“Well, no, but—”
“No buts. We’re both grown women. If I want to go out for a bit, I will.”
Callie blinked, then glanced at Jason, who was watching the two of them from across the room. Regina thought she detected amusement in his eyes.
“Well, of course, but...” Callie’s voice trailed off in apparent confusion.
Impulsively, Regina patted her daughter’s cheek. “It’s okay, dear. As you can see, I’m perfectly fine, as are you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go to my room and rest a bit. All that walking has worn me out.”
As she sank onto her bed, slid her swollen feet out of her shoes and rested her head against the pillows, Regina couldn’t help feeling exhilarated by the day and the mild argument that had concluded it. She wondered, though, which of them would recover from the shock of that exchange first.
* * *
Callie stood in the middle of the living room and stared after her mother. Something akin to shock kept her speechless for several minutes after her mother had gone.
“Now, what do you suppose that was about?” she asked Jason when she could finally gather her thoughts.
“Sounded to me like a woman standing up for herself.”
Callie turned and regarded him with a puzzled expression. “I know. It sounded that way to me, too. It didn’t sound like my mother at all.”
He grinned at her. “Look on the bright side. At least she didn’t read you the riot act for staying out all night with me. That was what you were expecting, wasn’t it?”
She shuddered as she thought of the way her stern father had always stood in judgment of her every move. Her mother had always supported him, if only by her stoic silence. “I was expecting to catch holy hell, actually.”
Jason looped his arms around her waist from behind and nuzzled the back of her neck, reminding her instantly of the long, wildly passionate night they’d just shared.
“Wasn’t this better?” he asked. “We now seem to have her tacit approval.”
Callie twisted around until she was facing him. He seemed extraordinarily pleased by the turn of events. “You were even more nervous than I was, weren’t you?”
“Hey, I’ve seen all those documentaries about the viciousness of mothers protecting their young from danger.”
“I think those were probably mother bears or lions or something.”
“Same principle. I’ve also heard a whole bunch about shotgun weddings. Your mother does know how to fire a shotgun, doesn’t she?”
Callie nodded, unable to hide the grin spreading across her face as she contemplated the image of her mother nudging Jason down a church aisle with a shotgun. “I doubt she brought one with her to New York, though.”
“Maybe you should sneak into her room some night and check, just to be sure.”
“Coward,” she accused.
“No way,” he protested. “You’re far more dangerous than your mother, even if she happens to be armed. You don’t see me running from you.”
Callie sighed. Yet, she thought. She’d seen enough of Jason in recent weeks to figure out that he was a man who had a serious case of commitment phobia. It hadn’t particularly bothered her before because she had a fairly severe case herself.
Now, though, she was beginning to wonder if she would ever get enough of him.
“I don’t suppose you could be talked into going to a major shopping-mall event in Iowa?” she inquired wistfully, thinking of the next assignment on Jenny’s dreaded list.
“Would that be the test of my devotion, by any chance?”
“Actually, I was thinking of it more as a rescue mission. I really, really don’t want to be alone when I see my sister again.”
“You could always take your mother along. She could visit with friends while you charm the socks off all those shoppers. You’d make her very proud.”
Callie shook her head. “I doubt it. She’d probably be humiliated by having to explain to all those rigid acquaintances of hers that I am practically buck naked on TV, in bed with a man I hardly know—according to the story line, that is—and trying very, very hard to get pregnant so I can trap him into marrying me.”
Jason chuckled. “My, my, you have been busy since the last time I tuned in.”
Callie’s gaze narrowed. “I thought you watched every day.”
“I do. You’re taping two weeks ahead, remember?”
“Oh.”
“So, you and the nation’s favorite hunk are getting it on?”
He sounded awfully testy about it. Actually, Callie had had a great deal of difficulty not giggling the first time she and Terry had stripped down strategically and climbed into bed in front of the cameras. Only Terry’s dire warning of evil consequences if she laughed had kept her serious enough to deliver her lines.
“Jealous?” she inquired.
Jason’s brows rose slightly. “Of Terry?” he asked a bit incredulously.
So, she thought, he knew that Terry was gay. And apparently it made no difference to him. Bless the man.
“You are a wonder,” she whispered as she lifted her mouth to his.
The front door clicked open before she could lose herself thoroughly in the kiss.
“My, my,” Terry observed. “There is definitely progress being made. Neil, would you look at these two?”
When Callie would have shrugged free of Jason’s embrace, he tightened it.
“Are you two into voyeurism?” Jason inquired. “Go away. I was just about to get lucky.”
“You wish,” Callie retorted, shoving him away with a little more force. “My mother’s here, remember?”
“But she likes me,” Jason reminded her. “She’s all but given us her blessing.”
“Not to carry on while she’s in the room next door,” Callie assured him. She turned her attention to Terry. “What have you guys been up to?”
“Reading my fan mail,” Terry said. “It gets me all psyched up to go back to work on Monday.”
“The man is shameless,” Neil commented as he dropped a Saks Fifth Avenue bag filled with mail beside the sofa, presumably for Callie’s mother to answer. “He reads them all aloud. Every Sunday. Week after week.
