Jennie
Blueberry Pie
Winter (4 Years After)
With oven mitts tucked under one arm and my cell balanced between my ear and shoulder, I stepped over Blue. Every winter since we'd adopted her two years ago, the dog had taken to lying in the middle of the kitchen whenever I baked.
"One sec," I said into the phone and bent at the waist. I flipped on the oven light and a blueberry pie appeared, crust browning right on schedule. "Perfect."
"What's perfect?" Doyeon asked on the other end of the line.
"The pie I'm baking Lisa."
"Good. They say the way to a man's heart is through her stomach."
Not exactly. After over a week away from Lisa, food would be the second thing on her mind. "They need to think a few inches lower."
"You're such a wife, and you're not even married. I bet you're wearing an apron and everything."
"I am. It has birds on it."
"Okay, that's weird. Birds have nothing to do with cooking," Doyeon said. "But here's what you need to do. Once Lisa is full of pie and bear meat, or whatever a human her size eats, and she's half-asleep, ask her why."
"Why what?"
"The marriage thing."
I turned off the oven. I should've known she'd bring it back up, even though I'd tried to steer her off course. Diversion tactics didn't work on my best friend when she was onto something. "There's no marriage thing," I said, checking over my shoulder to make sure Lisa hadn't snuck up on me. "Can we drop this?"
"You were telling me you weren't sure why, after four years of cohabitation—"
"One of which I commuted to Los Angeles for work," I said, "and three of which I've lived part-time in Pomona."
She ignored me. "You were saying you don't know why Lisa hasn't proposed yet."
"That's not what I said." With a sigh, I removed the pie from the oven and set it on a burner. "I already know why she hasn't—I told her not to until I was done with school."
"You said you didn't want to get married until you were done with school—and you're graduating next summer. She can still propose."
I hated to admit Doyeon had a point. What I'd actually started to explain before I'd remembered Doyeon would take anything juicy and run with it, was how Lisa used to bug me constantly about getting married . . . but lately, she'd been uncharacteristically quiet on the topic. Between her furniture business and me being gone four days a week for school, marriage had hardly come up at all the last six or so months. I wasn't wondering why she hadn't proposed—I wanted to know why she'd given up trying to propose.
Because Lisa had ways of getting what she wanted. We'd once spent three weeks arguing over whether I needed snow tread tires for my car. Snow in Big Bear was pretty mild, and when it wasn't, we took Lisa's truck. Winter tires were expensive.
I'd given in out of exhaustion.
Lisa wanted to get married, of that I was certain. She would've sealed the deal the warm September day I'd moved in except that I'd made her promise to wait. That, and she wanted the wedding to be special, and right now, neither of us had time for anything more than a quick trip to City Hall. Lisa's business kept her busy around the clock. I went to school two hours away, so I'd rented an apartment where I stayed during the week. Our life had not yet begun.
But it would soon. I had one semester left of classes before graduating in May, and surely that had crossed Lisa's mind. "I'm not going to dope her up on blueberry pie and ask her to ask me to marry her. Especially since I don't even know if I want that yet."
"You won't let yourself want it because you've been burned in the past."
"Not true. I want it eventually, but with our schedules—"
"Blah, blah, blah. Listen, if the pie doesn't get her to drop to one knee, withhold sex until she caves. I assume you're naked under your apron."
I laughed. "I am not. And I don't need Lisa to cave. She and I have no secrets. If I'm ready for a proposal, I can just tell her."
"Where's the fun in that?" she asked. "In my plan, you get pie and sex."
"I'm already getting those things. Since I was gone all last week for exams, I'm surprising her with a home-cooked meal and . . . other things." I didn't need an excuse to feed us both into a coma or climb Lisa like the mountain of a human she was. Nor did I need one to broach the subject of marriage—should I decide to do such a thing.
"She thinks you're still in Pomona?" she asked.
"Until tomorrow." Blue raised her head to look at me with her signature turquoise eyes. I put my index finger over my lips. "Don't tell Dada."
"Ew," Doyeon said. "You call her Dada?"
"I was talking to Blue." I squatted to scratch her stomach. Lisa and I had decided to foster pets until after graduation when I'd be living at home full-time. Blue was a Border Collie-Australian Shepherd mix—or so we guessed—named after the striking color of her eyes. She'd been the third dog we'd taken in. I'd cried buckets when the shelter had placed the second dog, so Lisa had suggested we keep Blue. She'd said it was to prevent more tears, but it was no secret Lisa had a weakness for blue's eyes.
When the front door opened, Blue perked up. "She's here," I whispered to Doyeon. "I'll call you later."
"Tell her to put a ring on it," she cried.
"I don't even want to know how many times you've listened to Beyoncé's new album," I said before I hung up.
"Jennie?" Lisa called, stomping through the foyer.
I stood and smoothed out my apron before quickly scrubbing flour from my wrist. "In the kitchen."
She came in wiping her temple on her sleeve. "You said you were driving in tomorrow morning."
