Chapter 5 #2
We had to figure out how to do this without me screaming, us fighting, or me flipping him the bird.
“The kids were great. She looked chill from her Reiki session. And she shared she’s working so hard because she’s saving to buy a house.”
He made a choking noise, so I turned to him.
I watched him swallow with difficulty before he asked, “She’s saving to buy a house?”
“That’s what she says.”
“Your sister. Dream,” he stated to confirm.
I felt my lips quirk. “My sister. Dream.”
“Well, fuck me,” he muttered to his plate and forked up some eggs.
“You sleep okay?” I asked.
“I have to sleep on my back, so…no,” he answered.
To my knowledge, he was a side or stomach sleeper.
If it was side, he spooned or I spooned. If it was stomach, he slept mostly on me with his arm tucked around me.
I forced these things out of my head.
“I sleep better when I nap on the couch,” he said.
“Maybe you should sleep for a few days on the couch, then.”
“I sleep better, but I wake up and my body is tied in knots.”
“I hear that, brother.”
“What?”
“I spent the night on Dream’s couch the other night.” I waved my fork. “Long story, but I woke up one big kink.”
“You’re a mover,” he remarked.
I turned to him again. “What?”
“When you sleep. You move. You turn. You shift.” He glanced out of the sides of his eyes at me before his attention returned to his plate. “I had to lock you down or you’d wake me up every half an hour.”
“Sorry,” I whispered, actually knowing I was a mover, but I’d thought with Knox that I didn’t because I was so content sleeping beside Knox.
I had no idea he “locked me down.”
He turned fully to me then. “I didn’t mind, baby.”
“So you’re not a spooner normally with um…a chick?” My question came out somewhat strangled.
Slowly, he shook his head.
“Were you comfortable doing that with me?”
“Slept like a log.” He paused to let that sink in and finished, “From the very first night.”
After he landed that on me, we sat side by side, staring at each other over Knox’s delicious breakfast.
We kept doing this.
And we continued to do this.
It was jump his bandaged bones or eat my freaking eggs, so I forced my gaze from his warm hazel eyes back to my plate, picked up a slice of bacon, bit off half of it and chewed.
“We gonna talk on Thursday?” he asked.
Not if I could help it.
“Maybe,” I muttered, turning my attention to my toast.
“Luna.”
Oh God.
After his “slept like a log” comment and our heated staring contest, I could not look at him.
Oh God.
He wasn’t talking. He expected me to look at him.
So I had to look at him.
I looked at him.
“Hmm?”
He opened his mouth.
And his doorbell rang.
Saved by the damned bell.
“I’ll get it,” I said, popping off the stool and heading to the door.
I opened it to see Landon, another of the Nightingale men, standing out there.
He had brown hair, like Knox (though several shades lighter, whereas Knox’s hair was almost black, Lan’s was a rich brown).
He had a killer bod, like Knox (though he was an inch or two shorter, but since Knox was six feet three inches (or even taller) this still made Lan tall).
And he had a shocked look on his handsome face, not like Knox.
“Uh…hey, Luna,” he greeted.
“Hey, Lan. Checking in on our guy?”
His eyes went beyond me and back to me. “Yeah. Though, see I didn’t have to. Looks like you got him covered.”
“Actually,” I started, stepping back to invite him in, “I’ve got to bolt down my breakfast and get to work. Can you make sure he doesn’t overdo it with cleaning the kitchen?”
Another thing I fell in love with when it came to Knox.
He could abide a dirty kitchen for the length of time it took to eat the food and let it settle.
This meant he went to bed with a sparkling clean kitchen every night, even if we got up to some derring-do when we cooked something (like that night we tried Beef Wellington, which ended up looking like garbage, but tasting great).
I returned to my seat asking Knox, “Can you leave it until I come by after work, or do we have to ask Lan to clean your kitchen for you?”
“I can clean it,” Knox said.
I’d taken a bite of eggs and screwed up my eyes at him while I chewed.
“I have all day to clean it, Luna. I won’t overdo it,” he assured.
“Cross your heart and hope not to get shot again,” I demanded.
He smiled at me, showing those glorious, even, strong pearly whites (God save me!) and crossed his heart.
“You can put things to soak, that’s it. Then you rest and get back to it only after you rest,” I bossed.
Still smiling, Knox said, “You got it, chief.”
“You two done?” Lan asked, waving at the food. “Can I finish this off?”
“I’m done,” I said, munching into my last rasher of bacon.
“Knock yourself out,” Knox invited.
Lan picked up both pieces of bacon and munched into them as one.
Dudes.
I got all the last bits of egg in my mouth, grabbed my second slice of toast to take with me (yes, I was escaping, no, I did not feel any shame about this), hopped off my stool and announced, “Gotta bounce.”
“See you, Loon,” Lan said, eating the rest of the eggs straight out of the skillet.
Again.
Dudes.
“Later, honey,” Knox said, which made Lan’s brows slant down over his eyes as his gaze shot to his bud.
Good Lord.
The man had to cool it with the endearments.
“Later,” I said and sauntered to the door.
“That fuckin’ ass,” I heard Knox whisper.
Ugh!
I glared at him over my shoulder.
He smiled at me again.
I nearly walked into the door.
I heard him chuckle.
I opened the door and managed to get through it without showing him my middle finger.
I was closing it when Knox shouted, “Bring cupcakes!”
“Whatever!” I shouted back.
Even so, I made a mental note, when I came back after work, to bring him some of Willow’s cupcakes.