Quiet Nights Read Free Page B

Chianti.
    “Yes,” she said with a chuckle. “It seems so.”
    “How—” I gasped. “—did you guys meet?”
    “Well, darling, Emmett and I met at a—”
    “Wait!” Mia yelled as she rushed back into the room. She carried another bottle of wine with her, and she moved to her mother’s side, facing me. After grabbing the opener off the counter, she told her mother to proceed.
    “Whatever is wrong with you?” Annalise asked her daughter.
    “Oh, no, nothing,” Mia said with a belch. “I just want to see Kel’s face when you tell this part again.”
    Annalise scowled at her, the very expression she had passed on to her son, the one I saw in my sleep. “As I was saying,” she said, turning to me, “Emmett and I met at a tantric sex education class a year ago, because I didn’t feel that just because Agosto passed on, that he wouldn’t want me to explore my sexuality anymore.”
    I actually felt the air leave my body.
    “Oh yeah, there it is, that’s the same face I made.” Mia snickered as she peeled the foil from around the top of the bottle and let it drop to the floor before putting the bottle between her legs to go to work on it with the corkscrew.
    Annalise remained unfazed. “What began as a purely physical exploration—”
    “I found vodka and bourbon,” Coz practically shouted as he walked back into the kitchen.
    “—deepened beyond merely extended orgasms—”
    “Get ice,” he demanded as Mia popped the cork out of the second bottle of Chianti and took a long pull without letting it breathe.
    “—and so it became important to me that Emmett meet y’all, all my children, since clearly we were progressing from a robust physical relationship that included experimentation and shared fulfillment to—”
    “Ice!” he barked at me, and I put down the empty wine glass he’d left with me not even a couple of minutes earlier. “Now!”
    I darted quickly around the kitchen, first to the cabinet for the glasses, then to the refrigerator to push the lever on the icemaker, at the same time retaining supportive eye contact with his mother. I loved her, so I was practicing my active listening, even though I was pretty sure I was about ready to pass out.
    “—a journey that we’re taking together of mutual love and renewal,” she finished, beaming at me.
    “Here,” I muttered, shoving two tumblers full of ice at Coz.
    “So, of course, I felt like it was time to let y’all in on our relationship.”
    Coz poured fast, splashing a bit of the pricey Belvedere, which was a shame, but truthfully I had no time to lament—I needed the alcohol in my system. 
    “He’s also my gynecologist,” she added cheerfully. “He says I have the vagina of a forty-year-old woman.”
    The vodka went down the wrong pipe, and for a long moment, I really thought I was going to die.
    Coz thumped my back as I did my very best Gollum impersonation and tried to bring up a lung.
    “Oh, honey, are you all right?”
    “Same”—I rasped—“hole.”
    She nodded kindly, then went flitting around the kitchen, pulling first a Greek salad out of the fridge and then a pecan pie out of the oven.
    Once I straightened up, Coz threw back the rest of his drink and poured us each another double as Mia took a gulp from the wine bottle.
    “Did you want to let the second bottle of wine breathe?” Emmett asked her.
    “Maybe later,” Mia answered, pouring him a glass before taking yet another healthy swallow. “Sorry about that, I swear I’m germ-free.”
    “Oh, so am I,” he said kindly, gazing over at Annalise. “And just so you know, your mother and I both got tested so we could have safe sex.”
    It was Coz’s turn to choke.
    “So, uhm,” Mia began, but then she glanced over at me, her eyes scrunched up, begging.
    I knew what she wanted to know, because I did too.
    “No,” Coz said hoarsely, his voice burned from the alcohol. “No-no.”
    “So,” I choked out, “since it was a class where you met and all,