Tuesday Tales: From the Word Gray

Welcom to this week’s Tuesday Tales. I blinked and it was winter, I blinked again and spring is only three weeks away. Happy March! This week’s Tuesday Tales, taken once more from Sea Breeze, is based on the word GRAY.

Opening the door, I yelped. What the hell? Maybe I’d been wrong, and Cal did live with his mother, because the woman standing before me in the hall, like a security guard at the mall, looked a hell of a lot like him. Either that, or the place was haunted. I didn’t like my odds either way.

The heavyset woman in a cotton, short sleeved dress, appeared to be around the same age as my mother. Her short hair was gray-streaked brown, her brown eyes twinkled, and a knowing smile twisted her mouth. A dimple similar to Cal’s cratered her right cheek. She stood there, staring at me, examining me as if I was the prize turkey in the butcher’s window, all the while holding my clean sundress on a hanger and my bra and thong hanging from the fingers of her other hand.

Lord, kill me now.

I faced her, my heart pounding as madly as that of a kid caught with his hand in the cookie jar. I stared at my red thong hanging from her index finger next to my white lace bra. Why was it that none of my underwear ever matched? While I’d never actually done the walk of shame, and certainly hadn’t done anything this time to deserve it, the burn of a blush started in my toes, spread up my body, and settled in my face.

“I thought you might be needing these. I’m Molly, Callum’s mother. I didn’t know he was entertaining a guest until I went in to do the laundry.” She squinted. “I don’t think I’ve seen you before, but you look a bit familiar.”

So Callum was some kind of player. What had my mother called them? Satyrs? I needed to set her straight right away.

“I’m … I’m Eva.” I licked my lips. “Eva Malone. I arrived yesterday thinking I could stay at The Sea Breeze. Sean O’Hara didn’t mention the renovations. Cal offered me a bed for the night—that one.” I pointed to the spare room I’d used.

“Well, I’ll be. Of course you are. Now that you’ve said it, I can see Ryan and Marie in you. You’ve got the Malone hair, too. In the sun it looks a blazing fire.”

Was that a polite way of saying I looked like hell? I blinked.

That’s it. Stay safe and don’t forget to check out the other Tuesday Tales