Chapter 11
AVERY
"Why are there drummers in my room?" I cried the next morning. "And a flashlight?" I pulled the covers over my head.
Boy, did I overindulge last night or what?
"That's the sunlight, and the drumming sound is your alarm clock," Sam said from somewhere nearby.
"I’m pretty sure the whole street has heard it by now." I pushed away the covers, immediately turning off the clock. I blinked hard, looking around. "What time is it? Eight o’clock in the morning? No way. We slept almost twelve hours."
"No, you slept twelve hours. I woke up two hours ago and went for a run. Your alarm clock went off a couple minutes ago. Since you weren’t budging, I came to turn it off.”
"Am I the only one who's got a hammering headache? How did you even have the energy to go running?"
"I had a headache too. Decided to literally walk it off."
That was when I realized he was holding a glass with a yellow drink. He set it on the nightstand next to me.
"It will help with the headache and any nausea. It's got a lot of ginger. I went out this morning and bought all the ingredients."
"You had one too?"
"Yeah, it really helped.”
“Oh my God. This is the hangover cure your mom never knew about, right?"
He nodded. "You've got a good memory."
Back in high school, he told me his grandmother prepped him and his brothers this drink whenever they came home from a party. She’d never told her daughter-in-law they were hungover, just that they needed a tonic.
After I drank it, I finally pushed myself up from bed. Sam was looking at me intently, as if he expected me to tumble any second.
"No, my balance is quite good," I assured him.
"Great. Then I'm going to wait for you in the living room with breakfast."
I jerked my head back. "You made breakfast?"
"Sure. It's my day off. Why not?"
"I don't know. I figured you'd have stuff to do."
"I have plenty to do later, but I thought I'd start the day by having breakfast with you." There was a playful glint in his eyes.
What exactly happened last night? Then I remembered the naked dance. My God, I've only been living with this man for two weeks and he's already seen me naked.
After he left, I changed into a dress and quickly brushed my teeth. I was going to shower after he headed out for the day; I didn't want to leave him waiting. My hair was a mess, so I just gathered it up in a ponytail and called it a day.
When I came out into the living room, wafts of delicious aromas surrounded me. My stomach was rumbling. That drink was truly magic, because only a couple minutes before, I thought my head would hurt the whole day and I'd have no appetite. Neither of those things could be further from the truth now.
To be fair, I probably would've gotten a hell of an appetite just from seeing Sam in the kitchen.
He looked surreal in his white T-shirt and jeans, like he didn't belong there at all.
Then again, I didn't think he belonged in a hospital either.
Those scrubs covered up far too much. He should be on the cover of magazines and on posters.
In high school, I secretly thought he might become a movie star or something.
He certainly had the looks—his vivid blue eyes contrasted beautifully with his dark hair, and his tanned complexion made his eyes pop.
But he'd followed his heart and became a doctor.
I headed straight to the kitchen island. The second I put my hands on the cool granite counter, memories from last night flooded me. Oh my God. I remembered us standing near the sink. I'd gulped down water and confessed all my deepest secrets.
Had I imagined that? It could be. Over the years, I’d often wondered what I would do if I saw Sam again.
If I’d tell him why I left him high and dry and seemingly never looked back.
His mouth had been so close to my ear and my cheek.
Instantly, I remembered the burning feeling on my skin where his lips grazed me. I definitely hadn't imagined that.
I swallowed hard, trying to sort through the memories and decide what had actually happened.
"What are you thinking about?" He'd taken his focus off the pan and was staring at me.
"Deciding if I should try what you're cooking or not," I said. "I don't want to risk food poisoning. Though I hardly think you can do that with sunny-side ups."
He flashed me a panty-melting smile. My pajama bottoms nearly fell to the floor all by themselves. "Hey, I ate your salad. It's an unspoken rule between roommates to eat each other's cooking."
My body buzzed from his words. He hadn't even meant it as an innuendo—or had he? I was still so busy trying to discern what happened last night that I couldn't focus on what was going on right now.
He glanced at my cheeks, and I realized I was blushing. Well, this day is off to a good start.
