36. Bryan
36
brYAN
N ova’s warm presence was very welcome as I woke up. She was no longer a dream but real and in my bed. I tightened my arms around her and cuddled in closer, spooning around her curves and rubbing my cheek against her hair.
She sighed and wiggled back against me. I was momentarily hopeful she was awake and ready for more fooling around, but her next sigh had her entire body relaxing and becoming completely limp. She was fully asleep.
I held her and drifted in and out of sleep until she rolled in my arms.
“Are you awake?” she asked.
“Have been for a bit,” I admitted.
“I can’t believe I’m really here.” She squirmed around and tucked her head under my chin and wrapped her arms around my ribs.
“It’s a dream come true,” I murmured. “Better than Christmas.”
She laughed. “How is this better than Christmas? All those presents, all those…” She paused and held her breath.
“Nova?” I tried to look down at her but was met with a face full of her hair.
She sucked in a large breath. “All those surprises. Sorry,” she said as she blew out the air. “Some of yesterday’s surprises kind of sucked.”
“Not the one with me and the ring?” I hoped.
“That was the best of the best. Unfortunately, the situation with Veronica wanted to be remembered just then. Considering how my Christmas morning went, I’m changing my mind. You’re right, today is much better.”
“I’d say it’s much better. I get to wake up with you, naked and in my arms.” I ran my hands over her smooth skin.
Nova let out a sexy little hum and arched like a cat into my touch. “Do we have time?”
“I will always have time for you.” I continued to touch her. I loved the way she felt. And I loved it when she squirmed.
“What time does Amelia wake up? I don’t want to traumatize her the first day I live here.”
“The door is locked. She’s not going to walk in on us.” I chuckled.
Nova wiggled out of my arms and sat up. “Maybe not, but she could listen at the door. What if she heard us?”
“Nova,” I started.
She was out of bed and gathering her pajamas from the floor. “Not until I’m more familiar with her schedule. I need to take a shower, anyway. I smell like you and sex.”
“Sounds like a great combination.”
She paused and smiled, and her cheeks turned pink as she blushed. “It really is, but I need to smell like gingerbread and candy canes.”
“Whatever for?” I sat up and watched as Nova bustled around the room, pulling things from her bags.
“I want to smell like Christmas, and not depression or sex.”
I tilted my head and stared at her. She wasn’t making much sense to me, but that didn’t mean she was being illogical. I was sure there was a method to what she was thinking. I couldn’t figure it out.
“Well, maybe I could smell like sex later tonight?” She flipped her hair with a giggle and closed the bathroom door behind her.
While Nova was in the shower, I tossed on some sweats and went to check on Amelia. She wasn’t asleep. She had set up a new tea party in her room with her new doll.
“Daddy! Come have tea with us.” She grabbed my hand and made me sit on one of the miniature chairs.
“Where did you get cookies?” I asked as I noticed she had juice boxes and cookies.
“The kitchen. I needed them for my tea party.”
She wasn’t so little anymore. She knew how to get to the kitchen and get her own snacks. With her moving around the house like that, I was going to have to remember to lock my bedroom door. Nova was right. I hadn’t really thought of Amelia moving about the house on her own.
“Oh, here you are,” Nova said as she stepped into Amelia’s room.
“We’re having a tea party!”
“I can see that. Cookies and juice boxes for breakfast? Why don’t I head downstairs and make us a real breakfast? You can bring your doll and Humphrey down and they can join us.”
“Can they really?”
Nova nodded. “I think your father needs to take a shower before he gets dressed.”
I winked at Nova. “I’ll be downstairs in a few minutes. Thanks for the tea and cookies.” I held up the juice box in acknowledgement to Amelia.
Once cleaned and dressed, I found my two favorite girls in the kitchen. There were an open carton of eggs, several measuring cups, flour, and an assortment of egg shells, spilled powders, and milk around. Amelia stood on a step stool, and Nova was directing her to pour a large measuring cup of what looked like milk into a bowl.
“Okay, now lower the top so the whisk goes in the bowl.”
