Chapter 22
22
With a pep in my step I walked to my apartment door.
Valentine had taken me out to breakfast before he dropped me off at my house so he could go to work and I could get my car. I had appointments this afternoon I couldn’t miss. But after my meetings I was going to go to the grocery store and get stuff to make dinner at his house. I was planning on something easy I couldn’t screw up, like tacos. It would suck if after everything he broke up with me because he figured out my cooking was hit or miss. I could make the same recipe the exact same way and there was still a fifty-fifty shot I would mess it up.
I let myself in and my mood immediately plummeted.
Khloe.
I continued into the apartment toward the sound of Hayden and his bitch.
Don’t judge me for calling his woman a bitch. A bitch was a bitch. A woman was a woman. And Khloe, whatever her last name was, was a certifiable bitch. If her issue was jealousy, she could’ve taken a moment and assessed the situation between me and Hayden and she would’ve seen immediately we were nothing more than friends.
But she wasn’t that kind of woman, she was a bitch.
“Hey, Huxley,” Hayden greeted. “All good?”
“Yep.”
“How good?”
“It was the former, not the latter. So, really good.”
Hayden visibly relaxed and he smiled.
“Good.”
My gaze went to Khloe to say hello. She wasn’t smiling like Hayden. She was shooting daggers.
“Morning, Khloe.”
“Sophie,” she pushed out, trying to sound like she was happy to see me when she absolutely was not.
“Sorry to be rude, but I’m in a rush. I have meetings this afternoon.”
“I forgot to tell you, your mother stopped by yesterday looking for you. And she came by this morning, too.”
Before I could shift my attention to Hayden, Khloe’s eyes flashed with pure hatred. Good God, what was this woman’s problem? Did my mother’s interruption bother her that badly? I lived there, my mother could stop by any damn time she pleased. Okay, that was a stretch, but the principle remained.
“Thanks. Sorry she bothered you. ”
“Bother? You know I’d rather deal with her than let her loose on you.”
That was the truth. Any time Hayden got to turn my mother away was a good day for him.
Since I didn’t want to air my personal business in front of Khloe—actually, I didn’t want the woman knowing anything about me, period—I just smiled at Hayden and took off to my room.
When I closed the door, I looked around the room. Everything looked exactly how I’d left it with the exception of mail on my bed. I didn’t bother sorting through it, all my bills were electronic. And junk mail made the save-the-environment side of me rabidly angry. I was in too good of a mood to get wrapped around the axles. Khloe’s presence was enough. I didn’t need anything else bringing me down. It was on that thought I went to my text messages. At first, I muted my mother’s calls after she’d embarrassed the hell out of me in front of Valentine. Then when she didn’t stop I blocked her completely.
I still wasn’t ready to deal with her. I had to help Valentine work through everything with his father first. Once that was sorted, I’d deal with my mother. Set boundaries, stick to them, and attempt to have something healthy with her. I wasn’t under the illusion it would be loving but it could be a relationship of sorts. I found Nathan’s text string and sent him a succinct message explaining I was extremely busy with my new business and I would appreciate him running interference with my mother until I felt I was ready to sit down and speak with her. I didn’t wait for his reply before I muted his text thread and tossed my phone back in my purse.
Since Khloe was there I changed my plans and packed today’s outfit in my overnight bag. I’d shower and get ready at Valentine’s. Hayden throwing cold water on me was one thing. Being stabbed to death through the shower curtain by a crazy girlfriend was another.
I had my overnight bag packed and my laptop totes stuffed with extra notebooks so it was time to scoot. Now that I was getting ready at Valentine’s I had to hurry.
Extreme relief the kitchen slash living room was empty hit me harder than it should have.
“I’m leaving!” I shouted. “Have a good day.”
A moment later my quick escape was foiled.
“Sophie, wait,” Khloe called back.
Cheese and rice, this bitch .
“Yeah?”
“I know you’re in a hurry. But I haven’t seen you since you had to go to the hospital.” She rushed into the kitchen and came out carrying a reusable plastic container. “Hayden said blueberry’s your favorite. I’m really good at baking, so I made you some muffins.”
I couldn’t see my face but I was pretty sure my eyes were bugging out of my head, mainly because I felt them getting wide.
“You didn’t have to do that.”
Really, seriously she didn’t. I didn’t want anything from this woman.
Suddenly her face fell and her demeanor completely changed. She almost looked nervous. There was no bitch in sight when she said, “I just really like him.”
Damn .
What did I say to that?
“I hope you know, I have a man. But even if I didn’t, I’m no threat. We’ve always just been friends.”
She gave me a sheepish smile and now I felt like a total cow. A judgy cow.
“I know. Please take the muffins.”
Khloe held out her offering.
Dammit all to hell .
“Thanks, Khloe. And I am really sorry but I have to run. I’m already late.”