“What’s that look for?”
"I don't know. I'm just lost in thought," I said, trying to regain my faculties. I swallowed hard, taking in his body language.
Mischievous glint, on point.
Charming smile, very on point.
Overall smug expression, through the roof.
I had no choice but to ask him; otherwise, I would obsess about this the whole day.
"Sam, is there anything you'd like to tell me?"
That playful glint in his eyes turned smoldering. "About what?"
"I don't know. You tell me." I crossed my legs, standing straighter, suddenly feeling sassy.
He chuckled while he took the pan off the stove and put the eggs on two plates. Then he garnished them with sliced tomatoes and avocado.
Wow. I hadn't seen this side of Sam before. The man was thorough. He put the two plates down and sat on the chair next to me.
"Sam, what are you doing?"
"Buying time," he replied easily.
"You need more time before you answer my question?"
He turned around, facing me, and I did the same.
The insides of his thighs were touching the outsides of my mine.
The contact zinged through me. I sucked in a breath, darting my tongue out and wetting my lower lip.
It suddenly felt dry. Sam's gaze was fixed on my mouth. My body started to shake slightly.
"The thing is, Avery, you asked me not to remind you."
"My God, I did?"
"Yeah, and I promised. And as you know, I'm nothing if not a man of my word."
I couldn't believe it. That meant I definitely spilled some secrets last night.
I couldn't look away from him. Our gazes were locked. I also couldn't bring myself to restart that conversation, so instead I shifted in my seat, turning around so I faced my plate. I immediately dug in, eating a mouthful of egg, half a slice of avocado, and half a cherry tomato.
"This is great," I said. "Very nourishing."
"I'm glad you approve."
Even without looking, I knew he hadn't shifted positions, so he was still looking at me, waiting.
My heart rate accelerated. I felt his presence intensely.
The wall between us was full of sexy tension, but it was still a wall in my head.
I had reasons for keeping the structure in place.
I was the one who left, yes, and I broke my own heart in the process too.
But I wasn't ready to open that old wound. It had never healed. I still had the scabs to prove it, and I didn’t want to pick at them.
A few seconds later, he turned his focus to his plate, and I felt I could breathe a little more easily.
"What are you doing today?" he asked as we both enjoyed our breakfast.
"I’ll work on my Etsy store and beg a few factories to work with me. My stock is running low. After that, I promised Alana that I’d take her out for drinks. I want to treat her to thank her for being a good friend and letting me camp on her couch."
"So Alana gets special treatment, but I don't."
"Apparently you get plenty of special treatment. And you repay me by using unorthodox ways to fish confessions from me. Which you don't even want to share."
"Avery."
Oh God. He'd said my name in a low whisper, along with a groan. The sound made my panties combust.
"First of all,” he continued, “you were the one making the cocktails."
Oh, that's right. I remember. So I set myself up.
"True, I can't blame you for that." I turned around.
Big mistake. I hadn't realized he'd leaned in, and now we were much too close.
I could see the gray flecks in his blue eyes.
The last time I was this close to him, we were together in high school.
"I can still put a little bit of blame on you. "
He cocked a brow, smirking. "How come?"
"You've got all this charming sexiness going on. It's hard to keep my mind straight."
"Right." He narrowed his eyes. "And as to the confession, I can tell you. You only have to ask."
There was an awkward pause. Clearly he was waiting for me to ask him to break his word, but I just shook my head.
My heart was hammering against my rib cage again.
No, once we'd openly discussed that, things between us would shift.
Right now, we could pretend last night had been a drunken slip between friends and nothing more.
"No. I made you promise, so I must have had a good reason for it," I said as I hopped down from my chair.
Sam did the same.
"What are you doing?" I asked him.
“I'm making you coffee."
I jerked my head back. "How do you know I was about to do that?"
"You’ve been eyeing that coffee machine almost as much as you've been eyeing me. I don't like to read into things, but I'm going to take the hint that it means you really want coffee. More than you want me."
The tips of my breasts turned to hard nubs. I wasn't even going to wonder about that. My body and my brain clearly weren't working in sync today.