I had about two seconds to get a good look at her—flannel open at the collar before she had me off my feet and wrapped in one of her strong bear hugs.
"I decided to surprise you," I said.
"I hate surprises." She inhaled my hair. "There's ice on the roads and it's dark out. If anything had happened—"
"Want me to come back tomorrow?"
She growled into my neck and set me on the counter. "A week's too long, Jennie."
I let my head fall back as she trailed kisses up my throat. She pulled me to the edge, urging my legs around her. "Lisa," I said when her tool belt pressed my inner thighs. "Your drill."
"That's not my drill, Birdy." She snickered as she unhooked her belt and let it hit the ground with a thunk that made me jump.
"Watch out for Blue!"
"She knows to get out of the way when Mama Bear comes home."
I laughed as she tickled the underside of my jaw with her lips. "Why are you still wearing all that anyway?" I asked.
"Huh?" She said, leaning in for a kiss.
I pulled back. "Usually you leave your belt in the workshop at the end of the day."
"I was coming in to grab a bite."
I pushed my palms into her chest, using all my strength to keep her from devouring me. "A bite?" I asked. "What about those frozen meals I left you?"
"That's a bite for me. I was going to put one in the microwave—"
"You mean oven."
"Right."
"Then what?"
"Down the hatch and back to work. Can we talk about this after?"
I arched an eyebrow. I'd expected enthusiasm from her, naturally, but Lisa was coming at me like I was blueberry pie. "After what?"
She sighed, relenting enough to let me push her back. "I missed you. You can't expect me not to be eager."
"Phone sex not cutting it?" I joked.
She leveled me with a glare. "You know it doesn't. I'm just happy to have you to myself for more than a weekend."
"Thank heavens for Christmas break." I played with one of her shirt buttons while keeping my distance. "But it's after seven. Why were you going back out there?"
"What do you think I do when you're not here?" She licked her lips as she stared at mine. "I work."
"Not tonight, you don't."
She squeezed my hips, bringing me against her crotch. "I never work late when you're here. That was our deal. No matter what's going on, if we're both in town, we always eat dinner together."
I kissed her forehead and slid off the counter despite her grunted protest. "First, we eat."
"But it's been almost two weeks."
"It's been eight days." I picked up her tool belt and set it on the counter. "There's lasagna in the oven, and I'm cooling a pie for dessert."
As I'd predicted, that silenced her. Food was the one thing that had the potential to hold over Lisa's sex drive, at least for a bit.
"You were supposed to have dinner with classmates tonight to celebrate getting exams out of the way."
"There was no dinner." Bent over to check on the lasagna, I looked back at her and grinned. "I lied."
"Lied?" she hooked a finger in my apron string and tugged me backward. "To me? Who do you think you're dealing with here?"
I pushed her hand away and shuffled back to the oven. "Hand me the mitts."
She put them on herself and pulled the dish out to set it next to the pie. "Nothing like your homemade meals," she said. "My mouth is watering."
"Patience. I won't be responsible for yet another of your burnt tongues. Why don't you go shut down the shop?" I asked, turning to get a spatula.
She took my elbow, pulling me back until I was against her chest. "Thank you," she said.
Tucked into her, I let out a long breath. As much as I liked to tease Lisa for her grumpiness when we were apart, I felt our distance, too. Every hour of every day. There were times I was tempted to drop out and leave Pomona so we could finally start our lives together, but it was the closest college to us with a veterinary program. "What're you thanking me for?" I asked. "I haven't done anything yet."
Blue tried to nose between us. Lisa scratched behind her ear while keeping me close. "You're home early. That's worth giving thanks for."
"I wish I could be here more."
"I want that, too, you know I do, but it's not forever."
Even though I knew our distance bothered Lisa, she'd been nothing but supportive of my career. She'd stuck by me as I'd finished out my contract in Hollywood, then when I'd turned around and picked a university that was also two hours away. Over the last decade and a half, we'd gotten pretty used to being apart. Maybe what we needed now was a piece—or even a promise—of forever.
Damn it, Doyeon. It was possible she'd known exactly what seed she was planting when she'd brought up marriage. That girl had always been wiser than she looked.
And then, any thoughts in my head vanished. Lisa bent down and shook the ground I stood on with a slow, sweet kiss. "Should've done that as soon as I walked in the door," she said.
"You were excited," I teased, sliding my arms around her neck.
"Still am." She thumbed the corner of my mouth.
"Still am." She thumbed the corner of my mouth.
"Dinner's almost ready," I said, slipping out of her arms. "Go lock up. I have plans for you later."
"Plans?" She patted my behind and picked up her belt from the counter on her way out the door. "Can't wait."
I turned back to Blue, who looked from me to the food as if I might finally break down and scoop a serving into her dog dish. A home-cooked meal, blueberry pie, and sex—that was a plan, wasn't it? A good one, too. No sense in bringing up anything as serious as marriage tonight.
"Still am." She thumbed the corner of my mouth.