"Are you kidding?! Every adult in my life would kill me."
She tugged sharply against the elbow of his sleeve, jerked him back hard enough into the front of her that he double stepped just to keep from trodding over the toes of those delightfully strappy little heels she'd decided would best kill his resolve over dinner. Cal stunned still, the words he'd heard from the other room and Gill's hands gripped against his upper arms. He half smirked at how surreptitiously she'd stopped them up in the entryway, leaning back slightly into her warmth and curves as she stretched forward. Emily's voice continued a one-sided conversation that they obviously weren't supposed to be hearing and he forced his attention to the tone of her voice rather than how gently Gill was pressed up the line of his back.
"My father's an internationally renowned human lie detector. My mother's a former attorney general for the entire country – not just a county or a city, the whole country." The girl was obviously on the phone, the rest of the house quiet except for the faint humming drone of music from somewhere on the second floor. "I was raised by an emotionally stunted power couple, bent on world domination by way of verbal badgering."
He swallowed his snort of humor, turning his head into the faint scent of wine on Gill's lips, heard her make a breathy laugh of a noise against his ear. He stayed unmoving, perfectly still as she wrapped up tighter against his back and carefully nudged the front door farther closed with one heel. Her hands sloped down his sleeves and stroked under his arms, looping around him from behind as her chin perched against his shoulder. Cal grinned wider, letting one palm overtake her wrists and curl there.
"Cheeky little shit," he muttered under his breath.
"Hush." Gill giddily kissed the word up behind his ear, amusement in her whispering. "I wanna hear this."
"You mean my step-mom? Professionally trained to hear every nuance of every freaking thing you say to her." Her whole body had tripped taut and still on use of the word 'mom', step or otherwise. He felt her stillness as though it was a visceral thing, something stuck between them as a place-card. "On the off chance my father doesn't see it, and my mother's too distracted to catch it, Gillian just hears it."
Cal smiled reflexively, felt it make a wide grin over his lips and proud, too.
He adored his daughter, that much was obvious to the wide world.
But her saying something so casually, throwing out the passkey to Gillian's heart, that way?
He'd buy her a car if she asked, in that moment. Or a castle. Or most anything at all.
"Are you kidding? I have to be overly honest with them just to get them to chill. Dad enters this mental freak out zone and mom just laughs it off."
"Step-mum," he murmured with a voice so quiet it barely sounded the air, head turned into the way she was pressing her face into the side of his neck. "You hear that?"
"Shhh." She caught her fingers up in his sharply, locked their hands together as she burrowed closer and just squeezed around him.
"You gonna cry?"
"Naw, Gill's a secret keeper." Emily's voice carried toward them again, stiffened them still as she seemed to get closer, probably crossing the living room. "Well, unless it's serious, ya know?"
"Keepin' secrets from me, darling?" Cal asked lightly, catching her hands up so that he could start drawing her around himself and farther into the house.
"Just little ones," she hummed off in amusement, eyes shined up but bright in happiness, pleasure and near tears and he figured a happily crying Gillian was one he could probably deal with for the rest of ever. "Innocent ones."
Cal squinted at her in supposed accusation, loosening up from her hold and intentionally putting his hands to her jacket, fingers undoing the buttons with blind surety. "And like what?"
"Emily?!" Gill lifted her head into letting her voice carry, loud and throughout the hall, the house. "We're back."
"Hang on," Emily hushed off, obviously stalling her conversation before her head peeked into the hall. "Hey! You guys have fun?"
"You traitorous wench," he guttered quietly between them.
"It was a nice place. You should try it," she told the teen, voice conversational and easy, as though they certainly hadn't been eavesdropping on her conversation. She turned her head toward him as she swung the jacket from her arms, "You want coffee, babe?"
Cal just snorted and passed a supposed glaring between them. "Y'mean along with the Strychnine? Arsenic chaser?"
"What's his problem?"
"Paranoia. Narcissism. Ego-centrism," Gillian rattled off blithely, hanging her coat onto the hook while he watched the both of them grin at the other.
Emily nodded into it, passing him a feigned glare of accusation. "Flare for the over-dramatic."
"Exactly," the older woman answered easily. "Coffee?"
"Sure. There in a minute," Emily murmured, phone perched between ear and shoulder. "Thanks, Gill."
He smiled again, foolishly grinning at the sweetly softened tone his daughter had used before turning back into the living room.
Sounded like 'mum' to him, regardless of phrasing. Sounded like love, affectionate and warm.
Cal lifted his brows at Gill, caught the flushed pinkening on her cheeks before she rolled her eyes and turned toward the kitchen, leaving him dumbly in the hall, still wearing his coat and shoes.