“Have a good day,” she bid.
“You, too.”
After that I was out the door and jogging to my car.
I made it to my first appointment with five minutes to spare.
I heard the garage door go up and something settled in my tummy.
Valentine was home.
He came through the laundry room door and stopped. When I glanced over my shoulder my smile died.
“Everything okay?”
“I love seeing you in my house. I love you in my bed. I love waking up to you. But fuck, I love coming home to you.”
The air in the kitchen grew hot, or was that my skin heating at his gruff declaration?
Holy Moses .
If he promised to come home every day from work and said those same words I’d vow to learn how to cook. I’d go so far as taking one of those cooking courses at the local college.
“Not as much as I like you coming home to me.”
When he didn’t move or say anything else I asked, “Good day at work?”
He tossed his gym bag on top of the dryer and came to me at the stove, kissing my temple before he asked, “Low-key.”
Low-key for a cop sounded like a good day.
“Did you make these?”
I turned to see Valentine holding Khloe’s muffins.
“No. Believe it or not, Khloe made them.”
“Khloe?”
“Yep. Maybe I was wrong about her and she’s a nice gal who just can’t get over Hayden having a female roommate. Though since she’s been around I’ve barely been there. But anyway, she seemed genuine today when she gave them to me. She even went as far as to ask Hayden what my favorite was.”
I watched him pull the lid off the container before I went back to stirring the ground beef. This was normally my issue with cooking. I got bored and didn’t pay attention, then I burned stuff or under-cooked it depending on what had caught my attention while I was in the middle of cooking.
“Jesus,” he grumbled.
I turned down the burner before I turned and asked, “What?”
“This is the worst blueberry muffin I’ve ever tasted.”
His face clearly conveyed his thoughts.
“She said she was really good at baking.”
Valentine held a small piece out in offering.
“I’m not one of those people who has a compulsion to smell or try something when someone says it’s gross. I believe you.”
“This is so bad you have to take a bite to believe it.”
“Hard pass.”
Valentine tossed the piece in the trash, then dumped the others.
“Christ. If I didn’t know any better I’d say she was trying to kill you.”
“That bad?” I laughed.
“Worse.”
He bent down, his intention clear. I put my hand over my mouth and mumbled from behind it, “Oh no. Go rinse your mouth out. I don’t want residual nasty muffin.”
His lips winged up in a smile.
“No joke, baby. I love coming home from work knowing you’re home waiting for me.”
I loved, he loved that .
So much so I dropped my hand, rolled up on my toes, and kissed him.
Residual nastiness be damned.
Luckily he tasted of Valentine—all yummy, sexy Hot Cop.
“Do I have time for a shower before dinner?”
“Do you want time?”
He glanced at the stove then back to me.
“Have you started the rice?”
“Damn. I knew I forgot something. Go, you have time.”
See? I was not good at this cooking stuff.
“Be back.”
He was halfway through the living room when I called his name.
“Yeah.”
“I feel at this juncture I should be honest with you and tell you, if you’re with me for my kitchen skills you’ll be sorely disappointed.”
“Then it’s a good thing you’re cooking doesn’t have a damn thing to do with why I’m with you.”
Well, that was a relief.
“Is it because I’m funny?” I joked.
“Are you fishing, Soph?”
Was I?
I didn’t think so.
“Maybe.”
“Right.” He prowled back into the kitchen, yanked me to his chest, and dropped his chin so we were eye to eye. “It has a lot to do with how pretty your eyes are. But also your sense of humor, how smart you are, how gorgeous. And I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you it also has to do with how perfect your ass is, how great your tits are, how phenomenal your pussy feels, how good you taste, and when you get your mouth on me I lose my mind. But mostly, it’s about how you look at me. I want to be the man you see.”
“You are that man,” I whispered.
“Keep telling me that, baby, and one day I might believe it.”
I was so telling him that every day right after he told me he loved coming home to me.
“Phenomenal?” I smiled.
“ Unbelievably phenomenal,” he countered with a smirk.
“I think that has more to do with you than with me.”
His smirk turned devilish.
“We can test that right now if you want, Soph, but you have food on the stove.”
Shit .
See!
“Damn. Go. Leave. Before I burn dinner.”
He didn’t go or leave. He pulled me closer.
“I’m never gonna go and I’m never letting you leave but I will go shower so I can come back so you can feed me. After that, I’ll show you just how fucking beautiful you feel.”
That caused a whole-body quake that could be probably measured on the Richter scale. Further from that, it made me want to jump to the after part of his statement.
He let me go, spun me around, and gave me a gentle shove.
“Stove. Cook, woman.”
“You’re lucky you’re hot,” I grumbled.
“Damn right, I am.”
I listened to his footsteps as he left.
I did that smiling huge.
Everything was going to work out.
Phenomenally.