Amelia followed the directions.
“And hit Start right there.” Nova pointed to something on the side.
The mixer whirred to life. Amelia squealed.
“What is going on here?” I asked.
“Nova is showing me how to make pancakes.”
“Pancakes for breakfast?”
“Is that a problem?” Nova asked.
“Not at all. You’re really good at this.”
“Cooking?” Nova asked.
“Teaching my daughter.”
Nova laughed. “I had better be. I am a teacher.”
“Yeah, but first grade teachers don’t teach kids how to cook.” As we spoke, Nova would pause to instruct Amelia what to do next. She had to scrape the bowl and pour the contents into a small pitcher.
Nova had Amelia move her step stool to in front of the stove. They placed a long griddle over the burners. “Now, you need to be very careful and never do this if you are alone in the kitchen, understand?” Nova looked at Amelia with a very stern expression.
Amelia nodded with her eyes wide.
Nova then proceeded to show her how to light the stove. Then they ran butter over the surface.
“Do you want to be a teacher your entire career?” I asked. I was seeing something in Nova that I had missed. I already knew she was good with kids, and I had caught glimpses of her showing Amelia different things in the kitchen, but she had a great skill here that I hated to think she was wasting by being at Wentworth Academy.
Nova shrugged. “I really hadn’t thought about it until recently. It’s no secret I’m not happy at the academy. But I thought that was the academy. I don’t know what I’ll do now.”
She helped Amelia to pour a drop of batter onto the griddle.
“What were you planning on?” I asked.
“Before all of this?” Nova waved her ringed finger at me. “I was going to finish my contract and run screaming back to Atlanta. Wentworth Academy is trying to break me. I wanted to go home and teach kids with whom I have something in common. Give me working- or middle-class kids who don’t have paid servants and have to take the garbage out once a week.”
With her arms around Amelia, Nova guided her on what to look for on the top and side of the pancake and how to flip it.
“Did you see that, Daddy? I flipped it!”
“You did. Good job. So, you won’t be teaching next year? What about Atlanta?”
Nova looked at me and smiled. “Why would I go back to Atlanta? You and Amelia are here. I don’t know about teaching. Depends on whether the local school district has any openings. I won’t be working at Wentworth again.”
“What about Leeds? I have connections. I could introduce you to the headmaster,” I said.
Nova turned her attention back to Amelia and their pancake making. “Okay, let’s try to make three at a time.”
They carefully poured the batter, and Amelia cheered with each successful flip. The third did not flip quite as easily.
“That’s okay. You did a good job on the other two, and I bet it tastes just as good,” I said, and I stepped in close and looked at the messed up pancake.
Amelia scooped it up with her spatula and carefully moved it to a plate. She and Nova watched me expectantly as I picked it up with my fingers and took a bite.
“It’s good,” I declared.
Nova gave Amelia a high-five.
“If I weren’t teaching, I would have thought about being a caterer. I like to cook.”
“And you are good at it. But you don’t have to work once we get married.”
“And have your mother call me a gold-digger for the rest of my life? No sir. She doesn’t have to respect what I do for a career, but I am not going to have her think I entrapped you.”
“But you did.”
Nova’s eyes blazed at me as she glared in my direction.
“You trapped me with your smiles and beauty.” I leaned in and stole a quick kiss.
When Amelia complained, “Ew, Daddy,” I gave her a kiss on her forehead. Didn’t want to leave her out of the moment.
“Catering could be a challenge. But I am apt to like the idea. After all, that is how we met.” I gave Nova a quick wink, acknowledging our official story that left out the one-night stand that changed my life. “Have you ever thought about teaching kids how to cook?”
Nova shrugged. “To be honest, I have. I don’t know how it would work, but yeah, an after-school cooking program, I’ve thought about it. Not only would kids learn how to cook, but they would get kitchen safety, and chemistry and math. It would be great. I just… I don’t know how to make it work.”
“I bet if you really sat down and thought about it, you could figure out exactly how to make it work.”