Love's Awakening by Kelly Stuart Read Free Book Online Page B

about Paul and Erin?”
    Celia blinked. “Who?”
    Oliver rotated his cast and pointed to two names: Erin E. Paul J. “Did my father tell you about them?”
    “No. Who are they?”
    “Never mind. Doesn’t matter. Look, Dad left me a note. The wreck was on purpose. Here, let me show you.”

Chapter Six
    Oliver watched and waited as Celia read. Her eyes moved quickly, scanning the lines. Then she stopped, her gaze turning incredulous. Unseeing. She’d stopped squeezing long ago. At last, she detached the collection bottle. She handed the note back to Oliver, but her movements were vague. She was half a ghost.
    Celia removed the shirt—deep purple—that had been covering her breasts, and the shirt fell into her lap. Oliver could not help but look . Celia’s bra had no cups, and her nipples were big. No way around it. Huge. Ginormous. And erect, very erect.
    Oliver gulped. Wow. Oh, wow.
    He forced his eyes up.
    “Still think cows are cute?” Celia asked.
    Oliver swallowed. “Nothing wrong with them.” Them meaning Celia’s breasts. And there truly wasn’t anything wrong. The nipples possessed their own strange beauty, and Celia’s breasts were full, round. Lovely. Oliver felt himself hardening. Oh, hell . Celia had better not look down at his crotch.
    Celia sighed, put her bra cups back on and pulled her shirt up. “My left breast is bigger. When I thought they couldn’t get any worse.”
    “They looked the same size to me.”
    Celia laughed wearily. “Gonna be a long time before a man finds them fit to be touched again.”
    Oliver scoffed. “If that’s the worst of it, then—please. You’re fine. Totally fine.” He wondered what Shannon’s breasts had looked like after she gave birth. He was pretty sure she’d never breastfed Paul or Erin. The babies went to Malcolm and Sherelle right away, and Shannon wanted nothing to do with Oliver.
    Celia only laughed again. More wearily.
    “I’d touch them,” Oliver said.
    “W-what?”
    Oliver felt heat creep up his neck and spread to his face. “Not like that. I just meant breasts are breasts. Beauty comes in many, uh, they weren’t that bad, uh, they, of course I didn’t see what they were like before you got pregnant, so—” Stop. You’re making it worse.
    Celia stared at him. Awkward silence. Long, awkward silence, and Oliver’s hardening deflated. Thank goodness.
    “Well, thank you, Oliver,” Celia said at last.
    “Sure,” he mumbled. “Ain’t no big thing.”
    She smiled hesitantly. “All right.”
    Oliver had never told anyone about Paul and Erin. As far as he knew, his grandparents remained in the dark. Maybe his father had told them, maybe not, but the secret of the children, of Erin’s smiley face and their names on Oliver’s cast, was sour. Always had been. Oliver decided to improvise, to tell Celia stuff he didn’t know for sure about Shannon, but it had to have happened. Didn’t it for all nursing women?
    “Look, Celia, your breasts will get better. Shannon’s did.”
    There. Oliver had said it. Something close enough, anyway. And he felt better right away. He had nothing to be ashamed of. Teenagers made stupid mistakes. Nothing to be ashamed of at all.
    “Shannon’s got better? What do you mean? Who is Shannon?”
    Oliver indicated the names with his finger. Erin E. Paul J. “Shannon is my ex. And like I said, her breasts got better.”
    Celia’s eyes went wide. Wider than at the hospital when Oliver told her about the accident, and wider than just now with the transgender news. “You have a baby?” Celia squeaked.
    “They’re not babies. Boy and girl. Twins.”
    “Oh, wow.”
    “You’re right that I didn’t have class two weeks ago. I went to his baseball game. He hit a single. He should’ve been out at first, but he ran like hell.”
    Celia studied the names on the cast a long, long time. Long enough for Oliver’s tongue to thicken and his heart to stiffen.
    Long enough for him to realize what an idiot he