Page 30 of Losing his Daddy

He squinted at the screen, then swore. “I guess my alarm didn’t go off. I’m sorry, Gerald. Give me a few minutes, and I’ll get put together.”

We both watched his hand move down his body. I took the minute to admire his physique, while he seemed to panic about being almost fully naked in front of me. Because yeah, the man was only in his underwear. His very small, very tight underwear.

He crept backwards slowly, as if he were a ghost disappearing into the night. Only I could absolutely see him. And the slower he went, the longer I got to take in the view.

By the time he shut the door, I felt like I couldn’t breathe right any longer. I’d been trying not to pant over the man, and in turn held my breath for far too long. After giving myself a moment to fix the irregular pattern with some manual breathing, I turned back to the kitchen.

I needed to get far, far away from Weston Joffry. At least for the moment since I had a feeling he was naked behind that door. And with the way my body had been acting over the last two days since we met, I couldn’t predict what it might do next.

Chapter Twelve

Weston

My alarm didn’t go off.

That, or I turned it off sometime between five and the time Gerald knocked on my door.

The plan had been to wake up super early to be fully prepared for when Gerald arrived. I would be showered, have a full stomach, and a list of tasks to get done. Instead, I was still asleep and opened my bedroom door almost completely naked thanks to not being fully awake.

I rushed through my morning routine. A quick shower. Brushing my teeth. Throwing on something presentable. It took half the time it normally did, thank goodness. I hated making him wait for me when I’d been clear about the time to meet.

“I’m so sorry about that,” I declared as I rounded the corner. I slipped my glasses on, then ran my hands over my clothes to make sure I looked decent enough.

It wasn’t like I could take back the moment I stood before him with so little clothing on. More like I wanted to pretend it never happened. We were both too fresh in our new lives for anything to work between us. It would be a disaster to even attempt anything.

The reminder repeated through my mind over and over as I took the coffee Gerald offered with a smile.

“No problem. I understand what it’s like to snooze one too many times. We’re working on your time schedule, so adjustments can be made as you see fit.”

“Logical. I like it.”

Gerald moved around the counter to the fridge. “Have you eaten yet? I could whip you up something.”

I really wanted to say yes. I was rather hungry having just woken up. And technically, it was part of his job. But for some reason, I felt weird about the whole thing. I chalked it up to growing pains, or whatever the workplace equivalent was.

“If you’re cool with it…”

He gave me a lopsided grin. “It’s literally my job, remember? House manager here. I have to make sure you eat.”

Without me telling him what I want, he pulls out all sorts of ingredients to make breakfast. It’s all leftover from my former chef’s last shopping trip. Eggs, bacon, veggies, and milk cover the countertop.

“Omelet or scramble? Those are your best bet with me. I’ve never gotten good with the over easy, though I can work on it if it’s your favorite,” Gerald tells me as he searches the cabinets for something.

“Scrambled is fine. What are you looking for? I can help.” I moved as if I were going to come help, only to stop when his head whipped my way.

“Please stay. Let me do this for you.”

The underlying plea in his voice couldn’t be ignored. I didn’t know if it was because he wanted to prove himself capable or if there was something else bothering him about breakfast. I only knew that I wouldn’t dare trample over his request.

I eased back down in the chair. “This is your rodeo, then. I need to check my email anyway. I took today off at the last minute. I’ll have to go back to work tomorrow.”

Gerald hummed in reply, then shouted, “Eureka” when he found the cutting boards.

My focus turned to my inbox; the distraction necessary so I wouldn’t focus on the man bustling around my kitchen. I sunk into the process as I answered each message and gave instructions to the team for my parts of the group projects we were managing. There were few times we all worked together. Usually only for larger clients. It would be my lucky day that the one morning I took off, a request came in from them.

“Here you go.” A plate landed in front of me. My stomach growled as the scent of bacon hit me.

It wasn’t perfectly arranged or anything like I was used to, but the food still looked amazing. I couldn’t wait to dive in.

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