my sister Morgan to, “leave me the f*ck alone for a while.”
It was rude and so I apologized when I finally reached her.
“I'm sorry I snapped at you the other day, Morg,” I said before we got off the phone. “I wanted some space, but I'm glad you wanted to be here for me.”
“It's okay. I know it’s hard. I just love you so much and I hate seeing you unhappy.” She started crying. “I don't want you to be alone.” Her heart was so big, so tender. My baby sister lived to help others.
“Hey now, don't cry. I'm not alone.” I looked at Blake on the patio through the big window, she was smelling one of the flowers. I didn't feel alone anyway.
“You're not. Who's there, Aly? Troy?” She sounded hopeful.
I couldn't lie to her. It wasn't my style. “Blake’s here.”
“Casey, she's married!”
“I know,” I said. I knew that more than anybody.
“So what is she doing there?” She never seemed to like Blake and whenever her name came up she acted offended. Morgan's morality and sense of right and wrong was like a compass. Everything was simply good or bad to her. Which was a bad way to be, but Morgan was good to her core.
“She came to see me. Don't be like that Morgan, you might be smart, but you don't know everything.”
“I know what you looked like after her wedding. I know you love her and she married someone else. Those seem to be valid reasons for me to dislike her. How would you feel if someone treated me that way?” She told me once that she wanted to be a nurse, but she was more equipped to be a lawyer.
“I'd tell you to think for yourself and be happy. This isn't your business. I love you, and thanks for your concern, but she makes me feel better. You don't get it. You only know the story, Morg. I've lived it.”
She sighed on the other end. “I love you, too. Stop talking to me like I'm a little girl.”
“You are a little girl.” I laughed. “To me.”
“Whatever. I've got to go. Please, be careful and be good to yourself. Can you meet me for lunch next week?”
“I will. I’ll talk to you later.”
“Okay. And Casey?” she said as an afterthought, “I'm glad she makes you feel better, it’s about time she did.”
How is it that my younger, my least experienced sibling, was wiser than all of us?
The day wasted away. We watched television. We had sex on the half wall of the stone patio. We made food and listened to music. We took a walk down to the shed. The red “Bait” still written on the back wall facing away from the property.
“This really is something, isn't it?” she said that night as we looked at the sky, even though it was nearly starless. We watched the clouds pass between us and the moon. It felt a little symbolic.